Langenscheidt's Pocket Portuguese Dictionary (Langenscheidt's Pocket Dictionaries)

Rating:
Summary: problems of this dictionary
Review: i found this dictionary to be the most confusing one that i'd ever used. often they have many different possibilities for the words with no explanation as to context. i often encountered definitions that were either stretching the real meaning, or frankly wrong. while in brasil i suffered with this dictionary until i was able to get my hands on a better one. you'll find yourself looking up words in portuguese, finding seven possibilities, then having to compare the words to find the one that most closely fits.
this dictionary is terrible.

Rating:
Summary: Not for the beginner
Review: I got this dictionary when I was first learning how to speak Portuguese. At the time when I needed it the most (when I did not have a large vocabulary), this dictionary proved to be utterly disappointing. It simply doesn't contain much in the way of simple words and phrases that a beginner is bound to need.

I shelved this dictionary, and only began to pick it up again after I was fluent. Since then, it has proved useful, containing many more difficult and obscure words that you are likely to forget if you don't practice your Portuguese too much. I use it now fairly often when I write letters, and it has (finally) proved worth it.

If you're a beginner, or someone who is seeking to learn Portuguese, I recommend you get another dictionary, as this one will prove mostly useless to you. On the other hand, if you're already fluent, and for some reason you don't want a more comprehensive dictionary, pick this one up. It is durable, and it is pocket sized. It's just not comprehensive.

Rating:
Summary: Emphasizes Brazilian Portuguese. Durable and a great value.
Review: Like most Portuguese dictionaries, this one focuses on Brazilian Portuguese, not Continental. While there's not a huge difference in vocabulary between the two, the phonetic descriptions here might get you off track if you're trying to learn European Portuguese like myself. For instance, "capacidade" in Brazil is pronounced "kapasidadi", whereas in Portugal it's pronounced "kapasidade."

For the price, Langenscheidt's Portuguese is a great value. It contains about 43,000 references -- great for the intermediate and maybe even the advanced student. While it should include more idiomatic phrases than it does -- like the excellent Webster's New World dictionaries -- it's still a good deal for the money. Attractively bound in a durable "plastic"-like binding, it will hold up for decades. Five stars.