Dictionary Reviews

The thing I really like about this book is the system it uses to help you find the correct spelling of lots and lots of words. Arranged alphabetically are all the possible phonetic ways different words could be spelled with the correct spelling next to it. The incorrect spellings are in one font and the correct spellings are in another. There are also numerous explanations of the words, including sources, usages, and so on. These are very entertaining to read. I highly recommend this book.

When I was in high school, I and a few good friends made a pretty good hobby out of tormenting (in a good way, of course) one particular English teacher in our school.

One of my favorite tactics in this teacher's classroom was to blurt out, in mock consternation, "How do you spell ______?" whenever I couldn't spell a word. Why? Because a) I was young and immature and a legend in my own mind, and b) the teacher always fell right into my trap...

"Look it up in the dictionary!" he'd scream, without fail, pitching me a nice softball right over the plate ...

"But HOW," I whined, "am I supposed to look up a word when I can't spell it in the first place?!"

(GLARING SCOWL)

Problem was, I was only half-kidding with most of my questions (though I'd never admit as much to the teacher). Often it really WAS difficult (not to mention time-consuming) to look up the words I didn't know, especially if their spellings weren't very intuitive.

I guess that's why I'm enjoying my copy of "1,001 Commonly Misspelled Words." With this handy book, you don't need to know how to spell a word already before looking it up. You need only know how to pronounce it -- because you can then look it up phonetically. Why didn't someone think of this before?! Once you get to the word's phonetic spelling, you can then see the correct (though often counterintuitive!) spelling. Plus, you might get a little story about the word or, better yet, some sort of nemonic -- er, I mean mnemonic -- device so that you can remember how to spell it in the future.

I only wish the book included more words. But in any case, it's a nice tool -- especially for a writer type like me. I would think it might also make a good gift for new college students and others who will be tearing their spelling hair out from time to time in the years to come.

Highly recommended!

This book is very practical. It contains a good selection of commonly used words in the English language. It is a handy book that you can take anywhere with you. It is indeed a very useful, thin dictionary that not only provides the meaning of each word listed, but also gives you a sentence using each word in its right context. Good value as well.

When I first purchases this book, I did so because it was only a [price] when I purchased 501 spanish verbs for my Spanish II class. I figured, "Why not?" When I recieved it I was suprised and impressed what a wonderful learning tool it is. For any begining spanish students, there are very useful words that you won't find in 1st and 2nd year textbooks that are quite important. The sentences they use really do bring quite a bit of clarity to the use of the word. Also the sentences themselves have many words to help increase your vocabulary. Buy this book. It is very much worth it.

I completely agree to the former reviewer, including reasons why he recommend it, so I add only some points.

The word-for-word translation, for example - "there's more than one donkey called Martin in the market place" - is very useful for beginners to increase whose vocabulary. Its cartoon will help it.

And I think maybe you can enjoy this book not only for learning French language.
Indeed, I found an interesting fact - some French proverbs are very close to OUR JAPANESE/ASIAN proverbs in detail, rather than to English ones. For example, what you shouldn't do at once is "to chase two hares" both in France and Japan, and every jar does find a lid in France, so does every pot in Japan.
I don't know if sometime someone introduced them or it's only a coincidence, but there're something make me touched, the fact different peoples have same manner of thinking. So it seems there're more common points than differences, as it's said.
I thank the authors for they made me find it.

Highly recommended!

This is a great book! I'm currently a level two French student and this book is incredible. Each proverb has the French at the top, then the translation, followed by the English equal. The pictures are fantastic and very funny! Short conversations are included to help with context and their translations are in the back. I highly recommend 101 FRENCH PROVERBS. It is a great source of information.

While the conjugation patterns of Swedish verbs are relatively simple and do not require the same schematic analysis as, say, the verbs of Russian or Hebrew, Richard Auletta has gone beyond the mere compiling of Swedish verbs and offered the reader a truly valuable explanation of Swedish verbal morphology. The first part of the book is dedicated to this explanation, presenting the various classes of verbs, the rules behind the morphology, and the history of some archaic forms. Auletta's explanation of the nature of Swedish verbs will serve and interest the student long after he or she has actually learned to conjugate most verbs.

