Diccionario español/inglés inglés/español: Langenscheidt New College Spanish Dictionary [Hardcover]

Langenscheidt Publishers (Author), Langenscheidt Editorial (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Langenscheidt Publishers; Revised edition (January 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0887291260
• ISBN-13: 978-0887291265
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 7.1 x 2.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,463,172 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Sloppy: filled with errors and omissions, April 8, 2001

By 

S. Pearson "pc uzr" (SF, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Diccionario español/inglés inglés/español: Langenscheidt New College Spanish Dictionary (Hardcover)

I have been using this dictionary now for over a year during an intensive study of Spanish in Costa Rica.

During that time I have become more and more frustrated with this dictionary. I have encountered literelly dozens of typographical errors, mostly misspellings of English words that have led me to conclude that the book was not proofread by a native English speaker.

I've also come across many many examples of sloppy editing. For example, there are several places I've found where the translation for the English word can't be found in the Spanish side or vice-versa. Look up "durazno" and it says "peach" but look up "peach" and durazno is not to be found. Look up "substitute" and one of the spanish translations is "sustituir". But "sustituir" is not included in the Spanish part.

Finally, I have encountered innumerable words that aren't to be found in the dictionary. This is not just a matter of slang. We're talking basic words and sayings like "rumbo a" (in the direction of), "de modo que", and "pandilla" (gang). I find about 20% of the words I look up on the Spanish side aren't in the dictionary -- and this applies to classics (Platero y Yo, Los de Abajo), news papers (Costa Rica's La Nacion), and popular fiction (the translation of the Hunt for Red October). You would think the editors would pick the 100 greatest works of Spanish literature and ensure that every word in these books in in their dictionary. But they clearly didn't.

On the plus side, the dictionary often contains useful examples of usage. But this is far and away overwhelmed by the sloppy editing and inexplicable omissions.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Diccitonary!, March 19, 2005

By 

Wil - See all my reviews

This review is from: Diccionario español/inglés inglés/español: Langenscheidt New College Spanish Dictionary (Hardcover)

I am writing this review just to be fair to other people that might get misled by other reviews.

I bought the book, but did not look at the reviews till later. When I found out there were clear mistakes like "durazno" not found in the spaninsh dictionary. I have other dictionaries Spanish and English so I did my research. Peach is "melocoton" in spanish.

Durazno is "peach tree" in other words in most Latin countries they name the peach tree "durazno" and "melocoton" is peach, but you can also call the fruit "durazno".

Also "substitute=sustituir" is found as "substituir" both words mean the same. So the dictionary is ok. You just need to understand Spanish is very complex just the same as when you say a word in English, but you spell it another way.

I hope this helps somebody.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Five More Stars For Langenscheidt, May 30, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Diccionario español/inglés inglés/español: Langenscheidt New College Spanish Dictionary (Hardcover)

Regardless of the language, if you are looking for a concise, detailed and comprehensive dictionary to help in language studies or just word translation, this dictionary by Langenscheidt is all you need! I have purchased other language dictionaries by Langenscheidt and they have never failed me yet! The Spanish-English version is as superior as the others. What a great tool - you will be conversing in no time!