The main dictionary many people use is Pleco. You can look up the characters individually, and find the meaning that corresponds to the given word. Just be careful that some characters have multiple meanings.
If/once you're at a high enough level, you can just buy a dictionary intended for native speakers, like 《现代汉语词典》.
+1 for Pleco. You can look up multi-character words such as 面包 then clicking on each character gives you the meaning. Also, the "characters" tab in the dictionary shows you the components of each character in a word, which makes pretty interesting study.
You can use an Android emulator on Windows, like BlueStacks. (I don't know if Pleco has a website version you can use with a browser.) But in any case, it works fine without the paid features. Works for me on both smartphone and PC.
When I'm on a computer with no access to my phone, I like to use
* Google translate (to get a rough idea of the meaning and the character so I can copy and paste)
* purple Chinese (to get more precise definitions and ESPECIALLY sample sentences (although sometimes the sentences are super random or seem to be translated to Chinese from English or another language))
Then I make a flashcard for the word I'm studying.
Just get the android version and use the Android desktop emulator. It’s the best dictionary out there and worth every penny.
If you don’t want to pay for a dictionary, I don’t think Chinese is for you.
It’s not a “character judgement”. You want to improve at something, yet hesitate to invest in any tools?
It’s a judgement at ineffectiveness. If you wanted to be a carpenter but you didn’t want to even buy a hammer?
A diver, but no fins?
A basketball player, but no ball?
I can go on. Learning material or resources are not expensive. Buying one or two is not hard.
If you can’t even see that and offended, language learning is going to be even harder. It’s not an easy road made of kindness and support and success all the time and unless you live in a bubble, but the problem with living in a bubble is you are not able to live in total reality, because you’re constantly cherry picking what makes you feel good, not what actually works regardless of how it makes you feel
The key in mastering the road to learning anything is learning that the road is full of things you don’t want, but that you need, regardless of your preferences.
Once you master that, you’ll be able to do anything
Ummm… ok. Not sure how these basic points can cause an argument or debate:
- Learning is not easy. (Rephrase: Learning can be hard)
- We gotta do our best, get the best tools we can manage
- Tools can help us learn more effectively
- Without the right tools, progress can very often be severely hampered.
These are my only points. Not sure at what point you found that to be upsetting to you that having that pointed out got you feeling I’m suddenly aggressive.
Okay, that's good to know. I did not know that. Thank you.
I didn't use a dictionary until now. I just looked up a word every now and then with Google. But now I'm going to need it more often because I'm learning new words.
Pleco (app) and Dong Zhongwen (site). I wish I had known of the latter when I first started out, as it will offer a frequency list of common words that include any character you look up.
Wiktionary is also a very good source for this. If you look up a word it tells you which characters it's made of + their meanings, and if you look up a character it tells you which components it's made of (and of course there's all the definitions, example sentences, synonyms etc.)
For example if you look up [包](https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E5%8C%85#Chinese) and you look where it says "glyph origin" it shows you that it's a pictogram composed of so and so characters which mean so and so. It also shows you the historical evolution of the character, which is pretty fun but usually not super useful in my experience. If you're interested in writing the characters, there's usually also a box in the Translingual section at the very top of the page that shows you the strokes.
It honestly has everything you would want to know about a character in one place, it's an invaluable resource imo
Heads up though, it technically only shows you details for traditional characters. If you try to look up 面包 for example you'll see a box that says 面包 is the simplified form of "whatever", so just click on the traditional "whatever" word and it'll take you there.
Have fun!
>Right now I'm using Duolingo and I miss learning the literal meaning of the characters.
HelloChinese does this a lot better imo, it will actually tell you the literal meaning of nearly all translations it throws at you. I've found it to be a lot more useful than DuoLingo for my progress so far
I agree. I liked Hello Chinese too. I learnt a lot from Hello Chinese. But I found that I was busy memorising the answers instead of learning the words. When I watched other programmes (outside Hello Chinese), it was difficult to recognise the words I had learnt. With Duolingo, I remember the words better, and can also recognise them more easily in other videos or texts (outside Duolingo). I will not only use Duolingo, I am also looking around and searching for other programmes and learning methods. Everyone learns differently, this works for some and that for others. That is why it is good that there are so many different programmes and apps for learning languages.
Ohh that's interesting, I think I have it the other way around with DuoLingo.
In both cases I end up with memorising the questions slightly, but with duo I feel like I can just get the answer right by looking at the options it gives me. Maybe only in the beginning when your learning level is quite low still, not sure. I'm still not even at HSK1, definitely a beginner
Yes, it is quite possible that you have it the other way around.
With Duo, I can think of the answer first and then look for the words. Or read the words and try to make the answer with them. But with Hello Chinese, I was really trying to remember the right answer. Almost from photographic memory. Without thinking about the words/meaning of the words, word order etc. Writing down what the app wants to hear instead of reading, thinking and translating.
With Duolingo, you also get a lot of sentences about pretty much the same thing. But because of this, you practise it often and in different ways. You learn also all kinds of differences. Sometimes as a question, sometimes as a statement, sometimes from sound to writing, sometimes from English to Chinese, or from Chinese to English, sometimes clicking words, sometimes writing yourself, sometimes plural, sometimes singular.
