The Internet has made the world smaller. In seconds we can visit practically anything on the planet and, since the history of the Tower of Babel, there are different languages depending on the area we go to or visit virtually. What happens if we access a website in English from our iPhone? There are probably many words that we do not understand, but iOS has a function that will allow us translate and define words, all without having to install any application from a third-party developer.
The function that I am talking about, one that many of you probably already know but surely many others will not know, is simply called Dictionary. This dictionary will allow us, once activated, to select words, consult their meaning and, if we have activated other languages, translate them. Sounds good right? Next we will explain how to use this perfect function for those of us who read websites or documents in more languages than in our mother tongue.
Translating and defining words in iOS is very easy
By default, and if I remember correctly, iOS has installed the dictionary of the language that we configure on our iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad so that we can define the words of our language without having to configure anything. In any case, as we are also interested in the translation of words, we will verify that this is the case and we will add new languages to the dictionary following these steps:
- We open the iPhone Settings application.
- We play in General.
- We scroll down and tap on Dictionary.
- Here we will see a list of the available dictionaries. The choice is already up to the consumer's taste. As you can see in the screenshot, I have the Spanish, Spanish-English, American English and the Apple dictionary. Logically, you can add as many as you want, but adding many can be confusing, especially when a word is the same in two different languages even though it has a different meaning. In any case, the results explain well which dictionary has been used for each definition or translation.
Keep in mind that among the available dictionaries there are normal ones, that is, they tell us what a word means, others bidirectional that help us to translate from and to a language And it is also said that expressions can be translated and defined, something especially interesting to translate groups of two or more words into another language. The theory says that set phrases can also be translated, but personally it is something that I have not been able to verify for myself because I have never needed it.
How to translate or define the words
Once activated, using this feature is very easy. We will only have to do the following:
- We select the word or expression to translate or define. Logically, we can only do this if the text allows selection. I comment on this because there are documents that do not allow us to select text, so we will not be able to use this function from them. Yes, we can select it in text editors and in many (not all) web pages. If what we want to consult does not allow selection, a solution is to write the word in the Notes application and do the next step from there.
- With the word selected, the options will appear. We have to select «Consult». Definitions and translations will appear automatically, depending on the dictionaries that we have selected from the iPhone settings.
Define words with Siri
This function is very interesting and we can even use it on the Apple Watch. I would like to use it to translate words as well, but this is not possible, at least at the time of writing this post. To define a word with Siri, we will only have to ask, for what the best and shortest thing is to say "Define" followed by the word to define. Siri can understand other requests, such as "What is the meaning of ..." or "What does it mean ...". Undoubtedly, as when calculating, converting units and other similar queries, the best thing for those of us who have the Apple Watch is to ask the watch, which will prevent us from having to take the iPhone out of our pocket. As a matter of fact and although it does not have much to do with the iPhone, the Siri version of the Apple TV does not include this possibility.
Do you already know how to translate and define words with your iPhone? And most importantly, no third-party apps?
