{"id":3406,"date":"2013-03-05T21:02:31","date_gmt":"2013-03-05T13:02:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/?p=3406"},"modified":"2021-02-22T21:09:57","modified_gmt":"2021-02-22T20:09:57","slug":"21-essential-dictionaries-and-corpora-for-learning-chinese","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/21-essential-dictionaries-and-corpora-for-learning-chinese\/","title":{"rendered":"21 essential dictionaries and corpora for learning Chinese"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/library.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-14347\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/library-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/library-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/library-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/library-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/library.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>Most learners of Chinese soon realise that available dictionaries have some serious problems. This is mostly true for Chinese-English (and English-Chinese) dictionaries, but it&#8217;s also true for Chinese-Chinese dictionaries (in short, they don&#8217;t work very well for learners). This article isn&#8217;t about the problem itself though, but how to overcome it. If you want to read about the issue, I suggest you head over to <a href=\"http:\/\/laowaichinese.net\/the-future-for-chinese-english-dictionaries.htm\">Albert Wolfe&#8217;s article about the shortcomings of CE dictionaries.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>I have studied Chinese for some time now and have used a number of difference dictionaries. The bad news is that I still haven&#8217;t found a good dictionary that can do everything I want it to do, but the good news is that I have found several different dictionaries that among them can handle most of the questions I have.<\/p>\n<p>In this article, I will share with you my favourite dictionaries, including why I think they are good, what I use them for and what drawbacks they (all) have. I also hope that you might give me suggestions of dictionaries that might replace those I list below. Note that I&#8217;m not looking for dictionaries that can do things that those below can already do well.<\/p>\n<p>My goal here isn&#8217;t to give you a list of all available dictionaries. In fact, I have tried to keep the list as short as possible (it&#8217;s still quite long). This is because I know most learners are after simple and effective solutions. People who really want to explore other dictionaries will do that without my having to write about it.<\/p>\n<p>This article about digital resources, so even if I mention offline dictionaries, they are still digital. I haven&#8217;t used enough paper dictionaries to evaluate them properly and most learners don&#8217;t bother with paper dictionaries today anyway.<\/p>\n<p>I have sorted these sources into the following categories:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><a href=\"#eng\">Online dictionaries mainly relying on English<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#chi\">Online dictionaries mainly relying on Chinese<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#tra\">Online dictionaries for traditional Chinese<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#off\">Offline dictionaries you should check out<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#cor\">Online corpora and other sentence sources<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><a name=\"eng\"><\/a><br \/>\n<strong>Online dictionaries mainly relying on English<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.mdbg.net\/chindict\/\">MDBG<\/a><\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>What I use it for:<\/strong> This is my default dictionary in this category<br \/>\n<strong>Pros:<\/strong> Clean interface, easy to use, handwriting recognition, stroke order, sound<br \/>\n<strong><strong>Cons:<\/strong><\/strong> Sometimes inadequate English definitions (true for most dictionaries, though)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.zhongwen.com\"><strong>Zhongwen.com<\/strong><\/a><br \/>\n<strong><strong>What I use it for:<\/strong><\/strong> Etymology, character components, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/?p=3331\">horizontal character learning<\/a><br \/>\n<strong><strong>Pros:<\/strong><\/strong> Click on any character part to view that component, good etymology in English<br \/>\n<strong><strong><strong>Cons:<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong> Horrible interface, characters as pictures rather than text you can copy<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.archchinese.com\/chinese_english_dictionary.html\"><strong>Arch Chinese<\/strong><\/a><br \/>\n<strong>What I use it for:<\/strong> Character components, collocations, word frequency<br \/>\n<strong>Pros:<\/strong> Offers related characters and words sorted by frequency (this is awesome)<br \/>\n<strong><strong>Cons:<\/strong><\/strong> None, really, this site is great in