How To Add a German-English Dictionary To Kindle on Your iPad or iPhone (iOS)

One of the great benefits of using ebooks for language learning is the ability to use custom dictionaries. Instead of having to search for each unknown word in a dictionary you can get instant translations while reading your book.

If you own a Kindle Paperwhite or Kindle Touch and have installed a dictionary, you can translate words in the text just by tapping them. For other non-touch Kindle devices, you can simply move the cursor over the words.

But what about the iPad and iPhone? A recent study conducted by Goodreads shows that a whopping 86% percent of tablet owners use them to read books, while 32% don’t read anywhere else! Kindle has been updating their iOS app many times this year. Among the latest updates was the ability to add “custom dictionaries”, but it just means that you can install same-language dictionaries so that you can get word definitions in one language, not translations from one to another.

So, do iPad and iPhone readers have to live without instant translations? Fortunately, there is a workaround to still get German-English (or any other pair for that matter) dictionaries on your Kindle iOS app.

1. Download the Dictionary

First of all, you need to download a good dictionary. You can get a basic German-English dictionary for free here. Keep in mind that Kindle dictionaries are one-way so in our example case we’ll need to download the dictionary which says “German-English”.

Once you have downloaded the dictionary, we need to rename it so the Kindle app will recognize it. Change the filename from German-English.mobi to B003YL4LVQ_EBOK.azw so the app will recognize it.

2. Access Your Device’s Filestructure

For the next step we’ll need to get access to your iPad’s or iPhone’s inner file structure. Don’t worry, there’s no jailbreaking involved. All you need is to download a little tool called iexplorer or phoneview (the demo or trial version will be enough for our purposes).

After installing and starting the program, go to Apps > Kindle > Library > Ebooks

Simply drag your dictionary into this folder. If you already have the German definitions dictionary installed, the program will tell you that the file already exists. You can either overwrite it or backup the standard dictionary somewhere before you drop your German-English dictionary into the folder.

3. Enjoy Instant Translations

That’s it. You can now get instant translations in any German ebook. Simply tap the word and you’ll see a little popup:

Pretty cool, isn’t it?

How To Get Other Dictionaries For Other Languages

If you want a French-English dictionary, the process is the same, except for the new file name in step 1. Here are the correct file names you need to enter before copying your dictionary to the device.

Spanish: B005F12G7O_EBOK.azw

French: B005F12G6U_EBOK.azw

Italian: B005F3XOMI_EBOK.azw

(For more languages, simply click on the little i in your Kindle app, download one of the dictionaries and then take a look under iExplorer which file was added most recently to the ebooks directory. Voilá!)

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source: wer98, photo: :ray via flickr Creative Commons



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About the author: André Klein was born in Germany, has grown up and lived in many different places including Thailand, Sweden and Israel. He has produced two music albums, performed and organized literary readings, curated an experimental television program and is the author of various short stories and non-fiction works.