Bilingual Dictionaries

Bilingual Dictionaries Definition

Bilingual dictionaries are specialized dictionaries that translate words and phrases from one language to another. Many bilingual dictionaries are bidirectional, meaning they can translate to and from both languages. For example, an 'English - French' dictionary would allow the user to translate an English word to French and a French word to English.

What's Included in a Bilingual Dictionary?

Inside a bilingual dictionary, you will often find a word's word class (e.g., noun, verb, adjective, etc.), gender (depending on the language), pronunciation (e.g., apple = /ˈæpəl/), synonyms (similar words) and other 'clues' to help a non-native speaker get to grips with a new word.

Unlike monolingual dictionaries, bilingual dictionaries focus more on translations than definitions, but that doesn't mean you won't find any. Many of the best bilingual dictionaries will provide a translation, a definition, and a sentence containing the chosen word in context.

Some bilingual dictionaries may also include:

• Shortcuts - these are the acronyms and abbreviations a dictionary may use to save space. For example, the use of M and F to indicate masculine and feminine. Make sure you familiarize yourself with these to get the most out of your dictionary.
• Idioms and figurative language - Many bilingual dictionaries contain a section on idioms and figurative language as these are often untranslatable.
• Useful phrases - Some bilingual dictionaries contain a section with everyday useful phrases, such as asking for the bill or where the toilet is.

Bilingual Dictionaries History

It is widely agreed that the bilingual dictionary came after the monolingual dictionary; however, exactly who created the first bilingual dictionary isn't so well known. Some linguists and lexicographers believe the first bilingual dictionaries originated in Tibet and date back to the early 9th century; however, we don't have any evidence to prove this.

In more recent history, we can trace the bilingual dictionary back to the East India Company and the Dutch East India Company (the British and Dutch trading companies). Global trade and colonization made bilingual communication more important than ever. Many emissaries (a person sent abroad on a special mission) began composing language glossaries and grammar books which eventually progressed to bilingual dictionaries.

Today, bilingual countries exist in many different languages and can be found in book form and online.

Fig. 1 - Bilingual dictionaries can be found in book form or online.

Types of Bilingual Dictionaries

There are thousands of bilingual dictionaries in various languages available to purchase today. Unsurprisingly, the most common bilingual dictionaries include English as one of the languages.

Bilingual dictionaries can come in many different formats, such as:

• Printed

  • pocket-sized

  • large print

  • small print

• Online

  • software (e.g., an app)

  • website

• Picture dictionary (often for children)

• Travel and phrase books

• Multilingual dictionaries (contain three or more languages)

Bilingual Dictionary Example

Let's take a look at what an entry in an English - Spanish bilingual dictionary might look like.

How to Use a Bilingual Dictionary

When used correctly, bilingual dictionaries are a great way to learn and practice a new language and translate texts. Sitting and translating a text word-by-word using a bilingual dictionary probably isn't the best idea as it would be very time-consuming and likely lead to some questionable results. It's best to use bilingual dictionaries as an aid to complement language learning/teaching.

Here are a few ways you could use a bilingual dictionary:

• Looking up unknown words - This one sounds obvious, but bear with us. Try reading through a text in your target language (the language you're trying to learn) and highlighting any words that seem important but you don't yet know. Next, look at the context and the surrounding words to see if you can decipher the word's meaning yourself before looking it up. Finally, look the word up in a bilingual dictionary and take note of its meaning and a sentence containing the word in context for reference.

• Search for the base form of a word - Words often come in many forms and it's unlikely a bilingual dictionary will have an entry for each; therefore, you should search for the base form of a word. For example, search for big rather than bigger or to walk rather than walking. As a standard rule, the base form of a word in English is the infinitive form of a verb (e.g., to run, to sing), a singular noun (not plural), and the basic adjective (not a comparative or superlative).

• Pay attention to word class (parts of speech) - In English, there are many homonyms (words that sound the same but have different meanings) that can be differentiated based on their word class. For example, the word record can be a noun (a disc that plays music) or a verb (to capture something). It's important you know the word class and the role a word plays in a sentence to ensure you're getting the correct translation.

• Pay attention to figurative language - Many words and phrases have two types of meaning; literal and figurative. Literal meanings can be pretty simple to translate, but figurative language can be a lot trickier - this is because figurative language is often based on cultural context and cannot be directly translated. For example, in English, we often say 'feeling blue' to describe a sense of sadness. When the phrase is translated into French, we get 'se sentir bleu', which wouldn't mean anything to a French-speaking person!

Fig. 2. - Pay close attention to word class and figurative language.

Bilingual Dictionaries Challenges

There are a few challenges involved in creating and using bilingual dictionaries, such as what to include and untranslatable words or phrases. It often isn't enough to simply include words, as these can have different meanings when used within a phrase. For example, the English word pick has several meanings as a word on its own, but when paired with the word up to create the phrasal verb pick up, it takes on another whole new meaning.

Secondly, culture can play a significant role in how we translate languages. Not all words and phrases have direct cultural translations, and something that may sound utterly natural in one country or culture might sound pretty odd in another.

Bilingual vs. Monolingual Dictionaries

Here is a handy table outlining the key differences between bilingual and monolingual dictionaries.