Spanish-English & English-Spanish Dictionary for high school+

[Renaissance Mom]

Any suggestions for a good one? I don't mind having a larger book around to use at home. We have an old pocket edition for portability. I want something we can find most of what we'd need to look up for high school studies and beyond.

 

TIA,

[Matryoshka]

The interesting thing about language dictionaries, is that somewhat counter-intuitively, the better you know the language, the thicker a dictionary you need! Pocket dictionaries do me absolutely no good, because I already know all the words in them!

 

I recently bought a new Spanish-English dictionary. My old one had all the words, but had thin paper and a hard-to-read font, and I wanted one my kids wouldn't complain about using. I sat down at B&N and compared all of the dictionaries, and looked up some sample reasonably obscure words to make sure they had enough breadth to be of use to me. I ended up with the Concise Oxford Spanish Dictionary (has both Spanish/English and English/Spanish). It will last you through fluency. And for what I was looking for in a new one, the font is clear and the main entries are both bolded and in blue which make them easy to look over quickly to find an entry.

[bakpak]

This one suits my needs well: http://www.amazon.com/Spanish-English-Dictionary-Diccionario-espa%C3%B1ol/dp/0451181689 I've rarely had to look things up online.

[Renaissance Mom]

The interesting thing about language dictionaries, is that somewhat counter-intuitively, the better you know the language, the thicker a dictionary you need! Pocket dictionaries do me absolutely no good, because I already know all the words in them!

 

I recently bought a new Spanish-English dictionary. My old one had all the words, but had thin paper and a hard-to-read font, and I wanted one my kids wouldn't complain about using. I sat down at B&N and compared all of the dictionaries, and looked up some sample reasonably obscure words to make sure they had enough breadth to be of use to me. I ended up with the Concise Oxford Spanish Dictionary (has both Spanish/English and English/Spanish). It will last you through fluency. And for what I was looking for in a new one, the font is clear and the main entries are both bolded and in blue which make them easy to look over quickly to find an entry.

 

 

Yes, I found the same thing when I was studying German. Once I reached a level of proficiency, I didn't need a German -English or English-German dictionary as much. What I really needed was a decent German-only dictionary. I could look up a German word and see the definition and word information actually used in German. It was much more helpful for word use.

 

Thanks for the link to the Oxford dictionary -- that's the type of thing I really need for a desk dictionary, even for learning. I do get so tired of not finding the information I want (gender, pt of speech, real context, etc.) in my ancient pocket version.

 

Thanks!

[Renaissance Mom]

This one suits my needs well: http://www.amazon.co...l/dp/0451181689 I've rarely had to look things up online.

 

 

I have to look at this one to replace my current "portable" one -- thanks!

[Guest LAChino]

The problem with Oxford dictionary is that they are using British English and European Spanish as the primary words. The words like "pants" have different meaning in the UK vs US.

I will go with American dictionary, e.g. University of Chicago Spanish Dictionary. If you have the money to spare, go with the Velazquez Spanish and English Dictionary. It's a huge dictionary and have about just every words you need.

[Matryoshka]

The problem with Oxford dictionary is that they are using British English and European Spanish as the primary words. The words like "pants" have different meaning in the UK vs US.

I will go with American dictionary, e.g. University of Chicago Spanish Dictionary. If you have the money to spare, go with the Velazquez Spanish and English Dictionary. It's a huge dictionary and have about just every words you need.

 

 

Um... no.

 

In the Oxford, which I have in front of me, both American and British definitions are used in English, and the Spanish is worldwide, for notations about which word is used in what countries.

 

To expand on the example you use, the entry for "pants" has meaning [A] (trousers) AmE and meaning (underwear) BrE ... and note that the American definition is even the first one!

 

For Spanish, there are both larger regional (AmL(atina), AmS(ur), AmC(entral)) and many, many more specific ((Col(umbia), Hon(duras), etc.) designations.

 

I would not ever go with a "Latin American" dictionary. If you're ever going to actually study Spanish even semi-seriously, you're going to end up reading Spanish literature... from Spain. I want a dictionary that has Spanish from all Spanish-speaking countries.

[cathmom]

I use the website www.spanishdict.com a lot, because it gives you three different translations that you can compare.

[Guest LAChino]

Um... no.

 

In the Oxford, which I have in front of me, both American and British definitions are used in English, and the Spanish is worldwide, for notations about which word is used in what countries.

 

To expand on the example you use, the entry for "pants" has meaning [A] (trousers) AmE and meaning (underwear) BrE ... and note that the American definition is even the first one!

 

For Spanish, there are both larger regional (AmL(atina), AmS(ur), AmC(entral)) and many, many more specific ((Col(umbia), Hon(duras), etc.) designations.

 

I would not ever go with a "Latin American" dictionary. If you're ever going to actually study Spanish even semi-seriously, you're going to end up reading Spanish literature... from Spain. I want a dictionary that has Spanish from all Spanish-speaking countries.

 

Spanish is rarely a problem for Spanish English dictionary. Real Academia provides the base for the official Spanish lexicon.

 

The problem is on the English part. Oxford uses British corpus, then adapt British English into American English. American publishers ( Webster, Velazquez, U of Chicago) use American English corpus.

 

For the high school Spanish , it doesn't matter much. When you study Don Quixote in Spanish , you will find all the Spanish words in either OXford or Velazquez, but some of the Oxford translations might be odd for American readers.

[Kimandtheboys]

We use an onine dictionary more than anything. But I just wanted to recommend a good reference book, Barron's 501 Spanish Verbs. It lists each verb, fully conjagated in all tenses.

http://www.amazon.com/Spanish-Verbs-CD-ROM-Audio-Series/dp/0764197975/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1364820428&sr=8-1&keywords=barron%27s+501+spanish+verbs

[cathmom]

We use an onine dictionary more than anything. But I just wanted to recommend a good reference book, Barron's 501 Spanish Verbs. It lists each verb, fully conjagated in all tenses.

http://www.amazon.com/Spanish-Verbs-CD-ROM-Audio-Series/dp/0764197975/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1364820428&sr=8-1&keywords=barron%27s+501+spanish+verbs

 

The website I mentioned above, www.spanishdict.com, will conjugate entire verbs as well.

[Ariston]

I agree with spanishdict.com I use it far more than any dictionary I own. Also the forums at wordreference.com are very useful for subtleties between words or idioms or anything else that isn't easily understood.