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 in the Sri Lankan corporate and education sectors, English is a vital language. It is considered as the only medium through which people expand their knowledge. Therefore, we in Sri Lanka have to use our translation resources to expand our English knowledge and be efficient in our workplaces and schools.
The reality, however, is that not everybody can speak English, fewer still are able to speak it well enough to communicate effectively, and perhaps even more importantly: language is much more than the communication of words. It is also an expression of culture, society, and belief. Promoting a universal language, therefore, would likely lead to a loss of the culture and heritage communicated through native languages.
Presently, everything has moved to an online base. There is simply nothing you cannot find on the internet. So when you are in need of a dictionary, 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 flip through the pages and find the word we were looking for. It is simply a lot easier to whip out your phone and search the browser for the word you want and its translation. Chances are that the internet will give you a lot more information 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 up with an efficient and reliable dictionary to help Sri Lankan citizens to translate Sinhala to English and vice versa, as well as Tamil to English and vice versa. People can request their own additions to the page if it doesn’t already exist. However, this dictionary is not available for download as it is copyrighted to Kapruka.com and S. Godage books.
This online dictionary can be used for the purpose of reference and learning Sinhala and Tamil languages. The only limit that this site serves is that you can enter a word as lookup in English. It also comes with pronunciations of words which are available through the green play button next to the word.
This dictionary is completely free for all its users, and its convenient 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 230,000 definitions. It also includes glossaries of technical terms from medicine, science, law, engineering, accounts, arts and many other sources. This facilitates use as thesaurus. Users can translate from Sinhala to English and vice versa for convenience.
They can also use wildcards to increase the flexibility of search. An inevitable tool for students and professionals in their academic and day 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 service for English to Sinhala word translations & online dictionary service for both 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 took the Sri Lankan language by storm. There is simply no one that doesn’t use Helakuru in Sri Lanka. The same sort of convenience is available through the Bhasha dictionary.
Lexilogos.com
Another extremely convenient and free online dictionary is available through lexilogos.com. It provides English to Sinhala translation and vice versa. It also has several other translation sites that are linked to give you more exposure for the word you’re searching.
They include a Sinhala keyboard to type a text with the Sinhala characters, Sinhala basic course, Foreign service institute (1979), Topics in Sinhala syntax by Deepthi Henadeerage, thesis (2002), Sinhalese self-taught by Martino de Zilva Wickremasinghe (1916), Comprehensive grammar of the Sinhalese language by Abraham Mendis Gunasékara (1891), English and Sinhalese lesson book, with common phrases, by Charles Carter and many more by established authors.
Lexilogos also contains many sites to translate from Tamil to English as well. This includes Tamildict.com, Tamil moli akarathi: Tamil dictionary by Kathiraiver Pillai (1928), Tamil lexicon: published by the University of Madras (1924-1936), Tamil and English dictionary by Johann Philipp Fabricius (1972), Core vocabulary for Tamil by David McAlpin (1981), Anglo-Tamil dictionary by Peter Percival (1867) and more.
Dict.lk
Dict.lk is one of the best websites for the Sinhala dictionary which also provide the translation for English to Sinhala and Sinhala to English.
Dict.lk is an online large Sinhala dictionary that provides Sinhala to English and English to Sinhala meaning with linguistic features. You can search for more than a million words. It provides Abbreviation, Glossary, Technical Terms in the alphabetic order. This application helps the user who wants to translate one language to another language with different size of smart devices. Dict.lk is a fast and effective searchable dictionaries for Sinhala to the English language. This application helps university references, exam and business purposes.