Customer Reviews

Collins Italian Dictionary

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Collins Italian Concise Dictionary, aka HarperCollins Italian Concise Dictionary:

The title difference reflects the recent graphic redesign HarperCollins commissioned from Mucca Design. The new design is pictured here as COLLINS ITALIAN CONCISE DICTIONARY. HarperCollins dictionaries have been selling in Europe under the "Collins" imprint. The text is the same except that COLLINS has a two-color format (blue-headwords, black text) that I believe makes the pages easier to scan. The ISBN is the same on both formats -- in theory, you could end up with the HARPERCOLLINS monochrome (black text) or the COLLINS two-color (blue & black). You can certainly return and/or exchange your copy if it isn't the format you prefer. Perhaps you could email customer service to ensure you get your choice of unicolor or two-color.
Webster's New World Italian Dictionary (Concise Ed. = ISBN 0139536396) was THE outstanding portable for many years, but it has not been updated since 1985 (1992 date listed on amazon is the reprint date). I used it through my entire undergraduate program and was frequently asked to look up definitions that students with inferior portables could not find (I almost always found them). The Webster's is an outstanding concise dictionary, though it lacks many neologisms of the past 20 years, the cultural notes, the keyword guides, the "Italian in Action" grammar guide, and the two-color format of the Collins. However, the number of entries for both concise dictionaries is roughly the same, and both feature excellent usage examples in phrases. The Webster's appears to be the overall champ in details. Catherine E. Love is editor on both dictionaries (with others). I much prefer the Collins Italian College Dictionary, 3rd Edition to their "Concise," though the "College" is NOT a portable (it's a heavy desk dictionary). "College" has a wonderfully legible layout in a great font, but is not packing as many definitions as the unabridged choices.

P.S. Only those students who are just trying to get through their language requirement will be interested in lower-priced (retail approx. $4.95 to 9.95 or so), bilingual (newsprint -- uffa!) dictionaries. Oxford, Collins/HarperCollins, and others publish these inferior, if lower-priced dictionaries, in addition to the excellent concise dictionaries in the approx. $12-16 price range, of which the excellent "Collins" on this page is but one example. I suspect that these newsprint jobs are manufactured primarily to provide a lower-priced dictionary to bundle with school textbooks. These newsprint cheapies will age quicker and start to stink! Yellowing newsprint often triggers allergies (migraines, etc.). If you feel that you are a somewhat disinterested student, keep in mind that you just may fall in love with the language you're studying and wish you had invested in the mid-level, excellent concise dictionary from the start, instead of throwing away $10 on a stinky newsprint number with brief entries.

If you feel you just do not want to put out more than $10, or must have something lighter in your backpack, then go for the Oxford Italian Mini Dictionary or the Italian Dictionary (Collins GEM). Both of these minis have durable flexi-covers and: ***phrasebooks for travelers!*** The cover of the Oxford Mini states "100,000 entries and translations." The Collins [Mini] appears to have approx. as many entries as the Oxford Mini, and both feature blue headwords. Either one of these is an excellent choice for travelers as vocabulary is almost always a concern, and standard phrasebooks have much more limited dictionaries within. Both minis appear to have as many entries as the higher-priced "newsprints," are certainly more durable, portable (smaller, if chubby), and are printed on better paper!

P.S.S. For those American students who think they SHOULD be studying Spanish ("instead"), keep in mind that INTERNAL motivation is one of the best predictors for success in any field or area of study. If you want to study Italian (or an obscure, "dying" language/dialect, for that matter), then go for Italian and don't look back. The discipline gained from mastering Italian is an award in itself, and mastery of this beautiful language will greatly aide you with Spanish and other romance languages -- and indeed any future language study.

I have this medium-sized Collins Italian-English dictionary as well as the smaller one and the large hard-bound one. The binding is coming apart on all three of them. (To be fair, I have used all three of them a lot; but I have other reference books I've used just as much without them falling apart.)

For the last year, I've been reading a couple of chapters each week of fairly old Italian book (written a little over 100 years ago). A friend and I meet each week to discuss the text and go over any questions either of us may have. I've discovered that there are quite a few words that I can't find in any of my Collins dictionaries that are in her Webster's. I admit some of the words I can't find are probably old-fashioned terms, but the book we're reading isn't that old (more like Dickens than Shakespeare), and furthermore, the terms are often defined in her dictionary.

I also find that modern technical terms are often missing too - although I can't compare this with other dictionaries (and technology is really hard to keep up with).

A couple of other misgivings: this dictionary focuses more on British English than American English. Different spellings (flavour, flavor) and definitions (lift, elevator) are generally given, and this usually isn't a problem. However, sometimes baffling British idiomatic expressions (at least unfamiliar to this American user) are given as translations without a corresponding American idiom. This doesn't happen very often, but when it does, I usually end up Googling the term to see if I've guessed right.

Another disappointment I've had on more than one occasion is when I look up a word in English and find an Italian word as the translation. But when I look up the Italian word on the Italian side (often to verify where the accent should go), it's not there at all. I'm not sure if there's a reason for this or if it's just an oversight.

I guess these are all pet peeves, and I'm not sure other dictionaries would be that much better. Good luck with your purchase!

I have been a long time "studentessa Italiana" and was looking for a concise portable Italian dictionary that I could rely on but also did not want to add much addtional weight to my bag when traveling. Well....I found this Collins dictionary to be quite portable and still covers over 40,000 entries. I currently own two Oxford Dictionaries, although they are the best but both are too heavy to use for travel. Another excellent dictionary is from Amsco Publications but it has not been updated. The only down side of the Collins book is the quality of the pages. They are like newsprint and are rather thin. If you are willing to overlook that part, then this book would be a great choice for travel and "un buon marcato".

I love this series of Collins Concise Dictionaries. I have three German, French and Italian. They're all from this new series that includes a section on grammar, including all the essential paradigms, etc. When selecting these dictionaries, I did a random comparison of terms across three or four major dictionaries. In all cases, i.e. for German, French and Italian, Collins came out on top. It has more terms as well as the most detail definition or description per term. I also like the size, the weight and the print -- all just right. It's a great product and I highly recommend it.

Nice format, good book size to handle easily, vast amount of words, easy to read and logical to understand arrangement. A truly nice appendix about grammar. My only wish to the publisher would be: when accent marks indicating the stressed syllable in Italian words is drawn, use a more pronounced, thicker mark. What is used, is barely visible. However, that is small criticism about just one detail. I still would strongly recommend this dictionary to people who study / use Italian.

I've consulted quite a few Italian dictionaries over the years, and I think this is the best of the portable (although not really pocket-sized)bilingual ones--it's quite up to date, easy to read (the blue headwords really stand out), and useful.

This is the second time I bought this Italian Dictionary. The first one I gave to my sister after she used it one time becasue she wasn't able to find some translations in her dictionary. It is a great buy and has a lot to offer whether you are a beginner or a student.

What I loved about this book is that is translates from English to Italian and Italian to English. The font is a good size that is pleasing to the eye and makes it easy to find what you are looking for. There is also a section in the back of the book with common phrases that are very helpful. I am so glad I ordered this book.