Features: Integrated Online Dictionaries
Although the Pinyin Toolkit makes extensive use of local dictionaries, there are some times where it’s really handy to rely on the great work that has gone into automatic translation tools like Google Translate to spice things up a little.
Firstly, we’re able to use Google to plug holes in our dictionaries of words: if the meaning of a word isn’t in the current language’s dictionary, we can go and look it up online. What’s more, we can do this even if there is no local dictionary at all – so the integration of an online dictionary into the program lets you learn Chinese in any language Google supports, such as Spanish or Italian.
Secondly, these online services can provide us with translations of whole sentences – which is nigh-on-impossible to do automatically when you only have access to a dictionary of words.