Chinese-English Dictionary for Windows

[aristeon]

Is there any good and complete English-Chinese Chinese-English dictionary for Windows I could use to read novels?

Thanks

[skylee]

For Chinese-English dictionaries, you could consider MDBG and the Lin Yutang Dictionary. Not sure what you mean by "read novels". If you mean pop-up of explanations when you mouse over a word, the Lin Yutang Dictionary does not have such a function, and it is in traditional script only. I am not sure if MDBG supports that.

This one is also quite good BTW (but is also in traditional).

[liuzhou]

There is no such thing as a "complete" dictionary in any language or language combination.

It isn't clear what you are asking for.

[aristeon]

@skylee "Not sure what you mean by "read novels""

What is not clear? I mean a dictionary that contains a sufficient amount of words and examples to allow people to read complex texts such as novels.

@ liuzhou: "There is no such thing as a "complete" dictionary in any language or language combination. It isn't clear what you are asking for."

Have you ever studied a foreign language and read novels in that foreign language with the help of a dictionary? If yes, you might understand the difference between good dictionaries where you can find 99% of the words you don't know and bad dictionaries where you find less than 90%. For instance, when I studied German and read Goethe, I had a dictionary that allowed me to find almost every word I needed

[liuzhou]

Have you ever studied a foreign language and read novels in that foreign language with the help of a dictionary?

Yes. More than one language.

And I learned that "99%" and "almost every" does not mean "complete" . No dictionary is "complete".

And I also learned good manners.

[roddy]

Is it possible, Liuzhou, that the man is not a native speaker of English and has therefore not used quite the right word? General-purpose, comprehensive, etc, it's clear what he wants, a dictionary to use when reading a novel. If you want to ask what he's reading, fair enough, it might well be the case he needs something good for classical Chinese, etc, and he should certainly have given us some more info. But the bad manners do not appear to be his.

Aristeon, it would be useful if you tell us what you plan to read, and what your current level is. And welcome...

[aristeon]

Thanks roddy.

I am currently reading 富二代. It's a book about the son of a businessman who became reach after Deng Xiaoping's economic reforms. I chose this book because my level is just intermediate and I thought I'd better start with something relatively easy.

I didn't mention in my first post that I am looking for an offline dictionary to install on my Windows notebook. So far the only really good dictionary I've found is MDBG, but it's an online one.

Thanks for your help

[Kobo-Daishi]

aristeon wrote:

So far the only really good dictionary I've found is MDBG, but it's an online one.

You know, the dictionary data they use is from the CC-CEDICT, "a continuation of the CEDICT project started by Paul Denisowski" that they now house.

It's free and open source as long as attribution is made to where it's obtained.

There are quite a few stand alone programs that utilize the data and they've even got a few linked to at their download page.

http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php?page=cc-cedict

But there are many more programs than the few they list that also use the data set.

I don't know what the Windows download that they have on the left side bar of their web site is. I've never tried downloading it before so don't know if it's also for offline usage or what. They don't say. Or rather I've never searched to find out.

I've lately been using the GoldenDict open source dictionary program quite a bit.

It's able to open dictionary files in quite a few filetype formats. Many I've gotten for the StarDict open source program.

One of the dictionaries available is the CC-CEDICT. But there are many other dictionary files for it. Kangxi Zidian, Xiandai Hanyu Cidian, etc. But you have to search for them.

Unfortunately, most of the dictionary files are for simplified, and, though quite a few of them have been ported over to traditional, it seems it was by machine. So, lot of errors.

Seeing as you're based in Taipei, this might be a problem for you.

But MDBG's CC-CEDICT should be more than adequate for your needs.

Kobo.

[liuzhou]

Hmmm.

I wasn't the only one who thought the question was unclear. Even the OP has admitted he should have been clearer.

As to manners, I said I learned them. I didn't say I use them.

[tooironic]

Wenlin is excellent, especially for Chinese-English, but it is expensive.

[Kobo-Daishi]

Go to SourceForge and get the GoldenDict dictionary program. Then download all the StarDict dictionary files I wrote about in my blog post.

I haven't updated my blog in more than 2 years (forgot password :-P ), so the links are probably dead. You'll probably have to do a Google search to find them.

An indication of just how good the dictionary files available are.

The Xiandai Hanyu Cidian

The character for "character", zi4 also meant "love" in literary Chinese. Check the Guoyu Cidian web site put out by The Republic of China (Taiwan)'s Ministry of Education. Pet peeve is that it doesn't differentiate between modern, archaic, or ancient Chinese.

More or less the definitions from Xiandai but tweaked for Kobo's KoboDict (Kobo's personal dictionary). Check out definition #8. Five minutes is a "zi4" in some or all Chinese dialect/languages. Don't know if the MDBG, Wenlin, ABC, Pleco, etc. have that definition. Don't have any of those dictionaries to check against.

A definition mentioned in another thread as an indication of a comprehensive dictionary. "Jupiter", for those who hadn't read the thread before.

Did I tell you it's free?

Kobo.