Customer Reviews

Collins Spanish Concise Dictionary, 3e (HarperCollins Concise Dictionaries) (Spanish and English Edition)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

My Master's thesis was a review and rating of Spanish-English dictionaries. I find this dictionary, like all the other Collins dictionaries, to be a good choice.

Here are a few of the factors which distinguish a good bilingual dictionary from a bad one.

To begin with, ignore certain publishers' marketing ploys such as entry and translation counts. They say nothing about the value of the words chosen.

The first valid factor to consider is lexicographic technique. A bad dictionary simply lists translations. Take, for example, the entry in the Cassell's Spanish Dictionary under the English headword loop: "lazo, gaza, nudo; ojal, presilla, alamar; anillo; recodo, comba, curva, vuelta," etc. For the English reader writing in Spanish, this is hopelessly inadequate, as the dictionary provides no clue as to which translation to use in which situation.

Compare the treatment of the same word in the far superior American Heritage Spanish Dictionary. "(length of line) lazo; (coil) vuelta; (bend) curva; (circular path) vuelta, circuito; (fastener) presilla" etc. Here, the user is given glosses in the native language to assist in identifying the right word for the context. Example sentences are also a tremendous help. Collins is excellent in this respect, presenting good information to guide users through the semantic and syntactic complexities.

Second, a good dictionary should maintain an up-to-date lexicon, including such cultural and technological additions to the language as "baby sitter," "hostile takeover," "software," "flash drive." Collins is a leader in this respect; its frequent revisions are more than mere window dressing and do a creditable job of covering the most recent additions to the language.

Third, idioms, slang, and cusswords can present real problems to the language learner, and a dictionary needs to handle them in a clear and frank fashion. This dictionary gets it right, giving stylistic equivalents for translations as well as clear advice to the user.

One complaint about Collins dictionaries is that they often presents Britishisms without labeling them as such. Revisions have only partially corrected the problem. For this reason, I would not recommend this dictionary to native Spanish speakers in the US.

Be careful when you choose a bilingual dictionary, as some of the choices--Cassell's and Vox, for example--are downright terrible. The field of large dictionaries stays relatively static over time, and the best choices in it by far are Oxford, Collins, and Larousse. The field of small dictionaries, on the other hand, has many more players. While not the only good choice, Collins is a dictionary most users would be pleased with.

After looking over the unseemly number of spanish/english dictionaries that are out there, I finally decided to go with the Harper Collins Concise Spanish, and ever since I've been very happy with my choice.

As is the case with all concise dictionaries, you're making certain tradeoffs when it comes to word inclusion, but compared to the competition at this size range, the selection seems very thorough. An additional (and not too common) feature is the fairly comprehensive (300 page) grammar section at the back of the book.

The print & graphic presentation are both well thought out, & result in a dictionary that is easy to consult.

I got this book before school started; I'm taking Spanish III. So I needed a dictionary. I opted for this one because it looked hefty enough.

I wasn't disappointed. This dictionary has enough words for any Spanish student. It even has modern words like "digital TV", "internet", and "MTV". It has easy to read print and is durable.

Whether you want to browse or seriously study this dictionary is great. Aside from defining the word, examples are given in context.

This dictionary also has a very extensive grammar section. This is a very important note. This section has everything you need to know Spanish grammar, which will help you in class much. It has all the common verbs, like hacer, ir, ser, dormir, etc. It also has sections devoted to translation problems, spelling, adjectives, pronouns, etc.

I carry this dictionary to class every day. It is invaluable in the moment when you forgot the meaning of a word. And if you know the meaning in English only, you can flip quickly to the English-Spanish section.

Some precautionary notes: This dictionary was made in Britain. Some English words are spelled differently from the American way (honour, colour, etc.). It also differs from most American dictionaries in that it contains vulgar words (I won't enumerate them, though). Also, this is a dictionary for Castillian Spanish. It probably won't have some Latin American terms.

In conclusion, this dictionary is my new amigo. I was thinking of getting an electronic spanish dictionary, but now I know that this is better. I get to actually see the words and see surrounding ones too. It's an interesting, pithy, concise dictionary. If you need a Spanish dictionary this one won't let you down.

Foreign language dictionaries are one of the few new book bargains left, since you can often get a decent paperback one for under ten bucks. Unless you need one with hundreds of thousands of entries, or one that includes specialized scientific, technical, medical, or financial and business vocabularies, you can usually get by with one of the cheaper ones.

Note that this review is for the British edition, which was titled Collins Spanish Dictionary PLUS Grammar, but it was published in the U.S. under the above title, so it's the same except for that.

So far this seems to be an excellent dictionary. It's 1300 pages long, which makes it a pretty thick book for a paperback. In addition to the dictionary, it includes a 300-page grammar of Spanish. The grammar discusses all the major verb tenses, indicative, preterite, future, conditional, progressive tenses, and the subjunctive, and so on, the last of which is a problem for English speakers since it doesn't exist much there anymore.

The grammar section has over 70 verb tables showing the complete conjugation for that verb, and an index of 2800 verbs cross-referenced to the appropriate conjugation table. The grammar section also includes hundreds examples of verbs governing a preposition in Spanish and how they are used, idiomatic usages of verbs, the differences between Ser and Estar, translation problems encountered, and Spanish phonetics and pronunciation. Of course there are sections on nouns, adjectives, articles, conjunctions, and the other parts of speech, too, but verbs and prepositions are usually the main difficulty encountered by English speakers in Spanish.

