COMBINATION character dictionary

[count_zero]

Hi,

There are TONS of Chinese to English dictionaries online, but I'm having real problems finding any that do combinations. For instance I ate 香肥 yesterday but I simply cannot find what this is...

Can anyone help?

[jlau]

I'd like to hear what you would expect the dictionary to do in that case. When the word actually is in the dictionary, you obviously get the definition. When the word does not exist, most dictionaries will return nothing. In the YellowBridge dictionary http://www.yellowbridge.com/language/worddict.html you'll still get the meaning of the individual characters but, of course, it can't attempt to interpret the combination for you.

I tried the characters you mentioned. I got "fragrant" and "fat". Hmmm. I'll take it the dish was something fatty but tasty. By the way, the Altavista translator came back with "Fragrant is fat". Probably not the intended meaning.

[sfr@rcn.com]

DeFrancis' ABC Chinese English Comprehensive Dictionary lists multi-character words and short phrases as well as singletons. After the Oxford Concise English-Chinese and Chinese-English dictionary, this is the best dictionary I've bought.

Also, Wenlin (see other threads) gives you two syllable words as well as longer phrases and some expressions.

And Rich Harbaugh's Chinese Characters dictionary (and Zhongwen.com website) do the same.

Sandra

[kentsuarez]

Your best bet is to skip the online bit for now, and go with DeFrancis, ABC Chin-Engl Comprehensive. See reviews on Amazon for more info. Highly recommended.

[sfr@rcn.com]

I agree. Your primary dictionary should be hard copy--it's still the fastest way to search and hard copy is also more portable, if heavier, than any device that connects with the Net.

Sandra

[qiqi]

I am a chinese,but i ve never heard the word 香肥，I dont know if u made a mistake I think that is 香肠.At least 香肥 couldnt be a noun

[beirne]

I agree. Your primary dictionary should be hard copy--it's still the fastest way to search and hard copy is also more portable, if heavier, than any device that connects with the Net.

I agree that one shouldn't rely soly on online dictionaries. I just cut my last ties to paper dictionaries, though, with Plecodict. It is available for the Palm platform and contains both the English-Chinese Pinyin Dictionary from the New World Press and DeFrancis' latest ABC Chinese-English dictionary. The paper version of the EC dictionary was my favorite EC one, and the ABC, which I had in Wenlin, was my favorite CE dictionary. I can now look up words quickly wherever I am since I already carry the Palm with me all of the time.

[devi9]

I know this is an old thread, but I found an online dictionary that can look up combined words. The english definitions aren't the best, and sometimes it'll come up with strange results, but for basic combinations or confirming words you already kind of know, it's not a bad source.

http://www.lexiconer.com/ceresult.php

I agree that people shouldn't rely soley on online dictionaries, but they can help you look up words quickly. Best case scenario, if your wallet allows it, is to a good electronic dictionary.

[laohu489]

I agree that a paper dictionary should be a learners first choice. My personal favorite is New Age Chinese-English Dictionary. It is very comprehensive, although my main complaint is that it does not give part of speech. It costs RMB185 at any good bookstore, Amazon is selling it for US$76. Quite a markup. There is another with a similiar title that is also good and about the same price, but it does not give the traditional variant. The appendices are not as good though.

For online dictionary though, your first and only choice should be MDBG free online Chinese-English dictionary. It can give you just about any info you want about a word or character. And if it doesn't have the word you are looking for, when you do find out the meaning, you can add it. Help others who are following in your footsteps and might have the same question as you.

[wow]

hi all

could someone tell me how much this Oxford Concise English-Chinese and Chinese-English dictionary pcoket edition cost ?

I've tried to find it at amazon but I cannot find it

thnx

Wow

[skylee]

could someone tell me how much this Oxford Concise English-Chinese and Chinese-English dictionary pcoket edition cost ?

Did you mean this one? ->

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0195911512/102-9903379-2509754?v=glance

http://www.oupchina.com.hk/s_search/bkDetail.asp?ibid=3149&sTyp=D

[atitarev]

Talking about book dictionaries. I couldn't find really good Chinese-English/English-Chinese dictionaries. I mean of the same quality you can get for Japanese.

If you ever saw Kodansha Kanji Learner's dictionary (Japanese-English character dictionary) Kodansha's Japanese-English/English-Japanese furigana dictionary (both are word dictionaries), you will know what I mean.

What I can't find in Chinese character dictionaries - stroke orders and enough information about charavcters. The Chinese word dictionaries are usually without pinyin for examples, only for the main words, if it is a pinyin dictionaries, then number of examples is usually very small. I have a good Chinese-Russian dictionary (with good examples and with pinyin) but it's very small.

If anyone knows good Chinese dictionaries please post here with the title/link or send a PM to me.

[wow]

To Skylee

sorry not those dictionaries..the one I saw is different. It is a pocket edition and has a CD-rom. It has pinyin and chinese characters

best regards