Use a German dictionary to collect the information needed for a sentence: the right meaning, a noun's gender and plural, or a verb's forms and construction. A translation becomes much more useful when you carry its grammar and an example with it.
This guide is for learners reading or writing everyday German. It uses a few short, original teaching examples. The linked dictionary entries let you check the forms and explore other meanings without treating a single English equivalent as a complete explanation.
Start with a translation, then inspect the grammar
A bilingual dictionary is useful when you need an English equivalent or a candidate German word. A German-language dictionary helps distinguish senses and inspect usage. For example, LEO's entry for Tisch supplies bilingual equivalents, while Duden's Tisch entry supplies German definitions and grammatical information.
Notice which part of a reference you are reading. An editorial entry, an automatically generated word association, and a forum discussion have different roles. A discussion may suggest a useful question; check the proposed answer against an entry, a grammar reference, or your instructor before adopting it.
When selecting a dictionary, try a noun, a verb, and a phrase from your own reading. Look for clear sense divisions, grammatical forms, pronunciation support when needed, and examples you can understand. Check the actual app's offline access separately. Choose a reference you can use consistently rather than relying on a word-count claim.
Read a noun entry as a small package
German nouns are commonly presented with their nominative singular article. The article identifies grammatical gender. Learn it with the noun, then record the plural and any other form that your course currently requires.
| Information | Form | How to use it |
|---|---|---|
| Headword and gender | der Tisch | Record the masculine article with the noun. |
| Plural | die Tische | Keep the plural form; the singular alone is insufficient. |
| Genitive singular | des Tisches / des Tischs | Recognize both forms shown by the entry. |
| A relevant meaning | A table, the item of furniture | Check this sense against the sentence being read. |
Duden's grammar help explains how its entries display noun forms, verb auxiliaries, and cases governed by prepositions. Its bracket notation for optional letters can look unfamiliar at first; expand the notation into full forms in your own notes.
A plural article die does not reveal the noun's singular gender. Keep singular and plural together. For another noun, check its own entry: a pattern learned from Tisch does not determine every German plural.
Look up the whole verb and its intended meaning
A separable verb may appear in two places in a sentence. When a short word near the end seems unexplained, check whether it belongs with the verb. Searching the pieces independently can lead you to unrelated meanings.
For the getting-up meaning, the perfect tense uses sein, as in bin aufgestanden. Read the grammar attached to the selected sense: the same headword can have other meanings with different usage information. Store the sense and construction together.
When recording a verb, include the infinitive, a short present-tense example, the past form required by your course, and any reflexive pronoun or preposition that belongs to the expression. Check pronunciation and stress in the dictionary audio when available. Copying only “get up” misses the information that makes the German example work.
Check the construction around a word
Case information tells you how surrounding words need to be shaped. Duden's grammar help, for example, identifies nach as a preposition used with the dative. In a new sentence, first identify the construction; then use a grammar table to form the required article, pronoun, or adjective.
Use this reading routine when a form is unfamiliar:
- Keep the complete sentence, including the verb and nearby prepositions.
- Find the headword and choose the sense that fits the subject and situation.
- Inspect gender, plural, verb forms, and any case or construction information.
- Check the inflected form against the appropriate grammar table.
- Reread the sentence and explain how the parts fit together.
For a long compound, try the complete word before splitting it. A whole-word entry can identify a conventional meaning that is hard to infer from its parts. If you use the parts as clues, verify the resulting interpretation in context.
Labels matter here too: a colloquial, regional, historical, or figurative sense may not fit a neutral message. Read the examples under your chosen sense and use the reference's help page to decode unfamiliar abbreviations. If an apparently correct translation still sounds awkward, compare the surrounding verb, preposition, or noun combination.
Keep a note that answers your original question
A compact noun note can contain der Tisch — die Tische, the relevant meaning, a sentence, and its source. A verb note can contain aufstehen — ich stehe auf — ich bin aufgestanden, labeled for the getting-up sense. Reopen the source when a later sentence uses the word differently.
Test the note by covering its explanation and reading your example. Can you recover the meaning and explain the form? If you can translate the word but cannot use it, add a checked construction instead of collecting more synonyms. Ask a teacher about one concrete uncertainty at a time.
See Spanish dictionary lookup skills for a comparison of meanings, verb forms, and regional labels. If your immediate goal is a travel exchange, use the mobile translation preparation guide. Browse the full collection at Language Learning Guides.