The front of the dictionary also includes a list of dozens of common abbreviations, a second section on Spanish pronunciation, and how to express numbers, times, and dates in Spanish. I couldn't find a mention of how many words are actually in the dictionary, but the editorial review above says that there are 195,000 entries and translations, which should be enough for all but the most fluent speakers or those needing specialized vocabulary. There are facts on Spanish life and culture, although I haven't been able to figure out where in the dictionary that is yet, but it might have something to do with the boxes of text that are set apart from the rest of the text throughout the dictionary. These also appear in the English-to-Spanish portion of the dictionary, but curiously, they're in Spanish there too so it's hard to understand them unless you're fluent.

I also have the Collins electronic dictionary on CD, and it's excellent also. One thing that's nice about the CD-based one is it will pronounce the words for you. You have to install the pronunciation generator separately from the main dictionary, and I don't recall it asking about that during the initial installation, but anyway, it's there if you want it. Another advantage over a printed dictionary is lookup is almost instantaneous. You just start typing in the word and it pops to the place. Often you don't even need to type in the complete word. Another great feature of the electronic dictionary is that you can right click on any word in the definition section and it pops you to that definition in the text, which is great for going to a word that given as a synonym, or a word that you don't know when a phrase with the word is given.

One thing you'll notice about electronic dictionaries is all the color-coding and different colors used. I'm not sure if this is more of a distraction than a help so far, but anyway, it's the way they do it. This one uses at least six colors--light blue, dark blue, yellow, green, purple, and black. The way this works is the word you're looking up is in light blue, the abbreviation for the part of speech is in yellow, the phonetic pronunciation is in green, and the definition is in black. Dark blue seems to be used to state which verb form the word is from, or examples of usage, as the definition often includes phrases showing how the word is used. I'm still not sure what purple is for, but purple seems to denote similar words or synonyms, examples of Brit. or American usage, whether it's a specialized term, such as NAUT (nautical), and other things. The first word on a page at the top left of the program window is always in red, so that's all there is to that.

Collins maintains what it calls "word banks" of Spanish and English, which are electronic databases of over 400 million words of contemporary Spanish and English usage, and presumably this dictionary is based on that, and which Collins considers a valuable resource.

I loved this dictionary when I bought it. It appeared the best in my quick comparison in the bookstore. It does do a good job of quickly identifying root words. However when you start to use it more extensively such as looking up more specific usages of a word, the conciseness becomes an annoyance as you try to interpret the cryptically displayed definitions. I'm personally searching for a replacement.

this dictionary saved my life in my college spanish classes...i'd definitely have to recommend it, especially if you're in a spanish composition class. or if you ever travel to a spanish-speaking country...

[Note: this rating is for a dictionary of this size.]

This is one of the two concise dictionaries I own. A new edition (5e, what happened to 4e?) is coming out. Supposedly to be released 1/08, but it has yet to actually appear. I will buy it when available.

3e has good coverage for its size and lots of idioms. Sure, it's hardly complete, but every dictionary that I've seen has unexpected omissions. And, of course, it's what I would consider an intermediate size dictionary.

The format with blue, bold headings and the general typography make it easy on the eyes.

The grammar section at the back is both a good and bad feature. Bad in that it makes the dictionary significantly heavier to tote around. I wish it were detachable. But, it is quite good for its grammar summary, providing a general grammar and not solely verb conjugations.

I prefer this edition of the Collins-Harper to the similarly sized and newer Langenscheidt's Diccionario Moderno Ingles / Langenscheidt Standard Spanish Dictionary: Espanol-Ingles/ Ingles-Espanol / Spanish -English English-Spanish (Langenscheidt Standard Dictionaries). Primarily due to the convenience of 3e opening flat (not at the extremes but more towards the middle), but also for my occasional use of the grammar section.

However, I think the Langenscheit's has a bit more contemporary usage and is slightly more extensive.

But, used for $.95 + shipping this is a great deal if you don't want to lay out more or want a 2nd dictionary. My 3e will move over to work when 5e finally comes available.

This is a very good dictionary. I love the Harper Colllins dictionaries but this is the smallest one that I would recomend. Any dictionary with less words that this one is just to limited. The grammar section is good.(I am sure not the best judge on grammar) and the verb tables are priceless.

Publisher Comments:
It's now the best buy in paperback on a crowded shelf! HarperCollins Concise Dictionaries carry on the tradition of our strong-selling bilinguals, which have earned a reputation as the easiest to use, most consistently updated, and most reliable authorities on slang, technological, political, and business terms. Easy to carry and painlessly priced, they're perfect for college or advanced high school language students.
-- A comprehensive dictionary and grammar reference in one, the Concise Dictionaries include 316-page step-by-step guides to grammatical constructions and idiomatic usage.
-- The keyword feature gives students extra help in translating the most essential vocabulary words.
-- Special entries throughout the text illuminate aspects of a given country's life and culture.

I purchased the 2001 edition of this book in a retail book store about two years ago. At first I seldom used it, but in the last few months of 2007 I started to use it quite a bit. Shortly after, the pages begin to come loose from the binding. I believe any dictionary should be made with enough quality to give years of use. I have paperback English dictionaries that are several years old and still in one piece. I have other paperback English/Spanish dictionaries that are still holding up. Of the hundreds of paperpacks that I have purchased over several years, this book is one of the five or six that did not hold together.
Aside from the poor binding construction, I would rate the content of this dictionary a 3 or 4. It is possible that the edition on sale here has a better binding than my edition, however, if you need an everyday dictionary, look elsewhere.