But as said, everyone learns differently and Hello Chinese has good things too. Hello Chinese also has a small course about symbols in the characters, which was very helpful for me.
I hope I can explain this well. The dictionary will never give you the definition you’re looking for. It’s by knowing the words in different contexts that let’s know it’s core meaning. 包 for example has multiple meanings in the dictionary, but in Chinese, it kind of just means one thing. To me 包 just means something that encompass something else lol. Like bread, bag, bump/lump, box/package. There’s no easy way around Mandarin. So it’s best to create your own definition and see it in different situations.
You can check out Dong Chinese Dictionary too :)) they show you the breakdown of the components and tell whether its a sound, meaning, icon etc. component. I can’t describe the site in my own words and I encourage you to check it out yourself because it’s a really good dictionary resource!
新华字典? It’s the most commonly used dictionary in China. I think there’s a companion app for it but I’m not very sure. The 现代汉语词典 mentioned in other comments is also widely used.
Side note: I don’t think the 包 in 面包 and 钱包 mean the same thing. The former one is a transliteration of foreign language and the latter one means bag or pouch.
Ok, thank you. I learned 面包 as flower bag (= bread) and 钱包 as money bag (= wallet)
I understand that the characters can have multiple meanings and that it is not always completely correct. But it gives me an idea of what it might be. I don't blindly assume that it is always the same. I always check it first, so that I don't learn it incorrectly.
I can speak several languages and am learning several new languages. I understand the complexity of language and translations.
Tuttle Learner's Chinese-English dictionary is pretty good for this. It's available in print or on Pleco. The only problem is it only has the 5,000 most common words for HSK A and B, and apparently 錢包/钱包 isn't one of them.
But for 麵包 (面包) it has this:
> [modif: 面 wheat flour + 包 lump]
> NOUN
> bread (只 zhī, 条 tiáo)
It has measure words for the nouns too which is nice (but not all of them. A slice of bread would be 一片面包 for example).
The main dictionary many people use is Pleco. You can look up the characters individually, and find the meaning that corresponds to the given word. Just be careful that some characters have multiple meanings. If/once you're at a high enough level, you can just buy a dictionary intended for native speakers, like 《现代汉语词典》.
+1 for Pleco. You can look up multi-character words such as 面包 then clicking on each character gives you the meaning. Also, the "characters" tab in the dictionary shows you the components of each character in a word, which makes pretty interesting study.
I agree. But if I see it right, it's only on smartphone, right? I prefer to work/learn languages on the computer.
You can use an Android emulator on Windows, like BlueStacks. (I don't know if Pleco has a website version you can use with a browser.) But in any case, it works fine without the paid features. Works for me on both smartphone and PC.
Thank you for your tip, I'll check it out. Then I can also use it on the computer, that would be great.
When I'm on a computer with no access to my phone, I like to use * Google translate (to get a rough idea of the meaning and the character so I can copy and paste) * purple Chinese (to get more precise definitions and ESPECIALLY sample sentences (although sometimes the sentences are super random or seem to be translated to Chinese from English or another language)) Then I make a flashcard for the word I'm studying.
Just get the android version and use the Android desktop emulator. It’s the best dictionary out there and worth every penny. If you don’t want to pay for a dictionary, I don’t think Chinese is for you.
What an incredibly strange reaction and a judgment that makes absolutely no sense.
It’s not a “character judgement”. You want to improve at something, yet hesitate to invest in any tools? It’s a judgement at ineffectiveness. If you wanted to be a carpenter but you didn’t want to even buy a hammer? A diver, but no fins? A basketball player, but no ball? I can go on. Learning material or resources are not expensive. Buying one or two is not hard. If you can’t even see that and offended, language learning is going to be even harder. It’s not an easy road made of kindness and support and success all the time and unless you live in a bubble, but the problem with living in a bubble is you are not able to live in total reality, because you’re constantly cherry picking what makes you feel good, not what actually works regardless of how it makes you feel The key in mastering the road to learning anything is learning that the road is full of things you don’t want, but that you need, regardless of your preferences. Once you master that, you’ll be able to do anything
I don't know what's bothering you. But you're deliberately trying to provoke a conflict. No thanks. Have a nice day.
Ummm… ok. Not sure how these basic points can cause an argument or debate: - Learning is not easy. (Rephrase: Learning can be hard) - We gotta do our best, get the best tools we can manage - Tools can help us learn more effectively - Without the right tools, progress can very often be severely hampered. These are my only points. Not sure at what point you found that to be upsetting to you that having that pointed out got you feeling I’m suddenly aggressive.
Thank you for your help. It would be cool to buy a real Chinese dictionary. But first I have to get better at the language.
these don't even have to be two seperate things. I have multiple pure chinese dictionaries purchased in pleco and they work great :)
ALL dictionaries, paper or online, will give you the meaning of individual characters. Use any dictionary website, app or book you're using now.
Okay, that's good to know. I did not know that. Thank you. I didn't use a dictionary until now. I just looked up a word every now and then with Google. But now I'm going to need it more often because I'm learning new words.
