Abbyy Lingvo x3 dictionary

Lingvo started as a Russian endeavour, translating European languages for Russian speakers. The x3 (13th) version is more suitable for European users, especially the multilingual package (Italian, Spanish, English, French and German) reviewed here.

At its core, Lingvo x3 contains a dedicated dictionary for each language (the English dictionary has 355,000 word definitions and their inflected forms) and then separate dictionaries to translate between languages. It integrates into Explorer so word definitions can be set to pop up when the cursor sits atop a word or you can highlight a word in any program and then tap Ctrl and C twice to find its definition.

Translation between Italian, Spanish and French is missing, but Lingvo x3 can translate to these languages from English or German. Translation is always limited to single words, while competing software is happy to translate entire sentences, which may be more useful if you’re trying to get an overview of some foreign text.

The Lingvo Tutor module included with x3 translates a range of words, useful for tourists, from Russian into its five European languages or from the five European languages into Russian or German. If you intend to try a bit of French, Italian or Spanish, then this module isn’t for you.

Lingvo Tutor isn’t a foundation to learn a language on, because it only makes you translate a single word at a time, so grammar and sentence construction are neglected. Eurotalk Interactive offers more suitable language software packages.

Advanced linguists already confident with the languages Lingvo x3 supports will find it a useful tool to double-check the odd word or a bit of grammar, but other packages are better for language learning and Collin’s £22.99 Dictionary Pro () is better as a dedicated English dictionary.