Dictionary Reviews

I'm Korean and here is Korea. I bought this dictionary last year. Thesedays I'm learning English myself very hard!

The good things of this dictionary are very simple, kind and clear.(not too many grammer codes and labels, definitions easy to understand and easy to see editing--> I feel so fresh this editing, my eyes are not tired..!)

Especially the best thing that I think is the USAGE NOTE! For example , "USAGE NOTE- desire, want, and wish- Use WANT to talk about things you would like to do or have....-Use DESIRE and WISH only in very formal writing or in literature:......(X) DON'T SAY-desire to do someting(X)"

Nobody who was my English teachers told me that things.. (of course I respect my English teachers...:) I think this dictionary is best one for foreigner who learns English as a second language like me. If you buy this one, you will NOT regret your choice... Good luck to your English learning.. from KOREA

This is an excellent reference book for a foreigner.

For learners of American English, the Longman dictionary is the hands-down best choice, particularly at the Intermediate Level. Informative and up-to-date, the Longman provides clear easy-to-understand example sentences plus invaluable usage notes - the distinction between machine, tool, and gadget, for example. The dictionary is not too heavy for students to carry to and from class; the CD-ROM provides pronunciation of all headwords. Our ESOL students refer to the Longman as 'Super Dictionary.' The Cambridge CoBuild is more British, more comprehensive (and heavier); the American Heritage version for ESOL students is, in my opinion, a disappointing version of the 3rd Edition Am. Heritage. For a super dictionary, try the Longman.

This is the most useful and fun dictionary you will ever own. The illustrations are fantastic and wonderfully detailed, and on every subject imaginable under the sun, from bicycles to spaceships. You will not only find it an invaluable reference for the proper terminology in foreign language, but also in your own native tongue. An invaluable reference work for the multilingual person.

The knowledge in this book seems so basic, but there are a lot of words that I didn't know before. I'm mostly interested in how different the German words are from English. It is lucky for me that the English words are on the top of each list and German at the bottom, so I'm likely to see what I might know before I get down to what is really strange. I don't know Spanish or French either, but they might make some kind of sense to me. Each language has its own index in the back. If you want to see what pages the funny stuff is on, look up "infundibulum" in the English index. On the Reptile page (98), the VENOMOUS SNAKE'S HEAD is called "KOPF EINER GIFTSCHLANGE" in German. That's like calling a secret military tribunal a legal proceding.

Best pictionary media I have seen.

We used this workbook as a supplement to the textbook for our second year Russian class, but for me this was a more enjoyable and useful! It's simply 16 chapters of sentences. On one side of the page in English, on the other side in Russian, so you can test yourself going either way and the sentences are short enough so that you're not overwhelmed. I used this for years as a way to review or get back into Russian, regain some fluency, etc. It may take 6 or 7 hours to go through the entire workbook, so you can do this easily an hour a day for a week and not get burned out. The sentences are interesting enough and not totally dry so that you are not bored to death as you work through the text. All in all a good book for those who already know some Russian, but want to practice coming up with sentence structures without having to invent their own sentences.

We used this workbook as a supplement to the textbook for our second year Russian class, but for me this was more enjoyable and useful! It's simplay 16 chapters of sentences. On one side of the page in English, on the other side in Russian, so you can test yourself going either way and the sentences are short enough so that you're not overwhelmed. I used this for years as a way to review or get back into Russian, regain some fluency, etc. It may take 6 or 7 hours to go through the entire workbook, so you can do this easily an hour a day for a week and not get burned out. The sentences are interesting enough and not totally dry so that you are not bored to death as you work through the text. All in all a good book for those who already know some Russian, but want to practice coming up with sentence structures without having to invent their own sentences.

Davis & Oprendek's _Making Progress in Russian_ is without a doubt the best second-year Russian textbook I have seen. The exercises are thorough and often demanding, but the explanations more than prepare you for the work. This is a dense, well-written grammar text that leaves you feeling rather competent as a reader/speaker/writer of Russian without talking down to you or giving you a false sense of your level of fluency.

This book by Jay Rubin humorously explains some of the most seemingly esoteric aspects of the Japanese language to the intermediate student of Japanese. Some of the most useful concepts that Rubin explains are ha and ga, giving and receiving, passive, causative, hodo, and many more. After a casual reading of this book I felt that certain aspects of the Japanese language seemed to make more sense than ever before. I would recommend this book to any third year student of Japanese.

