1. COLLINS ENGLISH DICTIONARY ONLINE
Lorena Sainz-Maza Lekanda

2. WHY COLLINS ENGLISH DICTIONARY ONLINE?
3. In the last few weeks, I have been working quite a lot with online dictionaries. At the beginning, I started using WordReference whenever I needed to look up a word. However, I realised that it was rather confusing when looking up a word due to the large number of translations that it offered just for a single word, mainly from English into Spanish and vice versa. Therefore, I became interested in monolingual online dictionaries and that is why I focused my interest on Collins online language dictionaries and thesaurus.
4. ITS DEVELOPMENT
5. Before making it available on the internet, the printed version appeared known as Collins English Dictionary. It was published by HarperCollins, a publishing company owned by News Corporation. Nowadays, they have developed an important collection of dictionaries, not only regarding English, but also many other languages such as German, Spanish or Italian, among others. It is, in fact, due to their great success, that the company has decided to make it available on the internet for free in the following website: http://www.collinslanguage.com/
6. EXAMPLES
Some examples of what the online dictionary canoffer toall users, focusing mainly on its monolingual usage
7. Verb: Speak
8. Noun: Car
9. Preposition: Up
10. Adjective: Quick
11. As it canbe appreciated, if the dictionary finds that there are other words or expressions that also contain the word that is being looked up, it provides the possibility of choosing between one or another in order to make the research as accurate as possible. At the same time, it is also worth pointing out how it gives proper descriptions or definitions bearing in mind the different possible meanings of a word, as in the case of up.
12. COLLINS ENGLISH DICTIONARY ONLINE VS.URBAN ONLINE DICTIONARY
13. Collins Online Dictionary
Example: Bitch
14. UrbanDictionary Online
Example: Bitch
15. Collins Online Dictionary tends to be more polite and seriousthan Urban Online Dictionary. Yet, the Urban Online Dictionary offers something that the Collins Dictionary does not, that is pictures, for example, this is the picture that can be found when the word bitch is looked up
16. MAIN OBJECTIVES OF THE COLLINS ENGLISH DICTIONARY ONLINE
17. According to Collinslanguage.com, their main objective is:
The purpose of Collins dictionaries is simple: to take as sharp and as true a picture of language as possible. Every month we feed more data into our database. This means that Collins dictionaries remain up to date which in turn ensures that when you use a Collins dictionary, you are one of the best-informed language users in the world.
18. VARIETY OF LANGUAGES IN THE COLLINS DICTIONARY ONLINE
19. Regarding the English online version, it should be mentioned that the dictionary is monolingual and, therefore, it onlyprovides definitions of words and maybe some synonyms and fixed expressions. Opposing this, there are the French, Spanish, Italian and German online versions which are bilingualalways regarding English, that is: French-English/English-French, Spanish-English/English-Spanish, Italian-English/English-Italian and German-English/English-German.
20. ADDITIONAL SERVICES PROVIDED
21. TRANSLATION SERVICE
22. It should be worth pointing out that Collins English Dictionary Online also offers a free translation service. This service offers real-time translation in 552 language combinations for Arabic, Bulgarian, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish and Swedish languages
23. IT ALSO PROVIDES
24. Virtual Keyboard allows text input in more than 40 languages
Spell-checker checks spelling in 8 languages
Dictionary provides words search and translation in 20 language pairs
Decoder converts unreadable Russian text to the proper encoding
Transliteration displays Russian text with Latin characters
Printing prints original or translated text
Email sends email in more than 40 languages
Interface localization 11 languages
25. EXAMPLE OF THE TRANSLATION SYSTEM
To conclude with the review, I am going to check how the translation service works, from English into Spanish, although there are many other language, but probably these two will be the most developed ones.
26. ORIGINAL VERSION
The Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, has been overheard describing an exchange he had with a female voter in Rochdale as a disaster, calling her a bigoted woman.Gillian Duffy, a 66-year-old widow, told Gordon Brown that she was concerned about immigration from Eastern Europe.
In the video, Mr Brown can be heard responding to her and appears to end the conversation amicably, telling her she came from a good family.
But as he got into his car and sped away with his microphone still on, he can be heard berating his staff for allowing the encounter.
He told an aide: That was a disaster. Should never have put me with that woman. Whose idea was that?
When the aide said they did not know who was responsible, the Prime Minister snapped: ridiculous.
His companion suggested that television crews who filmed the encounter, in a residential street in Rochdale, would not broadcast it.
But Mr Brown said: They will use it.
The aide asked what Mrs Duffy had said, and Mr Brown replied: Everything. Shes just a sort of bigoted woman who says she used to be Labour.
27. TRANSLATED VERSION
El Primer Ministro, Gordon Brown, ha sido odo por casualidad describiendo un cambio que l tena con un votante femenino en Rochdale como un desastre, llamndola a una mujer intolerante.GillianDuffy, una viuda de 66 aos, dijo a Gordon Brown que ella estuvo preocupada por la inmigracin de Europa del Este.En el vdeo, Sr. Brown puede ser odo respondindole y parece terminar la conversacin cordialmente, dicindola ella vino de una familia buena.Pero cuando l entr en su coche y se apresur lejos con su micrfono todava en, l puede ser odo reprobando su personal para permitir el encuentro.l dijo a un ayudante: era un desastre. Nunca debera haberme puesto con aquella mujer. Idea de quin era esto?Cuando el ayudante dijo que ellos no saban quin era responsable, el Primer Ministro se rompi: ridculo.Su compaero sugiri que los equipos de televisin que filmaron el encuentro, en una calle residencial en Rochdale, no lo transmitieran.Pero Sr. Brown dijo: ellos lo usarn.El ayudante pregunt a lo que SraDuffy haba dicho, y Sr. Brown contest: todo. Ella es slo una especie de mujer intolerante que dice que ella sola ser de Trabajo.