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CHALLENGES FOR THE BILINGUAL DICTIONARY

Perhaps the most difficult aspect of creating a bilingual dictionary is the fact that Lexemes or words cover more than one area of Meaning , but these multiple meanings don't correspond to a single word in the Target Language . For example, in English , a ticket can get you into the movie theater, or can be given to you by a police officer for exceeding the posted speed limit. In Spanish these two meanings are not covered by one word as in English, but rather two different words: '''boleto''' and '''infracción'''.


BILINGUAL DICTIONARY FORMATS

Bilingual dictionaries are available in a number of formats
  • Printed dictionaries

  • Electronic dictionaries, including miniature scanners to read and translate text

  • Online dictionaries, often easy to search, not always free

  • Phrase books, not always considered dictionaries, but can serve the same purpose in a primitive fashion



USING A BILINGUAL DICTIONARY

One of the most important things to remember when using a bilingual dictionary is to always do a reverse lookup. In the above-mentioned example in English and Spanish of the word ticket, after finding that ticket is translated into ''boleto'' and ''infracción'' in the English-Spanish dictionary, it is advisable to look up both of those Spanish words in the Spanish-English section to help you identify which one has the meaning you are looking for.