# to look up words in the dictionary



## yuechu

(I thought there might be a thread about this already but I tried searching for it and couldn't find it!)

大家好！

I was thinking of how to say the following in Chinese: "I enjoy reading this book, but I often have to look up words in the dictionary."
For example, would you say "我很喜欢读这本书，可是我得经常用词典查词"? I was wondering if there were different ways of saying it and which might be the most common or most natural sounding.
Thanks!


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## SimonTsai

這本書我很喜歡，只是讀的時候，我常常得查字典。


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## yuechu

Great! Thanks, SimonTsai!


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## Jack12345

“经常查字典” is also a common phrase.
Other similar phrases are such as, 老要查字典，不停地查字典, 总得翻字典...


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## yuechu

Thanks for the suggestions, Jack12345! 
字典 and 词典 are both commonly used for "dictionary", right?


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## Ghabi

yuechu said:


> 字典 and 词典 are both commonly used for "dictionary", right?


In everyday life people just say 字典.

In lexicography, a zidian 字典 has Chinese characters as its basic units (i.e. entries), while a cidian 词典 has words as its basic units. So you have both 汉语大字典 and 汉语大词典. They have different focuses, although their contents may overlap. Other languages are not written in Chinese characters, so you won't see *法汉大字典, but rather 法汉大词典. (At least this is the contemporary practice. In earlier days, the differentiation between 字 and 词 was not obligatory.)


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## corner1912

yuechu said:


> 字典 and 词典 are both commonly used for "dictionary", right?



Strictly speaking ,“字典” and “词典” are two things in China, but yes you can use both of them to refer to a dictionary. It is just that we use 字典 (and also the word “字典”) more often. And it also would be OK if you want to say “老得用*字典*查不认识的*词*”

btw your original sentence is great enough, or you can word this meaning in SimonTsai and Jack12345's way combined
“我很喜欢读这本书，就是读的时候得一直查字典”


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## SimonTsai

'字典', '詞典', '辭典', and '辭書' are all possible translations of the word '_dictionary_'. They are not entirely the same in meaning, however. I am reiterating and adding things to what others have said above:

∎ '字典' is the commonest of the four, having characters as main entries, which are now often accompanied by word entries.​
∎ '詞典' focuses on words rather than characters, so technically, an English dictionary is decidedly '詞典'.​
∎ '辭典' is typically compendious, providing example sentences, usage notes, etymologies, etc.​
∎ '辭書' is an old-fashioned term, methinks, and is becoming obsolete. I would guess that it refers to '辭典'.​


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## Jack12345

yuechu said:


> 字典 and 词典 are both commonly used for "dictionary"


Yes, it is. Dictionary has both meanings of 字典 and 词典.
But in Chinese, 字典 and 词典（or 辞典）are different.
And if character=字(but the explanation in Bing, it is single letter), word=词, phrase=短语，then
字典, is based on the characters and explains the meaning of character, at the same time uses words and the explanation of word to make examples.
辞典（or 词典）, is based on words, always used as a kind of professional tool to look up the meaning of word.


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## yuechu

Thank you all for your help!


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## SimonTsai

stephenlearner said:


> Here, I think 词典 is much more often used than 字典.


I am telling from my experience. The difference between '字典' and '詞典' is actually quite vague. In everyday life, words in English, French or Spanish are very often referred to as '單字', and when it comes to Mandarin, I have not ever had any dictionaries that exclusively focus on characters and have no word entries, which are essential.

*EDIT:* Here is the typical arrangement of entries:

Radicals having fewer strokes are put first.
Characters sharing radicals are together.
Characters having fewer strokes are put first.
Words sharing beginning characters are together.
波 (main) ==> 波光 (sub 1), 波浪 (sub 2), 波及 (sub 3), etc.
劍 (main) ==> 劍氣 (sub 1), 劍士 (sub 2), 劍道 (sub 3), etc.


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## stephenlearner

I'v never used 单字 for an English word and I believe all my friends don't use it either here. Always 单词. 

It's common to hear elementary schooolers to say 字典. I think people above 12－14 years old begin to say 词典. For example, you need to buy a copy of 现代汉语词典 if you go to a middle school.


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## SimonTsai

Then it must be a regional difference. Here is what I found with the help of Google:

《愛我中國網》總裁元定 [...] 直指「5000 多個英文單詞 [Cn] 來源於中文」，還指控 [...] 西方國家「斷章取義」，是用「加取音」的方法「剽竊中文」[...] 英文單字 [Tw]「go」，其實源於中文「狗」音 [...]。 (新頭殼)​​背單字 [Tw] 跟控管記憶的大腦有關。[...] 以下整理了 5 個超實用的技巧，幫你將單字 [Tw] 扎根大腦，不用再擔心背了又忘！ (菁英)​英文單字 [Tw] 如何分類？哪些字要先學？除了死背，學單字 [Tw] 還有什麼好方法？ (關鍵評論)​百萬考生唯一推薦的多益單字 [Tw] 書！持續更新內容，準確度最高！ (誠品)​
'單詞' is used here in Taiwan, too, but is much less popular.


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