Oxford Starter French Dictionary

Thoroughly revised, this dictionary breaks fresh ground in language-learning, providing essential information in a unique, user-friendly way. Specially designed for beginners, this volume contains nearly 20,000 words and covers everyday vocabulary and core survival phrases. From irregular verb forms to common idiomatic usage, it provides generous coverage of those aspects of the French language that are difficult to decode for English speakers. These innovative teaching tools make this dictionary an unparalleled introduction to the French language.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0198607156
• ISBN13: 9780198607151
• Release Date: June 2003
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 448 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 5.0" x 0.9" x 7.6"

Customer Reviews

efficient, useful book

I'm learning French from CDs, and I'm finding this book indispensable. Every word I've needed to look up so far I've been able to find quickly, with minimal back-and-forth page flipping. It has many helpful stub entries pointing to main entries. Some common, core words have expanded entries. The authors have left out distracting information that would be relevant only to experts, and used the space for useful stuff for beginners like me. It's great. UPDATE: This dictionary is becoming less useful to me as a reference as I progress. It is a *starter* dictionary after all. It's still useful though.

I wish I'd had this book in college!

I was so thrilled to find this book! I just wish I'd had it in college, but - oh, well, now I'm going to catch up on what I missed in college! This book is a must-have for beginners learning French! Obviously, it has only the vocabulary you would need for the first two or so years of French, but all the confusing, tricky things are beautifully and clearly explained, to get you over the first hurdles! The entries are listed in both French and English, with examples of usage. I even bought the Oxford Starter German Dictionary as well, because I had so many false starts and difficulties trying to learn German. I feel confident that I will now sort out the problems I had with these languages. This is a great concept!!!

Makes French very pleasant to learn

This French-English and English-French dictionary is very well-designed and easy to use. Keywords are highlighted, which makes you find what you need very fast. The translations don't have any confusing grammar-specific abbreviations, all the information is very clear. Special symbols show the points to pay attention to. Thematic boxes are dedicated to the often used words and everyday topics (talking about time, numbers, aches and pains etc.). The book doesn't cover all the French words and cannot be used as a grammar reference, but it has everything the good dictionary should contain. A must have for those learning French from scratch.