When I ordered this book, I hadn't read it, or even seen the cover. I just picked it up because I'm anxious to learn more daily Japanese conversation. While this book didn't teach me the slang and modern speech I'm wanting to learn, I did find it to be extremely useful. I'm not finished yet, but this book has so far been very informative and easy to read. The writing is excellent, and it's entertaining to read. It explains how "subjectless" sentences work and how to use "wa" and "ga" properly, amomg other things of course. If you're a student of Japanese, and you want to actually understand the logic of the language instead of simply memorizing vocabulary, this book is a must-have.

If you're an intermediate student of Japanese, but haven't yet begun to really understand the language, this book will clear up a lot of your concerns. The author takes a humorous approach to some intimidating topics, and yields new insight on other, easier topics which textbooks often leave vague. The book frequently illustrates these concepts with examples in Japanese literature and journalism. Even examples in speech are explained in-depth. Yet, it remains light-hearted and humorous, relating the mysterious translations and hidden connotations in a way that the English-speaking mind can understand. Most importantly, it debunks many of the myths and misconceptions about Japanese that make Westerners fear it so. It also seemed that the author was subtly trying to prepare the readers to think in Japanese, which as wel all know is a vital step towards fluency.

The title pretty much sums it up when it says "What the Textbooks Don't Tell You." This book ! ! essentially takes the information from your textbooks and makes sense of it. If you study independently, like me, this book should be on your list. If you don't need this book, you probably know someone who does.

Overall, this book is very helpful as a pocket guide to sorting through any obscure eponym reference an attending may make! The book is concise and the format makes finding items extremely easy. I have already told some of the people at our medical school about it. Nice job!

I don't know why somebody didn't think of this sooner! I have found this new reference book to be both complete and concise at the same time. Not an easy thing to do. Even non-medical readers will find this book to be helpful and interesting.

This book would be a great addition to the reference shelf of anyone who's in the medical field or who does a lot of reading. So far everything I've needed to look up has been there! Complete yet easy-to-read descriptions of medical eponyms and illustrations for the professional and lay person alike.

Elvis, the Beatles and Marilyn Monroe have received the A to Z treatment in which every aspect of their lives and works have been reordered alphabetically, so it was only a matter of time that the mania would spread to lesser figures, in this case Mark Twain, James Joyce and Virginia Woolf. This series of three books, originally published by Facts On File and now updated and reprinted by Oxford University Press, combines facts culled from the writers' lives and works, shakes them up thoroughly, and recasts them into easily locatable entries. The result is an addictive pleasure, a page-turning odyessy for anyone interested in learning more about their favorite writer. Mark Twain's fans will rightfully go ga-ga over this 500-page slab of scholarship, research and story telling. All of Twain's major works are discussed, as well as many of his short stories, speeches, newspaper articles, essays and unpublished works. Photos of the great man himself and his contemporaries are thrown in alongside illustrations from the novels. A year-by-year multi-columned chronology charts Twain's personal, professional and public lives. In short, the breadth and depth of this book is astonishing.

This book helped me extensively during my search for biographical information about Mark Twain. It gives great insight to the life and times of Mark Twain. It contains anything and everything one would care to know about Samuel Clemens and his metamorphosis to one of the greatest writers ever known; Mark Twain.

Mark Twain is justly regarded as the first modern American novelist, but he was also a fabulous character; one of the most prominent figures of the 19th century, who seems to have gone everywhere and met everyone, and wrote about it all.
The present work is a fitting introduction to his life and works for those new to Twain, and a boon companion for those deep into the pleasures of one of the original minds of American literature.
Rasmussen has alphabetically arranged the major works with synopses, analyses of characters, people, places, and events Clemens knew, and more, with illustrations, chronology, list of Twain's works, reading list, and an admirable index.
Highly recommended for anyone interested in Twain, American writing, humor, or 19th century life and times.
(The numerical rating above is a default setting within Amazon's format. This reviewer does not employ numerical ratings.)

If you're looking for an introduction to Russian, with dialogues and lessons, this book is not for you. It is, however, the clearest book I've found to explain the grammatical concepts. If you're self-teaching with tapes or software programs, you will most likey come to a point where you've learned an expression or a change in word endings without fully understanding the grammar behind it, this is where to look to quickly get the explanation. It does not contain much vocabulary, or full sentences, it is made up of chapters explaining particular grammatical structures and rules, so you're not going to learn to speak using this book alone.

