Learn To Speak French

Oxford-Hachette French Dictionary

Amazon Price: $34.65 (as of 01/01/2010)
List Price: $55.00

As a practical guide to modern usage, this dictionary can't be beat, even though because it was written by British and French editors with an eye toward the American market as well, there is a good deal of duplication, marked "GB" and "US" respectively, that can be a little awkward. For a francophone contemplating a piece of writing in English this would be immensely useful; in the opposite direction it is a little less so. On the other hand, because it doesn't limit itself to words approved by the Acad%uFFFDmie, it will resolve many a doubt caused by slang or franglais. Though le footing comes from English, not every English user would know that faire un footing means go for a jog. it seems a little silly to define le football as "American football GB, football US," but it is precise. Very well done and useful are the guides to drafting every imaginable kind of business correspondence in French, preparing a r%uFFFDsum%uFFFD, and other supplmenary materials. I admit that if I'd had my druthers I'd have bought a French dictionary with the definitions in French and some etymological information, but couldn't find on the web good advice on which to choose. Perhaps no other language has the equivalent of the Merriam Webster Tenth Collegiate. But I would like to know, for example, how croquer and les croquants became le croque-mort and croque-monsieur/dame. It is a grownup dictionary, giving full definitions for words such as tringler, apt to be missing or Bowdlerized elsewhere. Though its bulk and style can make it a trifle slow in checking a word quickly enough not to lose the sense of the paragraph you are reading, but that's in the nature of the beast. For what it is--a writer's and translator's dictionary more than a reader's or a traveller's--it is first-rate. -- David M. Fishlow "Disgusted in Tunbridge Wells" (Washington, DC, USA)

Release Date: 12/31/1969

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