Customer Reviews

Vox New College Spanish and English Dictionary

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I am very disappointed in this dictionary. It is large and has a lot of words, but it is frustrating for two reasons. First, when you look up a noun in English, it tells you the Spanish translation but does not tell you whether it's masculine or feminine. For instance, it tells you poster is "cartel," but you have to turn to the Spanish section to find out it's "el cartel." Second, the phrases and translations are awkward. Although this is a vulgar example, it's important: when you look up "pedo," it tells you the English translation is "wind from the anus." Who in English has ever said this? Look it up in Larousse, and as it should, it says "fart." I'm afraid to trust the expressions in the middle because I'm afraid I'll end up sounding ridiculous in Spanish the way a Spanish-speaker would sound ridiculous in English if he or she walked around saying "wind from the anus" and "go over like a lead balloon," which is the outdated expression they give as a translation for "caer mal." Overall, I'm going to stick with Larousse, which seems a lot more trustworthy to me.

A dictionary should demonstrate good lexicographic technique and have an up-to-date-vocabulary. The Vox dictionary does neither.

Take a word with multiple meanings each of which which has a different translation. The Vox simply lists the words. For a Spanish speaker reading in English, this is enough, as the reader can look over the potential translations and choose the one which fits the context. But for the English reader writing in Spanish, this is hopelessly inadequate, as the dictionary gives no clue as to which translation to use in which situation.

Compare the treatment of such a word, loop, for example, 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.

Adequate treatment of words takes a tremendous amount of space. For example, in the Collins Spanish dictionary, a complex word like "get" takes up 730 lines. But in the Vox, the same word receives very skimpy treatment.

A good dictionary should cover all registers of language clearly, from the most formal all the way to cusswords, providing warnings and stylistically equivalent translations. A dictionary which fails to cover taboo language is not protecting its users but rather withholding information which could help them avoid trouble. But Vox either translates cusswords with formal translations or avoids them entirely.

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," "hard drive." But the compilers of the Vox have totally neglected this aspect; the lexicon of the work is even more outdated than its ancient publishing date of 1984 would suggest.

Based on the research I did for my Master's thesis, I would recommend Oxford, Larousse, and HarperCollins instead.

This dictionary is very good and I have used it for many years. I have yet to come across a word that I wasn't able to find. I love the middle section that gives you tons of expressions in one language and gives you the equivalent in the other.

You would think that most bilingual dictionaries are about the same, more or less. You'd be wrong. This dictionary is way, way less.

What were the editors thinking when they organized this dictionary? It is completely counterintuitive. As someone who is learning Spanish, I look up a word because I don't know what it means. Instead, I'm presented with a cursory English definition and more Spanish words that I don't know. The abbreviations identifying the word's part of speech (such as noun, adjective) or if it's a regular or irregular verb, etc. -- they are in SPANISH! And the key that identifies what the abbreviations mean, it's in Spanish too. I don't know Spanish -- yet -- so I don't understand how this is supposed to help me. And as a previous reviewer pointed out, English definitions do not tell if a noun is masculine or feminine in Spanish; for that information, you need to look up the word in the Spanish half. Additionally, there are numerous text boxes explaining grammatical concepts and other subjects interspersed throughout the dictionary, but, again, they are in the wrong language (in Spanish in the English-Spanish half, and in English in the Spanish-English half). Exactly the opposite of what would be helpful. If I'm looking up a Spanish word, that's because I don't know what it means. Don't give me an explanation about it IN SPANISH -- I can't understand it!

In short, I returned this dictionary. I assumed I'd get used to its strange layout, but I can't. (On top of that, the font they use is horrible. It looks really cheap and is hard to read.) I'm going to try Larousse because they make a good French dictionary and I assume they do a similar good job with Spanish.

I agree with everyone else...this dictionary is complete and concise. I am a comparative literature major and this dictionary helps a lot when I have to translate passages on my papers, and when I am trying to get around those distinct words in either English or Spanish which do not have an exact equivalent. So there you go, I highly recommend it.

I followed everyone's advice and bought this dictionary only to take it home and realize that it did not contain the two words I was looking for. I recommend checking out a couple of dictionaries before purchasing.

I've used this dictionary now for a few years to learn new vocab and even some verb conjugations, and even with medical jargon (I'm a med student), the book rarely fails to deliver.