Dic Collins-Robert French-English, English-French Dictionary [Hardcover]

Beryl T. Atkins (Author), Alain Duval (Author), Helene M. A. Lewis (Author), Rosemary C. Milne (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1998

The HarperCollins College Dictionaries are acknowledged by scholars as the world's number-one resource for translation and language education. They feature thousands of contemporary technical, medical, political, and business terms, plus abundant examples of construction and usage. Includes 345,000 entries and translations for extensive coverage of the French language.

Editorial Reviews

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 Bronte 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

• Hardcover: 1104 pages
• Publisher: Harperreference; 2nd edition (September 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0062752537
• ISBN-13: 978-0062752536
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 2.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,695,915 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My one and only companion, July 4, 2000

By 

SquamLoon (Center Harbor, NH USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dic Collins-Robert French-English, English-French Dictionary (Hardcover)

As an AP French teacher, I research a great deal before I ask my students to buy a dictionary. My bible from my years as a college French major to even now as a teacher has been the unabridged Collins-Robert French English dictionary, with its nuanced entries--entries which actually teach the reader how to differentiate between different usages of words. (For it is in only this that a foreign language dictionary can truly have any value...)

This abridged version still tackles the nuance problem to an admirable degree, while maintaining an affordable, portable sensibility. It's for this reason that I ask my students to buy it.

The Larousse is still good--my colleague swears by it, and "googol" is in the unabridged version while it's not in the Collins-Robert... but aesthetically, intuitively, and--most especially--in terms of the phrases you really want to translate, the Collins-Robert covers more interesting ground.

Buy this book, and if you have a Palm Pilot or equivalent with enough memory, buy the Palm version too.

16 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing, December 1, 2000

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Harper Collins Robert French College Dictionary (Hardcover)

When translating something into a second language, it is important to know whether a verb is transitive. If intransitive, and you want it to act on something, you must link with an appropriate preposition. Unfortunately, the compiler of the Harper Collins Robert French College Dictionary does not seem to know what constitutes transitive/intransitive verbs. I have found many errors, especially in the French section. One's translation effort could look very foolish to a native speaker if one relied on this lexicon. Additionally, the organization is poor and confusing. For example, the words changeable, changeover, changing-room, and many others are included under the entry "change" instead of being listed as separate entries, and they are thus very hard to find. I would suggest selecting a different F-E/E-F dictionary.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars WELL-STRUCTURED, VERY GOOD, January 17, 2003

By 

reviewer (Zurich, Switzerland.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Harper Collins Robert French College Dictionary (Hardcover)

"Harper Collins Robert French College Dictionary" has a rather long name, but that is the only big blame I have for it. It quickly opens the door at the request of any French enthusiast.
This well-compiled lexicon covers almost all the contemporary words that French natives use in daily conversations. It has a good structure, and its double-spaced outlay makes it easy to locate words. However, intending (American) buyers should bear in mind that this edition paid more attention to the Queen's English than it did to the American one.