Best Spanish Dictionary?

xxMandyxx

Hi Ive just graduated :j in Law with Spanish and found that the Collins dictionary was the best, verbs are a bit of a nightmare in Spanish but easier than French!

Ive got a big one i never used - i always used the collins spanish dictionary plus grammar isbn 0-00-472098-9.

Practice in Spanish grammar by Mark Cholij was useful, as was A Spanish Learning Grammar by Pilar Munoz and Mike Thacker.

Hope that helps!

Mandy

mleonard79

Hi Mandy,

Thanks - very helpful. Congrats on the degree :T

Will have a look out for those books. It seems that it's kind of down to personal preference with the Oxford v Collins debate - I like Collins and Oxford dictionaries so I'm still unsure! It's just the fact that the Oxford is supposedly very americanised that's putting me off it. I think I might go into Waterstones and have a look through both and make my mind up from there. Thanks for all the help and suggestions though people!

Regards

Michelle

hostie

Hola Mleonard79,
I could be that Collins is better as it is less americanised or it could just be that most people use Collins. Does your university recommend one? I know that my first university recommended the Oxford one. You could always email the person in charge of language courses and ask them. The person who devises the translations and things is bound to have a preference! In my final year I remember being annoyed with Collins as it had misled me a couple of times. ... Having said that, the same might have also have been the case if I had used Oxford! I think overall it doesn´t really matter as long as you get the really big one and (maybe) a wee pocket one for taking to class and friends houses.

My biggest recommendation would be that you spend your year abroad in Latin America if you possibly can. It will be easy enough for you to spend summers working in Spain and for you to work there after you graduate but actually living in South America is an amazing experience that you might never get another opportunity to do. I could go on forever as I am very passionate about Spanish and Latin American Studies having dedicated over a decade to it now! I will try to keep it brief though, just a few tips:

Find a Spanish person and do a ´language exchange´ in which you practice talking to each other.

I found that working through Harraps Spanish Grammar (a cheap softback book) was helpful in the early days.

There are lots of links to free online resources here:

http://www.kcl.ac.uk/schools/humanities/mlc/olc/spanish.html

Let me know if you have any problems accessing them and if you have any other queries!

Hostie

Luvly.cuppa.T

Have you bought a dictionary yet?
Cos I am in the same boat- oh which one?

Found some fab FREE sites too-

http://www.studyspanish.com (worth paying a bit extra for the tests- it helps me learn more)

and
http://www.byki.com

got that from this site. I may upgrade, but that costs. The free stuff is worth a look.

Also BBC.Co.uk have a look on Suenos and others (that's how I found the first link) there's more that I haven't tried yet.

I find interactive learning the best way forward, as you have to think about it and put it into practice!
My listening skills are crap though, but have suenos book and CD , so should use that more.

If you've got any more info , or good links do share!!!