Is an English to French dictionary actually helpful? I know in all our French classes we had to buy one. But whenever I used it, I was completely confused. It's not as simple as looking up the word for "store" and finding the French word that matches the meaning.
Translating English to French is a not as easy as looking up the comparable word in a French dictionary. Some English words are not too hard to translate as there is only one meaning in the French language. Other English words you want to translate have no French meaning. Or one word or phrase has so many varied meanings in French that it is really impossible to translate. It's not impossible to translate if you already speak French.
The only words that seem to so easy to translate that you can't mess up, in other words you can't go wrong, are French numbers. Seriously how can you mess up translating one, two or three? Plus everyone knows some numbers in a different language. Well ok, that's quite true. There are differences according to how you are using the number and in what context. Yikes!
You've probably figured out that plugging in an English word and getting back some French word and have it make sense is really not possible.
I recommend that you take some French lessons. I took French lessons for two years in high school and one semester in college with the French immersion method. These learning French software programs are so much easier to learn French. I wish they had existed back when I was taking French at school.
Save yourself the headache of trying to translate using an English to French dictionary Go take some French lessons online!
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