The 15 Characteristics Of A Good Dictionary - The Dictionary Is Your Best Helper!
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On this blog, I repeatedly preach that it is very crucial you know the basics of the english language and to strengthen your vocabulary to help you write good english. But the key part of this language system is having the right dictionary. Regular use of your dictionary will help you develop your personal vocabulary book much healthier. It is vital that you keep a good dictionary handy. But how to know which dictionary is the desired one? Continue reading..
Characteristics Of A Good Dictionary - The Right Dictionary’s Habits
1) Tells you how words are spelt
2) Tells you how words are pronounced
3) Gives you the different meanings of words
4) Gives examples of how the words are used under their respective context
5) Gives you the plurals of nouns
6) Tells you whether a noun is countable or not
7) Gives you the synonyms and the antonyms of words
8.) Gives you words derived from the same root or family
9) Gives you the comparative and superlative forms of adjectives
10) Gives you the past tense and participle forms of verbs
11) Tells you the syllable of a word to stress
12) Tells you the origin of some foreign words
13) Gives you the meanings of useful phrases
14) Tells you the level of usage of a certain word
15) Tells you whether a certain word is a slang word, a taboo word, a formal word, an informal word, an archaic word, a colloquial expression, etc.
If you see a dictionary providing all those above points, it is a good candidate to be considered as the right or good dictionary. For instance, I can convincingly recommend you to use The Concise Oxford Dictionary; I have been using it for the last 6+ years and it has been (and is) a great tool to enhance my english language.
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Dictionaries are great, nowadays though, everyone uses online dictionaries for ease of use and practicality, what is your opinion on the online dictionary?
Joey, first of all thanks for your loyal company on my blog. I really appreciate this.
About online dictionaries:
I find them a good fast way of looking for a quick meaning. But you don’t always get a full explanation as you would expect from a physical dictionary.
Dear Wakish, thank you for listing the characters. Whenever we use a new (that we did not use before) dictionary, we can say whether that is good or worse. And also can point out why that is better or bad. But we usually don’t willing to write down or list all of those good characters. We say ourself that they are listed in our mind (but not ordered). I know it’s not that easy to write them down. It takes much more time than what we think. Thank so much for this great work.
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But dear brother you should have told one more thing - “The dictionary is best for you that you feel comfortable using”. I like ‘Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary’ and use it. ‘Longman Dictionary Of Contemporary English’ is a bit better that the OALD. I also use it. ‘Cambridge Advanced Learners Dictionary’ is also similar to OALD. I have all these dictionary in my mobile, so I can use them whenever I want, and no matter whenever I am. I also use Oxford Concise English Dictionary - it’s also excellent enough.
And one more thing dear brother. You said that online dictionaries are not full functional. I think you are a little bit wrong. Go to online dictionary of ‘Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary’ and online dictionary of ‘Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English’ and you will everything you see on paper version of them. In the online dictionary of OALD you will not just get the ‘Reference section contents’. Hope you will visit them and tell us more or tell me whether I am right or wrong (maybe, maybe not)
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Dear Wakish and visitors, sorry for my bad English. I am not that good in English. In previous comment I did some mistake. Maybe also in this comment. But I can’t them correct well. Please help me finding the mistakes and correct me. Please . . .