One thing a lot of people struggle with when learning Chinese is what dictionary to use. A dictionary seems like something which should be relatively simple, but it requires a lot of thought and effort to select in Chinese. The difference between a good dictionary and a bad dictionary can save you or cost you hours for no good reason. Digital dictionaries can resolve a lot of these issues, but there are still good reasons for physical dictionaries and also some concerns for digital dictionaries which I will cover later.
Honing in on a Dictionary
In fairness, there really aren’t any objectively bad dictionaries on the market for the most part (except maybe those tacked on to the end of questionable coursebooks). The market doesn’t seem to want to bear the burden of pure garbage, except in the realm of digital dictionaries where the barrier to entry is minimal. Most bad dictionaries are an afterthought rather than a standalone product. There are however dictionaries which are going to be good for your purposes and dictionaries which are going to be bad for your purposes. A chemistry dictionary obviously doesn’t do much if you’re going on vacation, and a native speaker’s dictionary doesn’t help if you’re new to learning Chinese.
Specialty dictionaries are one thing, but the breadth of a dictionary can affect its usefulness as well. If you’re looking for a quick reference dictionary for a heavily structured course, an elaborate dictionary with more obscure meanings may hinder you more than it helps. Regionality can affect the usefulness as well. A Taiwanese dictionary is going to be significantly different than a Mainland dictionary, and a dictionary from Shanghai may have a few surprises and omissions compared to one from Beijing. This typically isn’t an issue for most academic purposes, but can affect certain types of work and use cases.
Types of Dictionaries in Chinese
Chinese dictionaries have another level of distinction that virtually no language has, a difference between “character” dictionaries (字典) and “word” dictionaries (词典). Character dictionaries focus on individual characters and vary in size and scope. Some character dictionaries focus on only the most common characters, some character dictionaries focus on a mix of common and rarer characters, and some character dictionaries even only focus on rarer characters. Word dictionaries mainly focus on words, but most still include individual characters even if they’re not really used in any modern words.
There are also many types of character dictionaries, from practical reference character dictionaries to language learner oriented character dictionaries. There are dictionaries which will provide words which complete the characters (though they usually do not have as much detail as a word dictionary), as well as dictionaries which will give similar characters for learning. Some will be organized by Pinyin, some will be organized by strokes or radicals, and some will be organized by frequency or how common a character is. Each dictionary type has its own advantages and disadvantages for various use cases and purposes.
Lookup Types
Most dictionaries a learner will start with will be organized by Pinyin, though some people may prefer to start with a dictionary organized by stroke or radical if working with unfamiliar materials. For supplementing study or similar, a vocabulary book which has bled over into dictionary territory which organizes characters by commonality may work (see here for more on this). Some dictionaries will pick one method to organize the contents by, but will have a lookup chart or multiple look up charts at the beginning.
There are pros and cons to the various lookup methods. Pinyin based dictionaries may be hard to find a character without having the pronunciation which can make working with unfamiliar materials or native materials near impossible. Dictionaries ordered by stroke are great for looking up unknown characters, but unwieldy when looking for brushing up on characters based on known pronunciation. Dictionaries ordered by radicals are a bit of a balance for intermediate students as the radicals are distinct enough to shorten the list a good bit, but have a bit of the cons of both while retaining some of the pros as well. Dictionaries by frequency are near useless except for cases of supplementation or linguistic work. Almost all modern dictionaries use Pinyin primarily, but there are some outliers and there are reprints of older dictionaries which predate standardized romanization.
Word dictionaries will often use these same lookup methods in the beginning, and also typically use Pinyin for ordering the lists, but will usually have something like stroke or radical lookup at a minimum. Aside from older materials and esoteric works, almost all word dictionaries will be ordered by Pinyin for characters. One of the largest initial distinctions I have noticed is that, while the first character may be ordered by Pinyin, the second and on character’s organization can vary. It is common to see characters grouped so that 天才 and 天气 are right next to each other instead of being split up, but there are dictionaries that treat each word as a discrete unit. The second plus character may be organized by Pinyin or by frequency as well so that 天气 might come before 天才. There are other variations including ordering by radical or stroke for other words as well.
