german online dictionary websites

Proven Course Teaches German Quickly with Audio, Video and Mobile Apps

Beginner and advanced levels alike will enjoy GermanPod101, an excellent online and mobile way to learn German quickly.

GermanPod101's fun method and modern platform immerse you in the German language, giving you just what you need to achieve your goals for travel, business, family and other needs.

GermanPod101 is web and mobile based, giving you a custom German Learning Center anywhere. Download podcasts on your iPhone, Android, iPod Touch, iPod or any mp3 player and take them with you for practice and learning on the go.

High-Quality Content for Learning German

A key aspect to learning a language is quality content. GermanPod101 creates a steady flow of fresh content covering everything from cultural aspects of German to tidbits about navigating in German-speaking countries (Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Namibia), plus practical information to help you get by.

Beyond Audio and Video

Engage in a combination of audio and video lessons, lesson notes and checklists, transcripts, PDFs, vocabulary training with flashcards and quizzes plus a German dictionary, grammar bank, a verb reference, social network and plenty more.

It's simple to get a free lifetime account.

Outstanding Language Resource Localized in 20 Languages

Bab.la offers free dictionaries, vocabulary sets, flash cards, quizzes, games, conjugation tables, phrases, travel survival guides, a forum and, yes, even more.

The website is localized in Arabic, Chinese (Simplified), Danish, Dutch, English, Esperanto (!), French, German, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish and Turkish. Wow!

What does "localized" mean?

"Localized" (localised in British English) means that Bab.la's interface is available in all these languages, so speakers can surf the site in their native tongue. This can be useful for intermediate and advanced learners who want the challenge of surfing in their target language.

Learning Resources for 20 Languages

All the above languages also have learning resources available!

Of special note on Bab.la are the free Survival Guides, downloadable PDFs for quick access to phrases and language essential for travel conversation, complaints and computers. Chatting, computing and complaining has never been so simple!

The phrasebooks available are also of special note, as they cover quite a lot of ground that is often not covered in traditional phrasebooks. These are separated into four main categories: Application, Academic, Business and Personal, and are available for all the languages above - quite a boon to anyone needing quick access to phrases used commonly in application processes and academic, business and personal settings.

To give a quick example of this, you can quickly find useful common phrases for email communication, invoicing, reference letters, announcements and invitations, reservations and more.

Dictionaries, Vocabulary Sets, Quizzes, Games and Conjugation Tables

The dictionary area of Bab.la offers quick and easy translation between all the languages above.

The vocabulary section offers vocab sets for job, school & university, travel, self-study, fun & hobbies and official exams.

The quizzes and games are fun for children and can even help keep teens and adults entertained while learning.

The conjugation tables are quite useful for the appropriate languages, which currently include Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Polish and Portuguese. Some of these are also offered in sets, such as Polish <> German or French <> Italian, for the polyglots out there who like learning another language via a foreign language they already know :)

Tools: Broswser Plugins, Webmaster Widgets, Mobile Apps

All in all, Bab.la offers an amazing amount of material for free! There's even more that hasn't been covered here which is included in their Tools section. This includes dictionary toolbars and plugins for common browsers, dictionary widgets for websites and mobile dictionary apps (the apps are not free).

Online English-German Translation

dict.cc is an amazing English-German dictionary available for free. This dictionary stands out by being user-driven with a lively active community.

It is more than simply a dictionary, too. The website offers tools for learning and reviewing vocabulary, a forum for getting translation help from real people and a database that can be downloaded and used free.

The site also offers a free toolbar as well as a Firefox plugin for translating on the fly while browsing the Web.

It is also not limited to English and German, as it has thousands of translations for over a dozen languages. View their multilingual database here.

Free Multilingual Dictionary and Word-Related Apps

TheFreeDictionary.com is a great free dictionary available in over a dozen languages.

The English dictionaries are exceptionally broad-reaching and include Financial and Legal dictionaries.

Also of use to the language learner are their website features, including drag-and-drop rearranging of the interface and double-clicking of any word on the site to see its definition. Word of the day, news, quotations, horoscopes, daily articles and history tidbits provide a flow of updated content to work with.

Also available are word games and the ability to track a personal vocabulary list.

If you are language mobile, they maintain numerous dictionary and word-related apps.

Summary

German-Flashcards.com is a fast-loading, useful site for German learners to manage and practice vocabulary lists (words and sentences). There are many existing word and sentence lists created by other users that you can snag and use right away. You can also create your own lists and sentences on-the-fly and test yourself until you know them all. As a result, this resource works for Spanish students of all levels, beginner to advanced. The self-testing is done via built-in flashcard software that you control.

