Thought I'd do something a bit different today, and take a look at some dictionary use tips that I've come across over the years, and looking at how I use my own these days, now that I'm learning French again.
This is my dictionary stack, something that, weirdly, I find quite exciting! When I started out on this journey, getting a dictionary was pretty much top of the list and, after having a look around, I decided to go for the Collins series of books. Now, it's true, the Collins website does actually do all of this online for free, but I think it's helpful (and, indeed, important) to have a physical book on hand.
My dictionary of choice is the middle one of the pile there, the French Dictionary & Grammar book. As well as providing a wealth of detail within the translations, including several useful idiomatic expressions for many entries, there is a splendid, if concise, grammar section in the back. Covering dozens of verb conjugations across all tenses and moods, as well as going through prepositions, pronouns, and all the other parts of speech, it's a cracking book, and one that I can highly recommend for daily use.
In addition to this, I have the smaller Pocket Dictionary on my desk in work. Whose pockets this book was designed for, I'll never know, but it's a very handy book to have around if I'm looking for a quick translation of something. I'm often thinking about learning French throughout the day, as I try to incorporate the language into my daily life wherever practically possible, and if I'm trying to think of a word or something, it's good to have it on hand here.
The big daddy of the dictionaries, however, has got to be le Robért. "For Advanced Learners and Professionals" - don't let that tag-line put you off, though! This book is certainly for the serious learner, but it's the sort of book that you could almost leaf through like a novel, or something. The quality and depth of the translations, the coverage... it's tremendous, it really is. The "Language in Use" section in the middle is worth the price alone, containing hundreds of situational phrases that will help you improve your French, and aid you to sound like a natural!
I mean, look at the depth they go into with être!
So that's all well and good, but how do we best use these things to our advantage? Here are 5 tips that I've come across over the years, that I want to share with you all now!
1. Always check through the entire entry
There are two reasons for this. Firstly, words can have several meanings, as I'm sure we all know. To put up a shelf does not mean the same thing as to put up with someone snoring. Secondly, as I mentioned earlier, a lot of entries will have an example of how the word is used in a sentence, which can be a great help when you come to then use the word in your own sentence. For instance, staying with our "put up" example, the entry gives us how to say "to put somebody up to doing something", which in the Collins is translated using the verb 'pousser', and not any of the various verbs that it uses to translate "to put up". This brings me on to my second point.
2. In a bilingual dictionary, always double check the translation
Let's stick with our "to put up" example for now. As I said, the Collins dictionary uses 'pousser' to translate the phrase "to put somebody up to doing something". 'Pousser', however, is not one of those verbs that is given as a translation at the start of the entry. So what does 'pousser' mean? Well, we need to look this up in the French part of the dictionary, and see how it is translated back into English. Turns out, it means "to push" or "to drive hard". So we definitely know that we're on the right track.
3. Know your grammar (and grammatical abbreviations!)
After the headword and the pronunciation guide, each word then has an abbreviation such as ADJ or VT. At the front of the dictionary, there will be a list of what these abbreviations mean. Splendid! But how will that help you in deciding which word is right? Good question. Let's look at the word "past", which in English can be a noun (in the past), a preposition (it's gone past midnight), an adverb (to walk past) or an adjective (the past few days). This is where it helps to understand how your native language works, to understand what you're trying to say before translating it.
It also helps to underline points one and two above - where a word has more than one meaning or use, you need to check the whole entry to see whether the word you want is actually mentioned further down (and perhaps given an example of its use), and it can always help to double-check the word you want to use in the French section, too.
4. Understand when you're using an idiom, and don't try to translate it word-for-word!
This one might be another obvious one, but it needs to be mentioned all the same. For instance, you might want to say "it's raining cats and dogs" - il pleut des chats et des chiens". No! That's an English idiom, and it doesn't exist in that form in French - instead, they say 'il pleut des cordes', which means "it's raining ropes". Neither animals nor ropes are falling from the sky, but you have to know when you're trying to translate something literally, and when you need something more figurative. Idioms, on the whole, are best learnt as you go - which can actually be quite fun. There are a lot that involve cats...
5. Know when to not use the dictionary
This one might be a bit strange, but it's also very important as time goes on. Having an awareness of the previous four points, it can then become quite important to know, when you're trying to express yourself, when to use an alternative for a word. There have been times when I've tried to be a bit clever, and express something with a fairly complicated structure when, in actual fact, I could have done the same thing without needing to turn to a dictionary. Going down the route of something fairly complex has then led me to either make mistakes, get confused, or both.
Keep it simple, but keep it to your current level. I'm not trying to say you shouldn't be ambitious, but don't try to go crazy too soon, you know?
Hopefully this has been useful, anyway - let me know in the comments if you have any more tips for making the most out of dictionaries!
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