I usually use the 和英 option when I'm using the dictionary. But, I'm not sure exactly how trustworthy the example sentences are. For example, when I was searching for 話 I found:

それは話がうますぎる
That's too good to be true.

I'm assuming one of them has to be 'unnatural'. I say that because there is a translation going on, and usually the one that is being translated directly to another language sounds stiff. But which one is it?


Is それは話がうますぎる something you would actually say?

I'm uncertain. It might be. You'd best ask a Japanese person.

What you want are example sentence pairs where the original is the Japanese half of the pair. Although it costs money, the Kenkyusha Online Dictionary contains example sentence pairs such as these. All of them are originally Japanese with English translations. You can find it here:

http://kod.kenkyusha.co.jp/service/

Click on 申し込み to register or デモ版 to give it a try.

I use Yahoo's 国語 dictionary quite a lot.

I''ve been informed that some of the 英和/和英 sentences do sound a bit unnatural. The 国語　sentences seem to be safe though, so I recommend using those instead.

As for that specific sentence, I've never heard that phrase used by anyone, but I'm not exactly the authority on these type of things either.

Does anyone here use Kenkyusha's service? I'd be interested to see how well it works... I messed with the demo a little, but it's hard to tell how good something is just from looking up all the あ words I could remember off the top of my head at the time.

$30 for 6 months seems a little pricey, but then again, I wouldn't have to type in the sentences. >_>b

rich_f Wrote:Does anyone here use Kenkyusha's service? ... $30 for 6 months seems a little pricey, but then again, I wouldn't have to type in the sentences. >_>b

A little on dictionaries in general. On portals like Yahoo and the like they are always licensed from a proper dictionary publisher. The Yahoo dictionary actually seems selectable via a link at the top of the lookup page:
和英
プログレッシブ和英中辞典 published by 小学館
ニューセンチュリー和英辞典 published by 三省堂

英和
プログレッシブ英和中辞典 published by 小学館
新グローバル英和辞典 published by 三省堂

If you are worried about a sentence in the dictionary, you could probably do research into the publisher and the dictionary in question to see if their sentence generation methods will meet your needs. Do to a discussion earlier and thanks to wrightak's super skills at getting the answer straight from the source we know that Kenkyusha has reasonably safe translations. That being said I don't really feel you need to live in fear of any published and respected dictionaries. It's like worrying about keywords for kanji, just a distraction from actual learning.

The sentence you asked about is correct but a teacher at my school said there is only the: "The deal sounds too good to be true [and probably is]" meaning and not the "When I found out I won the lottery I thought it was too good to be true." meaning. I think that is something you would be able to easily pick up on if you just read this sentence in context (far better than any dictionary example but I digress).

Now about my love hate relationship with Kenkyusha. I signed up for the Kenkyusha service. I signed up for the highest version. I do think it is a great dictionary but I also think it is a waste of money. They sell you access to a mountain of dictionaries yet all of the words show up just fine in two (four if you count the reverse lookups) of them. I have never once come across something I wanted not in those two. Those two are:
新和英大辞典(新英和大辞典)
and
新和英中辞典(新英和中辞典)

The second one is the one I want to draw your attention to. It turns out that Excite.co.jp uses the second one as their online dictionaries making it free. That means you are effectively paying a recurring fee for access to one dictionary. A dictionary that you can buy in electronic form from Amazon for the cost of a year or two's worth of subscription. So if you plan on using it less than that amount of time maybe I would suggest the subscription. If not then maybe buying your own copy is better. If you can live with the 中-ness of the 新和英中辞典 then just use excite for free. I can live with the 新和英中辞典. There are on average about 2-3 times more examples in the 新和英大辞典 though so again it is a personal choice. I will give you an example.

Here are the sample sentences for 若い in the 新和英中辞典:
彼は僕より 2 つ若い. He is two years younger than me.｜He is my junior by two years.
彼は年は若いが考えはなかなかしっかりしている. He has an old head on young shoulders.
若い時は 2 度とない. You are only young once.
彼は若い時から勉強家だった. He was a hard worker from his youth.
彼はまだ若いのに白髪まじりになっていた. He was prematurely gray.
67 という年にしては若く見える. He looks younger than his sixty‐seven years.
彼は年は取っても気は若い. He's old in years, but young in spirit.
そんな事に腹を立てるとは君もまだ若いね. You ought to know better at your age than to be offended at something like that.
今どきの若い者は礼儀作法を知らない. Young people have no manners these days.

