Good question. I never thought about it. My wife and I speak multiple languages and we own several hard-copy dictionaries. We bought these dictionaries. They didn’t cost arms and legs though, so we‘re fine with that.
Come to think about it, we still need to look up for meanings of words and we use different online dictionaries. These websites are free, and are financed through ads and/or premium paid features.
That being said, I think I’m fine with features such as grammar checks are paid features but the basic definition dictionary should be free, which is already the case for languages we speak.
That being said, I think I’m fine with features such as grammar checks are paid features but the basic definition dictionary should be free, which is already the case for languages we speak.
Totally agree with you there. I think tools should be able to charge to use them, but the general knowledge about a language and the specification should be free in my opinion. Not the printed one, just the knowledge.
definition dictionary should be free, which is already the case for languages we speak.
Can I ask what languages are those? I'm interested in learning more about this topic and would love to know the reasoning behind it and why other languages don't do that.
Well, online German-German dictionary that we often use nowadays is Duden. Their German-German dictionary is free but their grammar check feature is a paid one.
Our go-to English-German (and vice versa) dictionary is Linguee. Their dictionary and basic translation service (better than Google Translate) are free as well. You can pay for more translation features.
Otherwise our English-English dictionary is Merriam-Webster, which is free but is riddled with ads everywhere. I guess that's how their finance their website.
My wife speaks Spanish and French as well. Not sure which ones are her online dictionaries.
Looking up for words in hard-copy dictionaries is cumbersome. In fact we haven't done that since years. That's why we're okay with ads and paid features.
Good question. I never thought about it. My wife and I speak multiple languages and we own several hard-copy dictionaries. We bought these dictionaries. They didn’t cost arms and legs though, so we‘re fine with that.
Come to think about it, we still need to look up for meanings of words and we use different online dictionaries. These websites are free, and are financed through ads and/or premium paid features.
That being said, I think I’m fine with features such as grammar checks are paid features but the basic definition dictionary should be free, which is already the case for languages we speak.
Totally agree with you there. I think tools should be able to charge to use them, but the general knowledge about a language and the specification should be free in my opinion. Not the printed one, just the knowledge.
Can I ask what languages are those? I'm interested in learning more about this topic and would love to know the reasoning behind it and why other languages don't do that.
Well, online German-German dictionary that we often use nowadays is Duden. Their German-German dictionary is free but their grammar check feature is a paid one.
Our go-to English-German (and vice versa) dictionary is Linguee. Their dictionary and basic translation service (better than Google Translate) are free as well. You can pay for more translation features.
Otherwise our English-English dictionary is Merriam-Webster, which is free but is riddled with ads everywhere. I guess that's how their finance their website.
My wife speaks Spanish and French as well. Not sure which ones are her online dictionaries.
Looking up for words in hard-copy dictionaries is cumbersome. In fact we haven't done that since years. That's why we're okay with ads and paid features.
Great, thanks, I will check them out!