Word Research

[derico]

While getting back into learning Spanish I was looking for a way to make word research easier. For every new word I want to learn I am looking for

• Visual representation of the word (Google Images)
• Definition of the word in Spanish (WordReference)
• Audio recording of pronunciation (Forvo)
• The word in context and example sentences (Linguee)
• Translation(s) of the word (WordReference/Leo)
• Conjugation if the word is a verb (WordReference)

Frankly, to open all these pages manually, click around to get to the language/section I want and finally enter my word is a pain in the butt. And it might have been one reason I stopped learning regularly...

 

Alfred to the rescue!

So I made my first workflow. It is quite simple:

• Type keyword 'esw' followed by the word you are looking for and it queries the aforementioned pages on separate tabs in the default browser.
• Translations are not opened by this workflow. Usually I use a link on the definition site or the Leo Translate workflow by psistorm for that.
• There is a second keyword 'esc' for researching the conjugation of the specified verb.

That way I get the information I want to put into Anki with a few keystrokes and can spend my time actually learning the language.

 

If you are interested in the workflow

download it here.

 

 

The workflow was inspired by this post of Gabriel Wyner on Tower of Babelfish. If you are learning a foreign language I highly recommend checking out this website! There is a wealth of information about methodology, resources and lots more.

He has a Pastepin with useful links for a lot of other languages, which gets mentioned in the post linked above. They are intended for iMacros but can be used with Alfred, too. So if you want to adjust my workflow for another language, chances are he has the links you need.

 

Side note on Google Images: If you are wondering why I use the Basic Mode of Google Images within Google Translate I would like to refer you to this post on Tower of Babelfish. In short: More often than not you will get images and matching example sentences at the same time - even for abstract or functional words.

 

 

Screenshot

 

 

Edited April 26, 2013 by derico

[skotzko]

Hey Derico, thanks for sharing this! Super useful. I was struggling with the same pain after reading the original post awhile ago. 

 

I've actually been building an app to do this and build in some export capabilities to Anki, PM me if you want to use it.