

You’re able to see word translations, their breakdown (what each character means) and pinyin, too. As you go through the text with your cursor, translations automatically appear at the bottom.

you can translate a whole document with Wenlin! If you want to read an online article or have a big translation to do, you can either copy and paste or open it in PDF in the program.

Just be aware: Wenlin is an online software suitable for computer download with no smartphone option. But once you get comfortable, Wenlin becomes your best friend. When you first download this software, it might not be that straightforward to use, so the guide is helpful. There’s one amazing thing about Wenlin every user would appreciate- an extensive user’s guide. There are five main products offered by the developers, and the free version has almost all you need! If that sounds like it suits you, then you can use this software to learn, translate and read Chinese text. You’ll want to use it during class or while translating extensive texts, rather than when walking around Beijing or ordering in a Chinese restaurant. You probably wouldn’t download Wenlin if you only need to translate something basic from time to time. The Best 5 Chinese Dictionaries Online: Type, Write and Speak Your Way to Character Clarity 文林‧免费版 (Wén lín‧miǎnfèi bǎn) - Wenlin Free EditionĪre you a student? A teacher? A near-fluent speaker? Wenlin is a go-to for every (aspiring) sinologist. Where can you find this mythical perfect online Chinese dictionary? Start with the five on our list!ĭownload: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that youĬan take anywhere. Having a digital dictionary is essential for Chinese learners because of all the extra features it typically has: a character drawing option, pronunciation based on characters/pinyin (and vice versa), stroke order and radical search and English-Chinese/Chinese-English translations, of course.Īnd these are just the basic functions you need. When your best guess at a word is “well, it kinda looks like a little box with lines criss-crossing it,” you need a good online Chinese dictionary. It’s easy to look up an unknown word when you can at least read it.īut what do you do when you’re staring down a Chinese character that you can’t decipher at all?
