HarperCollins Spanish College Dictionary [Hardcover]

HarperCollins Publishers (Author), Harper Collins (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0060082410 | ISBN-13: 978-0060082413 | Publication Date: April 30, 2002 | Edition: 4th

The HarperCollins Spanish College Dictionary is a standout -- you're holding the best buy on the shelf in your hands right now. Here's why:

• Easiest to use: Usage levels are indicated throughout, with extensive examples to illustrate how words are used in context. A system of style labels identifies whether a word is formal, informal, literary, vulgar, dated, or euphemistic. In addition, specific meanings are clearly marked to guide the user to the correct treatment. The text also includes illustrations of pronunciations through the usage of the International Phonetic Alphabet, enabling easy access and effective communication for educational, business, and traveling purposes.


• Most consistently updated: HarperCollins dictionaries are updated more frequently than the competition, giving you the edge in reading, writing, and understanding the language.


• Comprehensive: Fully updated coverage of both Spanish and English, including business, technological, and cultural terms and complete coverage of Latin American usage.

Here's a sampling of the new terms
this edition includes:24/7
BTW
carbon credit
domain name
dotcom
DVD
e-commerce
e-tail
e-zine
firewallminicam
minidisk
MP3
pay-per-click
PDA
rightsizing
text messaging
WAP
webcam
webcast

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

A high-quality dictionary is a colossal challenge. Since languages live, breathe, and change, antiquated terms must be excised and newly coined words included, definitions must take current usage into account, and editorial dreams of comprehensiveness vie with practical considerations of space. And that's when you're dealing with just one language. In a two-language dictionary such as this English-Spanish/Spanish-English college dictionary by Harper Collins, the task is more than doubled. Not only must both lexicons be evaluated for a scope and contemporary relevance consistent with a sophisticated audience, but the definitions and translations must be appropriate for students still learning Spanish.

It's a tough proposition, but Harper Collins is more than up to the task. With 355,000 entries and translations, the Harper Collins Spanish College Dictionary covers the basic building blocks of the two languages, plus thousands of contemporary technical, political, and business terms--such as karaoke, telemarketing, male menopause, and aromatherapy, downsize, spellchecker, carphone, and junk TV. While some words are translated simply and briefly with one-word or two-word definitions, such as "odioso/a" for "hateful," more complex words, such as "have," merit a full column of idioms, examples, and grammatical constructs. The entry for "head" (cabeza), for example, includes everything from "my head aches" (me duele la cabeza) to "laugh one's head off" (reirse a carcajadas) to "have a head for business" (ser bueno para los negocios).

In addition, a Language Building Supplement contains 85 pages of translation tips, sentence-builder templates, Spanish verbs, and correspondence models, plus numbers, times and dates, weights and measures, and vocabulary for the telephone. This 1,100-page tome provides the tools that can enable you to read, write, and speak correct, up-to-date Spanish. For the money, it would be hard to find a dictionary better suited to the needs of a serious student of Spanish. --Stephanie Gold --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Language Notes

Text: English, Spanish --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 1376 pages
• Publisher: Collins Reference; 4th edition (April 30, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060082410
• ISBN-13: 978-0060082413
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.6 x 2.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #840,997 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #83 in Books > Education & Reference > Dictionaries & Thesauruses > Foreign Language > Polyglot

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Muy bien, October 30, 2001

By 

Stephen McHenry (Olney, MD USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Harper Collins Spanish College Dictionary (Collins diccionario espanol-ingles / ingles-espanol) (English and Spanish Edition) (Hardcover)

I stood in a bookstore reference section and compared 4 different Spanish/English dictionaries for about 15 minutes before buying this one. It is easy to use, updated with current words, has very good information on what they call Language Building Supplements, such as how to do correspondence, using the telephone, translation tips, conjugating verbs, etc.. This dictionary would be good for a college freshman, senior, or someone like me who is just working on trying to learn the language.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, but one flaw, October 20, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: HarperCollins Spanish College Dictionary (Hardcover)

I would've given this 5 stars if it weren't for the fact that the abbreviations key is difficult to read. The key is printed on deep blue endpapers. The abbreviations are in white text and that's OK, but their meanings are printed in black and therefore nearly impossible to read without a strong light and a magnifier. Otherwise, an excellent dictionary.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Comprehensive and Easy to Use!, October 15, 2003

By 

Nate - See all my reviews

This review is from: HarperCollins Spanish College Dictionary (Hardcover)

This Spanish dictionary is amazing - I've used it for several semesters of college Spanish, as well as during a two month trip in Ecuador, and I can count on one hand the number of words that I've encountered that aren't in this dictionary.

This dictionary also includes tons of usage information - common verbs like poder, quedar, and estar each receive more than a full column of coverage, most of which is sample phrases and sentences so that you can see exactly how a word is used in many different contexts. Slang/offensive words are marked as such, and when words are used only in certain regions, this information is also mentioned. Some good information on Spanish grammar is included; though it isn't terribly extensive, it is useful for figuring out important phrases and structures.

This book's formatting is another one of its strengths. The variety of tasteful colors and styles separate this book from the dictionaries limited to black text.

Overall, this dictionary is wonderful - if you're a Spanish student or speaker interested in a dictionary that is both comprehensive and easy to use, look no further!