Free on-line dictionaries where you can hear how a word is pronounced

[Chrissie]

Does anyone know of a site where you can actually hear the pronunciation of words. Currently I am reading a book that takes place in Brazil and I just do not know how to tackle many of the words. For example bandits are called cangaceira. I am also having difficulty saying city names. I run into this problem repeatedly b/c I like reading books from many different countries! Any tips?

[Sara W]

Hhhmmm, good question! I just tried googling something like that, but couldn't find too much. There is a free language course website - www.livemocha.com - where you can "friend" people (like here) and they can help you with things like pronunciations. That could be worth looking into for you. I think they have new "upgrades" that you pay for, but I think the basic courses (and socializing aspect of it) are still free.

[Chrissie]

Hmm - I know Wikipedia has a fine dictionary, but the sounds are missing! Here in this group we read books that take place in many different countries, so I thought it might be of interest to many!

[Jennifer]

To hear a pronounciation just look up a word and click on the speaker icon next to it. When I tried putting in cangaceira nothing came up so I'm not sure how efficient it would be for different languages or places? Great idea Chrissie!

http://www.merriam-webster.com/

[Chrissie]

Jennifer, thanks. I will test it for awhile. Unfortunately I tried it with some other simpler words and it didn't work there either. Maybe somebody will see this thread and have other ideas. I simply cannot be the only one curious about this! Impossible.

[Jennifer]

Not at all. I'm curious too!

[Chrissie]

Jennifer, I have in the past used the site http://www.yourdictionary.com/ . I have the same problem with this site; many foreign words are lacking. Maybe someone will know of a really good site. One can always hope.

[Jennifer]

I'll be watching to see if anyone posts one!