Sketch Engine, according to its website, is “the ultimate tool to explore how language works”. Essentially, it is an online tool which allows you to analyse language and boasts 700 corpora in over a hundred languages.
With Sketch Engine, you can investigate language at the level of words, phrases or whole texts. In terms of words, Sketch Engine offers you collocations, synonyms and examples of usage of individual words, among other features. It does something similar with phrases, providing information about typical combinations, contextual examples and translations. For textual analysis, Sketch Engine can generate lists of words used in the text according to frequency, locate key terms and even identify the distinct parts of speech in the text (e.g. nouns, verbs and adjectives).
Due to its wide variety of capabilities, Sketch Engine is useful for linguists, translators, lexicographers, language teachers and students. Some universities can provide pre-paid access to the tool for students and staff, but for those interested in using it outside of an academic context, Sketch Engine provides a thirty day free trial period. So, if you’re interested in digging deeper into language, delving into Sketch Engine is a good way to start.
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