Horrible translations!!
I shelled out $50 for this app, assuming it gave highly accurate translations and nuances of words and phrases. I’ve shared many of these with native German speakers and they are AGHAST at how utterly fallacious many of the translations and renderings of phrases are. Quick example: one does not say “Spachtel” for a cooking spatula. My hotel clerk, from whom I needed a spatula yesterday for my kitchenette, had no idea what I was on about and was aghast at the dictionary. The proper word is “Pfannenwender.” Don’t get me started on the various phrases. It’s indeed upsetting to pay so much money for a product, which has all the trappings of accuracy and rigor, only to discover its many flagrant, egregious mistranslations and infelicities!
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Response from developer
Hello, we regret that you're not satisfied with the PONS Wörterbuch Bibliothek.
Excellent Dictionary
This is an excellent German-English/English-German dictionary. Just bear in mind that it appears to have been constructed for German speakers in the first place. Thus, it has comprehensive tables of English verbs, but only the bare bones for German verbs. For example, for “beginnen”, it simply gives “begann, begonnen” (the third person singular forms of the imperfect, and the past participle) in the main entry. We are not even told that there is an alternative form of the imperfect subjunctive, “begönne”, let alone given full conjugations in all numbers and persons, in all moods and tenses.
Apart from this, which is readily remedied by the free LEO app, this is my “go to” German dictionary, although the Langenscheidts Expert and Pro dictionaries are also very useful at times.
Apart from this, which is readily remedied by the free LEO app, this is my “go to” German dictionary, although the Langenscheidts Expert and Pro dictionaries are also very useful at times.
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Response from developer
Thanks for your review! We will consider your points for one of the next updates.
Used to be ok, now it’s difficult to use
The last major update caused all sorts of problems. Now it takes forever to launch. Such a pain when I need to find a word quickly.
Not only that, the new way that the app suggests words that you are searching for is far inferior compared to how it used to be. It tries to be “smart” and guess the word you are looking for. In the process, it hides words that actually start with the letters you are typing. An actual example to illustrate: type “selb” (the first four letters in the word “selbst”). Do you see “selbst” anywhere in the list of words you might be searching for? No. Just “Gelb” and “gelb”, because it’s guessing you meant those. If I want to get to the definition for the word “selbst”, I have to keep typing letters until it finally gets the hint. The app should *always* display words that begin with the letters I am typing, not just try to guess what I am trying to type. What’s more, this is a dictionary - I *want* to see the words that come right before and after the word “selbst” when I’m searching for that word, because sometimes it helps me learn other words that are related to it. Search used to work correctly in an earlier version. Now it is horribly broken.
What’s worse, I tried to contact the developer and explained these exact problems with a very detailed write up and screenshots to illustrate. I was just brushed off. That was several months ago. Still nothing has changed. Be careful where you spend your money, this is probably not the dictionary for you, unless they decide to get their act together and address the user interface problems and dreadfully slow startup times.
Not only that, the new way that the app suggests words that you are searching for is far inferior compared to how it used to be. It tries to be “smart” and guess the word you are looking for. In the process, it hides words that actually start with the letters you are typing. An actual example to illustrate: type “selb” (the first four letters in the word “selbst”). Do you see “selbst” anywhere in the list of words you might be searching for? No. Just “Gelb” and “gelb”, because it’s guessing you meant those. If I want to get to the definition for the word “selbst”, I have to keep typing letters until it finally gets the hint. The app should *always* display words that begin with the letters I am typing, not just try to guess what I am trying to type. What’s more, this is a dictionary - I *want* to see the words that come right before and after the word “selbst” when I’m searching for that word, because sometimes it helps me learn other words that are related to it. Search used to work correctly in an earlier version. Now it is horribly broken.
What’s worse, I tried to contact the developer and explained these exact problems with a very detailed write up and screenshots to illustrate. I was just brushed off. That was several months ago. Still nothing has changed. Be careful where you spend your money, this is probably not the dictionary for you, unless they decide to get their act together and address the user interface problems and dreadfully slow startup times.
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Response from developer
Dear eric.johnson, we very much regret that the app is less userfriendly for you after the update. We took your and other customers' feedback serious and already work on the next update. However, we couldn't find your e-mail in our customer's support mailbox. Please write again to: pons-support@paragon-software.com. Thank you!
Definitely not worth it
Slow starting app, very basic words and almost 90% of them with no pronunciation, no verb conjugations, and many definitions are just one or two words!
It is by no means a dictionary. Really not. There are many better and cheaper apps out there with more functionality.
I wish I could have a refund..
To developer: I thought PONS is a good and respected company. Now I don't feel the same. You're not only loosing a customer, you're destroying your reputation.
It is by no means a dictionary. Really not. There are many better and cheaper apps out there with more functionality.
I wish I could have a refund..
To developer: I thought PONS is a good and respected company. Now I don't feel the same. You're not only loosing a customer, you're destroying your reputation.
