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Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Word Reference

Although I've known about Word Reference for years, for some reason I haven't posted about it. But upon consideration, I think it's a worthwhile resource.

The site has been around for some time, as I said, and includes not only Italian, but other languages as well. The plain home page makes it appear to be only an online dictionary page for various languages. But the more useful feature is hidden toward the bottom of the home page: that is, their forums. In other words, you can not only look up a word, which can also be done elsewhere, of course. Here, if you have problems or questions relating to usage, you can go to the Italian forum and ask your question, or search the archives for an answer.

So this is fully Web 2.0, with all that entails. Which means you can get a personalized answer (or many answers) to your query, but you also have to assess the value and accuracy of the answers yourself. And if you are an advanced or native-level speaker, you can contribute the answers. Check it out.