Customer Reviews

HarperCollins Spanish College Dictionary

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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!

Every dictionary is a compromise of completeness vs. compactness. The smaller and handier the dictionary, the more incomplete it is. The arm-wrenching "unabridged" dictionaries are the best, but their sheer bulk makes them impractical for many uses. The "Pocket" and "Compact" dictionaries are helpful in a jam, but are always forced by their small size to leave out important nuances and shades of meaning. For most of us, the ideal dictionary for serious day-to-day reference will be books of this size.

The "Collins Spanish College Dictionary" is about half the size and weight of the unabridged Oxford and Harper-Collins dictionaries, but is still very thorough and comprehensive. It has a number of features that I especially like when compared to other dictionaries in this class:

- It includes a large number of useful examples and idiomatic phrases.

- It has useful language tips embedded and highlighted in helpful places. For example, one such tip is: "Use el/un not la/una before feminine nouns beginning with stressed 'a' or 'ha' like agua."

- Overall it seemed a bit more comprehensive than others (although the Oxford Concise was also quite good in this respect).

- The translations that I checked were usually clearer and more straightforward.

- Many headwords are immediately followed by descriptive synonyms in the same language. For example, the Spanish headword: "fantastico ADJ 1 (= imaginario) fantastic 2 (= estupendo) fantastic, great", clearly identifies "imaginario" and "estupendo" as alternate words of similar meaning. This can be very helpful in broadening the reader's understanding and vocabulary.

- It contains 34 pages of "Spanish in Action", having sections on Useful Sentences, Correspondence, Email & Online Vocabulary, Telephone, Translation Tips, Numbers, Dates/Times, and Verb Tables (conjugation).

I spent a couple of hours comparing this side-by-side with the Oxford Concise, the Larousse College Dictionary, the Larousse Standard Dictionary, and the Webster's New World International Spanish Dictionary. All were very good, and each had it's strong points. The Larousse College Dictionary had perhaps more comprehensive embedded language tips, and I thought the Oxford Concise had the clearest and most attractive layout. But the Collins seemed to edge out the others in overall completeness and clarity of definition.

Harper Collins Fifth Edition of their Spanish College Dictionary helped me many times Every once in a while I become stuck searching for just the right word when I write an essay for homework; and this dictionary saves me every time! Amazon correctly notes that this dictionary is very thorough and up-to-date with terms for life in today's world. For example, I was able to find the word for "hostile takeover;" and the word "clickable" is right there, too.

The dictionary is divided into sections. There is a brief introduction about the structures of the English and Spanish entries; and then the first section translates Spanish words into English. The middle section is printed on paper that is blue and white; this section covers how to say basic sentences in Spanish and English so that students can very quickly get up to speed in case they need to do so. The student is told in very clear terms how to say things including "Do you like yogurt?" and much, much more. There is a complete list of Internet and email vocabulary including abbreviations sometimes used in text messages and emails. There are some verb tables as well.

The last section tells us how to translate from English to Spanish. You can find the right area for the word you want easily using the thumb tabs on the very edges of the book; the tabs guide you to the appropriate place in both sections (Spanish to English and English to Spanish) and from there the searching is not far.

Overall, this is an excellent dictionary that will get anyone through college level or adult education Spanish classes with ease. Spanish students can use it for English language classes but this dictionary is more geared to the student studying Spanish as a foreign language. You'll be able to use words with a greater sense of confidence when you use this prestigious dictionary; and I highly recommend it for the serious language student.

For me, I really enjoy using this College dictionary. I've been studying the Spanish language for a few months, and this has been very helpful. There are a few things I appreciate about this dictionary:

1) Examples

For a certain word, whether in Spanish or English, it'll have several examples or how to use the word in a sentence, both in English and Spanish. This is very helpful so you can compare how each sentence is constructed.

2) Colors

Simply, it is great to have each main word in a light blue color and in bold to stand out from the rest of the words on the page. This is much better than the standard black and white in a lot of dictionaries, in my opinion.

3) Helpful Tips

Sometimes if there is a certain word that has been misused often, they're be a box giving a small bit of advice, or some background on the word. For example, for the word NOTICE in English, there is a small colored box that says this:

(warning symbol) notice (does not equal sign) noticia

This is a great feature.

Some other features: Words are identified with M or F if they are masculine or feminine, and it also gives the origins of a lot of words, if they're from Latin America, Spain, etc.

Check this dictionary out at a local bookstore or your library! It's not a popular dictionary right now with the masses, but like you see with the other reviews, it's a wondeful dictionary to use.

(I also HIGHLY recommend buying 501 Spanish Verbs. This is a MUST-HAVE book for anyone wanting to learn Spanish correctly)

This dictionary is great! Extremely comprehensive with great explanations. The only downside is that it's really big and heavy, but that's a non-issue if you're just leaving it on your desk.

If you plan on majoring or minoring in Spanish when you go to college, you definitely need this dictionary. Sure, it's large and heavy and impossible to take with you to class, but you can leave it at home. You can use your pocket dictionary when you're in class. But eventually that little pocket dictionary will become obsolete in some cases, especially if you're reading old Spanish literature.

If you plan on translating, you need this dictionary for sure. When I translate anything, it's the first dictionary I turn to. Other smaller dictionaries may give me the wrong translation, or at times, none. I'm about to translate a book on online marketing into Spanish (just to practice my translation skills, not being paid for it), and I will definitely have this dictionary by my side.

Brandon Simpson

My daughter is in a spanish immersion kindergarten class. I already had a small span-eng dictionary but none of the words I was looking up were in it. I purchased this one from Amazon and it has solved my problem. I am able to find the words she/I encounter in class.

This year, in pursuit of increased Spanish language skills, it made sense for me to purchase a college-level Spanish-English dictionary. Amazon reviews were helpful in the evaluation process. It was apparent from these that the major contenders were from three publishers, Oxford, LaRousse, and Harper-Collins.

Judging from the Amazon reviews, it appeared that, although each was a strong product, the Harper-Collins was the most consistently so. I then spent some time in a bookstore for hands-on evaluation, as did another reviewer.

I eventually selected the HarperCollins Spanish College Dictionary, 5th Edition. This has proven to be a great choice. I have found no drawbacks, just a series of delightful discoveries as I continue to work with this excellent reference work.

This dictionary is easy to use, with a well-designed format. The entries are rich with examples. The size is about right, for everything except travel (For that I use Harrap's Spanish and English Pocket Dictionary, a good smaller dictionary).

I no reservations at all in recommending this excellent dictionary.