Understand spoken language

Handling words with the same English translation

Submitted by admin on 16 October 2020

It sometimes happens that there are several words which have the same English text.

The easy case: words with very different meaning

For example, consider:

  • bar (meaning the place where you have an alcoholic drink)
  • bar (such as a bar of chocolate)

or:

  • light (meaning the opposite of dark)
  • light (meaning not heavy)

or:

  • bat (the animal)
  • bat (for cricket and other sports)

Since it is not currently allowed for two entries to have the same English text, what to do?

Since these words have different meanings in English, the best way here is to make the English text different, e.g.

Note, an important point is that you must always link each word to each other with a "see also" link (unless they are pronounced the same, in which case you must use a "Pronounced the same" link).

The harder case: words with almost identical meaning

Consider the following English (EN) to Dutch (NL) words:

  • (EN) your, (NL) uw
  • (EN) your, (NL) jouw
  • (EN) your, (NL) je

Since it is not currently allowed for two entries to have the same English text, and in addition the words all mean "your", what to do?

Here, you should try first and see if there is a subtle difference between the words.

For example:

  • is one used for formal and the other for informal?
  • is one used for singular and the other for plural?
  • is one a common word and the other rarely used?
  • is one a short or long form and the other a normal length form?
  • is one used to younger or older people?
  • is one used to or by male speakers and the other to or by female speakers?

If you can find a way to succinctly state the difference, then you can add this in brackets to the word.

For example, applying this to the NL words above, we end up with 3 different versions of "your":

Note that here too you should always also link to the other versions of the word.

Consider not labelling the default version

In Thai there are two words for "temple", one a long form, and one a short form. You might therefore think of labelling them:

  • temple (short form)
  • temple (long form)

You would also make a link from one to the other, so if someone is on the short form, they can find the long form and vice versa.

However, imagine now that you are learning Thai and you want to know which word generally to use for "temple". Should you use the short form or the long form? In this case it is better if the most normal version of the word is left without any extra text, and the more unusual version has the extra text.

For example consider if the versions were written:

  • temple
  • temple (long form)

This would imply that the normal word which you should use for "temple" is in most cases the short form. You would still be a good student to recognise the long form, and maybe eventually know when to use it, but mostly it will be enough to recognise it when listening to someone speak, or when reading.

Now consider if the versions were written:

  • temple (short form)
  • temple

This would imply that the longer version is the more normal one.

In Thai it is as follows:

In Dutch we have a similar example with verbs. Most Dutch verbs have a short form and a long form, e.g.

or:

Since the long form literally translates as "to" + "to keep", or "to" + "to take", it makes sense to just leave the short form without any label.

The hardest case: words with identical meaning

Sometimes you find words which have basically identical meaning in English, but are simply different words in the target language. What to do then?

In that case, you should simply label each version with a number, e.g. 

Sometimes you can even get more 3 or more synonyms, and then you just add the next number, e.g. :

Perhaps at the highest levels of understanding there may be a very subtle difference between the words, but often the difference is too subtle.

Note too that you should always link to the other versions, usually with a "see also" link.