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HarperCollins Spanish Dictionary: Spanish-English/English-Spanish

The HarperCollins Rack Dictionary offers up-to-date coverage of today's language with over 40,000 entries and 70,000 translations. The easy-to-use format contains commonly used phrases and idioms, plus irregular verb forms, and the most common abbreviations, acronyms, and geographic names.The HarperCollins Rack Dictionary is targeted to students, travelers, and professionals looking for a quick refresher. Economically priced and packaged in an easy-to-carry paperback format, this dictionary is the best buy on a crowded shelf.

The Rack editions will continue the new look and cover design of Concise and College editions to present a unified, competitive branded look.

448 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1975

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About the author

Colin Smith

15 books1 follower
Colin Smith was one of Britain's leading authorities on medieval Spanish literature, and the compiler of the best and most widely used Spanish-English/ English-Spanish dictionary, the Collins dictionary. His unusually wide range of interests included archaeology and entomology, and led him to joint authorship of The Place-Names of Roman Britain (1979).

Christopher Colin Smith, Hispano-medievalist, lexicographer: born Brighton, Sussex 27 September 1927; Assistant Lecturer, Department of Spanish, Leeds University 1953- 56, Lecturer 1956-64, Senior Lecturer 1964-68, Sub-Dean of Arts 1963-66; University Lecturer in Spanish, Cambridge University 1968-75, Professor of Spanish 1975-90; Fellow, St Catharine's College, Cambridge 1968-97; Hispanic Editor, Modern Language Review 1974-81, General Editor 1976-81; married 1954 Ruth Barnes (three daughters, and one son deceased); died Cambridge 16 February 1997.

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5 stars
15 (29%)
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17 (33%)
3 stars
14 (27%)
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
Profile Image for Christopher.
1,502 reviews229 followers
May 11, 2008
This review describes the third edition of the COLLINS GEM SPANISH DICTIONARY, English-Spanish and Spanish-English, which appeared in 1993 and was reprinted in 1995.

The dictionary contains over 40,000 references and 70,000 translations. Like the Collins Gem German dictionary, this one adopts the helpful feature of boxing out "keywords", Spanish words with many idiomatic usages, and giving them appropriate coverage. The pronunciation of English and Spanish words are given in phonetic transcription (IPA). For English the Received Pronunciation is given, while for Spanish one finds the standard Castilian pronunciation of Spain. This is understandable, as Collins is a British publisher. An appendix at the end of the dictionary has a table of irregular Spanish verbs and gives numbers in English and Spanish along with information on telling time.

I've had this dictionary for a decade now, and while the paper has yellowed somewhat, it has not become brittle and the cover has withstood getting knocked about in my pocket or suitcase. It proved very useful during a residence in Spain, and I still refer to it in reading Spanish texts without encountering many limitations, though if you are reading literature you'll also want a large table dictionary I'd recommend seeking out a copy, it's well represented on the used market. Also, if you are a foreigner grappling with Spanish, I'd recommend the book COLLINS GEM SPANISH VERB TABLES AND GRAMMAR (ISBN 0-00-459340-5) which complements the dictionary well (and matches it in appearance).
Profile Image for Lisa.
300 reviews
November 24, 2009
Harper Collins Spanish Dictionary/Spanish-English English-Spanish (HarperCollins Bilingual Dictionaries) by Harper Collins Publishers (1990)
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews