Customer Reviews

Larousse Mini Dictionary Spanish English English Spanish (Spanish Edition)

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My Master's thesis was a review and rating of Spanish-English dictionaries. I find this dictionary, like all the other Larousse dictionaries, to be a good choice.

Here are a few of the factors which distinguish a good bilingual dictionary from a bad one.

To begin with, ignore certain publishers' marketing ploys such as entry and translation counts. They say nothing about the value of the words chosen.

The first valid factor to consider is lexicographic technique. A bad dictionary simply lists translations. Take, for example, the entry in the Cassell's Spanish Dictionary under the English headword loop: "lazo, gaza, nudo; ojal, presilla, alamar; anillo; recodo, comba, curva, vuelta," etc. For the English reader writing in Spanish, this is hopelessly inadequate, as the dictionary provides no clue as to which translation to use in which situation.

Compare the treatment of the same word in the far superior American Heritage Spanish Dictionary. "(length of line) lazo; (coil) vuelta; (bend) curva; (circular path) vuelta, circuito; (fastener) presilla" etc. Here, the user is given glosses in the native language to assist in identifying the right word for the context. Example sentences are also a tremendous help. Larousse is excellent in this respect, presenting in its small space good information to guide users through the semantic and syntactic complexities.

Second, a good dictionary should maintain an up-to-date lexicon, including such cultural and technological additions to the language as "baby sitter," "hostile takeover," "software," "flash drive." Larousse is good in this respect; its frequent revisions are more than mere window dressing and do a creditable job of covering the most recent additions to the language.

Third, idioms, slang, and cusswords can present real problems to the language learner, and a dictionary needs to handle them in a clear and frank fashion. This dictionary gets it right, giving stylistic equivalents for translations as well as clear advice to the user.

Be careful when you choose a bilingual dictionary, as some of the choices--Cassell's and Vox, for example--are downright terrible. The field of large dictionaries stays relatively static over time, and the best choices in it by far are Oxford, Collins, and Larousse. The field of small dictionaries, on the other hand, has many more players. While not the only good choice, Larousse is a dictionary you would certainly be pleased with.

I am very disappointed in this dictionary. I have no complaints about the content but I would never recommend it to anyone else because the binding is horrible. Within a month the pages started to come out and I met another person traveling who had the same problem. It's like the binding was designed NOT to be used. After two months I finally had to buy another dictionary.

Although quite small, but it is too thick, almost 2 inches. So it doesn't fit well or comfortably in pockets. Whereas the webster new world pocket spanish dictionary is larger, but it is thinner, and fit more comfortably in shirt or pant pocket.

Power wise, there are more words in the webster pocket, than this one. Both were grossly insufficient for reading of newspaper or of most books. They would be fine for beginner student use, and adequate for occasional use, but they are frustrating to use if you are trying to read the paper or book.

A cheap small electronic translator by Franklin is much more efficient and TOTALLY powerful for reading 99% of words in most books. They have "five million" words (which includes all conjugated forms of most verbs) - and is the ideal tool for reading all books. Unfortunately, Franklin does not make their Larousse versions, which will cover most slangs.

If you need a pocket dictionary, don't pick this one.