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Rating: 
Summary: Size does matter
Review: Hallo German Students,The first thing you would think when you see this dictionary is....."How can I carry this gigantic dictionary around the campus?"...... Well, that is the same question I asked when I was looking at this dictionary in a bookstore in Makati, Philippines. As German language students, you must have a pocket (or a reasonable size which you can bring around the campus) dictionary when you go to school. Aside from this you must invest in a good and big dictionary which should contain at least 150,000 words, because your grades will also depend on the quality of dictionary you use. The Concise Oxford Duden German Dictionary is not only a big dictionary (speaking not only about the size of the dictionary itself but also the number of entries it has), but it also a good buy. It has more than 150000 entries and 250000 translations. This dictionary costs the same amount as the other dictionary I have, which have less entries than the Concise Oxford Duden German Dictionary. The Concise Oxford Duden German Dictionary also have easy to understand and helpful tips about the German Grammar. You can find tips about on any possible grammatical or morphological topics after several words (i.e. nationalities, languages, and citizens after the name of the countries). So, with this dictionary, you get more, but you pay less. Good luck to you all.
Rating:
Summary: Size does matter
Review: Hallo German Students, The first thing you would think when you see this dictionary is....."How can I carry this gigantic dictionary around the campus?"...... Well, that is the same question I asked when I was looking at this dictionary in a bookstore in Makati, Philippines. As German language students, you must have a pocket (or a reasonable size which you can bring around the campus) dictionary when you go to school. Aside from this you must invest in a good and big dictionary which should contain at least 150,000 words, because your grades will also depend on the quality of dictionary you use. The Concise Oxford Duden German Dictionary is not only a big dictionary (speaking not only about the size of the dictionary itself but also the number of entries it has), but it also a good buy. It has more than 150000 entries and 250000 translations. This dictionary costs the same amount as the other dictionary I have, which have less entries than the Concise Oxford Duden German Dictionary. The Concise Oxford Duden German Dictionary also have easy to understand and helpful tips about the German Grammar. You can find tips about on any possible grammatical or morphological topics after several words (i.e. nationalities, languages, and citizens after the name of the countries). So, with this dictionary, you get more, but you pay less. Good luck to you all.
Rating: 
Summary: BEST & MOST ACCURATE GERMAN TRANSLATIONS
Review: I LIVE AND STUDIED IN GERMANY BUT CAME FROM THE UNITED STATES. THIS IS THE ONLY DICTIONARY YOU WILL EVER NEED FOR GERMAN GRAMMAR CLASSES AND THE BIGGER EDITION (Oxford Duden) IS THE MOST COMPLETE DICTIONARY FOR HOME AND OFFICE USE. Forget all the rest. Dictionaries like Langenscheidt, Cassell, and Pons no longer reflect the most accurate and sophisticated way of speaking both German and English. Some still contain the unreformed German spelling. Some even have phrases my German professor cant understand and is amused at ! Some contain word translations that cant ``hit the nail on the head'', the student ends up talking in synonyms and translations are awful. Some synonyms that are provided by other dictionaries are as far from each other as the swing of a pendulum (once you reach professional level). The professors of linguistics here in Germany recommend this to English speakers, TO HELP THE STUDENT ACCURATELY TRANSLATE -the big bulky Oxford Duden dictionary (GroßWorterbuch) which is THE BEST EVER FOR HOME AND OFFICE USE, and this middle-sized one (The Concise Oxford Duden German Dictionary). You cant make a mistake with the partnership of these 2 publishing houses - Oxford and Duden (a partnership of one of the best English universities and a German publishing giant - those are the 2 countries that speak English and German! ). WHen I was studying Professional German, this concise one and the bigger Duden Oxford helped me a lot and my word translations were almost always accurate. My classmates kept borrowing my dictionary till the professor picked it up and asked everyone else to order it. I only had to improve on my grammar (conjugations, adjective declinations, genitive vs. accusative, etc.) DONT BUY ANY OTHER BRAND. Trust me. I studied and I am now teaching and I have thrown other dictionaries (no plurals, no du form, expressions are outdated and no longer in use in modern Germany, spellings have been changed under the reform law, etc.) and WORSE when you translate from other dictionaries, a professional German is amused because it sounds so funny. Save yourself the misery of awful translations that cant be understood in Germany. Langenscheidt is written (from the viewpoint/mind of a German native speaker, so each word is directly translated), BUT WHEN AN ENGLISH SPEAKER TRANSLATES, HE THINKS IN THE STRUCTURE OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE WHICH IS HIS MOTHER TONGUE. Hence, an English speaker will wrongly translate when using Langenscheidt because the word order and grammar of the English mind is not the same as a structured, detailed German mind. You should use a dictionary THAT THINKS THE WAY YOU DO (if you speak English- get an Oxford one). No other dictionary beats Oxford Duden if you are an English native speaker. THe second best for me is HarperCollins, if you cant find this.
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