Adding Foreign Language Dictionaries

[Alymon]

I was reading a sample of a book today, and there happens to be quite a bit of french words in the book without any explanation of their meaning. Some of them I recognize or can figure out from the context, but there are a few that I just don't know.

Of course I could always look them up in a print dictionary or online, but I was wondering if there was a way to add a foreign language dictionary to the Kindle and have it use that to search for words as necessary.

I did see that there were a couple French-English dictionaries for the Kindle listed on Amazon, but I want to be sure that it will be able to use them to look things up while I'm reading a book.

Has anyone done this or know if this can be done?

[dougmwpsu]

Tada! http://www.amazon.com/b/ref=sr_tc_2_...4491&sr=8-2-tc

They even work the the instant lookup feature!

Also, its possible to repurpose dictionaries bought from other online sources with a bit of work, but i suspect that you would be more interested in a ready made one if you're just looking up a few words and not trying to learn the language.

[Alymon]

Thanks.

Just to be sure, that won't remove the existing dictionaries, right? It will just at an additional source for the Kindle to check when looking up a word?

[dougmwpsu]

True, it will not overwrite the other dictionary. you will be able to switch between them.

the "change dictionary" setting is just a little hidden.

Go to “Home->Menu->Settings”, then “Menu->Change Primary Dictionary.”

[susan_cassidy]

You do have to make sure that the dictionary you buy is compatible as a Kindle "default dictionary". There are some dictionaries that you can use as a book, but not as the primary dictionary. There is a section called "Kindle Default Dictionaries" in the Kindle store, under Kindle Books › Reference › Dictionaries & Thesauruses › Kindle Default Dictionaries.

[RayArdia]

Originally Posted by dougmwpsu

True, it will not overwrite the other dictionary. you will be able to switch between them.

the "change dictionary" setting is just a little hidden.

Go to “Home->Menu->Settings”, then “Menu->Change Primary Dictionary.”

The above does'nt work on my Kindle, can you tell me why please? BTW I assume you meant-
“Home->Menu->Settings”, then “DICTIONARIES->Change Primary Dictionary.”-
and there is no 'Change Primary Directory' listed.

[Doitsu]

If you own a current eInk Kindle model, try the following:

Settings > Device Options > Languages and Dictionaries > Dictionaries

Then select the Language and the preferred dictionary.

You should also be able to change the default dictionary in the Dictionary popup window, by selecting the triangle right of the dictionary name or the dictionary name.

[RayArdia]

Originally Posted by Doitsu

If you own a current eInk Kindle model, try the following:

Settings > Device Options > Languages and Dictionaries > Dictionaries

Then select the Language and the preferred dictionary.

You should also be able to change the default dictionary in the Dictionary popup window, by selecting the triangle right of the dictionary name or the dictionary name.

Model is the current eInk one, bought last week.
In Settings there is only Device Info, Device Language, Device Password and Device Time which is followed by Dictionaries - here the two dictionaries are shown, each is shown as Default.

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by RayArdia

Model is the current eInk one, bought last week.
In Settings there is only Device Info, Device Language, Device Password and Device Time which is followed by Dictionaries - here the two dictionaries are shown, each is shown as Default.

You can only set a default dictionary, if you have multiple dictionaries for the same language installed. For example, if you have both the US and UK versions of the English dictionary installed, you could select the UK version as the default English dictionary. However, you can't, for example, select the Portuguese dictionary as the default dictionary for all books.

Since the Kindle selects dictionaries based on the language metadata of the book, it might not select the correct dictionary if the language metadata of the book is set to English, but the book is in a language other than English.

In that case, you'll need to change the language metadata of the book with Calibre or Java Mobi Metadata Editor.

[RayArdia]

Your 'You can only set a default dictionary, if you have multiple dictionaries for the same language installed' clarified things a lot.
I have the two dictionaries I want to use loaded and shown in Home - Dictionaries.
Home-Settings-Dictionaries shows both the English and the Spanish dictionaries set as Default, and I now understand this means 'Default for that language'. (Checked this and your point above by adding an American english dictionary - 'Change Default' option is shown!)
I've edited the metadata for a few Spanish books and checked that they are formatted as *.mobi, and that Language is set to Spanish, using Calibre.

