Using a Spanish-English Dictionary

All dictionaries are not created equal!

You cannot trust the dictionary.

Do not look up a word and assume that the first one that you find is the one you’re trying to find.

Many words have more than one possible equivalent in the other language, including synonyms, varying registers, and different parts of speech. Expressions and set phrases can be elusive, because you have to figure out which word to look up.

It’s always a good idea to cross-reference.

When you find the word you think you are looking for in one side of the dictionary, look up the word you found in the other side to be sure it means what you think it means.

Looking up verbs…

When looking up a verb, you need to look up the infinitive form of the verb. (the –ar, -er, or –ir, form of the verb.)

Conjugated forms of the verb won’t be in the dictionary. (Except in a separate section where conjugations are listed out all together.)

So if you want to know what “necesito” means, you need to look up “necesitar”.

Looking up verbs…

The abbreviation “tr.” after a verb means that it is transitive, it can take a direct object. (ej: to love something, to need something)

“intr.” means that the verb cannot take a direct object. (ej: to arrive, to sit, to die) (You cannot arrive something).

Looking up adjectives…

When looking up an adjective only one form will be given which is almost always the singular, masculine form of the word.

So remember if you want to know what “Las chicas son altas” means, for the word “altas” you need to look up “alto”.

Looking up nouns…

Nouns will be given in their singular form.The abbreviation “s.” denotes that

something is a noun (noun =sustantivo). “m.” denotes a masculine noun.“f.” denotes a feminine noun. Some nouns may be either masculine or

feminine, such as dentista and will have “mf.”

Looking up expressions…

When you want to look up an expression, there are two possibilities: you might find it in the entry for the first word in the expression, but more likely it will be listed in the entry of the most important word in the expression.

The important word is usually a noun or verb - pick a few expressions and look up the different words to get a feel for how your dictionary tends to list them.

A note on translators…

Online translators can be helpful, but they can’t be trusted. They tend to be very literal and if there is more than one word that means the same thing in a language, they will most likely not know the difference.

They usually do not know the difference between “ser” and “estar” (to be) for one example.

A further note on translators…

Unless you know the language well enough to fix the mistakes made by the translator, you are taking a great risk because your teacher will know that you used one. (Trust me, we know!)

Using a translator in a language class is considered plagiarism because it is NOT your OWN work!

Have some fun!

Go forth and test yourself.

Try to translate some things and see how well you do.

Surprise your Spanish teacher!

Links

Some of the information in this presentation came from here (the rest was personal experience):

http://french.about.com/od/vocabulary/ss/dictionaries_3.htm

Two good online dictionaries:◦Spanishdict.com◦Wordreference.com