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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 5, 2010 23:01:05 GMT
I used the Merriam-Webster online dictionary for a long time, keeping it in my favorites toolbar for quick access. However, it has gotten slower & slower, plus the way it displays definitions sometimes requires too many extra clicks. So, today I went looking for a replacement, & think I have a winner: www.thefreedictionary.com/So far I've only used it as a straight dictionary, although it has tons of options and extras clearly displayed on the main page. The foreign language dictionary I have in my toolbar is this one: www.wordreference.com/I'm pretty satisfied with it. Anyone have language reference or word game sites to recommend?
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Post by lagatta on Apr 6, 2010 0:22:20 GMT
SHIT. I spent well over an hour uploading sites for all those things with commentary, and one got stuck (the twirling globe) so I had to leave the software and lost everything. www.btb.termiumplus.gc.ca/tpv2alpha/alpha-eng.html?lang=eng I've already posted this one here. This is the Canadian government translation database, mostly for French-English and vice-versa, but increasingly for Spanish as well (NAFTA). bixa, I like reverso.net as well as wordreference.com as a series of bilingual dictionaries - have no idea what a foreign-language dictionary is, that is always relative to some other language. Here is the European Union multilingual database: iate.europa.euI'll try to retrieve all my links, but they won't have my comments. Had pages of them. The nasty dico my software blocked on is dict.leo.org - for German - German-English, German-French, German-Spanish and I believe some other pairs now. Waaaaaaaaaah!
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 6, 2010 0:35:34 GMT
Oh man, LaGatta ~~ sorry! That's the kind of thing that makes one want to give up the computer forever.
I'll just put in my plug for Firefox here -- generally if it crashes or even if your electricity goes off, Firefox does an awfully good job of restoring any pages you had open.
Another thing that you might want to do is to paste the work into a Word (or other) Document as you go along. It's really useful on a forum such as this, where you might be putting together something with lots of references or photos or whatever. It also allows you not to have to assemble and post it all at one time.
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Post by fumobici on Apr 6, 2010 0:37:11 GMT
I like wordreference.com, I like the fact that the definitions are linked to discussions of the words in their forums that can provide deeper insights than a simple definition.
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 6, 2010 0:45:44 GMT
Yep, that's why I like it, too. Also, that site is pretty good at giving definitions for words that have specific meanings only in certain countries.
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Post by lagatta on Apr 6, 2010 1:05:23 GMT
I like it for that as well, but often the actual definitions in reverso are more precise. Of course I use both of them, and others.
I had thought of writing my post on word, but darting back and forth between word and the internet software can be problematic too.
I'll write more tomorrow. Too fuming at software tonight.
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 6, 2010 2:56:07 GMT
When I do it for a post here, I do the actual writing on a forum message box, so I can access any tags I need and Preview if need be. When it's the way I want, I copy it & paste it into Word, piece by piece as I finish sections. But back to the OP ..... I went looking for a grammar checker and found one that actually works. It found punctuation, spelling, and grammar mistakes in the text I tried: spellcheckplus.com/(When you put in text, a box will pop up asking you to contribute to their site. Click on either the x on the box or the ok and the box will disappear.)
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Post by Deleted on Apr 6, 2010 5:09:51 GMT
For blocks of foreign text of which I just want to get the gist, I often use the Google translator and am generally impressed with the results. Often the translation has perfect grammar and syntax, which was very rare in the past.
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Post by bjd on Apr 6, 2010 6:45:22 GMT
I use wordreference.com for translations of words too.
I haven't used Google translator but have been reading good things about it.
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Post by onlymark on Apr 6, 2010 14:28:52 GMT
Using Firefox I just use the add on for the British English Dictionary, as that is the correct way to spell things, and the add on for Inline Google Definitions, then I can just sweep across a word, right click and get the meaning in a small pop up.
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 6, 2010 17:39:04 GMT
that is the correct way to spell things Quick -- where's a link for a medical reference?! I think my eyes just rolled right out of my head. Ooo ~ I didn't know about the add-on for Inline Google Definitions. That would be so much faster & more efficient. aside: I had to remove one of my favorite FF add-ons recently (the R.I.P. one) because it was interfering with how I viewed Proboards forums. It made a line of the horizontal menus in both anyport & the pot drop out of sight.
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Post by onlymark on Apr 6, 2010 18:32:17 GMT
Re: RIP - I don't appear to have this problem.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 6, 2010 19:28:51 GMT
I have the Google definitions thing and it often irritates me because I switch back between English and French constantly and it is always trying to translate everything even when I don't need it. But since it is so useful, I put up with it.
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Post by lola on Nov 24, 2010 21:59:26 GMT
Speaking of accents and such: I really like forvo.com for pronunciation. Ajaccio, for instance, a town in Corsica. How to say it? You search for the word, and forvo.com has two different speakers pronounce it. I've recorded some words here and there for the site.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 3, 2013 16:15:25 GMT
Just bouncing this to the top because I just found www.forvo.com/ online, but prudently searched before proudly announcing my discovery. Thanks, Lola. I guess I never saw your post above, or could have been using Forvo for the last 2 1/2 years. It's SO easy and fast to use. It was named one of the 50 best websites of 2013 by Time magazine. One of the great features is that registered users can vote on a pronunciation, which should be a way to keep other users from accepting a bad pronunciation. However, I hit a glitch in the registering process: you're asked your language and told to click on a map to show your region. The map does not appear, so I could not register. There is a way to report the problem, though, so perhaps that will get fixed. SUPER site!
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Post by fumobici on Jul 4, 2013 4:18:44 GMT
That's excellent although in most non-English languages I am familiar with the pronunciations are generally pretty straightforward from the spellings excepting perhaps words with odd stresses. Italian and French usually are at least. It would be invaluable for learning English I'd think.