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Response from developer
Dear Greenirani, we are sorry you are not satisfied with the dictionary. We would like to speak to you more about the issues, please get in touch with us at kundenservice@pons.de. Could you provide us with some screenshots for some words which you had the mentioned issues with? Alternatively, if you would prefer a refund, please send us a copy of your proof of purchase via apple, as well as your full name and bank account details. We will then reimburse you. Thank you and kind regards.
Underpowered for the price
The raw dictionary capabilities of PONS are great. I use it a lot and it has most of the words I need. I've been using some version of it for 6 years.
However, it has a long history of underwhelming development. First, it doesn't provide pronunciation for all words, which is ridiculous at the price.
Second, it is always behind in development. They focus on tricks and trash rather than what is useful. Example: You can use a pen to enter words, but it's very flaky and ultimately a big waste of time. So they have wasted their time on very poor handwriting support. However, they have no support for iOS 9 -- you can't split the screen with another app, there are no keyboard shortcuts for the iPad Pro, etc. All of that would have been really helpful. This has been the history for at lest 6 years across several platforms.
The bottom line is that it is an excellent dictionary, stuck inside a very poor dictionary engine (which is shared by many dictionary apps). And someone made a bad decision about eliminating so many of the pronunciations.
However, it has a long history of underwhelming development. First, it doesn't provide pronunciation for all words, which is ridiculous at the price.
Second, it is always behind in development. They focus on tricks and trash rather than what is useful. Example: You can use a pen to enter words, but it's very flaky and ultimately a big waste of time. So they have wasted their time on very poor handwriting support. However, they have no support for iOS 9 -- you can't split the screen with another app, there are no keyboard shortcuts for the iPad Pro, etc. All of that would have been really helpful. This has been the history for at lest 6 years across several platforms.
The bottom line is that it is an excellent dictionary, stuck inside a very poor dictionary engine (which is shared by many dictionary apps). And someone made a bad decision about eliminating so many of the pronunciations.
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Premium Wörterbuch
The things I like include the synonyms, usage examples and linguistic context. HOWEVER there free apps which offer a larger vocabulary. In summary: very useful but clearly over-priced
All right up to a point
Pons have produced a really good general dictionary for anyone wanting to read German. Apart from clear and complete definitions, it gives the pronunciation of all key words in audio-form. There are extensive and useful grammatical extras.
However, its vocabulary is limited. Many technical and scientific terms are left out: and these are often found in the Collins German Dictionary, which is available at half the price of the Pons Premium. Better to use the Pons Advanced dictionary which is just as good.
However, its vocabulary is limited. Many technical and scientific terms are left out: and these are often found in the Collins German Dictionary, which is available at half the price of the Pons Premium. Better to use the Pons Advanced dictionary which is just as good.
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I hâte ~ and nô German verb conjugations
This dictionary is a bit lacking although I like the pronunciations and the pop up word lookup feature.
Here are my complaints:
1- slow to start. PONS green screen for several seconds on a 64 bit iPad mini 2. Regrettable.
2- the formatting of the examples is really hard to read and the constant use of ~ to replace the word is unforgivable. It made sense in a paper dictionary, but on a iPad? Can't the app replace the ~ with the word for me so that I could maybe copy and paste the phrase and read it with ease?
3- they include wonderful conjugation tables and word form tables for English, but I am trying to learn German and they have zero tables for the German verb forms. A tragedy.
The designers here need to have a look at Antidote. That is the very best dictionary and grammar guide I have found, but it is for French only. It is beautifully formatted and organizes phrase examples by usage found on the Internet and popular literature. It gives tabs to view synonyms, antonyms, history, conjugation, etc.
Here are my complaints:
1- slow to start. PONS green screen for several seconds on a 64 bit iPad mini 2. Regrettable.
2- the formatting of the examples is really hard to read and the constant use of ~ to replace the word is unforgivable. It made sense in a paper dictionary, but on a iPad? Can't the app replace the ~ with the word for me so that I could maybe copy and paste the phrase and read it with ease?
3- they include wonderful conjugation tables and word form tables for English, but I am trying to learn German and they have zero tables for the German verb forms. A tragedy.
The designers here need to have a look at Antidote. That is the very best dictionary and grammar guide I have found, but it is for French only. It is beautifully formatted and organizes phrase examples by usage found on the Internet and popular literature. It gives tabs to view synonyms, antonyms, history, conjugation, etc.
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Good content, mediocre app
The PONS dictionary itself is a well known reference but Paragon's app quality is pretty low.
1) There is no inflected forms for the words
2) Quality control is bad - clicking on audio play button on POSITION word in English-German translation crashed the app; clicking on audio of POSITIVE says "GOOD".
This is a typical problem with Appstore apps carying logos of big renown brands like PONS - you are expecting their quality while in fact there is no one.
1) There is no inflected forms for the words
2) Quality control is bad - clicking on audio play button on POSITION word in English-German translation crashed the app; clicking on audio of POSITIVE says "GOOD".
This is a typical problem with Appstore apps carying logos of big renown brands like PONS - you are expecting their quality while in fact there is no one.
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Excellent dictionary
The only thing I am missing is a full text search for words in phrases. Otherwise, the best English-German dictionary in the app-store.
