Learn to Speak Italian: The Oxford Paperback Italian Dictionary ItalianEnglish EnglishItalian Dictionary

The main sections of this dictionary are easy to use, clearly laid out, and mostly adequate, although translations are too often a single main meaning. The verb tables, condensed to four pages, are annoyingly brief.

As I paid less than £4 including postage for my copy I shouldn't be surprised at its flimsiness - pages falling out after a year's regular but heavy use. As a reference book, frequently to be carried to lessons, on holidays etc it needs to be tougher.

A useful but basic dictionary posted on 2004-07-31

This dictionary is very good value for money, and fine for most purposes, but I have found its vocabulary limited when working with some very mildly technical areas. Also if you don't have a basic knowledge of Italian, it isn't a lot of help with word endings etc. - there is a list of regular and irregular verbs in the back, but this is very concise and of limited help. For example, if you know no Italian, and look up the word 'vieni' you won't find it, and you don't know that you need to look under 'venire'.
I guess most users will probably have some basic Italian, and would find this a useful and adequate, lightweight and small paperback dictionary. For anyone with no Italian and/or a need for moderately specialist or technical vocabulary, I would recommend paying a bit more for a dictionary with grammar guide and more words and phrases.
This review refers to the 2nd edition 2002 reprint.

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