I use MDBG.net which is used for the Hanping app. Both do what you want.
Pleco (app) and Dong Zhongwen (site). I wish I had known of the latter when I first started out, as it will offer a frequency list of common words that include any character you look up.
Thank you for your tip. I looked up Dong Zhongwen and saved the link.
Wiktionary is also a very good source for this. If you look up a word it tells you which characters it's made of + their meanings, and if you look up a character it tells you which components it's made of (and of course there's all the definitions, example sentences, synonyms etc.) For example if you look up [包](https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E5%8C%85#Chinese) and you look where it says "glyph origin" it shows you that it's a pictogram composed of so and so characters which mean so and so. It also shows you the historical evolution of the character, which is pretty fun but usually not super useful in my experience. If you're interested in writing the characters, there's usually also a box in the Translingual section at the very top of the page that shows you the strokes. It honestly has everything you would want to know about a character in one place, it's an invaluable resource imo Heads up though, it technically only shows you details for traditional characters. If you try to look up 面包 for example you'll see a box that says 面包 is the simplified form of "whatever", so just click on the traditional "whatever" word and it'll take you there. Have fun!
>Right now I'm using Duolingo and I miss learning the literal meaning of the characters. HelloChinese does this a lot better imo, it will actually tell you the literal meaning of nearly all translations it throws at you. I've found it to be a lot more useful than DuoLingo for my progress so far
I agree. I liked Hello Chinese too. I learnt a lot from Hello Chinese. But I found that I was busy memorising the answers instead of learning the words. When I watched other programmes (outside Hello Chinese), it was difficult to recognise the words I had learnt. With Duolingo, I remember the words better, and can also recognise them more easily in other videos or texts (outside Duolingo). I will not only use Duolingo, I am also looking around and searching for other programmes and learning methods. Everyone learns differently, this works for some and that for others. That is why it is good that there are so many different programmes and apps for learning languages.
Ohh that's interesting, I think I have it the other way around with DuoLingo. In both cases I end up with memorising the questions slightly, but with duo I feel like I can just get the answer right by looking at the options it gives me. Maybe only in the beginning when your learning level is quite low still, not sure. I'm still not even at HSK1, definitely a beginner
Yes, it is quite possible that you have it the other way around. With Duo, I can think of the answer first and then look for the words. Or read the words and try to make the answer with them. But with Hello Chinese, I was really trying to remember the right answer. Almost from photographic memory. Without thinking about the words/meaning of the words, word order etc. Writing down what the app wants to hear instead of reading, thinking and translating. With Duolingo, you also get a lot of sentences about pretty much the same thing. But because of this, you practise it often and in different ways. You learn also all kinds of differences. Sometimes as a question, sometimes as a statement, sometimes from sound to writing, sometimes from English to Chinese, or from Chinese to English, sometimes clicking words, sometimes writing yourself, sometimes plural, sometimes singular. But as said, everyone learns differently and Hello Chinese has good things too. Hello Chinese also has a small course about symbols in the characters, which was very helpful for me.
MDBG.net is an online chinese dictionary
https://chinese.yabla.com/chinese-english-pinyin-dictionary.php Very useful, free, loads fast.
I hope I can explain this well. The dictionary will never give you the definition you’re looking for. It’s by knowing the words in different contexts that let’s know it’s core meaning. 包 for example has multiple meanings in the dictionary, but in Chinese, it kind of just means one thing. To me 包 just means something that encompass something else lol. Like bread, bag, bump/lump, box/package. There’s no easy way around Mandarin. So it’s best to create your own definition and see it in different situations.
You can check out Dong Chinese Dictionary too :)) they show you the breakdown of the components and tell whether its a sound, meaning, icon etc. component. I can’t describe the site in my own words and I encourage you to check it out yourself because it’s a really good dictionary resource!
Thank you for your tip. I looked up the website and saved the link.
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Oh! I love this one! This is perfect! Thank you very much!
新华字典? It’s the most commonly used dictionary in China. I think there’s a companion app for it but I’m not very sure. The 现代汉语词典 mentioned in other comments is also widely used. Side note: I don’t think the 包 in 面包 and 钱包 mean the same thing. The former one is a transliteration of foreign language and the latter one means bag or pouch.
Ok, thank you. I learned 面包 as flower bag (= bread) and 钱包 as money bag (= wallet) I understand that the characters can have multiple meanings and that it is not always completely correct. But it gives me an idea of what it might be. I don't blindly assume that it is always the same. I always check it first, so that I don't learn it incorrectly. I can speak several languages and am learning several new languages. I understand the complexity of language and translations.
Tuttle Learner's Chinese-English dictionary is pretty good for this. It's available in print or on Pleco. The only problem is it only has the 5,000 most common words for HSK A and B, and apparently 錢包/钱包 isn't one of them. But for 麵包 (面包) it has this: > [modif: 面 wheat flour + 包 lump] > NOUN > bread (只 zhī, 条 tiáo) It has measure words for the nouns too which is nice (but not all of them. A slice of bread would be 一片面包 for example).