And again for the 新和英大辞典:
首相には若い人がいい.　Ideally, the prime minister should be young.
･自分はまだ若いと思っていたが来年は定年だ.　I thought I was still young, but I'm due to retire next year.
･小説家の 50 歳は若い部類だ.　At fifty, a novelist is still ┌a fledg(e)ling [unripe].
･若ければその役が務まるということではない.　It doesn't necessarily mean that a young person ┌can fill that position [is equal to that task].
･若いときは二度と来ない.　We are young only once. ｜ Youth won't ┌return [come again].
･若いとき覚えたことは忘れない.　What you learn when young will always ┌stay with you [remain in your memory].
･君たちは若いんだから失敗を恐れるな.　You're still young, so don't be afraid of making mistakes.
･彼は若いうちから作曲家として期待されていた.　He was regarded as a very promising composer from his youth.
･若いうちが花だ.　You are at your best while you are young.
･そんな無茶ができるのも若いうちだ.　It's only when you are young that you can be so wild.
あなたは私より若い.　You're younger than ┌me [i].
･君と彼とではどちらが若いんですか.　Who is younger, you or he?
･私のほうが彼より 3 歳若い.　I'm three years junior to him. ｜ I am his junior by three years.
･このグループでは彼が一番若い.　He is the youngest of this group.
彼女は 80 歳だがまだ若い.　Though 80 years old, she still looks fairly young.
･彼は年齢の割に若い.　He looks young ┌for [considering] his ┌age [years].
･彼女は 65 歳という年齢の割に若い.　She looks younger than her sixty-five years.
･あなたはいつ見ても若いですね.　You always seem younger than your years.
･祖母は考え方がとても若い.　My grandmother thinks just the way young people do.

I say live with what is free. But that is just my opinion.

わい～　すごい！

Thanks a lot for the info. I'll stick with excite.co.jp for now and save my yen. The 中 dictionary will be fine for me. Maybe eventually I'll move up to needing the 大, but that's a problem for later. What I was interested in was finding a source of good example sentences to help stretch my vocab. Not having to pay for them is even better. When I run across a word/phrase/whatever that I would want to add, I'd like to be able to use more than just one example to put in Anki, so the more sources of sentences, the better.

I'm doing RTK after already having 6 semesters of university Japanese classes but they are lost in the fog of the last 3 years, so I'm rusty. While I'm emphasizing RTK, I'm also looking for good input from wherever I can find it-- it's a mix of grammar review from UBJG and Genki, and soon I'll start adding old vocab I've forgotten.

I've used Jim Breen's dictionary to collect around 300 example sentences. After I've read that the example sentences in his dictionary may contain errors, I decided to use other dictionaries for example sentences. Jim Breen is still excellent for looking up kanjis, and the amount of examples sentences do help me understand the vocabulary better. I'd just prefer another dictionary as a source for my SRS sentences.

So, yahoo's dictionary and excite's dictionary contain example sentences from reliable sources. I just tried both dictionaries, but couldn't find out how to get the example sentences. Hope that someone can point me to the right direction

This is for excite.co.jp. Not sure about yahoo!'s dictionary.

If you're trying to find example sentences, keep in mind that you may not find them for every entry. But in those entries that do have them, look for a blue box with the kanji 用例 in it. 用例 or ようれい means 'example sentence.'

And make sure you're searching with the 辞書 button selected. Most major words will have sentences, though.

Thanks for the reply. And I just learnt a new vocabulary 用例！

What do you mean with the 辞書　button? Can't see that button anywhere.

If you're looking at the search bar at the top of the excite.co.jp page, there's a search box with links above to select what you want to search in, and if you select the 辞書 link, you'll get options for J->E and E->J. (Sorry, for some reason I remembered them as radio buttons, when actually they're links.)

It actually means something more like "usage example". "Example sentence" would of course be 例文 (れいぶん).

Interesting. When I posted, I just checked it really quickly with Genius, and it said "example sentence." I didn't double-check it against other dicts at the time, but you're right. I'm beginning to like the Genius dictionary less and less. (It has a nasty habit of dropping the ball on definitions.)

That said, the excite dictionary doesn't always give sentence examples. Ironically, even for 用例, there are two example phrases, but no complete sentences. (But it's still free.)

And if you want to get example sentences from excite, you still hit the 用例 graphic, if it shows up. (If it doesn't, then there may not be an example.)

I've left yahoo for a better dictionary. Now, I'm using http://www.alc.co.jp

are you crazy!? that's not a better dictionary at all. it's riddled with made up stuff. and above all that, it isn't even a dictionary! it's an E>J // J>E translation tool at best

see the thread on the board about ALC.


aside: it is good for finding some really obscure stuff and helps me in my translation work, but that's a dfifferent story. it's not a dictionary.

I really like ALC too, I'm not all that militant about "no English". Yahoo's definitions often seem too comprehensive for my needs so I mainly use 三省堂 these days as it's more concise.

I'm using sanseido too. ALC comes in very handy when you encounter strange expressions that usually are not in the dictionary.

yorkii Wrote:are you crazy!? that's not a better dictionary at all. it's riddled with made up stuff. and above all that, it isn't even a dictionary! it's an E>J // J>E translation tool at best

see the thread on the board about ALC.


aside: it is good for finding some really obscure stuff and helps me in my translation work, but that's a dfifferent story. it's not a dictionary.

ol, I didn't think about that until now. For some reason, I considered it a dictionary. ahck