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Bantam New College Spanish & English Dictionary: This is a great, cheap, easy-to-carry-around paperback dictionary. It has about 80,000 words and focuses on Latin American Spanish. However, I took it with me to Spain and did fine. There were a lot of slang words I couldn't find but that's true of any small dictionary. It has a decent grammar review at the end and a list of some common irregular Spanish verbs with all the irregular tenses conjugated for you. This will serve you well up to the advanced level so you can safely put off buying a large desk dictionary for a while. However, the first page of Don Quixote contained no fewer than 5 words that I couldn't find in this dictionary, so just be aware of what it's suited for and what it isn't. This is excellent for students and travelers. Translators should look elsewhere but then, if you are a professional translator, you already knew that.
Harper Collins Unabridged Spanish Dictionary: Now this is a dictionary I absolutely adore. I bought it maybe 3 months ago and haven't had a single regret. I feel that unless you are a professional translator whose livelihood depends on your dictionary, you don't need a $100+ dictionary. This one contains over 770,000 entries and translates both ways. A lot of people will tell you that you need to stop using Spanish-English dictionaries and struggle along with an all-Spanish dictionary but I'm not convinced. Sure it helps you out a lot but I feel that unless you're at a very, very advanced stage of learning, it's just more trouble than it's worth. This volume also contains a quite detailed 35 page Spanish and English grammar overview as well as a section on essay writing. It also offers comprehensive coverage of both Castillian and Latin Spanish. This is all the dictionary 90% of the people will ever need and at a mere $35 that's a good thing.
Diccionario de la Real Academia Espaņola: For those of you wanting an all-Spanish dictionary, here it is. It's from the Royal Acadamy of the Castillian Language in Madrid, Spain (yes they have a royal academy that governs the language). This one obviously gives a bit more precedence to Castillian Spanish over Latin Spanish but it does a good job of covering both. This was the cheapest DRAE that I could find. There are many larger and more expensive ones on Amazon but I haven't used any of them and can't recommend one over the other. So far these are all the dictionaries I've had the chance to use. There are many more out there and a dictionary seems to be a very personal thing: what works for me may not work for you. If you have a favorite dictionary or any comments, feel free to Email Me and let me know about it. Thanks!
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