Rating: 
Summary: the right dictionary makes *ALL* the difference
Review: Academics, this is the dictionary for you! German scholarship is vitally important to anyone in my field. I used to struggle over the abstract and often technical vocabulary, which made wading through German articles (let alone whole books) a major headache. Somehow I never had more than about an 80% certainty about what any given word meant, and by the bottom of the page that 20% of doubt would add up . . . I had grown very discouraged indeed, until one day, almost by accident, having borrowed my husband's Collins in lieu of my own Oxford-Duden, I discovered that the problem wasn't in fact any lack of skill on my part, but the fault of my dictionary, which for all its heft simply didn't include enough detail to get down to the technical meanings of words. What a revelation! I logged into Amazon.com & ordered my own copy. And now, with the Collins in hand, there's nothing I can't tackle. It has quite literally changed my life.
Rating:
Summary: Simply the best dictionary on the market!
Review: As a scholar of German literature and visual culture, this is the single most valuable resource on my shelf! This dictionary beats the stodgy and akward Oxford-Duden hands down in terms of colloquial accuracy, depth, and ease of use. Unlike the Duden and the Langenscheidt German-English dictionaries, this volume contains far more easily-accessible information for the non-native speaker of German. For example, under noun-entries, the gender as well as the plural, dative and genitive endings of a noun are all indicated in the first line of an entry-- there is no need to resort to annoying noun-classification charts like in the Duden, where you often have to flip through 1000 or so pages to find the accompanying noun-paradigm, e.g. just to figure out the plural of a given word. The same holds true for verbs: a wealth of idiomatic examples for the most common uses of a verb are given in each entry -- an excellent aid for those who do not possess the infallible instincts of a native speaker. What is more, I found the unit conversion and verb charts, as well as the correspondence and resume-writing tips in the "Language in Use" section very helpful during my studies abroad.In short, this user-friendly bilingual dictionary is the standard against which all others must be measured!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent and Thorough
Review: I bought this book because of all the wonderful reviews on Amazon. I had a smaller German dictationary but as I am reaching the advanced stage of German, I want an unabridged dictationary. This one is great because it has a large reference in the back of all the changes of the Rechtschreibreform. So many words are now spelled differently, and one can simply look in the back to see if a particular word is different. There's just so much information in this dictationary that it's well worth the money, and the price on Amazon.com can't be beat. This dictionary is completely bilingual and can be purchased by a German speaker wishing to use it for English as well. For any serious German/English language learner. It's the best.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent and Thorough
Review: I bought this book because of all the wonderful reviews on Amazon. I had a smaller German dictationary but as I am reaching the advanced stage of German, I want an unabridged dictationary. This one is great because it has a large reference in the back of all the changes of the Rechtschreibreform. So many words are now spelled differently, and one can simply look in the back to see if a particular word is different. There's just so much information in this dictationary that it's well worth the money, and the price on Amazon.com can't be beat. This dictionary is completely bilingual and can be purchased by a German speaker wishing to use it for English as well. For any serious German/English language learner. It's the best.
Rating: 
Summary: This should not be your first German/English dictionary
Review: I bought this Collins Unabridged German dictionary in order to fulfill my need for a complete desk German dictionary with a lot of new words as compared to the medium-sized ones I already have, more appropriate for couch or sofa reading. As a matter of fact, the Collins Unabridged is a very good dictionary but doesn't go the extra mile for ALL the words I was looking for and which are found in contemporary books and magazines. This may be explained by the characteristical feature of the german language which allows us to construct composite words from basic words, thus making a kind of word competition to see the largest german word avaiable (the greatest I have read is 34 letters long). But, in fact, the medium-sized ones from Langenscheidt (German/english), with some 120.000 entries and the one from Editora Porto (portuguese/german), with 60.000 entries, that I have cover some 99% of the words found at Collins, both in entries as in content. The 1% left which is found in Collins is for me justifiable enough for having bought the Collins Unabridged dictionary, but I don't know if anybody would feel the same as I do, given the fact that I love to study words and its minimal variations.
Also, some more explanations on the meaning of the words would be helpfull, but, in all, is a pretty good dictionary.
