Customer Reviews

The Pocket Oxford Italian Dictionary

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

 

 

I'm giving this 3rd ed. of the Pocket Oxford Italian Dictionary 5-stars because it is an excellent concise dictionary, though the Pocket Oxford's competitors in the concise category -- the Webster's New World Italian Dictionary: Italian/English, English/Italian (ISBN-10: 0139536396) and the Collins Italian Concise Dictionary, 4e (HarperCollins Concise Dictionaries) (ISBN-10: 0060787325) -- are just as good -- if not better -- depending on individual preferences for format and extras.

"Pocket" is a real misnomer -- it's approx. the same size as the Webster's and the Collins Concise, none of which will fit in your pocket. I imagine they might have named it Concise Oxford Italian Dictionary if Oxford did not offer the superior Concise Oxford Paravia Italian Dictionary (read more below). If any feature were to set this "Pocket" apart, it would be its much more detailed bilingual culture guide in the middle of the book ("Italian traditions, festivals, and holidays"; "A-Z of Italian life and culture"; "Letter-writing"). The Collins Concise has cultural note entries spread throughout its pages and "Italian in Action" in the back of the book (Contents: Sentence builder; Correspondance; Fax; Email; Telephone); unlike this Pocket Oxford, the Collins lacks a bilingual text-messaging guide; the Webster's has no cultural or grammar notes save for a brief verb guide, but is so detailed in its entries that it doesn't need to compete in these categories.

One review here laments this "Pocket" Oxford's lack of pronunciation guidelines in the Italian section. "Pocket" has a pronunciation guide in the front of the book. Italian is relatively easy to pronounce -- after memorizing the fairly simple rules, most of the difficulty lies in knowing which syllable is stressed in a word. The rules of stress may be more difficult to master, though they come in time, and this "Pocket" has stress notation WITHIN the headwords listed in the Italian section, as does the Collins Concise; the Webster's lists the stress in an IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) form in brackets after the initial headword. Because Italian pronunciation is generally straightforward, this means that the word in brackets often matches the exact spelling of the headword, though with the stress notation added. The Collins Concise avoids redundancy by noting IPA translation only for those Italian words it considers more difficult to pronounce.

The very basic grammar in this "Pocket" Oxford is, in my opinion, more useful than the "Italian in Action" section at the back of the Collins Concise. The Webster's has a very brief -- though useful in a jam -- few pages on Italian verbs and irregular English verbs, though (again) what Webster's lacks in grammar guidance it more than makes up for in detailed entries. Most students tend to use a separate grammar guide, anyway, as most in-dictionary guides leave much to be desired. [See Harrap's French and English Dictionary (Harrap's Dictionaries) (2004; ISBN-10: 0071440690; $11.95!) for an exemplary in-dictionary grammar. It's also the best concise French-English dictionary available.]

(An excellent -- if brief -- slim, portable grammar is: Oxford Italian Grammar And Verbs (2002; ISBN-10: 0198603819)

Webster's detailed entries make it an outstanding concise, though it was published in 1985 (reprint 1992). Collins Concise has many neologisms of the last 20 years, and is in two-color format (blue headwords/black text), making the pages easier to scan. Collins Concise is generally not as detailed in its entries as the Webster's, though generally more detailed than this "Pocket."

If you must buy an OXFORD Italian dictionary, go for the Oxford-Paravia Italian Dictionary, as it is the finest unabridged bilingual on the market. If you have the unabridged, then purchase of the Concise Oxford-Paravia Italian Dictionary ("C-O-P" 2003; ISBN-10: 0198607695) would perhaps be redundant. The listing here on amazon describes the Concise version as having 175,000 words and phrases and 290,000 translations. I own it and I tell you it is the finest Concise Italian-English dictionary on the market, the only "problem" being it's heavier (hardcover) weight -- it's not as portable as the (paperbacks) Webster's or Collins Concise, but if you don't care about a bit more weight in your zaino, then escort this beauty to class.

