Knowing that 嫌い is pronounced きらい and translates to “hate” means nothing if I dont have the tools I need to particle it up into a sentence. Which is what I find most english/japanese dictionaries kinda stop at.
I am accustomed to how dictionaries are formatted when you already know a language. You find a word and of course it’s associated definition, but what I’m starting to realize is real important is the category of word that it can be. Multiple words can have many different uses and it’s easy to see what is what when you see the little “n” telling me that this specific word is a noun. Some times noun is spelled out all the way.
Now that I’m learning Japanese I’m finding myself relying on these guys a whole lot more, for obvious reasons. A good example is seeing if a verb is a godan or ichidan verb. Or if an adjective is keiyodoshi or keiyoushi. Jisho is REALLY great for that but I’m not always online and alot of my study practice is better when I have a physical book, mostly because screens really hurt my eyes so I try to omit it when I can. So I’m trying to eliminate screen dictionaries for a physical one!
BUT I can’t find a dictionary that has descriptions like that. My guess is that is just what is given up in English/Japanese dictionaries. I hope that I’m wrong and maybe one of you have that perfect japanese/english dictionary with descriptions like these. I’ll even settle for a elementary school level full japanese dictionary if that’s the only way I can get this information.
EDIT: to get ahead of anyone that might want to teach me some stuff, the example i used is purposeful. Usually you can figure out something needs な because most なadjectives are kanji all the way through and thats an easy way to figure that out. But if I’m using a dictionary, why should I be figuring out anything? thats why I’m in the dictionary 😛 I know its a good way to practice but, to save me some time, dont mention this lol
2 comments
Exposure to the language gives you all those answers. Example sentences also do the trick.
I think if you are at the level that you are aware of types of verbs and adjectives, you should get on to Japanese/Japanese dictionary.