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Review: Accio Downloadable German-English Dictionary

A software dictionary for Windows, Mac, Palm and iPod

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Accio German-English Dictionary
A downloadable dictionary for Mac, Windows, Palm, iPod
English-German, German-English
Publisher: Ultralingua

The downloadable Accio German-English Dictionary offers about 80,000 definitions (iPod version only about 5,000), far more than many software and even some print dictionaries. It features clickable word look-up from almost any document, from English to German or German to English. It is available as a software download from the Accio Web site. Other languages available: French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, and English-only.

Download size: 4.5-6.3 MB (installed size: 7-22 MB)

Using a Software Dictionary

A software dictionary on your computer offers several advantages. First of all, you don't have to lug a heavy print dictionary along with your laptop. Secondly, you get interactive use. By just clicking on a word in a document you can quickly get a pop-up translation/definition.

There are, however, also some drawbacks to using a computer dictionary. Many software dictionaries have a rather limited number of entries, sometimes as few as 10,000 or less. While Accio's English-German dictionary offers a respectable 80,000 translations/definitions, the Collins German-English print dictionary (5th edition, $55.00) claims about 900,000 entries. Even the paperback Pocket Oxford German-English dictionary ($12.95) has about 90,000 entries. (For more about comparing German dictionaries, see Before You Buy a German Dictionary and Reviews: German Dictionaries and Phrasebooks.)

How It Works

You can use the Accio German-English Dictionary either as a stand-alone dictionary for browsing or as an interactive dictionary in a word processor or other documents with text. The dictionary will also recognize conjugated verbs, plural, and irregular forms of a word (but see my related comments about look-up below). To use the dictionary within a document, you have to start it up separately. Once the dictionary is runnning, you can use the F1 key (or other hotkey you designate) to look up the German or English word marked by the cursor in a document. In a web browser you can use copy/paste to look up a term. You can also print out the pop-up definition or any entry in the dictionary.

Test driving the Accio dictionary

In an effort to give it a true test, I tried out the Accio dictionary on my Mac iBook laptop during a recent two-week trip to Germany. Among other things, I used it for some new terms for our Wort des Tages feature. I was generally pleased with how this software dictionary worked, but it did display a few quirks.

If, for example, you look up the English word "feel," the Accio dictionary brings up the German translations "betasten" and "empfinden" -- but not the much more common "fühlen." Under the "feel" listing you do find variations including "feel obliged," "feel ashamed," and "feel bored." That is a good feature not found in most regular dictionaries, but again, the Accio definitions were sometimes a bit odd.

When I went the other way, looking up "fühlen," I discovered another quirk. The dictionary did not recognize the word, even though "fühlen" is listed in the dictionary. It displayed the message "No exact matches for 'fühlen'; click here for the closest match." When you click, it takes you to "fuhr" (the past tense of "fahren")! Apparently the Accio dictionary has trouble recognizing umlauts, which is a definite problem for a German dictionary. By scrolling up from "fuhr" you will find "fühlen," but oddly the translation given is only "sense" -- without the more common English meaning of "feel"!

More quirks

If you look up "downloadable," you'll find "download" and "downloading," but not "downloadable" ("ladbar"). But "ladbar" is listed in the German section -- with the meaning "loadable."

Some of the English terms and definitions are British English, but for "Fiskus" the Accio dictionary does give the American "IRS" meaning, in addition to the British "Ministry of Finance" and "exchequer," but not the word's "treasury" meaning. However, when I looked up "Nachwuchs," the Accio dictionary listed six correct definitions, some of which are not found even in my "unabridged" Collins, which lists a mere four English equivalents.

As with any decent German dictionary, the Accio dictionary indicates noun genders and the plural forms.

Bottom Line
The downloadable Accio German-English Dictionary is a fairly good dictionary with enough entries to make it practical for average use. Despite some of the problems mentioned above, I found this software dictionary to be a useful tool. If Ultralingua can fix some of the flaws in this German-English dictionary, I would rate it at the top in its category. As it is, I can recommend it as useful but slightly flawed.

You can download a free trial version that expires after ten days of use. The full registered version costs $19.95.

Accio German-English Dictionary
For Mac, Windows, Palm, iPod
(Version tested: Mac Ver. 1.0)
English-German, German-English
Publisher: Ultralingua
MSRP: $19.95 (as download)

Also see: WordPoint - A pop-up German-English dictionary

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