Meddelanden: 31
Språk: English
Bemused (Visa profilen) 12 december 2011 03:15:20
Being a newcomer to the Esperanto language I see that there are a few dictionaries available.
Which would be the most comprehensive (as in the one with the most Esperanto words), that shows translation from English to Esperanto and from Esperanto to English?
Cheers
erinja (Visa profilen) 12 december 2011 03:28:03
sudanglo (Visa profilen) 12 december 2011 10:25:33
When your Esperanto is more advanced put La Plena Ilustrita Vortaro 2005 on your birthday/Christmas wish list. This is an Esperanto-Esperanto dictionary.
qwertz (Visa profilen) 12 december 2011 21:03:44
Bemused (Visa profilen) 13 december 2011 05:10:56
The link to the book by John Wells is greatly appreciated.
However the introduction raises the thought that perhaps when learning it is a case of "less is more", i.e. it would be better to develop a smaller functional vocabulary than to try to learn a larger number of words, many of which would be seldom used.
The passage that suggests this is "for everyday purposes the user of Esperanto needs no more than three or four thousand roots."
So the next question, does the dictionary by Wells highlight these three or four thousand roots, or is there another modern two way dictionary which would ?
qwertz (Visa profilen) 13 december 2011 05:23:19
Bemused:Maybe that one? Vortaroj de lernu! en via poŝttelefono. During conversation I only use that one at Esperanto events. Its quite handy to have an dictionary available at your "Handy" (=Mobile phone, in German-speaking countries and sometimes in European English). But it was somewhat tricky to put it at the cell phone via USB. If someones cell phone have Internet access it should possible to be installed with less hassle.
So the next question, does the dictionary by Wells highlight these three or four thousand roots, or is there another modern two way dictionary which would ?
RiotNrrd (Visa profilen) 13 december 2011 05:34:52
You will quickly discover exactly the vocabulary you need.
Miland (Visa profilen) 13 december 2011 10:46:29
Bemused:..does the dictionary by Wells highlight these three or four thousand rootsYes (and many others).
Bemused:..is there another modern two way dictionary which would ?There are smaller dictionaries, such as McLinen, which has the advantage of being portable, but I would still invest in a copy of Wells. Still smaller dictionaries covering basic vocabularies include one by EAB with 3000 words and Heather Amery's pictorial Mil Unuaj Vortoj.
sudanglo (Visa profilen) 13 december 2011 13:12:22
erinja (Visa profilen) 13 december 2011 14:47:01
Bemused:So the next question, does the dictionary by Wells highlight these three or four thousand roots, or is there another modern two way dictionary which would ?As RiotNrrd said, write about the things that interest you. If you like computers, for example, you'll want a bigger vocabulary on computing, even though those words aren't likely to be the most frequent in the language.
The more you write, the more you will learn.
But to get yourself a base vocabulary, take a look at the word lists on this page.
It's 1500 of the most common or useful words in Esperanto, according to Juna Amiko, a magazine for beginners. Category 1 has the most common/useful words, Category 2 words that are slightly less common or useful, so on up to Category 7. Since the words have been integrated into lernu's vocabulary learning system, you can quiz yourself on the words easily.
You can find the entire list, alphabetically, on this page. The number after each word indicates which category it belongs to. The letter -n accompanies those verbs that are transitive.
I think that should get you started if you want to quiz yourself on some base vocabulary. But for pure communicative ability, you can't do anything better than writing in Esperanto and learning words as you need them. Going back to to the analogy of hobbies and interests, if you just love to knit, you're going to want to know words related to knitting, and "triki" (to knit) isn't on the Juna Amiko list.