Customer Reviews

HarperCollins Spanish Dictionary: Spanish-English/English-Spanish

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

 

 

This edition of "HarperCollins Spanish Dictionary" will be treasured by anyone who understands the meaning of quality and value. The book is well-edited, well-organized, ultra-portable, and inexpensive.
With its generous translations, which spanned through several thousands of headwords, there is nothing which should be included in it that was excluded. From idioms to phrases; acronyms to slangs; every entry was accurately translated. As well, there is comprehensive analyses of all the Spanish irregular verbs, which it handled.
The give-away price of this dictionary means that it is affordable to anybody who needs it. It is a priceless companion: an accurate gem, which I would recommend for both students and travellers.

I can not take my 2000 page dictionary to Spanish class everyday, so I had to find a good replacement. I believe that the Harpercollins dictionary is just that. The font size is just right for me along with the easy to follow definitions. The only possible drawback is that sometimes definitions are only applicable to certain Spanish speaking countries. This however is something that will probably never be able to be solved, especially when dealing with a pocket sized dictionary. However, for general everyday use, this is a must buy.

Excellent book for people working together that do not speak the same language but need to understand each other. Beware that Spanish varies by the geography of the region from which the person is from--Mexico, central America, Chile, and Argentina each have their own type or style of Spanish.

This is an okay dictionary. Perhaps the reviewer "Ritter" may have had a different edition or the hardcover, because I just looked at the paperback along with about twenty others and found it definitely wanting.

As a former interpreter of three languages other than Spanish, and now a student of Spanish and French...I have always gauged my dictionaries almost exclusively on cuss words. My logic has been that if they include words that anyone being polite will never use, then they will have more of what one will use on an everyday basis. While another reviewer noted the swear words (including those he had not even thought of....) I only saw these from Spanish to English here and not vice versa. Think of the worst English and it probably is not here. In fact it was only in one of about twenty works I looked at tonight in the bookstore and I settled on the "Larouse, Concise dictionary," isbn 2-03-542017-2 9 paperback or (84-8016-129-9), and this is the one I bought instead.

I don't know how often I use the word "zit" or crampon (which is a cognate anyway), in English and am willing to bet that though I do have some class, I would be more likely to use the cusswords than these. However, most of the dictionaries I looked at simply did not have these and even what appeared to be a "contemporary' usage dico still left much to desire.

Most of them (the dictionaries) cover the necessities and I've always liked the Langenscheidt books, though they are not all thorough-they hold up great, and are more thorough per word than this...still, I liked the fact that the Larouse went from English to Spanish, since my native tongue is English. I wouldn't know where to look going the other way around.

Take the reviews with a grain of salt and think of your ultimate purpose, then get one that meets that and has thorough explanations and not simply one word traslations for anthing other than cognates or very simple.

I dont speak much spanish but really found this book to be a helpful reference when I needed to find out a strange word. If you dont yet have a spanish-english dictionary this is the one I would recommend, except for higher level speakers.

I am in my second semester of college spanish and find this dictionary very lacking! When I write my essays often la profesora will tell me I have selected the wrong word in translation. It only has a few pages of verb tenses so I have to go the verb book to find the tense (Barron's 501 Spanish verbs- which I highly recommend!) I am going to try the Barron's dictionary. I like that it comes with a download version so I don't always have to lug around the book.

The product took a while to arrive but not too much longer than expected. A first class up-to-date Spanish dictionary with good explanations. Uses modern, 21st century language and idioms. Portable and compact, ideal for school and office use.

Love it! Love it! Love it! Use it every day in class. Would highly recommend.

I use this for teaching Mexican nationals an ESL class and it is consise and highly useful when we reach an impasse. I don't leave home without it.

I went to Costa Rica this summer and lives in a village for a month, no one in the town spoke even a little bit of english. This book definately helped me get through the experience and teach the children english. I do not have this book any more because I gave it to my favorite spanish student who always want to learn more English vocabulary, I hope that he can understand it.