User:Lemuel

How to add an English-Chinese entry without having to know all the labels

I have added several words to the English-Chinese dictionary and would like to share how I did this so you can add words too.

1. Think of a word you want to be add that you are sure of. I do not know the formal position of Wenlin, but just copying definitions from other dictionaries is probably a legal issue and could hurt Wenlin later on. Sources of words that you can probably use are:
   • The Chinese-English portion of Wenlin. This is much more comprehensive that the E-C side.
   • Your own personal knowledge
   • The knowledge of a reliable Chinese speaker
   • Google the word in Chinese and English to see if it confirms your understanding.
   • If it has an article in the English Wikipedia, click on the Chinese link and see if there is a useful word there. Note that Chinese Wikipedia skews toward Taiwanese Mandarin, so judge accordingly.
2. Think of a word that is real close to what you want to add. Ideally it will be the same kind of thing or concept. You will use its entry as a template for your new one. For example, I used bicycle for unicycle, agreement for non-disclosure agreement, and anesthesia for general anesthesia.
3. Go to the entry for you template word, click Edit, and copy the whole entry. You will be editing and removing parts in your new word, so don't worry about including things you don't need like sample sentences.
4. Cancel the editing of your template word.
5. Search for the word you want to add. Assuming it is not already there:
   • Click on "►create new entry for ‘your new word’ in namespace En"
   • Click on "create this page" at the end of the entry on the next page.
   • Paste the entry from the template entry into your new one. I used the entry for "coin" as a starter for "bitcoin".

<WL>.hw   coin
ipa   kɔɪn
gr   A
ser   2000240500
ref   ox76a9
1ps   n.c.
1df   yìngbì [硬币]
2ps   v.t.
21df   zàobì [造币]
rem   21df zao4/zhu4bi4 [造/铸币]
rem@yy200402   Revised 21df.
22df   zàozì/cí [造字/词]</WL>

Here is how I handled the fields:

.hw

This is the headword, the thing people will be searching for. I changed "coin" to "bitcoin".

ipa

This is the English pronunciation in the International Phonetic Alphabet. I do not know IPA, but I have borrowed spellings from other entries and assembled the words in my entries. In this case, I grabbed "bɪt" from bit and pasted it in. I also put an apostrophe before bɪt to indicate the syllable stress.

gr

This is the grade. The grading system is a bit obscure so I just take the gr lines out.

ser

This is the serial number for the entry. You will need to replace it for your new entry. The new number appears in the URL, so you can just copy and paste it. For example, the URL when I added bitcoin was "https://wenlin.co/wanwu/index.php?title=En:69556296308858EF&action=edit". I grabbed 69556296308858EF and replaced 2000240500. Note that the new serial numbers will look a lot different from the old ones, that is OK.

ref

This is an entry internal to Wenlin. I take the line out. If I enter a new word in desktop Wenlin there is not a ref entry, so I do not think it will be missed here.

ps

There are not any plain ps entries in this example, but if there is only one definition for a headword, you can leave out the number before "ps" that you see in the following entries. That keeps a circle-number from showing up in the definitions.

1ps

The part of speech for the first entry. Since you picked a similar word to what you want to add, this should already be correct. In this case bitcoin is still a countable noun. If unsure, check the abbreviations in desktop Wenlin under the Help menu.

1df

This is the first definition. Replace whatever is here with your new definition. The trick may be generating the pinyin. If you know how to do this you are set. I'm lazy and just copy and paste it from Wenlin. For the characters, they seem to have just the simplified form so use that.

2*

If you do not need a second definition, just delete the lines starting with two. In some cases the second definition is closer to your word than the first. In that case, just delete the first definition and renumber the 2s to 1s.

rem

I just delete these, as the comments probably do not apply to my new entry.

Make sure you do not delete the </WL> at the end. It is often at the end of a line you do not want, so just delete what leads up to it.

Here is what I ended up with for bitcoin. It is much shorter and lacks sample sentences, but someone who knows Chinese better than I do can add them later. This gets the word in the dictionary, and that's the important thing:

<WL>.hw   bitcoin
ipa   'bɪtkɔɪn
ser   69556296308858EF
1ps   n.c.
1df   bǐtèbì [比特币]
</WL>

After making your changes, hit the Show preview button at the bottom and make sure your entry formats correctly.

Once your entry is ready to save, add a description to the Summary field and hit "Save changes".