How to use the Dictionary

The dictionary tool at FriendsAbroad is very powerful and uses the contents of 16 Collins dictionaries. We've designed the dictionary to be as easy and fast to use as possible so to get the most out of this feature, please read the whole of this description. You will really improve your vocabulary if you make this a part of your use of the whole FriendsAbroad service.

Just type or cut and paste a word into the Translate box:

...or highlight a single word on the page, like this:

Ensure the From and To languages are as required. These start as the preferred languages you have set up in the My languages section of your profile. You may need to hit the Swap languages link to switch them around. Or if you are learning several languages you may need to amend the From and To languages using the pulldowns i.e.:

To save you time and make the dictionary really easy and fast to use, the system uses clever artificial intelligence software to determine which language you are translating from based on the context of the word. It then guesses which To language you probably want based on the From language and your preferred languages in the My languages section of your profile.

If for some reason the From or To languages are not the ones you wanted, note that the text you highlighted has been filled into the Translate box in the dictionary tool, so all you need to do is amend the From and/or To languages as appropriate and hit the Translate button again.

The dictionary tool shows the same results as you would find in the physical Collins dictionary.

It's easiest to describe using an example. Consider the lookup of the word "beam" from English to French:

First of all, is this the word you wanted to find? If not, then hopefully it will be one of the alternatives shown at the end of the listing: . To select one of those words instead, simply click on the relevant word.

After repeating the headword "beam", the answer shows the pronunciation of the word using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).

In bold are separators for the part of speech:

• abbr for abbreviation
• adj for adjective
• adv for adverb
• n for noun (following after the word is m or f or nt for gender, or pl if a plural form)
• vi for verb intransitive
• vt for verb transitive

For many words there are also example uses such as "drive on full... beam" here.

Finally, you might like to highlight a word within the dictionary and then click on the Speak button in the Speak it tool to hear how it should be pronounced.

For more information about how to use the dictionaries in your language learning, see the article by the language doctor.

We're sure you are going to love the online dictionaries and find they help you rapidly expand your vocabulary.

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