Language resources

A monolingual dictionary describes the words of a language in that same language. Whereas a bilingual dictionary offers an equivalent — Hund, “dog” — a monolingual dictionary gives you access to the word itself: its meanings, usage, register, nuances, and sometimes its history and pronunciation. An equivalent helps you move from one language to another; a definition lets you stay within the language.

It is for learners, especially as they become more independent: it makes it possible to understand a word without systematically going through the language you started from, while also showing how the word is actually used. It is one tool among many for developing a deeper command of the language.

It is also useful to anyone who writes or translates. Choosing between two similar words, checking register, distinguishing between usages, or understanding a particular construction: a monolingual dictionary provides information that cannot be reduced to a single equivalent.

And it is for anyone who is simply curious. Etymologies, older meanings, regional variants, set phrases, and specialized usages also offer a glimpse into the history and diversity of a language.

A bilingual dictionary sets two languages side by side: for a word in one, it gives one or more equivalents in the other. Where a monolingual dictionary explains, a bilingual dictionary translates — and because a word rarely has a single equivalent, it separates the meanings, points out constructions and shows examples in context.

Its first use is understanding: an unknown word in a text, an expression whose meaning is hard to pin down. It also helps you express yourself, when you are looking for the right word in the other language for what you want to say.

It is useful to translators as well, for whom the first equivalent that comes to mind is not enough: the examples make it possible to check that a translation really fits the sentence, and to avoid false friends.

Four bilingual dictionaries, all with English — French, German, Spanish and Italian — can be used in both directions.

A verb conjugator gives every form of a verb: in every mood, every tense and every person. It spares you from memorizing irregularities, and shows at a glance how a verb behaves from one end of its conjugation to the other.

It is for learners, who check a form before using it or review a whole tense, and for anyone who writes, to settle a doubt about an agreement or an auxiliary. Each language has its pitfalls: the choice between avoir and être, haben and sein, avere and essere; German separable verbs; the pronominal forms of Spanish and Italian.

It also works the other way round. Faced with a form you do not recognize, type it as it is — fis, took, hice, ging, feci — and the conjugator finds the verb it comes from.