German -> English Dictionary and noun/verb forms

[laylos]

Hi All

Hoping to buy a Kindle PW2 to help me learn German and could really do with your help as totally new to Kindle and ebooks

What I would like to do/happen is that I highlight a word in a German text and I get the english translation for the word.

Ideally I would like to be able to do this whilst out camping so guess the dictionary would need to be permanently on the kindle and not reliant on 3g or wi-fi connections.

I would like a PONS english- german dictionary if possible.

Also, is there a way I can highlight a german noun and then get the gender and plural form of it? Or highlight a verb and get the different tenses?

If anyone can help shed some light on this I would be most grateful.

Thanks
Steve

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by laylos

What I would like to do/happen is that I highlight a word in a German text and I get the english translation for the word.

All current Kindle models have this feature. PW models also offer a simple flashcard program.

Originally Posted by laylos

I would like a PONS english- german dictionary if possible.

PONS offers some of their dictionaries for Kindles. However, you'll need to buy separate dictionaries for each translation direction. (I.e., you cannot use their English->German dictionary to look up German words.)

Originally Posted by laylos

Also, is there a way I can highlight a german noun and then get the gender and plural form of it?

Most German dictionaries indicate at least the gender and irregular noun and verb forms. For an example, see the attached screen capture that shows the definition of Volk from the free monolingual German dictionary (Duden Deutsches Universalwörterbuch).

Originally Posted by laylos

Or highlight a verb and get the different tenses?

AFAIK, most look-up dictionaries don't offer this feature; you'd need a dedicated app for that.

BTW, MR offers a large selection of German ebooks.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Doitsu

All current Kindle models have this feature.

Just to be absolutely clear, though (and I know you imply this in your post, but I wanted to spell it out - no pun intended), the Kindle comes as standard with a (very good) monolingual German dictionary, but not with a translation dictionary. If you want a translation dictionary, you have to buy one (or find a free one, but that's probably not going to be anything like as good as a commercial dictionary).

[laylos]

Hi Replyers!

Thanks for the info.

First..the important question:

Does the PW2 3G offer any major advantage over the non-3G PW2 for learning languages? Reading around, the 3G is restricted to certain sites eg Amazon and not a real web browser. Is there anything I would miss by taking the non-3g PW to master the german language?
I'm still deciding which PW2 to buy.....

Is there any better german-english dictionaries than PONS? I use PONS on the internet and find it ok, but as you can see by my endeavors in learning German, I am not a german dictionary expert

copied from Doitsu's reply:

AFAIK, most look-up dictionaries don't offer this feature; you'd need a dedicated app for that.

Do you know an app that could do this?

How do I access the flashcard program?

Thanks for your help!
Steve

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by laylos

Is there any better german-english dictionaries than PONS? I use PONS on the internet and find it ok, but as you can see by my endeavors in learning German, I am not a german dictionary expert

PONS is one of the leading German dictionary publishers. The only other major competitor is Langenscheidt. However, their dictionaries are quite pricey. Why don't you have a look at the Amazon previews?

Originally Posted by laylos

Do you know an app that could do this?

There are a couple of Android apps, but I don't know if they're any good.
Note that the Kindle Fire and Android Kindle apps do not support custom dictionaries.

Originally Posted by laylos

How do I access the flashcard program?

It's a part of the Kindle firmware. Whenever you look up a word, the Kindle automatically saves the word, the sentence in which it occurs, and a dictionary link in a database on the Kindle, which can be accessed via the Vocabulary Builder menu option.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by laylos

Hi Replyers!

Thanks for the info.

First..the important question:

Does the PW2 3G offer any major advantage over the non-3G PW2 for learning languages? Reading around, the 3G is restricted to certain sites eg Amazon and not a real web browser. Is there anything I would miss by taking the non-3g PW to master the german language?
I'm still deciding which PW2 to buy.....

3G will give you access to the (Bing) Translate feature from anywhere you have cell phone coverage. I often find that more productive than looking up single words with an on board dicationary. You can highlight and translate entire sentences (in about 20 different languages). So yes, it might be worth getting.