Friday, January 20, 2012

Where can I find a good spanish english dictionary?

I'm going to Spain soon and I want to get one of those electronic pocket dictionary/translator things. Where can I find a good quality spanish english pocket translator for a low price?Where can I find a good spanish english dictionary?
Wordreference.com



Price: $0.00
The short answer: Franklin DBE 1470 Spanish-English Dictionary. Can be found on Amazon or other online stores.

Reasoning for my preference:

I have used several electronic dictionaries, and you have to be careful because a lot of models will give you just one translation of each word (especially the cheap ones). A few years ago I came across that particular Franklin model. It's reasonably small, can survive drops, and keeps its batter life for a long time(just two double AAs if I remember right). The price is reasonable, somewhere around 35ish and you can still find them on Amazon. If you are a beginner, intermediate, or I would even say advanced you can use this dictionary with no problem. There are several definitions per word and it also specifies between Latin American and Spain Spanish. By the way some models have the up %26amp; down scroll arrows on the left side, towards the top (took me a while to discover those on the first day).

Having said all of that, I'm sure you can find other models, but I've liked that one a lot and I'm picky about my dictionaries. If you go for another dictionary, here is a good test. Check out the definition of the word "get." There should be several translations of this word, perhaps between 5 and 7 actual definitions and then at least 15 to 20 phrasal-verb forms (get + preposition, for instance "get out," "get up," etc.). If a dictionary can't give you at least around that number it's not worth buying (because keep in mind a full dictionary will give you over a 100 listings for "get"). You can test some other common verbs and also some nouns that tend to have more than one meaning. You don't have to go crazy but after you test a few words you'll see the difference. You don't necessarily need to spend $100 on a dictionary that has all of the listings, and if you are beginner or intermediate it's almost better to find a middle ground between having enough definitions and not too many because it quickly becomes overwhelming. :)

Finally, I recommend staying away from the ones that have 5 or 6 languages programmed in (unless you plan on learning that many languages at once, in which case you'll need a lot more than a dictionary to help you!). Those tend to have limited definitions in my experience, unless you really want to spend a lot of money...

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I also meant to clarify that this model was Spain Spanish (the Latin American definitions are secondary and are marked in the definitions). Also the dictionary has a nifty games section, one of which is a Verb Conjugation trainer that by default includes the vosotros (used in Spain). :)Where can I find a good spanish english dictionary?
Just a tip, make sure you get a SPANISH FROM SPAIN version, not just a regular/neutral/latin american spanish dictionary, because Spaniards speak in a very different way. (The red and yellow flag symbol should help you out).Where can I find a good spanish english dictionary?
See :

http://www.ectaco.com/Electronic-Diction鈥?/a> (for "Sort by:", check that "Prices (Low to High)" is active)

http://spanish.about.com/library/reviews鈥?/a> (reviews)
Go to borkes bookstores in margao next to hindu temple in margao supermarket
Ebay

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