Dictionary Skills Learning how to use a bilingual dictionary Year 5

Bilingual dictionary What is a bilingual dictionary? Why is it divided into two halves? In the dictionary I am using, what is it that clearly divides the dictionary into two halves? Which part of the dictionary has English headwords, and which has French?

Finding a headword Is the word I am looking for French or English? Which half of the dictionary will I find the word in? In the dictionary I am using, are the headwords shown in a different colour? Why do you think these words are known as headwords?

Finding an English headword I want to know how to say dragonfly in French. Which half of the dictionary do I look in? What is the page number where dragonfly is a headword? Is it in the left-hand or the right-hand column on the page?

A dictionary entry How do I know where one entry ends and the next begins? What is the headword immediately before dragonfly in the dictionary? And the headword which follows it? Following the headword dragonfly, there is information about the word. What do you think it might mean?

Understanding a dictionary entry HeadwordPhonetic spelling Type of word Translation dragonfly[   ] nlibellule f

Headword Headwords are words you look up in a dictionary The headword is placed at the beginning of a dictionary entry It is usually printed in a different colour Headwords are listed alphabetically in each half of the dictionary

Phonetic Spelling It is written inside square brackets: [  ] It tells us how to pronounce the word - it is a way of writing out the word using special characters that represent the sounds of speech, so it is a way of helping us to know what the headword sounds like

Phonetic Spelling It immediately follows the headword A list of phonetic symbols is usually given in the dictionary (p. xiv) We do not need to learn phonetic symbols – just recognise why the phonetic spelling is there. People who study languages seriously sometimes learn phonetic symbols.

Type of word This is shown after the phonetic spelling It tells us which part of speech or word class the word belongs to, this helps us to understand the role played by the word in the sentence. It can give additional information such as masculine or feminine

Type of word It is shown in abbreviated form: adjectiveadjprepositionprép or prep adverb advpronounpron conjunctionconjverbvb, vi or vt nounnmasculinem femininef

Translation The translation tells us the meaning of the headword in the other language It is not the same as a definition (which tells you the meaning of the word in the same language) It is the word or phrase which follows all the other information about the headword

Now you try it… Can you find the following information about the French word chat? HeadwordPhonetic spelling Type of word Translation chat[  a]nmcat