Also, if you need to learn the tough parts of a language--tenses, conjugations and grammar--in a hurry, I highly recommend Michel Thomas' recorded language courses. One can learn as much or probably more than one can in a year of an average language study class in a few days. Not really online officially, but of course it is in the usual places.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 4, 2013 13:14:51 GMT
Pronunciations in any language are only straightforward if you know a little about the rules of that language. Even then, if it's not a language you speak even a little, you can't be sure of the correct way to say a word. It's always helpful to compare a native speaker's pronunciation to what you may only think you're saying correctly.
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Post by rikita on Jul 4, 2013 17:11:17 GMT
problem is with some languages though that pronunciation can vary a lot by region, so for example with the quechua words on there it made me wonder where exactly the speakers were from...
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 19, 2013 13:58:48 GMT
Another pronounciation tool: www.howjsay.com/It calls itself "A free online Talking Dictionary of English Pronunciation", however it will give you two pronunciations when appropriate. For instance "bon mot" is said in the accepted way for English, followed by a slight pause, then "French: bon mot", as said in French. It will also give you several accepted pronunciations of a given word separated by the word "or", as for bona fides.
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Post by rikita on Jan 17, 2016 8:22:47 GMT
i am lately a fan of Babbel. you have to pay to use the site (though if you want to try it out, i could send you an invitation link and apparently then you get a week for free), but it is not that expensive, i find, if you really want to learn a language, and their lessons are better structured than most free ones i have seen. most of the free sites i tried are just lists of phrases, while babbel has a lot of focus on grammar, without it being so much that it gets boring. the lessons are short, so you can do one even if you just have a little time. vocabulary is presented again after a certain time, so you get to repeat it regularly. you can also download it onto your phone, so you can easily practice a bit while on the way somewhere. it can't replace full immersion or classes by a good teacher, of course, but if you want to learn basic communication for your vacation or brush up your knowledge a bit, i think it is pretty good ... (and sorry if this sounds like advertising, i just enjoy it quite a bit right now).
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Post by mossie on Jan 17, 2016 15:57:59 GMT
I have tried a few ways to improve my meagre grasp of French, but old age defeats me. "You can't teach an old dog new tricks", as the saying has it.
I guess total immersion is the answer.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 17, 2016 15:58:27 GMT
I appreciate that, Rikita. I used free Babbel a while back, but didn't stick with it so I was not aware of how good it is. I would certainly take your recommendation & would love the link if you wouldn't mind sending it.
I used DuoLingo for Italian, but found it very frustrating, as each new lesson would introduce something as though you already knew it, meaning that their simul-testing ticked me off. I imagine that system could also really discourage people from trying to learn a language.
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Post by rikita on Jan 17, 2016 23:00:23 GMT
will gladly do that, bixa - just pm me your email address (the recommendation with the free week is done via email - i write in their site that i want to send a recommendation link to your email address, and when you click it you get a free week).
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Post by lagatta on Feb 4, 2019 16:47:50 GMT
Of course the online OED is not only useful but lots of fun for wordgeeks. Now they are appealing for words in use throughout the world (Obviously, mostly the English-speaking language world, but not only). Here is an appeal for words used at work, whether specific technical terms or phrases or words simply used in a given workplace or field of work: public.oed.com/appeals/words-at-work/Through the Centre d'histoire de Montréal, I had a client in Chicago so had to check my spelling. I don't mean easy things such as colour color and centre center, but the inflected forms. Idem a book I'm translating for a UK publisher. I'm usually working into our bastardised or bastardized Canadian Hinglish... Bixa, is there a spelling standard in Spanish as there is in French? Is there an Academy similar to the Académie française? If I'm working into French, there are of course differences in vocabulary according to the country, but not spelling, at least not in general. ----------- By the way, I was disappointed with Babbel as it had little cultural content in Dutch; it kept wanting learners to discuss US subjects such as the Super Bowl this week. I'm interested in learning Dutch and Belgian cultural content.
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Post by bjd on Feb 4, 2019 19:07:11 GMT
Lagatta, there is a Royal Spanish Academy that is supposed to set the standard for Spanish, but the Wiki article says it works with other academies. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Spanish_AcademyI get a workout on inflected forms of English by doing the crossword puzzles in both the Guardian and the NY Times.
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Post by questa on Aug 20, 2019 10:05:05 GMT
I used to be able to converse in Indonesian but several years have passed and I have forgotten so much. What advice can the good folks here give me about Babbel? I sent out a feeler and today received a message that they were offering a "special" 6 months free if I pay for the first 6 months. It is supposed to be good to learn another language as it reduces the chances of dementia, and I think I need to do some mental exercise in that direction.
So,If not Babbel, are there other on-line groups you would recommend?
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Post by onlyMark on Aug 20, 2019 11:44:58 GMT
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Post by htmb on Aug 20, 2019 12:02:13 GMT
Questa, Duolingo is free and it looks like they offer Indonesian as a language (as well as many others). You can use it with a browser at Duolingo.com, or download the app. Each is a slightly different experience.
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Post by questa on Aug 20, 2019 13:41:12 GMT
Many thanks to Mark and htmb...Duolingo is just what I was looking for. No messing about, straight into a 10 minute test to find the weaker areas and classed as a Regular i.e. skipped 2 levels of baby talk.No frills or ads, clear instructions...given me something to look forward to each day. Terima kasih
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Post by kerouac2 on Aug 20, 2019 14:26:49 GMT
It would be interesting to know (maybe there is a site that ranks this subject) which methods are better for people who would just like to be able to speak the basics of a language (restaurant menus, asking directions, being polite...) and which ones are better for beginning to learn the language more in depth.
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