Customer Reviews

Collins German Unabridged Dictionary, 4th Edition

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As a scholar of German literature and visual culture, this is the single most valuable resource on my shelf! This dictionary beats the stodgy and akward Oxford-Duden hands down in terms of colloquial accuracy, depth, and ease of use. Unlike the Duden and the Langenscheidt German-English dictionaries, this volume contains far more easily-accessible information for the non-native speaker of German. For example, under noun-entries, the gender as well as the plural, dative and genitive endings of a noun are all indicated in the first line of an entry-- there is no need to resort to annoying noun-classification charts like in the Duden, where you often have to flip through 1000 or so pages to find the accompanying noun-paradigm, e.g. just to figure out the plural of a given word. The same holds true for verbs: a wealth of idiomatic examples for the most common uses of a verb are given in each entry -- an excellent aid for those who do not possess the infallible instincts of a native speaker. What is more, I found the unit conversion and verb charts, as well as the correspondence and resume-writing tips in the "Language in Use" section very helpful during my studies abroad.

In short, this user-friendly bilingual dictionary is the standard against which all others must be measured!

Academics, this is the dictionary for you! German scholarship is vitally important to anyone in my field. I used to struggle over the abstract and often technical vocabulary, which made wading through German articles (let alone whole books) a major headache. Somehow I never had more than about an 80% certainty about what any given word meant, and by the bottom of the page that 20% of doubt would add up . . . I had grown very discouraged indeed, until one day, almost by accident, having borrowed my husband's Collins in lieu of my own Oxford-Duden, I discovered that the problem wasn't in fact any lack of skill on my part, but the fault of my dictionary, which for all its heft simply didn't include enough detail to get down to the technical meanings of words. What a revelation! I logged into Amazon.com & ordered my own copy. And now, with the Collins in hand, there's nothing I can't tackle. It has quite literally changed my life.

This could well be the best two-way dictionary of any language pair anywhere. As an avid student of several foreign languages (incl. English and German) for 20 years, I have come to know what constitutes a first-rate dictionary. It is nothing short of a masterpiece.

I had been using a predecessor edition (2nd ed., 1991) for some 10 years, and even when it was published it was the best of its kind and constantly on my desk. This 4th edition raises the bar by featuring improvements across the board. The benefits derived from the increased computerised analysis of the huge word corpora Bank of English and Deutsche Textbörse are increasingly visible. Vorsprung durch Technik, indeed.

1. This exhaustive dictionary embraces, on 1000 pages in either section, every register from formal officialese via the standard language right down to vulgar slang. But it is in the real-life language where Collins has the finger right on the pulse. Many word entries are awash with examples of usage/idioms/set phrases/proverbs as actually used by natives as well as their natural translations. (I wish there were a way to download all this information into my brain because I would be able to handle any situation in flying colours.)

2. Inclusion of German words like Kardanwelle, Rochade, das Pull-Down-Menü, Überlaufanzeige etc. indicate extensive coverage of specialist terms in many fields as well as loan-words from the 90s.

3. The English section is equally impressive, listing e.g. cyberpet, establishing shot, trick or treat, decontextualize, nuclear reprocessing plant, memory expansion card, look-in, supergrass, wicked (UK slang). The word "go" and its associated phrasal verbs have an astounding range of translations.

4. Idiomatic phrases such as "to get away with sth" and "jdm etwas zumuten" which are contextually dependent are given several alternative and appropriate translations.

5. Certain bon mots and expressions which are used mostly in situations on one side of the Channel (or those whose counterpart is much less colourful!) are well translated.
Examples: set piece, pub crawl, single-track mind, car-boot sale, off-the-record, stomping groud, pipe dream; Stammtisch, Führungszeugnis, Geheimtipp, Kuschelrock, Dreitagebart, Wohngemeinschaft, Dunkelziffer, nicht mehr der jüngste sein etc. In fact, even "Ich schau dir in die Augen, Kleines", the classic line from the dubbed version of Casablanca, is listed. Hut ab!

6. This edition includes an audio CD with pronunciation (because they understand that there is a practical limit to phonetic script). The layout has been given a face-lift with 3 columns per page instead of 2 resulting in improved readability.

7. The dictionary's vast scope, depth and usability for both English and German learners and speakers (in equal measure) leave virtually no room for valid criticism. Yet some words and expressions seem to have escaped the researchers' keen eye for detail (so far); missing English words are e.g. polenta, present/current value (Fin), brown-noser, case-sensitive. Im deutschen Teil sind die folgenden durchaus geläufigen Wörter nicht aufgeführt: Quereinsteiger, Marktabschottung, Kasslerbraten, Regelwerk, verhandlungssicher, Töff (CH). But this is nit-picking.

Summa summarum: Kudos to the team of meticulous professionals behind this work for having brought out the Mercedes S-Klasse - with all the optional extras - of dictionaries. It's also an exemplary cross-border collaboration optimally blending British practicality and German precision.

Buy this dictionary - you may still be using it in 2012.