general<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/hanzicraft.com\/\"><strong>HanziCraft<\/strong><\/a><strong><br \/>\nWhat I use it for: <\/strong>Breaking down characters for sensible character learning<br \/>\n<strong>Pros: <\/strong>Very easy to use, integrates well, very fast<strong><br \/>\nCons: <\/strong>Is still quite new, I haven&#8217;t found too many problems though<\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.yellowbridge.com\/chinese\/chinese-dictionary.php\">Yellow Bridge<\/a><br \/>\n<\/strong><strong>What I use it for:<\/strong> Same as above<br \/>\n<strong>Pros:<\/strong> Reasonably quick look-up, all information in a tree structure<br \/>\n<strong><strong>Cons:<\/strong><\/strong> Need to log in for full details (I don&#8217;t use that feature, though), much slower than HanziCraft<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.youdao.com\/\"><strong>Youdao<\/strong><\/a><br \/>\n<strong>What I use it for:<\/strong> Academic and\/or specialist jargon, fixed expressions, dictionary<br \/>\n<strong>Pros:<\/strong> Provides parallel translations, excellent for translation work<br \/>\n<strong><strong>Cons:<\/strong><\/strong> None, really, this site is very useful<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a name=\"chi\"><\/a><br \/>\n<strong>Online dictionaries mainly relying on Chinese<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.zdic.net\">Zdic<\/a><\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>What I use it for:<\/strong> This is my main Chinese-Chinese non-traditional dictionary<br \/>\n<strong>Pros:<\/strong> Comprehensive, detailed definitions, English, very detailed single-character information<br \/>\n<strong><strong>Cons:<\/strong><\/strong> None, really, this is my favourite online Chinese-Chinese dictionary<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/dict.baidu.com\/\"><strong>Baidu Dictionary<\/strong><br \/>\n<\/a><strong>What I use it for:<\/strong> Idioms, fixed expressions, other things I can&#8217;t find in other dictionaries<br \/>\n<strong>Pros:<\/strong> User-edited, so very comprehensive (think Wikipedia), usually easier than formal dictionaries<br \/>\n<strong><strong>Cons:<\/strong><\/strong> User-edited, so quality varies, but usually very good<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a name=\"tra\"><\/a><br \/>\n<strong>Online dictionaries mainly relying on Chinese (only traditional)<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.kwuntung.net\/check\/\">Chinese spell checker<\/a><\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>What I use it for:<\/strong> Check the use of character variations in different words<br \/>\n<strong>Pros:<\/strong> The above feature is unique as far as I know, incredibly useful<br \/>\n<strong><strong>Cons:<\/strong><\/strong> None, really, this site fulfils its function pretty well<\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/dict2.variants.moe.edu.tw\/variants\/\">Character variant dictionary<\/a><\/strong><br \/>\nWhat I use if tor: Sort out character variants (obviously)<br \/>\n<strong>Pros:<\/strong> This site is indispensable for independent advanced learners<br \/>\n<strong><strong>Cons:<\/strong><\/strong> It&#8217;s sometimes a bit confusing and doesn&#8217;t always give clear answers<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/dict.revised.moe.edu.tw\/\"><strong>Taiwan Ministry of Education Chinese Dictionary<\/strong><\/a><br \/>\n<strong>What I use it for:<\/strong> Look up words I can&#8217;t find anywhere else, single character information<br \/>\n<strong>Pros:<\/strong> Comprehensive and detailed<br \/>\n<strong><strong>Cons:<\/strong><\/strong> Archaic examples, hard definitions, too detailed (this i<em>s not <\/em>beginner-friendly at all)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/dict.mini.moe.edu.tw\/cgi-bin\/gdic\/gsweb.cgi?o=ddictionary\"><strong>Taiwan Ministry of Education Elementary School Dictionary<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/a><strong>What I use it for:<\/strong> Single-character definitions and collocations in Chinese<br \/>\n<strong>Pros:<\/strong> Easier to understand than its bigger cousin (see above)<br \/>\n<strong><strong>Cons:<\/strong><\/strong> Only has single-characters<\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/stroke-order.learningweb.moe.edu.tw\/home.do\">Taiwan Ministry of Education Character Stroke Order Dictionary<\/a><\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>What I use it for:<\/strong> Check stroke order, check the current writing standard in Taiwan<br \/>\n<strong>Pros:<\/strong> Detailed, well-structured, comprehensive<br \/>\n<strong><strong>Cons:<\/strong><\/strong> None, really, it does the job pretty well<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a name=\"off\"><\/a><br \/>\n<strong>Offline dictionaries you should check out (apps)<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pleco.com\/\">Pleco<\/a><br \/>\n<\/strong><strong>What I use it for:<\/strong>Everything on the move, this is all you need, really<br \/>\n<strong>Pros:<\/strong> Excellent handwriting input, OCR input, flashcards, excellent dictionaries<br \/>\n<strong><strong>Cons:<\/strong><\/strong> Some functions aren&#8217;t free<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/embermitre.com\/\"><strong>Hanping<\/strong><\/a><br \/>\n<strong>What I use it for: <\/strong>Very similar to Pleco in terms of functionality<br \/>\n<strong>Pros:<\/strong> Cheaper than Pleco<br \/>\n<strong>Cons:<\/strong> Still costs money, fewer features than Pleco<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a name=\"cor\"><\/a><br \/>\n<strong>Online corpora and other sentence sources<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.jukuu.com\/\"><strong>Jukuu<\/strong><\/a><br \/>\n<strong>What I use it for:<\/strong> Sentence mining, gathering large volumes of examples<br \/>\n<strong>Pros:<\/strong> Contains a large number of sentences<br \/>\n<strong>Cons:<\/strong> Sometimes hard to find actual sentences, some results are either only words or fragments<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/dj.iciba.com\/\"><strong>Iciba<\/strong><\/a><br \/>\n<strong>What I use it for:<\/strong> Similar to Jukuu above<br \/>\n<strong>Pros:<\/strong> Contains a large number of sentences<br \/>\n<strong>Cons:<\/strong> The English translations are horrible, don&#8217;t trust them more than you would trust Google translate.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nciku.com\"><strong>Nciku<\/strong><\/a><br \/>\n<strong>What I use it for:<\/strong> Same as above; has fewer but in general better sentences<br \/>\n<strong>Pros:<\/strong> Higher quality sentences with much better translations (reliable English in many cases)<br \/>\n<strong>Cons:<\/strong> Lacks examples of uncommon words and sometimes have too few sentences to find the usage I&#8217;m after<\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/corpus.leeds.ac.uk\/query-zh.html\">LCMC<\/a><\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>What I use it for:<\/strong> Collocations, mostly<br \/>\n<strong>Pros:<\/strong> Is a real, tokenised corpus, very big<br \/>\n<strong>Cons:<\/strong> Hard to use if you&#8217;re not used to corpus research<\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/app.sinica.edu.tw\/cgi-bin\/kiwi\/mkiwi\/mkiwi.sh\">Academia Sinica Balanced Corpus of Modern Chinese<\/a><\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>What I use it for:<\/strong> Most queries about traditional Chinese or Mandarin usage in Taiwan<br \/>\n<strong>Pros:<\/strong> Is a real, tokenised corpus<br \/>\n<strong>Cons:<\/strong> Only covers Taiwan, not big enough at times<\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.google.com\">Google<\/a><\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>What I use it for:<\/strong> Anything I can&#8217;t find using the other sources I&#8217;ve listed above<br \/>\n<strong>Pros:<\/strong> Mindbogglingly high number of sentences<br \/>\n<strong>Cons:<\/strong> Hard to find what you&#8217;re looking for, hard to be sure that what you find is actually a good example<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>That&#8217;s all for now, I think. If you have any suggestions for how to improve this list by replacing any dictionary with one which is strictly better, let me know! Remember, though, this isn&#8217;t an attempt to gather as many dictionaries as possible, but rather to list the best dictionaries for specific purposes. I will keep the list updated as I find better alternatives, please help!<\/p>\n<p><strong>Update: <\/strong>I removed Wenlin and added Hanping instead. Wenlin is great, but it&#8217;s very outdated and I can&#8217;t even use it with what I have available, whereas Hanping is much more likely to help students. I also removed I Cha Cha and added Youdao instead. The latter is roughly a hundred times better than the previous and I blame my previous inclusion of I Cha Cha on plain ignorance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There are many online resources for looking up Chinese characters and words, so many that it might be very hard for new learners to find what they need. This article introduces 21 dictionaries and corpora for Chinese learners, including what they should be used for in addition to some pros and cons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14347,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5,6,10,14,18,22],"tags":[53,69,145,167,254,267,370,438,676,677,679],"class_list":["post-3406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-advanced","category-beginner","category-distinctively-chinese","category-intermediate","category-learning-outside-class","category-recommended-resources","category-vocabulary","tag-arch-chinese","tag-baidu","tag-corpora","tag-dictionaries","tag-hanzi-craft","tag-i-cha-cha","tag-mdbg","tag-pleco","tag-yellow-bridge","tag-zdic","tag-zhongwen-com"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>21 essential dictionaries and corpora for learning Chinese<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"There are many online resources for looking up Chinese characters and words, so many that it might be very hard for new learners to find what they need. 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