The other day, our English to Russian Senior Translator mentioned gramota.ru, a very comprehensive Russian grammar/spelling/style/usage resource. Does such a resource exist for every language? If you use something similar when translating, please let us know about it by adding it in the comments below.
I'd also love to hear about other learning or skills development resources that are interactive and collaborative, for example, lang-8.com. Has anyone used this? What did you like about it? What didn't you like? Are there any other learning tools like it?
3 comments
I have not tried lang-8.com yet, although it gives a really good impression to me. The tool I repeat and expand my command of English with is called "Supermemo". This is its website:
http://www.supermemo.net/
"English Idioms" is my favourite course there, packed with everyday language items not to be found even in general Oxbridge dictionaries.
Belated thanks Rainer! I'll check Supermemo out :)
Český jazyk
There are several web portals dedicated to Czech language, with all kinds of dictionaires and grammar reference materials:
1) Internetová jazyková příručka by the Czech Language Institute (Ústav pro jazyk český, ÚJČ): http://prirucka.ujc.cas.cz
ÚJČ also provides a language councelling service called Jazyková poradna. You are advised to try to find the answer for your questions in their online reference book (Internetová jazyková příručka) first, and if you cannot find a proper answer there, you can give them a call (at +420 257 531 793 - they are available for the public every workday 10–12 and 13–15 and the nice thing about it is, that their phone number is just a normal one, no extra charges for us!)
2) Web portal dedicated to Czech language by Lingea. You can find the contemporary Czech dictionary, the dictionary of synonyms and the Czech grammar rules there. http://www.nechybujte.cz
3) ČNK – http://ucnk.ff.cuni.cz/verejny.php – Czech national corpus – a collection of texts in electronic form (in the case of the spoken language - a transcription of speech), used for linguistic research. – Very helpful when you need to find whether some specific phrase or word combination is common or not.
4) www.mojecestina.cz – another web portal devoted to the Czech grammar, but rather than listing the rules, it focuses on the most problematic parts of the Czech grammar. This is not run by any institution but by dedicated teachers.
5) www.helpforenglish.cz – this web portal is dedicated to Czech learners of English language. The fastest way to refresh your memory on certain grammar rules, idiomatic expressions and a lot more