N.B. If you find all of these features extraneous and just want a very portable, inexpensive It-Eng dictionary, go for the durable vinyl-flexi-cover Oxford Italian Mini Dictionary or the Italian Dictionary (Collins GEM). They are both pocket size, if chubby. Both have phrasebooks for travelers/students and certainly more vocabulary than a standard phrasebook! They both appear to have as many entries as (if not more than) the less-durable, newsprint (quick to yellow and stink) dictionaries in the $5 to $10 price range. Both minidictionaries are printed on better -- though not that much -- quality paper than the "newsprints." Newsprint cheapies are probably produced as a cheaper alternative for textbook bundle packages sold to university bookstores. Don't waste your money on them unless you've been "bundled" and have no choice.

IN SUMMARY:

(for) disinterested students who are just getting through a 2-year language requirement and have absolutely no interest in continuing their studies: an inexpensive, durable flexi-vinyl-cover, not-stinky-newsprint minidictionary with travelers phrasebook (Oxford Mini or Collins Gem, linked above)

(for) indecisive 2-year language requirement students who are lukewarm about continuing their language studies: (two-color format) Collins Concise Italian Dictionary or Pocket Oxford Italian Dictionary, with the grammar features and cultural commentary the Webster's doesn't offer

(for) Italian Studies majors and/or committed students of the language: Webster's or Oxford Paravia Concise Italian Dictionary for meaty entries; between these two, Webster's is less expensive, lighter and much more flexible than the hardcover Concise Oxford Paravia, but, though very detailed in its entries, is not as loaded as the C-O-P and lacks the C-O-P's excellent extras

Dedicated students of the Italian language will be best served with the Webster's to take to class and the C-O-P to study with from room-to-room at home, as the (unabridged) Oxford Paravia is so heavy that you'll likely use it only at your desk or dictionary stand.

(for) those who love the Italian language: the Webster's, the (unabridged) Oxford Paravia, and the fantastic, monolingual il DEVOTO-OLI vocabulario della lingua italiana 2009, con CD-ROM (Mac & Windows) by Giacomo Devoto & Gian Carlo Oli; editors: Luca Serianni & Maurizio Trifone (2008, ISBN-13: 9788804578178, available from major online distributors of Italian publications, at approx $150, includes shipping, vs. amazon's approx $277 -- -- sorry! amazon won't allow links in reviews)

I bought this for my Mom for xmas last year and within days of using it it began to lose pages. the entire english section of the book is now a collection of loose pages which makes it very hard to use and keep track of. Now quite recently the binding has completely disintegrated so there is nothing holding it together. It is a great resource but the binding issues need to be addressed. I would return it just on principle but it is just too much trouble for a 10 dollar book. Maybe the hard bound version would have been a better choice.

I like this dictionary for several reasons. It is fairly lightweight and portable. The print is large and bold and thus easy to read in poor light. Most of all, however, nearly all the words I try to look up are there. Nothing is more frustrating than to try and read a book in Italian and to have a dictionary that does not contain half the words. I have not had any trouble with the pages falling out with repeated use. Nearly all the paperback dictionaries will do this eventually for the most part.

After a few months of moderate use, individual pages started falling out. A few weeks later, pages starting falling out in clumps, and the dictionary became unusable. Other than that, I have to say that from a content perspective, I like it. It's got good examples and I've been able to find English translations for 95% of the words I look up. This must be a ploy by the publisher to get me to buy the hardcover edition. There's no other reason why someone would manufacture a reference book that couldn't sustain much more than a thousand look-ups before disintegrating.

"Pocket" can be a misleading term. It is a big and heavy dictionary, not meant to be carried around.

Before I could use the dictionary I had to do a repair on the first dozen sheets.
I would like to have sent it back
but I needed the dictionary plus I was afraid that a replacement would have the same defective binding.

This item arrived in just a few days after I ordered it.It was in perfect shape and I reccommend for serious students of Italian.

i must say that i`m a beginner in italian, but somehow i couldn`t find good polish-italian dictionary, so i chose this one. it`s really good tool.