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Chinese Learner’s Dictionaries | ||
Tags: Dictionaries | Mandarin | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| thephilologist Tetraglot Newbie United States Joined 6032 days ago 26 posts - 29 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, German, French Studies: Portuguese | Message 1 of 5 01 May 2012 at 6:22am | IP Logged | ||
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I'm beginning study of Mandarin Chinese this summer and am looking for a good dictionary to use, preferably one that gives a good amount of help with usage. The two best options I've found seem to be the Oxford Beginner's Chinese Dictionary (bilingual) and the Tuttle Learner's Chinese-English Dictionary. Does anyone have experience with these dictionaries, or any others they'd like to suggest? I am trying to decide which to buy.
For a dictionary for reading Chinese, the Far East Chinese-English dictionary seems to be a pretty good starting place. Any thoughts? Thanks! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Maux Diglot Newbie Netherlands Joined 4623 days ago 37 posts - 51 votes  Speaks: Dutch*, English Studies: Mandarin | Message 2 of 5 01 May 2012 at 9:27pm | IP Logged | ||
I have the Tuttle's one. It claims to cover all of the words on the (old) HSK A and B lists, and I think somewhere in between 3000 and 5000 in total. While maybe not a whole lot, it gives sample sentences for almost all of its entries (in the format characters - pinyin - translation), illustrating their various possible uses. Crucially, the sentences use only words that have their own entries. So if there's any words you don't understand in an example, you can look them up again. In addition, the book contains some cultural notes, and provides decompositions of compounds into the meanings of their constituent characters as a mnemonic aid. For example: an1jing4 安静 [compound: 安 peace + 静 quiet] Adjective = quiet, peaceful, serene followed by a number of sample sentences. Especially when you're still at the beginner's level, I would definitely recommend it. Judging by previews, I had the impression that it contains more sample sentences than the Oxford beginner's dictionary, although it's Chinese- English only. Feel free to ask if you have any specific questions. Edited by Maux on 01 May 2012 at 9:30pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5957 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 3 of 5 02 May 2012 at 4:15am | IP Logged | ||
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You can also look at online dictionaries like Nciku or YellowBridge. Edited by Snowflake on 02 May 2012 at 4:16am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| viedums Hexaglot Senior Member Thailand Joined 4664 days ago 327 posts - 528 votes Speaks: Latvian, English*, German, Mandarin, Thai, French Studies: Vietnamese | Message 4 of 5 03 May 2012 at 4:13am | IP Logged | ||
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The Far East C-E dictionary was the only dictionary I used for a long time. It covers literary as well as spoken usage and the English definitions are excellent. It's organized the traditional way - by radical, with various indexes to use in finding characters. I think training myself to use it, and getting used to the various idiosyncracies with how strokes are counted etc, was a crucial part of internalizing the characters. I somehow doubt that a mainland dictionary with the primary order by pinyin would give you this. You should note that order of radicals in the index of mainland dictionaries is not the same as the traditional one (which is perhaps based on the Qing dynasty Kangxi dictionary, if I recall correctly.)
You might as well pick up more than one dictionary, if you can afford it. Learning Mandarin, there are various sorts of dictionaries. If you ever get into reading classical texts in the original, you'll find yourself consulting a whole range of them to find what you're looking for. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| thephilologist Tetraglot Newbie United States Joined 6032 days ago 26 posts - 29 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, German, French Studies: Portuguese | Message 5 of 5 05 May 2012 at 8:41am | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks for the suggestions! I think I will get the Far East for reading, and the Oxford Beginner's for general use, since the Tuttle dictionary is only Chinese-English and I will no doubt want English-Chinese as well.
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