Lukas Liebermann

I am an ESL teacher and educational psychologist.

Online Dictionaries

There is a compact bilingual dictionary (= einsprachiges Wörterbuch) at the end of your textbook. However, it will often not have the words you need and it will not give you examples how to use a word in context.

Bilingual online dictionaries

Die folgenden Websiten bieten meist auch einen Textübersetzer an. Bitte verwende nicht die Textübersetzung, sondern das Wörterbuch, sonst werden dir nicht alle Möglichkeiten der Übersetzung vorgeschlagen.

Monolingual online dictionaries

  • Collins English Dictionary

  • Cambridge Dictionary

  • Oxford Learner’s Dictionary: Gibt es das gleiche Wort in unterschiedlichen Wortarten (z.B. to cook und a cook - kochen und der Koch), musst du, je nachdem welche Wortart zuerst angezeigt wird, unter “Other results” die richtige Wortart auswählen.

  • Longman Dictionary: The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English has the advantage that it shows you collocations for many words you look up (see for an explanation of collocation).

  • Merriam-Webster: This dictionary focuses on American English.

Collocation Dictionaries

In any language, you have combinations of words which you use together more often than other combinations.

For example, a native speaker of English wouldn’t say I made my homework. They would say I did my homework. The noun homework collocates with the verb do.

One free online collocations dictionary is https://ozdic.com/. It can help you to sound more like a native speaker.

Exercise: Use ozdic.com to complete the following sentences:

  • VERB + NOUN: I have to XXX an exam on Friday. Can you help me revise?

  • PREP. + NOUN: What are you doing XXX the weekend?

  • ADJ. + NOUN: I took the XXX (<-> slow) train to London. When I arrived at home, I took a XXX (<-> long) shower.

  • ADV. + VERB: I XXX advise you to pay attention in your English lessons.

  • VERB + PREP.: Do you agree XXX her?