Rating:
Summary: Very Comprehensive
Review: I have a friend who owns this book and she is getting kinda annoyed that I keep using hers. Therefore, I decided to purchase one of mine own. I am preparing to study a year abroad in Germany and this book is excellent by having the words I don't quite know with well written definitations and presentation format. This is a necessary book if you plan to travel abroad to keep in your libarary!
Rating:
Summary: Indispensable
Review: I have nightmares about my life before this dictionary. To describe it as thorough is an understatement. Every level user, from beginner to advanced in either language will find this dictionary well-organized and easy to use. It includes sections on irregular verbs, rechtsschreibreform, letter-writing etiquette, and business etiquette. I don't think that I could appreciate this dictionary so much if I hadn't experienced so many others. In my opinion, this version beats Langenscheit hands down. I am, however, a native English speaker; it is possible that a native German speaker would disagree on this point. In all, for users of any level, this dictionary is a necessity for successful and accurate use of either language.
Rating:
Summary: Indispensable
Review: I have nightmares about my life before this dictionary. To describe it as thorough is an understatement. Every level user, from beginner to advanced in either language will find this dictionary well-organized and easy to use. It includes sections on irregular verbs, rechtsschreibreform, letter-writing etiquette, and business etiquette. I don't think that I could appreciate this dictionary so much if I hadn't experienced so many others. In my opinion, this version beats Langenscheit hands down. I am, however, a native English speaker; it is possible that a native German speaker would disagree on this point. In all, for users of any level, this dictionary is a necessity for successful and accurate use of either language.
Rating:
Summary: I ain't a kid! This dictionary is beautiful
Review: Mine has a different cover... and mine looks even better... I live in Hong Kong and learn German as a third langauge in the university. I've bought a pocket Langenscheidt and this Collins. Wow, it's collosal and it has everything you want to have. Very clear and detailed, with millions of examples of word use. One must thank his stars to have found this valuable reference.
For me, the example phrases are very important because for two words, one in German and one in English, even if they have one or two definitions in common, they have some definitions that is not copied in the each other, so there are no straight translations. The same word in English can be differnt words in German when we are using different definitions of the English word, and vice versa. That's why the phrases are so useful. This dictionary has the most numerous such practical usage examples, and really, it beats the Duden.
The Oxford Duden lacks pronunciation symbols for its entries and has few usage forms for each word as guidance to usage.
That's why I bought Langenscheidt and Collins but not the Duden. By the way, I didn't buy them from Amazon.
Rating:
Summary: the best German-English dictionary available
Review: The Collins German Dictionary, with 800,000 entries, has more words and definitions than other comparable dictionaries such as the Oxford Duden, the Langenscheidts and the Cassells (which should be avoided because it is so outdated). It also gives complete grammar explanations in the preface, and it includes a list of regular German noun endings, their genders, genitives, and plurals. There is also a handy reference of all the abbreviations, field labels, and style labels on the inside cover. It also includes the past and participial forms for all strong verbs, and it gives past subjunctives within the text. The Collins also gives declensions for pronouns such as "wer" and "jemand," and it lists proper nouns within the text. Verbs that differ from the stem of the infinitive are listed in their imperative singular form ("hilf," "sprich," etc.). The traditional orthography is given in the body of the dictionary, with a symbol indicating words that have changed on account of the spelling reform of 1996. Its main drawback is that the binding tends to collapse with frequent use, even though it is a hardback. While abbreviations are listed in alphabetical order in the text, their definitions are not given to you immediately. For example, if you look up "usf.," you are told that it is an abbreviation of "und so fort;" then you must look up fort to discover that "usf." means "and so forth." The Collins listing of German verbs is at the very end of the dictionary, which makes it hard to find. Note that there are a variety of Collins dictionaries. The unabridged version has 800,000 entries, while the College Edition has 380,000 entries, and the Concise edition has 195,000 entries. Some of the smaller dictionaries have entries listed in red or in blue, which is helpful for finding words more quickly. If you are beginning to learn German, it is useful
to have a smaller dictionary to save time while looking up the
same word over and over again.
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