Advice on Choosing a Dictionary

If you are translating theological German in an exam, the writer will likely have a high vocabulary and will not be afraid to use it.  You want a thick dictionary which has all or most of those words so you do not have to figure out what the word might mean from its parts.   The best is probably:

Collins German Unabridged Dictionary, 7th Edition

(available online to Duke students at Credo Reference)

while the

Oxford German Dictionary

could also be considered.

(available online to Duke students at Oxford Reference Online).

These, however, will not be fun to drag everywhere unless you leave your laptop at home and instead carry the dictionary in its place. 

I also recommend a supplementary dictionary:

See my review of this book at the Textbooks and Grammars page

Online dictionaries:

Here is an extended quotation from Fred Gaiser of Luther Theological Seminary in his syllabus. 

Note the several online dictionaries now available, for example (there may be others):

http://dict.leo.org

http://dictionaries.travlang.com/GermanEnglish/

http://www.quickdic.org/index_e.html

http://www.wordreference.com/

http://dict.tu-chemnitz.de/

http://www.ego4u.com/en/dictionary

http://dictionary.reverso.net/german-english

Also, for the hardness of your hearts, the Google translator, at: http://www.google.com/ig?hl=en&referrer=ign

(Note: This can be useful for shorter and simpler phrases; it cannot be trusted for more complex constructions; unlike a good dictionary, it gives no alternatives or nuances for word meanings; and, of course, regular use of it will ensure that the user never actually learns the language.)

Comments

[Judy]

IMHO, the primary use of the Google translator and Altavista's babelfish are to entertain. In my experience, where there are several optional English equivalents for a German word, Google and Babelfish automatically choose the one that makes the least sense in the context.

[Judy]

LEO,OTOH, is very useful.

[T. Michael W. Halcomb]

Hey Andy,
Check out a new site I've just created. It is updated daily / weekly. There's lots of free resources I've created. It's titled "Getting German" and can be found at www.gettinggerman.com

-T. Michael W. Halcomb

[Andy Rowell]

T. Michael W. Halcomb,
That looks great. I will try to let people know about it.

Andy

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