The importance of a good dictionary

Dr. Grammar says:

“How useful is a good dictionary?”

EXPLANATION:

Many students automatically buy a bilingual paper dictionary when they start studying a language (e.g. a Vietnamese > English > Vietnamese dictionary) or even an expensive electronic bilingual dictionary. While these both are great for a quick reference to translations for easy understanding, a good monolingual English dictionary can do so much more.

Definition

Of course a dictionary provides a definition, or the meaning, of a word. So how does a good dictionary do this?

Well, if a word has more than one meaning (which most do in English!) these meanings will be listed with the most common use first. So when looking for the meaning of a new word, start at the top, and work your way down.

For example, let’s look at “work”. This word has about 20 different meanings (in the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary). The definitions range from:

DO A JOB/TASK – to do something that involves physical or mental effort.
(This is the most common use of “work”.)

FACTORY, works – a place where things are made or industrial processes take place.

(This is one of the less common definitions of “work”.)

Example Sentences

After most definitions there are a variety of example sentences to help explain the different definitions.

This can be incredibly valuable if you are not sure what the definition means, or if you are not sure the difference between the different definitions. It is very useful to see how a word should be used in a sentence.

For example, let’s look at the same uses above:

DO A JOB/TASK: I can’t work if I’m cold.

(A very basic example of how to use this most common use of “work”.)

FACTORY, works: an engineering works, a brickworks

(Two examples of possible factories using the word “work”.)

Most importantly, the examples show how to use the words in combination with other words. It is difficult to use a word well if we do not know what it goes with.

Again, how is this done for the most common use of “work”?

DO A JOB/TASK

~ at sth I’ve been working at my assignment all day.

~ on sth He is working on a new novel.

~ + noun Doctors often work very long hours.

(All these uses have the same meaning, but are used in very different ways.)

Word forms

When you look up a word, of course it is crucial to know the form; if that word is a noun, verb, adjective etc. Of course most dictionaries contain this element. After each "work" there will either be one of the following symbols, or the form actually written in full (e.g. noun, not n.):

This information is also very useful for accurate use of a word.

Other symbols

While probably all dictionaries (monolingual and bilingual) have this information, a good dictionary also uses some other very useful symbols. For example:

C - Countable noun

U - Uncountable noun

This is very useful for deciding if we need to use “a," "the” or “an” with nouns, and whether we can use plurals.

T - Transitive verb

I - Intransitive verb

A transitive verb needs an objective, e.g. “I like” is wrong because “like” is transitive so needs an object. Intransitive verbs don’t need an object. Some verbs can be “I,T” > both.

BrE - British English

NAmE - North American English

Often words are used differently in different parts of the world. For example, in the US and the UK, the spelling, pronunciation, and even the meaning may be different for one word. (e.g. labour = BrE, labor = NAmE).

A good dictionary will also tell you whether a verb has a regular or irregular past tense form, or if adjectives have irregular comparative forms.

Pronunciation

Some electronic dictionaries will be able to say a word for you. This may be very useful, but some may teach you to sound like a robot.

With a good monolingual dictionary every word has the pronunciation written using the phonemic chart. If you do not know how to read phonemic transcription, it is a very good idea to learn.

Using this you can learn the exact pronunciation of any word in the dictionary. Most dictionaries will give you the pronunciation (most will use a neutral British English pronunciation for this transcription, but may also show North American alternative pronunciation) including the sounds and word stress.

For example:

WORK: /wɜ:k/

(This word has only one syllable)

WORKABLE: /‘wɜ:kəbl/

(This word has three syllables, the stress is shown using the apostrophe ‘)

So…

“How useful is a good dictionary?”

VERY!

Good dictionaries can help your studies a great deal.

If you don’t have a good monolingual English dictionary, then it is strongly recommended that you get one, or get used to using a free online dictionary.

EXERCISE:

Now go to the activity “Dictionary Quiz” and have some practice at using the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Online Dictionary.

This material is provided by the Australian Centre for Education and Training (ACET).