The website has an integrated dictionary that gives explanations of individual terms and includes examples of how these are used in real sentences. In addition, when you view a sentence, you can scroll over the German words and view annotations. NB: You can copy and paste any German text you want into the site's Text Analyzer and it provides you with what you see below (see grey scroll-over pop-up in image for annotation). Words that are not in the system with be displayed in grey.

Something I find useful is the site's Sentence of the Day email. This sends a different sentence every day complete with a translation of the sentence.

If you upgrade to a premuim membership (~$5/month) you can also hear audio for the sentence. In fact, the only thing you cannot do without a membership is hear the audio on the site.

Bravo Oliver for this excellent site and keep up the great work!

From Website

Introduction to German-Flashcards.com

German-Flashcards.com started in July 2006. A lot of time has been invested to design an efficient system which enables you to learn new words in the shortest time possible. Make sure to read this introduction carefully so you understand how the system works. Once you know how this website works and you use it regularly it will become an important tool to learn German. Ideally make time each day for 2 or 3 sessions a day, each lasting about 10 - 15 minutes.
Once you have created your own account you can set up your own word list. There are basically two different modes on how to add new words to your word list. One is automatically and one is manually.

Automatically

If you choose "automatically" then the system will choose random words for you to practice. Within the Auto-Mode there are two different choices. The first is "completely random words" and the second is "frequent words first". Obviously if you are a beginner you should focus on those frequent words firsts, so if you chose the level "Complete Newbie", "Basic" or "Intermediate" the system will just do that. If you chose the level "Upper Intermediate" or "Advanced" completely random words will be added to your word list.

Manually

If you would like more control over which word you learn switch to the manually mode. In this mode you have to choose which word you will learn, not the system. There are a few ways to add words manually. The first is to use the search function in the navigation bar on the left-hand side. You can search for German or English words. On the result page every found word has an "Add Word" link next to it. Click it to add this word to your personal list. After you click it the link text will change to "Remove Word", so you can immediately remove the word from your list if you have added it by mistake.

The second way to add words manually is to click the link "Add new Words" in the navigation. This will show random words for you to add. They are sorted by frequency, the most common words will be at the top of this random list, while the rare words will be at the bottom of the list.

Finally you can add words manually by browsing through the "public word lists". These lists have been created by other users. These public lists normally have a common theme, like "animals", "computer terms", "fruits", etc. You can either pick some words of these public lists or copy the whole list.

You can also combine these methods, add words automatically but also occasionally add words manually.

Adding words automatically is the default setting. If you do not want to add words automatically you can change this in the settings.

The Loop

The main problem of learning new words is that over time word lists grow very big. This means that the learner feels overwhelmed and the time between word repetitions becomes too long. Thats where the Loop comes to the rescue. The Loop consists of a subset of only 20 words out of your word list. This means you can concentrate on a few words only, until you have memorized them properly. To keep a flashcard in the loop click on the link "Keep in the Loop".

If you have become familiar with a new word which is in the Loop click on "1 day", "7 days", "30 days" etc. Which means that the word will be shown only after the indicated time has passed. If you know a word very well click on "30 Days" or "3 Months" so the word will be shown only after a long time. After the indicated time has passed the word will be put into the Queue.

Once you remove a word from the Loop another one will be put in the Loop. The system will first check if there are any words in the "Queue". If the Queue is empty and you are in Auto-Mode the system will choose a new word for you and add it to your word list and into the Loop. If you are in "manually mode" the system will tell you that you need to add more more words in order to continue.

By default there are 20 words in the loop. You can change the number of words in the loop in the settings.

Word Lists

If the Loop system sounds too complicated to you, then you can also set up simple word lists. To do this click on "[Manage Lists]" in the navigation. Then click on "[Add List]" to create a new list. If you want to share this word list with other users tick the box "Public List". If you want to immediately add new words to this list tick "Also Activate". You can create as many lists as you want. In the navigation bar you can always see which list is active at the moment. Words will be added to the currently active list. To go back to the master list (which uses the loop), click on "[Manage Lists]" and the "[Leave List Mode]".

You can view this introduction anytime by clicking on "Help" in the navigation on the left hand side.

If you have questions don't hesitate to contact us online by clicking on Support Chat, also please leave feedback about this tutorial (if something is not clear or if something is missing for instance).

Visit German-Flashcards.com