Specialty Dictionaries
In addition to just character and word dictionaries, there are all sorts of other dictionaries including those for 成语, those for 文言文, those for 语法, etc. (if you’re learning Chinese and you don’t know these words, don’t worry, they probably don’t matter… yet). Basically, almost any linguistic element can and will have it’s own dictionary just like in English. A lot of the same caveats for the above dictionaries will apply. Since chengyu (成语) are integral to the language and used in the place of certain other words or phrases, a standard word dictionary will include some 成语, but the word dictionary may cut out certain elements for the sake of brevity. Specialty dictionaries will often contain further details that no word dictionary could even hope to include without being massive.
Picking a Dictionary for Language Learning
It can sound like a bit to keep up with, and it is, but it also makes a huge difference in language learning. Level will also affect one’s needs substantially. A beginner has a different set of needs than an advanced student, but even beginners can vary in their needs depending on how and what they’re learning. Differentiation and specialization follow as one advances through the levels of learning, but many of the same needs remain throughout the levels.
Beginner’s Dictionaries
At a beginner’s level, it will largely depend on study method. A student using a very rigid textbook series in an academic setting will probably benefit best from a standard Pinyin word dictionary, but whether a stroke order or radical based lookup table in the dictionary are best depend on the course and the materials. It is typically best to start out with a sparser, more simple dictionary with fewer words for fewer distractions. A teacher who pushes heavy use of radicals for learning will make a radical based dictionary a no-brainer, but having a stroke search will help for certain tricky characters. Some courses focus more on strokes and rote memorization in the first years, so a stroke based dictionary may be best for those students. An immersed student will definitely benefit throwing in a character dictionary as well to begin learning more obscure characters they will actually encounter on a day to day basis.
Intermediate Dictionaries
Intermediate students will benefit from both character and word dictionaries as they will be adding in non-structured materials more and more. Typically a word dictionary sorted by Pinyin will continue being the most useful at this level, though having the other lookup methods is very helpful. Having a character dictionary that works well for non-structured materials is virtually essential to progress at an intermediate level. At this point, a more comprehensive word dictionary either already is, or will become more important. The beginner’s dictionary can still be useful, but ultimately needs to be supplemented or replaced with something more thorough. This is also the phase to begin supplementing with native Chinese dictionaries and with specialty dictionaries like 成语 dictionaries and other specialty dictionaries as required to help with trickier linguistic situations.
Advanced Dictionaries
At the advanced level, you should be using mainly native Chinese dictionaries with some dictionaries in your native language to help with certain concepts that don’t really translate. These will become less and less relevant, but probably won’t ever entirely go away for certain obscure items. Specialty dictionaries are a must at this language depending on the direction of your study, but you will want 成语 dictionaries, 同义反义词 dictionaries, and 语法 dictionaries in addition to more fleshed out character and word dictionaries. Stroke based options won’t really do much at this level either.
Digital Dictionaries
There are both subjective and (more) objective reasons I don’t suggest digital dictionaries up front (I don’t really have concrete research to back up my “objective” points). Paid dictionaries are extremely hit or miss on quality and usability depending on the way the product is packaged and executed, and is often subject to the limitations of the platform it is running on. Since there is such a low barrier to entry for digital products, a lot more junk can make it to market complete with serious errors in the product (wrong words, wrong characters, bad translations, etc.).
I feel extremely confined by digital dictionaries unless I am strictly translating. I learned so much extra from printed dictionaries because it is impossible not to accidentally flip to the wrong page and hard not to have something catch the eye when this happens. I learned literally hundreds (if not more) words this way. I also find the tactile nature of a print dictionary which requires actual physical interaction to locate a word helps with recall. I remember far more from a print dictionary than from pretty much any digital dictionary unless I physically copied the word out to study.
One thing digital dictionaries do win out on a print dictionary for is convenience when working with digital materials, as well as ease of access to more obscure information. I feel that digital dictionaries become essential for learning easily at some point, but I would personally hold off until at least the intermediate level. I still use a print dictionary over a digital dictionary for most purposes (except translation) as the results I’ve gotten are more consistent. This may be preference or bias, but I’m sticking to it.
Conclusion
The choice of dictionary is not always a light one. I hope this article serves to shed light on some of the criteria which can help make your experience using a dictionary substantially better while learning Chinese. There are many things to take into account when selecting your dictionary as well as certain considerations depending on linguistic level and similar. What do you think? What do you look for in a dictionary?