The Collins German Dictionary, with 800,000 entries, has more words and definitions than other comparable dictionaries such as the Oxford Duden, the Langenscheidts and the Cassells (which should be avoided because it is so outdated). It also gives complete grammar explanations in the preface, and it includes a list of regular German noun endings, their genders, genitives, and plurals. There is also a handy reference of all the abbreviations, field labels, and style labels on the inside cover. It also includes the past and participial forms for all strong verbs, and it gives past subjunctives within the text. The Collins also gives declensions for pronouns such as "wer" and "jemand," and it lists proper nouns within the text. Verbs that differ from the stem of the infinitive are listed in their imperative singular form ("hilf," "sprich," etc.). The traditional orthography is given in the body of the dictionary, with a symbol indicating words that have changed on account of the spelling reform of 1996.

Its main drawback is that the binding tends to collapse with frequent use, even though it is a hardback.

While abbreviations are listed in alphabetical order in the text, their definitions are not given to you immediately. For example, if you look up "usf.," you are told that it is an abbreviation of "und so fort;" then you must look up fort to discover that "usf." means "and so forth." The Collins listing of German verbs is at the very end of the dictionary, which makes it hard to find.

Note that there are a variety of Collins dictionaries. The unabridged version has 800,000 entries, while the College Edition has 380,000 entries, and the Concise edition has 195,000 entries. Some of the smaller dictionaries have entries listed in red or in blue, which is helpful for finding words more quickly. If you are beginning to learn German, it is useful
to have a smaller dictionary to save time while looking up the
same word over and over again.

Mine has a different cover... and mine looks even better... I live in Hong Kong and learn German as a third langauge in the university. I've bought a pocket Langenscheidt and this Collins. Wow, it's collosal and it has everything you want to have. Very clear and detailed, with millions of examples of word use. One must thank his stars to have found this valuable reference.
For me, the example phrases are very important because for two words, one in German and one in English, even if they have one or two definitions in common, they have some definitions that is not copied in the each other, so there are no straight translations. The same word in English can be differnt words in German when we are using different definitions of the English word, and vice versa. That's why the phrases are so useful. This dictionary has the most numerous such practical usage examples, and really, it beats the Duden.
The Oxford Duden lacks pronunciation symbols for its entries and has few usage forms for each word as guidance to usage.
That's why I bought Langenscheidt and Collins but not the Duden. By the way, I didn't buy them from Amazon.

This is perfect for the German scholar needing to know every word! It includes full guidelines for the new language reform. It rivals the Langenscheidt series and is affordable.

I bought this Collins Unabridged German dictionary in order to fulfill my need for a complete desk German dictionary with a lot of new words as compared to the medium-sized ones I already have, more appropriate for couch or sofa reading.

As a matter of fact, the Collins Unabridged is a very good dictionary but doesn't go the extra mile for ALL the words I was looking for and which are found in contemporary books and magazines. This may be explained by the characteristical feature of the german language which allows us to construct composite words from basic words, thus making a kind of word competition to see the largest german word avaiable (the greatest I have read is 34 letters long).

But, in fact, the medium-sized ones from Langenscheidt (German/english), with some 120.000 entries and the one from Editora Porto (portuguese/german), with 60.000 entries, that I have cover some 99% of the words found at Collins, both in entries as in content. The 1% left which is found in Collins is for me justifiable enough for having bought the Collins Unabridged dictionary, but I don't know if anybody would feel the same as I do, given the fact that I love to study words and its minimal variations.
Also, some more explanations on the meaning of the words would be helpfull, but, in all, is a pretty good dictionary.

While this is, overall, an excellent dictionary, it still has a few problems that I've also noticed in smaller dictionaries. I've run across a few words that are found in the English>German, but then the German word is not listed in the German>English section...or vice versa. I wouldn't have expected this in an "unabridged" dictionary. Having all the words in both sections is important in our household since I am from the US and my wife from Germany. We commonly rely on both German>English AND English>German translations. The missing translations can be bothersome.

Also, despite this being unabridged, I've run across several, fairly common, words that are not in here. For example, I could not find the word 'canola', as in 'canola oil', in the English>German. It doesn't seem like that is too obscure of a word...especially for an unabridged dictionary. There have been several more that, in bewilderment, I could not find. I see there is a 5th edition coming out in September 2004. Hopefully that may solve some of these issues.

All in all, among the unabridged German-English dictionaries, this one does seem to be the best one out there, and at a reasonable price.

Academics, this is the dictionary for you! German scholarship is vitally important to anyone in my field. I used to struggle over the abstract and often technical vocabulary, which made wading through German articles (let alone whole books) a major headache. Somehow I never had more than about an 80% certainty about what any given word meant, and by the bottom of the page that 20% of doubt would add up . . . I had grown very discouraged indeed, until one day, almost by accident, having borrowed my husband's Collins in lieu of my own Oxford-Duden, I discovered that the problem wasn't in fact any lack of skill on my part, but the fault of my dictionary, which for all its heft simply didn't include enough detail to get down to the technical meanings of words. What a revelation! I logged into Amazon.com & ordered my own copy. And now, with the Collins in hand, there's nothing I can't tackle. It has quite literally changed my life.

I have nightmares about my life before this dictionary. To describe it as thorough is an understatement. Every level user, from beginner to advanced in either language will find this dictionary well-organized and easy to use. It includes sections on irregular verbs, rechtsschreibreform, letter-writing etiquette, and business etiquette. I don't think that I could appreciate this dictionary so much if I hadn't experienced so many others. In my opinion, this version beats Langenscheit hands down. I am, however, a native English speaker; it is possible that a native German speaker would disagree on this point.

In all, for users of any level, this dictionary is a necessity for successful and accurate use of either language.