This is a very good book for learning Swedish verbs as well as changes that are occurring in the Swedish language. It gives alternate forms that are used in historical or formal situations as well as those constructions used in more contemporary daily speech. Overall I think if you memorize the verbs in this book and practice the conjugations you will not have any problem with the Swedish language. Thankfully Swedish and English share a common history and that makes it easier for an English speaker to learn Swedish. If you know Swedish you will also understand much written and some spoken Danish since Swedish and Danish are closely related. You will also understand much Norwegian. Therefore I highly recommend getting this book to help you get a start on Swedish and the other Scandinavian languages.

We bought this book 3 years ago for my first and it really helped with his vocabulary. It was misplace so now we are buying it again. Worth every penny. Great for travel, small and light.

Clear drawings of objects needful to know. Concise labeling. This book could not be better unless it were just made longer!

I was being tutored by a girl who had this book. It is amazing for people who are in a french class, becuase you simply look up the verb, and all the conjugations are there! I love this book, and would recomend it to anyone!

i got this book b/c it said on amazon that other people bought it who bought the book i was looking at. I'm so glad i got it b/c it is more helpful than the textbook we use in class. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn french. Please believe me, you'll be doing yourself a favor.

I have to admit that I was mystified by many of the common phrases I'd hear in my meetings. This book really helped me understand what people were talking about. It has a lot of what the meetings have too--humor, touching stories, and profound insight. Next to the big book, this one is my favorite 12 Step book.

Christopher Cavenaugh has done an excellent job of explaining various terms and slogans heard through out the 12 step journey. It is an easy to read dictionary format. Everything from the serenity prayer to the steps is broken down into easy to find definitions.

I checked this out from the library and it's too bad it's not still in print. This book starts from the basics and covers everything. My cat is expecting kittens and I'm very nervous about this whole thing. The book told me just what I needed to know about how to care for her and the kittens. It has cat first aid, a symptom chart for when your cat is sick, and tips on choosing a cat. It has it all. A great book for the cat owner, and a great gift for a friend.

I have owned many cats, and I reccommend this book. The book is easy to read and has a at-a-glance guide to signs and symptoms. It also gives you information about what to do in an emergancy, tips on posion control, first aid, and it also explains cat behaviors. This is definitely the best book for cat owners.

Annyeonghaseyo! For those learning Korean, I think this is one of the great books out there. It has an easy-to-use explanation of Korean phonology (sounds) with a chart in McCune-Reischauer (McR), IPA, Han'geul, and plain English approximations. McR Romanization IS used in the book, but only as a crutch alongside Han'geul for about the first half of the lessons. The lessons themselves start off with several brief dialogs and vocabulary lists. Charts and grammatical notes are there to make things more understandable. Maps and newspapers are also used as learning aids. Like Japanese, Korean verbs and some nouns change to reflect politeness.. In this book, you'll learn a variety of politeness forms and intimacy levels. Sample newspapers and articles are used to give an idea of Korean in "the real world." A small dictionary and the answer key can be found at the end. The authors did a good job in their previous book, Functional Korean, so you won't be disappointed with this!

This book, "Active Korean," is really good. I picked it up in Korea after buying a half dozen other Korean study books. This one is by far the best I have seen. The layout is great, the chapters provide plenty of reading comprehension and this book shines in the exercises that it provides. The only disappointments that I have about the book are the lack of cassettes for listening comprehension and the sometimes out-dated vocab. This book is truly good. My Korean teacher switched to this book after I showed it to her. You really can learn Korean with this book.

When used with the accompanying lab manual which includes useful audio tapes, this book is great for learning beginning Italian quickly and easily. I used this required textbook for both first and second semester Italian at UC Berkeley and as a student planning to study abraod in Italy next year I highly recommend this text.

I used this book after it was required both for first and second semester Italian at UC Berkeley. The appraoches to grammar and vocabulary are ecxellent. Important grammatical points are highlighted and are easy to find when needed to refer back to. As a student planning to study abroad in Italy next year I highly recommend this university level textbook.