Quality of English-Chinese Dictionaries

[rohr4842]

I have purchased two add-on English-Chinese dictionaries: NWP and ABC (according to Pleco info it has 60,000 entries). Today I looked up the word "depression" as in mental illness on my ipod touch and was not impressed with what I found: no hit in NWP and the ABC only returned a small number of relevant words but not 抑郁症 and no examples. I have not tried out the dictionaries more systematically but it doesn't look like good value to me.

Thanks
Friedemann

 

[mikelove]

Sorry about that. If you're dissatisfied with your purchases you can write to Apple to request a refund (not something we can do on our end).

As far as "depression" specifically, 抑郁症 does seem to be included in the definitions from the Oxford Chinese Dictionary and 21st Century English-Chinese dictionary; the former also offers about half a dozen example sentences for it. So if you're still interested in an add-on E-C dictionary one of those might be a better bet for you.

 

[JD]

I have purchased two add-on English-Chinese dictionaries: NWP and ABC (according to Pleco info it has 60,000 entries). Today I looked up the word "depression" as in mental illness on my ipod touch and was not impressed with what I found: no hit in NWP and the ABC only returned a small number of relevant words but not 抑郁症 and no examples. I have not tried out the dictionaries more systematically but it doesn't look like good value to me.

Thanks
Friedemann

I find that I get better results when I look up English words in "reverse" (i.e. Find an English word in the definitions of the Chinese dictionaries). If you type an English word, Pleco will default to a "solid" E symbol and use English-Chinese dictionaries. But if you tap the "E", it becomes an inverse E and then finds the English word within the definition of the Chinese-English dictionaries. IN my experience, this yields more interesting results.

 

[goldyn chyld]

I have purchased two add-on English-Chinese dictionaries: NWP and ABC (according to Pleco info it has 60,000 entries). Today I looked up the word "depression" as in mental illness on my ipod touch and was not impressed with what I found: no hit in NWP and the ABC only returned a small number of relevant words but not 抑郁症 and no examples. I have not tried out the dictionaries more systematically but it doesn't look like good value to me.

Thanks
Friedemann

NWP & ABC E-C dictionaries are not particularly comprehensive. The 21st Century English-Chinese dictionary, on the other hand, includes way more entries.