Which Dictionary?

[stoney]

I just purchased a palm TX and now I am trying the Pleco demo. I find the small number of words in the demo dictionaries make it hard to judge. It seems the ABC has more example sentences. What are the pros and cons for the ABC vs the Oxford? Which package would you choose? ( assuming you can't get them all ) I am a one year beginner. I'll be in China for the next year, and I want to continue learning. Up until now I have been using The Starter Oxford Chinese Dictionary. It has good example sentences but the Oxford dictionary with the pleco does not seem to have so many example sentences. What good free dictionaries can I supplement either package with?

Thanks for any advice.

 

[ipsi]

I would personally go with the ABC. It has more words (i.e. less common words that the Oxford doesn't have), and it has Pinyin for the examples. I'd almost say it's more useful for beginners than the Oxford because of that. I think the Oxford may have more examples, but they're both pretty good.

None of the Free Dictionaries have example sentences. That's just the way it goes. I'd probably recommend installing all of them in order to catch words that the paid dictionary you get doesn't have.

I would honestly recommend that, if you can afford it, get the Oxford + the ABC. The examples don't tend to double up, and having another view is always good. . Otherwise, if you want to save money, get the Oxford, as that comes with both C->E and E->C (the ABC obviously doesn't), and you can't buy just the ABC, you'd need to get it with the NWP one as well.