Customer Reviews

Diccionario Practico del Estudiante/ Student Dictionary (Spanish Edition)

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I am a teacher of foreign languages and a firm believer in migrating students to mono-lingual dictionaries in the target language as early as possible. This dictionary does a remarkable job of covering a vast array of Spanish in an attractive format.

It is blessed by the Real Academia Espanol, and my experience with it confirms that it meets the high expectations of its pedigree. In addition to providing a respectable variety and depth of definitions, including regional words like "checar", it provides numerous pages of Spanish grammar and fully conjugated Spanish verbs. I am currently using it to decipher some of the less common words in the Spanish version of Harry Potter, and have yet to stump it.

The book is of a manageable (though not pocket) size to fit in a duffel bag or backpack and yet the fonts are large enough to be easily readable. The use of blue keywords in contrast with the black definitions adds to both the ease of using this book and its general aesthetic appeal.

I enthusiastically recommend this book as a first dictionary in Spanish. I suspect it will serve even most college students of Spanish well. I plan on buying a class set for my room.

For those that outgrow this book, I can heartily recommend its larger cousin:
Diccionario Esencial De La Lengua Espanola

This a great monolingual dictionary for Spanish advanced students or heritage speakers. This is a edition specially designed for Latin American students. There is another (heavier and more expensive) edition for Spain. I prefer this one. My students carry it daily because it doesn't weight a lot. Besides, definitions are clear, examples of usage are provided and a lot of words come with synonyms. It includes a review of Spanish orthography and over 40 verbs conjugated. In summary, lots of well organised information for a good price. What else can be said?

I live in Puerto Rico (US Territory, Caribbean Island) and received it faster than any other online store, and it was in the condition it says (new). I'm very glad that I purchased it here, because, I need for the same week for my son's first day of class.