Don’t worry, there’s no jailbreaking involved. Access Your Device’s Filestructureįor the next step we’ll need to get access to your iPad’s or iPhone’s inner file structure. Change the filename from German-English.mobi to B003YL4LVQ_EBOK.azw so the app will recognize it. Once you have downloaded the dictionary, we need to rename it so the Kindle app will recognize it. Keep in mind that Kindle dictionaries are one-way so in our example case we’ll need to download the dictionary which says “German-English”. You can get a basic German-English dictionary for free here. Download the Dictionaryįirst of all, you need to download a good dictionary. So, do iPad and iPhone readers have to live without instant translations? Fortunately, there is a workaround to still get German-English (or any other pair for that matter) dictionaries on your Kindle iOS app. I know that for many readers of my German learning stories, being able to look up words directly while reading is a big help. Among the latest updates was the ability to add “custom dictionaries”, but it just means that you can install same-language dictionaries so that you can get word definitions in one language, not translations from one to another. For other non-touch Kindle devices, you can simply move the cursor over the words.īut what about the iPad and iPhone? A recent study conducted by Goodreads shows that a whopping 86% percent of tablet owners use them to read books, while 32% don’t read anywhere else! Kindle has been updating their iOS app many times this year. If you own a Kindle Paperwhite or Kindle Touch and have installed a dictionary ( see here for instruction), you can translate words in the text just by tapping them. Instead of having to search for each unknown word in a dictionary you can get instant translations while reading your book. One of the great benefits of using ebooks for language learning is the ability to use custom dictionaries.

Longman pronunciation dictionary kindle