english-spanish dictionary

Challenges for the bilingual dictionary

Perhaps the most difficult aspect of creating a bilingual dictionary is the fact that lexemes or words cover more than one area of meaning, but these multiple meanings don't correspond to a single word in the target language. For example, in English, a ticket can get you into the movie theater, or can be given to you by a police officer for exceeding the posted speed limit. In Spanish these two meanings are not covered by one word as in English, but rather two different words: boleto and infracción.

Bilingual dictionary formats

Bilingual dictionaries are available in a number of formats

• Printed dictionaries
• Electronic dictionaries, including miniature scanners to read and translate text
• Online dictionaries, often easy to search, not always free
• Phrase books, not always considered dictionaries, but can serve the same purpose in a primitive fashion

Using a bilingual dictionary

One of the most important things to remember when using a bilingual dictionary is to always do a reverse lookup. In the above-mentioned example in English and Spanish of the word ticket, after finding that ticket is translated into boleto and infracción in the English-Spanish dictionary, it is advisable to look up both of those Spanish words in the Spanish-English section to help you identify which one has the meaning you are looking for.

External links

• DIX: Spanish-English dictionary. Allows you to easily do reverse lookups by clicking on the translations.

• DIX: 10 language bilingual dictionary. Translates words between English,French,Spanish,Italian,Dutch Swedish,Norwegian,Polish,German & Danish.

• Leo: Technische Universität München (Munich Technical University) online dictionary. German-English, German-French and German-Spanish dictionaries (and vice-versa).