Customer Reviews

Harper Collins Beginner's French Dictionary: The Essential Dictionary from the First Class to the Final Exam

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

 

 

I took French in junior and high school (graduated over 22 years ago). Last spring, I started an immersion French class, which means the class is taught entirely in French. Since I was too "chicken" to take a placement test, I decided to start at level 1. I purchased this dictionary to assist me in remembering the basics.

In addition to being a dictionary, this book has a review of basic concepts. I find this dictionary to be very helpful in my endeavor to be fluent 'en français'.

Excellent book!! My son has been taking French for five years and this comes in handy!! A must have!!

I have found this dictionary to be very simple and effective when searching for words. Even in a fourth semester college class it is proving competent. It uses pleasant blue and black print to find the words easy from both the side (when you're searching for the first letter of the word) and on the inside.

the service was great. and i got my order sooner than i thought. the book was just as they said great.

On the substantive side, the dictionary is unsatisfactory because it does not have the pronunciation and the English part is British English ("boot", meaning trunk), even for slang (to "chat up", meaning "to pick up").

On the non-substantive side, this dictionary rarely misses an opportunity to give the politically correct cliche (environmentalism, for big government, etc) or stereotype (e.g., for men as violent against women).