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Rating: 
Summary: Buy this book! Its the best of it's kind.
Review: I own four German-English dictionaries and have used many more in my High School and College classes, and I can tell you that if you are going to buy one, this is the one you should buy.A dictionary that doesn't tell you how to use the word is almost worthless. Most small Germman-English dictionaries will give you a basic translation, but you stil don't know the individual nuances of each word. I have used this dictionary for everything from a quick reference in conversation to writing college term papers, and I have never been disappointed. If you want to learn German correctly, this book is a must-have.
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Summary: The best affordable German dictionary on the market.
Review: If you're not willing to spend fifty dollars or more and buy a really massive German dictionary, this one is the best. For the quality found here, it sells for an absolutely unbeatable price. I've used my copy for about three years and I have never ran across a better dictionary. Having tutored several Spanish and German courses, I frequently thumb through some of the pathetic dictionaries my students bring in and I realize exactly why they have difficulty learning a foreign language, or at least a big part of it -- their dictionaries don't provide adequate examples of how the language they're studying actually functions. Very few people realize how to use a foreign-language dictionary effectively. You shouldn't regard it as just a "reference" to turn when you can't figure out what a word means. The dictionary is just as important as the grammar -- that is, when you have the right one. A dictionary should be more than a list of words. It should include examples of how each word is used in different circumstances, illustrated by REAL SENTENCES. This is something most dictionaries lack. If I wanted to say, for example, "I didn't want to get involved with that", the average dictionary would leave me in the dark. I look up the verb "to involve" and I find several verbs: "verwickeln," "betreffen," and the phrase, "in etwas verwickelt werden". The average dictionary just stops there, or only hints at how to use these verbs. The Webster's New World dictionary not only illustrates how the verbs are used by including them in a sentence or two, but also suggests some more idiomatic phrases that might not come to mind. For instance, to say "I didn't want to get involved with that," a student might put together the awkard -- if not, in fact, ungrammatical -- sentence, "Ich wollte nicht in das verwickelt werden." Something more fluent like, "Ich wollte damit nichts zu tun haben" might never occur to me. But that's one of the examples this dictionary gives to explain the verb "to involve." In addition, the dictionary clarifies how each word is used in different circumstances. While you find this in all dictionaries to some extent, the number of examples this one gives is what makes it better than all the rest. In fact, there are so many of them, organized so well, that when I started studying German myself, I actually read the dictionary, or at least copied out some of the entries, playing around with them, comparing related words and expressions. If I had done this with any other dictionary, my brain would have dried up! And if you're looking for an excellent Spanish, Italian, or French dictionary, I recommend the other titles in the Webster's New World series -- I've used them all except the French. Hopefully Webster's will eventually release titles for some less popular languages, too!
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Summary: Poor German Dictionary for Americans
Review: This German Dictionary does not have German pronunciation guides. It has only English pronunciation guides, which is not very useful for an American trying to learn German.
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Summary: Good, but outdated
Review: This is a good beginner's dictionary. It covers a substantial part of the vocabulary and illustrates the entries by examples. However, the text is based on the 1987 Collins/Klett edition, i.e. seventeen years old. The new German spelling system is completely missing, and some rather obsolete West/East German vocabulary is still in there. The dictionary isn't perfect, but acceptable for the price.
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