Collins Gem Italian Dictionary: Italian-English English-Italian [Paperback]

Harper Reference (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1998 | Series: Collins Gem

With special entries on Italian life and culture

over 70,000 translations

fully revised and updated with all the vocabulary of current issues

extra help with the most frequently used words in Italian and English

comapct and reliable

The bestselling mini dictionary

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: Italian, English

About the Author

HarperCollins Publishers is one of the world's leading English-language publishers with headquarters in New York. The company is part of News America Publishing Group, a division of News Corporation. The house of Mark Twain, The Brontë sisters, Thackeray, Dickens, John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Maurice Sendak, HarperCollins was founded in New York City in 1817 by the brothers James and John Harper. The worldwide book group, which was formed following News Corporation's acquisition of the British publisher William Collins in January 1990, has significant publishing interests in the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and Australia.

Product Details

• Paperback: 640 pages
• Publisher: Harperreference; 4th edition (May 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 000470746X
• ISBN-13: 978-0004707464
• Product Dimensions: 4.3 x 3.2 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #242,707 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #1 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Reference > Dictionaries & Thesauruses > Foreign Language > Polyglot
  • #12 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Reference > Dictionaries & Thesauruses > Foreign Language > Italian
  • #14 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Nonfiction > Foreign Language Nonfiction > Italian

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A great "little" dictionary!, August 23, 1998

By 

Starr "carnevalestarr" (St Gallen, Switzerland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Collins Gem Italian Dictionary: Italian-English English-Italian (Paperback)

Obviously, a miniature didctionary like this one can't include the amount of information found in a home reference-type dictionary, but for a small travel dictionary, or one for a beginning student of Italian, this one is really good. I used it for a two-week, intensive language course in Rome and every word I needed for class I found in this dictionary. It's also very compact and will fit in a pocket, purse, or fanny-pack. If you want something a little more complete, yet still paperback book-size, I recommend the Bantam New College dictionary. Now, does anyone have a recommendation for a complete, home-reference dictionary???

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent pocket dictionary for learners of Italian, May 8, 2008

By 

Christopher Culver - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Collins Gem Italian Dictionary: Italian-English English-Italian (Paperback)

This listing describes the 4th edition (1998) of the COLLINS GEM ITALIAN DICTIONARY, Italian-English and English-Italian. This new edition updates the original edition, prepared by lexicography firm Lexus, to reflect Collins' Bank of English corpus.

The dictionary is quite large. I've used it for a decade now and have encountered few limitations. It has over 70,000 translations and defines words not only in the standard definition but also in common idiomatic contexts. An appendix lists the numbers in Italian and English and explains how they are used in dates and times. For me, a wonderful thing about this dictionary is that it gives phonetic transcriptions in IPA for many Italian words, clarifying for example when the letter o represents an open-mid back rounded vowel and when it represents a close-mid back rounded vowel, a tricky issue for learners.

While the paper on some Collins Gem dictionaries tends to yellow, my Italian dictionary still looks good as new, and the vinyl cover has proven quite durable. All in all, this is an excellent pocket dictionary I would highly recommend. It's well represented on the used market, so it can be had economically.