Merriam-Webster's Spanish-English Dictionary
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Book Reviews of Merriam-Webster's Spanish-English Dictionary
Book Review: Excellent portable reference work
Summary: 4 Stars
This small (7"X4") dictionary, along with "Barron's Spanish Verbs", is my much used reference for an attempt to learn spoken Spanish. Its size and general comprehensiveness makes it essential as well as handy, in class and out. At 735 pages, it's crammed with vocabulary and some grammar explanations, but it doesn't seem bulky and isn't difficult to tote to class.
As a beginning student, I haven't yet failed to find a word needed for my level. The only small criticism that I would offer is that while definitions and usage are mostly clear, occasionally it's necessary to check on whether a word is used universally. I've compared the M-W Spanish-English Dictionary with those being used by classmates, and it is better by far than most anything else available..
Book Review: Good for beginners
Summary: 4 Stars
I first bought this dictionary when I was starting to learn Spanish in 10th grade. I found that it was very helpful with basic translations of nouns, adjectives, verbs, etc. It gives references to already conjugated verbs often, but not all the time. The best part about it is that it's small and portable, while the worst part is that, for a more advanced student/speaker, there are quite a few words that can't be found in it. While sometimes there are phrases given that relate to a certain word, the phrases are limited.
If you're just starting out with Spanish, this is probably perfect for you. If you're more advanced and coming across a lot of idioms and other phrases that you need translated, I'd recommend the Webster's New World Concise Spanish Dictionary.
Book Review: I'm lost without this dictionary!
Summary: 5 Stars
We have 2 copies, our friends have 5, I bought my mom 1, this is a great dictionary for on the go & studying away from home. Or if you don't like larger dictionaries. This particular dictionary has more of the modern & common words used in Latin American counties. If either my husband or I leave one if ours at home, we fight over custody of the one with us! It's great. At home I use the Oxford dictionary, it's huge but great. I really feel this dictionary is the closet one to the large Oxford as you can get in such a small book. It's wonderful! Highly recommend! I've used it speaking with people from/in:
Dominican republic, Cuba, Colombia, Mexico, Guatemala, & el Salvador.
Cuidate!
Book Review: Adequate
Summary: 3 Stars
For basic classroom use, the "New" Merriam-Webster's is fine and the verb references back to examples shown for irregular conjugations are quite helpful. However, it fell short of my expectations with the introduction being hard to decipher. The printer fonts aren't reader friendly and the quality of the paper is less than good compounded by the ink smearing easily. I've found myself returning more than once to an extremely worn pocket edition from the University of Chicago to find words not listed and to supplement or clarify certain words, idiom phrases and various reflexive verb definitions. Ironically, my purchase was intended to replace this old sidekick which I'm now glad I didn't toss.Book Review: Wonderful.
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a fantastic dictionary. I spent quite a bit of time on amazon researching the best Spanish/English Dictionary. This one lives up to all of the positive reviews below.I have found this to be very helpful. One nice feature is that if you look up a conjugated verb, it actually appears in the dictionary with a cross reference back to the unconjugated verb.
It also has several tenses of the words, so you can say the right thing even if you're wanting to speak in the past tense. I also like the sample sentences that it gives for many words...you can easily see how the word would actually be used.
It's also conveniently small in width and height. But still packs a lot in!