Translation is an important part of knowing any language. In the corporate world, translation is necessary for the spread of information, knowledge and ideas. If we find ourselves looking at an email that has words we don™t understand, the first thing we would do is consult a dictionary. As Sinhala and Tamil are the most widely spoken languages in Sri Lanka, we will talk about the Top 5 online Sinhala to English and Tamil to English dictionaries.
Why we need dictionaries
English is the most widely used language in the world. Even inthe Sri Lankan corporate and education sectors, English is a vital language. Itis considered as the only medium through which people expand their knowledge.Therefore, we in Sri Lanka have to use our translation resources to expand ourEnglish knowledge and be efficient in our workplaces and schools.
The reality, however, is that not everybody can speakEnglish, fewer still are able to speak it well enough to communicateeffectively, and perhaps even more importantly: language is much more than thecommunication of words. It is also an expression of culture, society, andbelief. Promoting a universal language, therefore, would likely lead to a lossof the culture and heritage communicated through native languages.
Presently, everything has moved to an online base. There issimply nothing you cannot find on the internet. So when you are in need of adictionary, we rarely search bookshops, buy new ones, or ever carry one around.Even if we did use a physical dictionary, it would take a longer time to flipthrough the pages and find the word we were looking for. It is simply a loteasier to whip out your phone and search the browser for the word you want andits translation. Chances are that the internet will give you a lot moreinformation than you were expecting.
However, it is important to mention that some of this information isn™t reliable. It would be quite the fix if you exchange words and misunderstand something important. Therefore, you should choose a reliable dictionary to use as a source. In this article, we will illustrate reliable online sources to use as dictionaries.
Top 5 Online Sinhala to English and Tamil to English Dictionaries
Kapruka Dictionary
Kapruka, Sri Lanka™s e-commerce giant, has recently come upwith an efficient and reliable dictionary to help Sri Lankan citizens totranslate Sinhala to English and vice versa, as well as Tamil to English andvice versa. People can request their own additions to the page if it doesn™talready exist. However, this dictionary is not available for download as it iscopyrighted to Kapruka.com and S. Godage books.
This online dictionary can be used for the purpose ofreference and learning Sinhala and Tamil languages. The only limit that thissite serves is that you can enter a word as lookup in English. It also comeswith pronunciations of words which are available through the green play buttonnext to the word.
This dictionary is completely free for all its users, and itsconvenient interface helps users to search for their necessities easily.
Use Kapruka Dictionary here.
Madura Dictionary
Madura Dictionary is considered one of the best by all Sri Lankans. It started off as a physical English to Sinhala dictionary in 2002, which evolved into a computer software, online website and an Android app. As a result of keeping up with the trends of the technological world, Madura Dictionary never lost its reliability and wide fan base.
Madura English-Sinhala Dictionary contains over 230,000definitions. It also includes glossaries of technical terms from medicine,science, law, engineering, accounts, arts and many other sources. Thisfacilitates use as thesaurus. Users can translate from Sinhala to English andvice versa for convenience.
They can also use wildcards to increase the flexibility ofsearch. An inevitable tool for students and professionals in their academic andday to day work.
Bhasha Dictionary
iOne of the most convenient apps for translation available, Bhasha Sinhala Dictionary is Sri Lanka’s Official Sinhala-English Dictionary app for Android brought to you by Bhasha Lanka (Pvt) Ltd in partnership with Language Technology Research Laboratory, Sri Lanka.
Bhasha Dictionary provides you offline dictionary servicefor English to Sinhala word translations & online dictionary service forboth English to Sinhala & Sinhala to English word translations. This online dictionary also provides you trilingual search results in Sinhala, English& Tamil when available.
Bhasha is hailed as the creator of Helakuru which also tookthe Sri Lankan language by storm. There is simply no one that doesn™t useHelakuru in Sri Lanka. The same sort of convenience is available through theBhasha dictionary.
Lexilogos.com
Another extremely convenient and free online dictionary isavailable through lexilogos.com. It provides English to Sinhala translation andvice versa. It also has several other translation sites that are linked to giveyou more exposure for the word you™re searching.
They include a Sinhala keyboard to type a text with theSinhala characters, Sinhala basic course, Foreign service institute (1979), Topicsin Sinhala syntax by Deepthi Henadeerage, thesis (2002), Sinhalese self-taughtby Martino de Zilva Wickremasinghe (1916), Comprehensive grammar of theSinhalese language by Abraham Mendis Gunasékara (1891), English and Sinhaleselesson book, with common phrases, by Charles Carter and many more byestablished authors.
Lexilogos also contains many sites to translate from Tamilto English as well. This includes Tamildict.com, Tamil moli akarathi: Tamildictionary by Kathiraiver Pillai (1928), Tamil lexicon: published by the Universityof Madras (1924-1936), Tamil and English dictionary by Johann Philipp Fabricius(1972), Core vocabulary for Tamil by David McAlpin (1981), Anglo-Tamildictionary by Peter Percival (1867) and more.
Dict.lk
Dict.lk is one of the best websites for the Sinhaladictionary which also provide the translation for English to Sinhala andSinhala to English.
Dict.lk is an online large Sinhala dictionary that providesSinhala to English and English to Sinhala meaning with linguistic features. Youcan search for more than a million words. It provides Abbreviation, Glossary,Technical Terms in the alphabetic order. This application helps the user whowants to translate one language to another language with different size of smartdevices. Dict.lk is a fast and effective searchable dictionaries for Sinhala tothe English language. This application helps university references, exam andbusiness purposes.