How can I know a similar or related word in Chinese?

Question

One of the problems I face these days is that while my reading is getting better, my writing skill is still quite limited. When I draft out a sentence, I could not come up with any word that should fit better in a context, and tend to rely on a simple, common word.

Example:

今天我找到了一家很好的咖啡馆。

I could not come up with any word to mean "good" that might fit better in this context. At least in English, it sounds childish to only use a simple word. Example:

I want to get it.

I would like to obtain permission.

But in Chinese, I could not come up with a word that might fit better in a given context, and thus end up with using many 很好，有，很多，喜欢，etc...

Another situation is when I don't know if a given word is correct in a given context in the first place. Example:

老婆怎么可能一个人养护孩子们呢？

In this case, the first word I came up with to express "raise children" is 养护. But looking at several example sentences in Chinese, I started to feel it is not a proper word to "raise children". Then I changed it to 培育, but still feel it is not a proper word. According to my search on jukuu, the most examples consist of bugs, trees, or abstract things such as 精神 or 关系.

Then I don't get to know which is the correct word to "raise children". I rather want such service as Thesaurus, which gets me a list of synonyms for a given word. But as far as I check it, no such service seems available in Chinese.

So in these cases, how can I know which word is the correct in a given context, or at least get to know a list of similar or related words and check it out one-by-one (which is still daunting but there seems no other way)?

Answer 1

One answer is use a Chinese dictionary 网易有道词典. Example on 培育 (on iOS app):

Since it shows 幼小生物, the word seems to be inappropriate in this context.

However, sometimes, the entry for a given word lists related words (近反义词). In this specific case it got me to jump over to 养育.

At least this seems more reasonable, although this could never ensure the most appropriate, and there is possibly a better word.

Answer 2

I have a very ingenious idea~ You may download an e-dictionary~ and then make it possible to search for strings through the whole text~ You may know that a more advanced word is explained using simple vocabulary, hence retrieved as you search for a simple word. by the way, you don't have to worry about expanding your vocabulary. I bet even native Chinese cannot list many words describing good. The mastery of beautiful and literary vocabulary is even more difficult. Because they dwell in the oceans of classical Chinese, which is explored by fewer people nowadays. 今日我觅得一间极佳的咖啡屋。Maybe In this way i put it a little more advanced. 老婆怎么可能一个人养育/抚养/拉扯/带/养大/照料孩子 and also /亭毒/亭育/保艾…… The last few are from very old classicals, so it cannot be used In modern Chinese （it looks discord and awkward). I might put it as: 独贱内何以保艾吾后 something like that.