字 典

中 文 典 籍

商业汉语

A good dictionary is essential for the delivery of a 'reliable, accurate and elegant' (信、达、雅) translation. Besides traditional dictionaries, the internet offers abundant resources. This is shown in two aspects. Firstly, traditional dictionaries are now available online for free with a lot more examples (e.g. Oxford Dictionary online) or with an easy access for the first time in history. The latter is particularly the case with many classic Chinese dictionaries, such as Lin Yutang Dictionary, Shuo Wen Jie Zi as they did not use pingyin to index the characters therefore it used to be difficult to find a character. Secondly, search engines such as Google make unlimted bilingual texts available at our hand, so that we could make comparisons, ponder upon words and deliver a more accurate translation.

The following are a few dictionaries that we find particularly useful.

English to Chinese:

Oxford English Chinese Dictionary, Commercial Press

English dictionaries:

Oxford Dictionary Online

Chinese to English:

A Chinese-English Dictionary, 3rd eds, 2010 Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press (for its authoritativeness)

Modern Chinese Dictionaries:

新华字典

汉语大词典

Etymology:

Shuo Wen Jie Zi (说文解字)