Kobo Aura H2O - Dictionary sucks

[Erich Zann]

I'm using a Kobo H2O with french dictionnaries and the device handle without issue plurals and conjucation (there are probably some exceptions I suppose). But I'm really surprise it works so well with french and not with english.

[doubleshuffle]

Originally Posted by svenlind

A good digital dictionary should be able to handle inflections of verbs and handle both singular and pluralis of nouns. All my digital dictionaries, except apparently Kobo, can handle this.

I am new to my Kobo Glo HD, but the dictionary does seem to be a weak point.

I just tested this on my Aura HD. The dictionary does handle inflections and plurals. The only weak point I have found is when a different word is alphabetically closer to the form you look up than the uninflected dictionary entry; for instance, looking up "agonies" brings up "agonise" instead of "agony."

And of course I totally agree that the dictionaries could be larger. Patching is a nice option, but it would also be nice to have good current dictionaries available. Like someone who posted before, I would even purchase a good one.

[mbovenka]

Originally Posted by doubleshuffle

And of course I totally agree that the dictionaries could be larger. Patching is a nice option, but it would also be nice to have good current dictionaries available. Like someone who posted before, I would even purchase a good one.

So would I. Actually, I already did; I bought the Chambers 10th Edition when that was available as a Mobi dictionary (which my then-current Cybook Gen3 could use).

I don't often need a dictionary, but precisely because of that, when I do need one, I need a good one. And I miss my Chambers...

[tshering]

Originally Posted by Erich Zann

I'm using a Kobo H2O with french dictionnaries and the device handle without issue plurals and conjucation (there are probably some exceptions I suppose). But I'm really surprise it works so well with french and not with english.

How well a dictionary handles plurals and conjugated forms depends a lot on how well the original source was adapted to the needs of the kobo software.

The code of the French dictionary:

<w><p><a name="atrocité"/><variant name="atrocités"/>...</p></w>

The code of the English dictionary:

<w><p><a name="atrocity">...<variant name="-ties"/>...</p></w>

[soulfuldog]

Originally Posted by Blossom

My main problem and I have a Glo HD is the definition is usually a very short sentence that gives very little idea of the meaning. The words I look up are new to me not everyday common usage. This dictionary seems to struggle with knowing most of them.

Yes this is what I find too. There is no getting away from the fact that dictionaries are a weak point for Kobo, not sure why though?

[howyoudoin]

Is there a way to convert the Oxford dictionaries from the kindle to use on the kobo?

Assuming that one owns a kindle, surely that would be legal (in the sense we on MR view it) because it's merely format shifting just like we do with our other ebooks?

[eenk]

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

For all of you who don't feel comfortable with Aura dictionary, I recommend this thread and this one if you're comfortable patching your ereader.

The problems I personally see with these methods is that they're a lot of hassle to get so-so free dictionaries into a Kobo ereader, and the next firmware leaves much room for dancing to the same tune again. I've come to rely on the quality and comprehensiveness of, say, an Oxford Shorter, so the open dictionaries are no real match for such a beast, unfortunately. The situation is different for those languages where Kobo has no built-in offer though.

[Terisa de morgan]

Originally Posted by eenk

The problems I personally see with these methods is that they're a lot of hassle to get so-so free dictionaries into a Kobo ereader, and the next firmware leaves much room for dancing to the same tune again. I've come to rely on the quality and comprehensiveness of, say, an Oxford Shorter, so the open dictionaries are no real match for such a beast, unfortunately. The situation is different for those languages where Kobo has no built-in offer though.

Yes, of course, the ideal situation would be to be able to purchase better dictionaries and loading them easily (if they required to update the FW, they wouldn't see my ereader, however).

[frostschutz]

Originally Posted by tshering

The code of the English dictionary:

<w><p><a name="atrocity">...<variant name="-ties"/>...</p></w>

That should be enough to make it work and I can't believe it's not programmed this way... more like a freak bug preventing it from actually working.

It doesn't come up when you literally write "-ties" into your text and try to look that up - does it?

[tshering]

Originally Posted by frostschutz

It doesn't come up when you literally write "-ties" into your text and try to look that up - does it?

No, the first two letters of the word are required in order to make the file at.html the target of the search.

Originally Posted by frostschutz

That should be enough to make it work and I can't believe it's not programmed this way... more like a freak bug preventing it from actually working.

I guess that would require a lot of changes in the search function. Now it seems simply to search the file xx.html for the first occurrence of a[name="searched for word"] or variant[name="searched for word"].
Modifying the dictionaries so that -ties is expanded to atrocities might also be more work than expected at first sight. The different dictionaries might not follow the same rules on where to split the base from the "rest" of the word. This might even require etymological/grammatical knowledge. (Same holds true if you want the search function to do the expansion.)
Note that the list of unabbreviated variants is already needed when creating the "words." Therefore, expanding the abbreviated variants in the dictionary file seems to be the way to go.

[marp68]

I read Spanish books sometimes and switch from the Spanish-Spanish to the Spanish-English. The Sp-Sp gives normally a lot more information on the definition of the word and how it's used in different contexts and sentences. The En-En don't give explanations and sometimes only give one translation option, which even I sometimes understand is not the correct one for the particular context.

I also wished Kobo had made it easier to add better external third party dictionaries that are available on the market. Then I would get a Spanish-Swedish one.

[howyoudoin]

Have to say that the kobo dictionary gave me quite the run-around today making me look up consignment, consignee and consign in sequence, each defining itself in terms of the other instead of giving a proper definition independent of it's derivatives.

[eenk]

Howyoudoin, this is what I also noticed far too often in the En-En dictionary. Other companies perform better...

[John Hopper]

The Kobo dictionary is greatly inferior to the Kindle one. The Kindle uses the Oxford English Dictionary with multiple shades of meaning and etymology. I wish Kobo used this.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

[alec123]

Kobo, are you listening? Why not offer an upgrade to the dictionary to bring it up the quality of Kindle?