When I try to look up a Spanish word my Kindle chooses the English dictionary - obviously without much success!

Am I doing something wrong or has my Kindle got a problem?
Can you please help me sort it out?

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by RayArdia

I've edited the metadata for a few Spanish books and checked that they are formatted as *.mobi, and that Language is set to Spanish, using Calibre.

Note that if you change the language metadata of a book with Calibre, Calibre won't write the updated metadata to the file until you select Save to Disk or Send to Device. I'd strongly recommend using Java Mobi Metadata Editor instead, which will write the updated file to xxx_new.mobi.

If it still doesn't work, download a free MR Spanish Kindle book with the proper language code to test the dictionary lookup with.

If it doesn't work with this book either, there's something wrong with your Kindle and/or the dictionary.

[RayArdia]

Originally Posted by Doitsu

Note that if you change the language metadata of a book with Calibre, Calibre won't write the updated metadata to the file until you select Save to Disk or Send to Device. I'd strongly recommend using Java Mobi Metadata Editor instead, which will write the updated file to xxx_new.mobi.

If it still doesn't work, download a free MR Spanish Kindle book with the proper language code to test the dictionary lookup with.

If it doesn't work with this book either, there's something wrong with your Kindle and/or the dictionary.

Thanks Doitsu - I'm working on it!
Having had some problems downloading and installing JRE for Ubuntu Linux, have now (I hope) got both JRE1.7.0_65 and libnpjp.so and the Mobi Metadata Editor in the Firefox Plugins sub-directory.
I guess what I now need to do is copy them into Calibre - but which sub-directory?
BTW I tried a Spanish Kindle book from www.mobileread but that produced the same result as before, ie English dictionary used.

Really sorry to be a pain, but very grateful for your help.
Ray

[eschwartz]

The simplest way, I'd think, is to change the language metadata in calibre and then resend the book to your Kindle.

Java MOBI Metadata Editor is not a Firefox plugin. You double-click to run the .jar and open the book from the dialog.

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by RayArdia

Having had some problems downloading and installing [...] Mobi Metadata Editor in the Firefox Plugins sub-directory.

Mobi Metadata Editor is a stand-alone Java program. There's no need to install it in the Firefox Plugins directory.
You should be able to run it by entering the following in a terminal window (after using cd to go to the folder that the .jar file is in):

java -jar MobiMetaEditorV0.16.jar

Originally Posted by RayArdia

BTW I tried a Spanish Kindle book from www.mobileread but that produced the same result as before, ie English dictionary used.

In that case there's something wrong with your Kindle or the Spanish dictionary, because the MR book that I linked to has the correct language metadata and worked on my Kindle. (If you used a different Spanish MR book, it might also have the wrong metadata.)

Do you want to use the default monolingual Spanish Kindle dictionary or did you install a custom dictionary?
If you've installed a custom dictionary, it might not have the correct language codes or is broken.

Try the following:

a) Delete the default monolingual Spanish dictionary and re-download it from Amazon.
b) Delete any custom dictionaries and re-install them on the Kindle by copying them via USB.
c) Double-check with Mobi Metadata Editor that all custom dictionaries have the correct Input/Output dictionary languages and all Spanish books have the correct language codes.
d) Restart the Kindle.
e) Select the monolingual Spanish dictionary as the default dictionary and try to look up a word in the MR book that I linked to.

If all of this didn't help you might have to reset the Kindle to the factory default settings. (Make sure to make a backup copy of all books on the Kindle first, because everything on the Kindle will be deleted.)

Note that you'll also need to re-register your Kindle after a reset.

[RayArdia]

Once again, thank you.
Re: 'Do you want to use the default monolingual Spanish Kindle dictionary or did you install a custom dictionary?' No, as I want to have a bilingual Spanish-English one, the dictionary I have installed is Collins Concise Spanish Dictionary 7th Edn 2009 Vol 2 Spanish -English.
I think, before I do anything else I'll delete that one and try a different Spa-Eng dictionary.
That'll have to be later, must go Santiago now to collect my granddaughter!