There are many free online dictionaries that you can use to look up words. They are not like conventional paper dictionaries that require knowing the root to look up words; you just type the word and find the meaning.
You can use Google translate (http://translate.google.com/ ) for both words and phrases. Please note that it is not very accurate thought. You can also use the same tool to convert English letters into Arabic, e.g. if you type marhaba, it can give you the Arabic (مرحبا).
There are other websites and webtools, e.g.
http://www.ectaco.co.uk/English-Arabic-Dictionary/
http://www.ectaco.co.uk/Arabic-English-Dictionary/
The website below gives you the Arabic alphabet to type your word, and then gives you the option to look it up through various web dictionaries.
http://www.lexilogos.com/english/arabic_dictionary.htm#
It has become easy to look up Arabic words, but the challenge that remains is how to learn them!
Comments:
Rob:
Does anyone know of an online, searchable version of Hans Wehr?
Meyra:
Very useful, thank you very much for these. I honestly (in my vast search for Arabic resources over the internet) never stumbled on these.
I really like this blog ya aziza!
aziza:
@Meyra You are most welcome, Meyra!
Meyra:
@Rob that would be nice, but it is really worth buying it, its cheaper on amazon.com than .co.uk 🙂 I’ll get that good stuff myself soon I hope!
Rob:
Thanks, @Meyra. I actually have a couple of copies. I just thought it would be fantastic to have an online version that would allow for an easier search. Maybe I’ll make it my own little project! Many thanks!!
Scheich Josef:
@Rob
There are copies of the dictionary of Hans Wehr at
http://www.ghazali.org/books/wehr-cowan-76.pdf
and at
http://www.studyquran.org/resources/HansWehr-cowan-76.pdf
as PDF-files, and in several other formats at
http://www.archive.org/details/Dict_Wehr.pdf
Best wishes,
Josef