I agree completely with the reviewer from Oregon. I am starting to learn Russian from a cassette series (Learn in Your Car, which I also highly recommend) and this book is a very well-organized, valuable reference. In fact, it is one of the best organized special-purpose reference books I have seen anywhere. It has plenty of tables, and very clear descriptions of things like 'Why do Russian nouns have so many cases?' After teaching myself Spanish, Russian is my next goal, and it is quite a challenge. I think I would have given up by now without this book.

I bought this book as an additional reference to my class textbook. I use it constantly to review key concepts. Most language textbooks are not organized to make good reference material, but this one (inexpensive) book makes up for such a shortcoming completely.

You can use Master the Basics to quickly zero in on a particular concept whether it be the parts of speech, pronouns, verbs, case declension and the concepts are presented in a very concise and straightforward manner. I especially like the well-organized charts scattered throughout as they make a clear summary with graphical-style impact that makes things easier to remember.

If you intend to pursue Russian seriously at any level, then this is a must-have book, handy and gets right to the point. Do svidannya!

Quick: What does CSOP stand for? You may know if you are a cardiologist, but you may NOT have the definition readily at hand if you are a medical editor of books and journals like me. No problem. All one has to do is quickly thumb through the easy-to-read "C's", and voila!! Page 146: CSOP: coronary sinus occlusion pressure.

This book lives on my desk and is simply indispensable. The eponym section, again done alphabetically, is a godsend. Case in point: What is the difference between Frank's operation and Franke's operation? Does it matter? Totally. Is Frenkel's syndrome spelled with an apostrophe or not? Again, this book has the answer.

Such trivia may seem inconsequential, but for those for whom medical terminology is a livelihood, it is far from trivial. It is essential. As is this book, a true tour de force in the medical genre.

As an instructor of medical transcription and a professional medical transcriptionist for 30 years, I wish to recommend this book. No medical transcriptionist should be without this reference. Sloane is as reliable as Dorland's Medical Dictionary. If you transcribe, you need this book.

As a court reporter, I am constantly faced with deciphering doctors' medical "lingo." This book has been an absolute God-send for me. I have found every abbreviation I have ever looked for. It is the most thorough book I have come across for medical abbreviations, and I have an extensive reference library. The eponym section is not the best I've seen, but overall, this book is a must-have! It's a major time saver!

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!

This is a very powerful mini dictionary at a very competitive price. It contains explanations, examples and phrases making it far more useful for travel than the smaller pocket dictionaries. It has also replaced my desk dictionary as it contains more recent words, is better organized and easier to use. If you're looking for a "one-size-fits-all" book this one is worth checking out.

This book packs a lot of bang for your buck. Being the third dictionary I've owned, I am very pleased. Contains great phrasing examples and is well-organized. Has 80,000 entries, including modern terms and expressions. And it's small enough that you can pack it around with you! I highly recommend this as your choice of dictionary.

alright...so those texans were a little tipsy when they wrote
this thing. a great classic in western civilizaion. highly effective,informative,uplifting,empowering. you have to test it
out to take in the full benefit. the reviewer never got less than A in spanish in high school and college. but this book fires a booster rocket in the ability to communicate. you know all those words you really wanted to know but somehow could not find. here's the answer. i just wish there were more books like this one. it's as good or better than comedy central. want to make friends in mexico. take this libro along and you are loaded
for action. very easy to use. you just read it and show it to others in mexico as you try to speak with them.

Bought this book long before i knew I was going ot Mexico. I looked it over nad had fun with it. Then after going to mexico, I put the book to test. They really do say all of that stuff!!!!! A fun book and very accurate. Great for students and travelers alike!

Mexican Slang leaves out nothing. It'll show you how to say all kinds of dirty and degrading stuff and explains the true meaning of a lot of words, so you'll know what you're really saying. Even though it's specialized in Mexican slang, this little book (2''x 3'') also teaches some universal Spanish slang and lists many ways to say one thing. If you want to find out how the Latinos really think and talk, this book's for you! The price is a true bargain, too! I don't have my Mexican Slang in front of me only because people won't stop stealing it out of my bookbag at school!! This book has more words than even the Mierda series books, and Mexican Slang does a better job of explaining the origins of words, plus it's smaller than those books. I gotta tell you that if I go somewhere and can only take one book without making my jeans feel tight, Mexican Slang's always the one, hands down! It's so innocent, yet funny and it always feels like someone is there teaching it to you; you'll never be left in the dark with questions. But, if you should ever have any questions about the book, email me anytime!