Thread: Urban dictionary

Originally Posted by vicente

Sorry folks, but I think anybody who is serious about learning English should be warned about this site and be very cautious in relying on it as a reference source.
If you use urbandictionary, beware.

Here's another sort of URBAN DICTIONARY but for Spanish language.
I think it will be useful for Vincent if he visits an 'hispanian' country and try to understand over the Metro, for example, what's people are talking about.

Here it's:
http://www.jergasdehablahispana.org/

Search the word "mina" (mine) and be lucky.

Originally Posted by vicente

Sorry folks, but I think anybody who is serious about learning English should be warned about this site and be very cautious in relying on it as a reference source.

Urbandictionary is not a dictionary. While it might be of some use in finding a slang term it is also a collection of many non-existent words and phrases as well as real words with warped definitions applied by, and voted on, by contributors who appear to have the mentality of junior high school kids with their minds in the gutter. They invent ridiculous words and definitions for legitimate words that are supposed to be funny in the hope their inventions will garner positive votes. Some are so obscene and perverted that I wouldn't even cite them here.

Here is an example of the silliness:

TERR!FIC:
This is the language spoken by terrorists.
That guy was speaking terrific, i couldnt understand a word he was saying.

Very funny, no? And very mis-leading to a person learning English who might not realize it is intended to be a joke.

If you use urbandictionary, beware.

hahah yeah, but it's like using wordreference or wikipedia... or when you look up a word in the Oxford dictionary and you find 10 different meanings. If you're fluent in both languages you can tell what the right answer is...It's a matter of common sense.

Let's say it: urbandictionary is not the Bible -it's mostly fun. It can be a reference tool, as michelleba notes, for bilinguals, for professionals searching for a special expression (I have to say it was of use for a translation I had some time ago, with lots of slang terms I couldn't find anywhere else).

But I agree that it's not a good idea that learners of the language use it to learn -even if they are capable of applying common sense. It would be similar to learning any language through phone texts or emails... Ridiculous!

Common sense is not a bad idea at all, in anything , but not so necessary in using dictionaries as in choosing the right one for each ocassion.

(But in any case, everybody has to do their own path in learning... right?)

Originally Posted by lauracipolla

(But in any case, everybody has to do their own path in learning... right?)

That's right!

I've been hearing people talk about about "throwing shade". I have no idea what that means. I know it's some new slang. I went to "urban dictionary" and I found this Urban Dictionary: shade.