Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion
Other Challenges Archive
>
30-day Challenge! - Day 25: Reading gear! Do you use a dictionary when reading?
date
newest »
newest »
Only on my e-reader, or when I'm reading for school I google stuff that I don't get, but that's a whole other kind of reading I guess.
Since I bec an iPhone user, I am always inspired to look things up. I am always looking up words as I read now. It's so easy!
Depends on the book. LOTR had me looking for words almost every page and other classics do too, while I rarely have to with recent books.
LOVE the dictionary function on my Kindle and I use it all the time. If I'm reading a paper book though, I usually don't take the time to look up any words unless I happen to be sitting right in front of my laptop.
I use Google whenever there's something I don't understand. I'll even look up chapter recaps if it's a book I find difficult.
Mod
MK wrote: "Julie wrote: "never :-)"...ever!?? Wow :)"
lol, yup never a dictionary - I might occasionally use google for reference - like I just looked up the dog-breed 'weimaraner' since it was mentioned in the book I'm currenty reading and I wanted to know what it looked like. I don't consider this as using a dictionary, as I consider the need for a dictionary to be about not understanding the word. I rarely come across a word I don't understand, and even if I do, I find that reading on will help me get a fairly good idea of the meaning - I find having to stop and look something up disruptive to my reading
I used to. I should really get back into the habit of using one.
Julie, that's pretty neat. You must have a huge vocabulary. In multiple languages :p
Day 25 entry: Sometimes if I really like how the word was used in a sentence. However, I just use my phone to look up the word instead of pulling out a dictionary.
I do have a real dictionary but I'm not sure if I've ever actually used it for its intended purpose. I use Google to find definitions these days but I generally don't bother while reading a paper book since it takes me away from the reading to pull out my phone or grab my laptop. I just try to figure out the word the best I can using the context of the sentence and what other words it's similar to.But I look up words all the time on my Kindle cause all that takes is a tap of your finger.
Now that I've gotten used to having that info at my fingertips (literally), it's so frustrating when a definition is inadequate. I bought a collegiate dictionary to replace the default Kindle dictionary cause too many words were missing or poorly defined. But even with the better dictionary it can still get frustrating. I had "Nonconformist" show up multiple times in a book yesterday. I looked it up and found that it is someone that doesn't conform to the Church of England... Well, duh. I'd figured that out! I just wanted to know if that meant atheist, agnostic or if it were just a generic words for other denominations. I ended up having to use my cell phone after all and look it up on Wikipedia.
(Granted, if I was in wi-fi range it would have been just one extra tap to load up Wikipedia, but I was out in the park and no open networks nearby.)
If I ever find a word I don't know the meaning of, I look it up. Depending on where I am, I either use the Internet or my Webster's Dictionary.
Normally, I am pretty good at figuring out what a word means by context. If I am not on my Kindle, I will rely on context and only grab a dictionary if I have no clue. With my Kindle, I've come to really love the way they're hooked in with a dictionary and/or Wikipedia. Very helpful for increasing my vocabulary.
Very rarely. The last time I remember checking a word was when there was a German sentence in the book and I didn't understand one word. No, sorry, after that there was a weird word, the translation was borrowed from Latin I believe. I could guess what it meant but I wanted to know where it came from.Sometimes I do check words that I know have something to do with old tools or something, something we no longer use in our daily lives.
Like many others, not before ebooks. Like Julie said, it was too disruptive, and I could usually infer from context. But now, it's quick and easy, and doesn't really interrupt my reading flow.
I realised I don't know the meaning of many words that I thought I knew, so I make a point of looking up the word as I come across one. I read mostly on Kindle so it is not a problem- the vocabulary builder is a bonus.Sometimes I find myself with my finger on a difficult word waiting for its meaning to pop-up, only to realise that it's on actual paper!
Sometimes.Its nice to discover new words .I also love to google and wiki ... it feels good to know new things...
Yes. I love the e-reader "touch & define" ability. That helps me a lot. But I find that now, even when reading a printed book, I tend to reach for my phone and look up words more than I used to.
If I'm reading in a 2nd or 3rd language
Sometimes, especially if the language I don't know very well. This year was the first time in over a decade that I needed to check a dictionary for a book in my first language.
If I find a word I don't recognize, you can bet I'll be looking it up!
Yes! It's been a practice since my school days.
When I read Cormac McCarthy it is essential to have Webster's Colllegiate sitting right next to me. Most other books I get by without. When I find occasionall unknown word that I can not figure out from context or I just want to know the exact meaning I will pull out the dictionary or look it us on my phone. So, yes.
If I don’t know a word, I look it up. My daddy taught me well.
When I'm reading classics, it becomes really necessary.
I hate to interrupt my reading, so I almost never look things up. As a literature major, I don't usually have a problem with vocabulary, even in old-time classics. But sometimes I will look up later about the history, location, etc. I also read French, which I am pretty fluent in but not totally. There I will sometimes jot down words and look them up later. I can usually get the gist even without knowing a word or two and I just don't like to get out of the flow of reading. I suppose if my French ebooks had a built-in French dictionary, I might use that.
I also look up pictures and maps, being a visual person. I love looking at the geography of the place I am reading about.
When I was in tenth grade, instead of a weekly vocabulary list, we did “frontier words.” The premise was to bring ten new vocabulary cards to class every Friday that you encountered that week in your reading. These were to be words that we had encountered before but whose meaning we were unsure of or new-to-us words. Then we would pair up and test each other on however many cards the teacher had us pull that week. As you never knew how many you would be tested on each week, you had to constantly review your stack of cards. There were many Thursday nights spent flipping through the dictionary to come up with that week’s words. To this day, I am in the habit of noting unfamiliar words, usually with a penciled “X” in the margin, so I can come back later to look it up. If it’s a borrowed book, I’ll stick a post-it note on the inside back cover so I can jot down words or interesting locations. A friend with whom I sometimes swap books (and who was in my tenth grade English class) gets a kick out of it.
Yep...it's built into my eReader, otherwise I probably wouldn't but definitely should.
Mod
Yes. I have an old Red Mirriam Websters Dictionary that I have had since a child. I use it sometimes, but used to consult it routinely. Now, I mostly use the internet, because I can look for word definitions, maps of locations, and foreign language translations.
Once in a while but i'm lazy and tend to just infer most things i don't understand from context. I never use a physical dictionary any more, because i often read really old stuff the words i don't understand are usually too obscure for a dictionary anyway ;) .
I use the definitions available in my Kindle, look up any other words. In other languages, I use a combination of the Google Translate app, Linguee/Leo/Reverso, and my dictionaries.
@Wreade1872, that is why I sorta stopped using an English dictionary, too. I would need an OED.
LiLi wrote: "@Wreade1872, that is why I sorta stopped using an English dictionary, too. I would need an OED."I actually have a latin dictionary i bought because i ran into so much untranslated latin in old books :lol , didn't help ;) .
For me, almost-never, pre-computers. And then barely-ever, pre-kindle. But, when reading on kindle, it's just so easy, you point, and up pops a definition :p.
So, I'd say that I use a dictionary much more often now, and find I miss it when reading in a treebook. But, now, even sometimes when reading a treebook, I'll grab my kindle fire and pop onto google to look up a word. So, more often then if I'd have to fetch a physical dictionary, but less often than if I was reading on the kindle.
Who wants to play!