Translation tools abound on the Internet; however, for even more information than a translator can provide, an English to French online dictionary is usually the answer. While it is useful to either translate from English to French or to translate from French to English, it is also invaluable to have additional information. For example, dictionaries often give the part of speech of a word, as well as the gender of French nouns. Some online dictionaries even give pronunciation guidelines and show how the word can be used in context.
English to French Online Dictionaries
French Linguistics offers a decent online dictionary that can translate either from English to French or from French to English. The results generated by this dictionary are quite complete, offering the gender of nouns, as well as several different senses of the word. While many online dictionaries only offer the most common meaning of a word, this dictionary is more thorough. In addition, this dictionary offers examples of the word used in a phrase so that you can see how it would be used in context, what prepositions go with it, etc.
Reverso offers a handy dictionary where you can translate from French to English or from English to French on the same page. Instead of having separate pages for each direction of translation, there are simply two ‘go’ buttons: one to translate into French, and one to translate into English. This feature makes the site user-friendly for those looking to translate in both directions. The results this dictionary gives are very easy to work with because different text colors are used; French phrases are written in black, and English phrases in blue. The part of speech is in red, and the different senses of the word are in green. In this way, you get all the information, but can easily skim through it for the right sense of the word that you are looking to translate.
Finally, Lexilogos is a very handy site that brings together several different dictionaries onto one page. On the Lexilogos page, you type in a word either in French or in English, then you select with which online dictionary the site should look up the word for you. You can choose from English to French translation dictionaries, French to English translation dictionaries, and monolingual (French-French or English-English) dictionaries. This is an excellent site for the more advanced French speaker, who may need to look up a word in a French dictionary and read about the French word in French instead of getting an English translation for it. If you type in an English word, translate it into French, and the resulting word is one that you are not sure if it properly fits in the context in which you want to use it, you simply type it into the monolingual French dictionary to check an in-depth dictionary entry on it. In this way, Lexilogos is a great resource for the more advanced learner.
Using Dictionary Entries
Like with all dictionary usage, using English to French online dictionaries requires precision and patience. The number one mistake that students make when using dictionaries is to rush through the process, taking the very first definition given for a word. Many students think that a dictionary does the work for you, but actually, you must work much harder than the dictionary in order for your dictionary usage to be beneficial. Only the human brain can understand the finer points of language; dictionaries are merely helpful tools.