# Spanish-English-Spanish dictionary?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spanish-english-spanish-dictionary/96557>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [December 3, 2001, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spanish-english-spanish-dictionary/96557 "2001-12-03T04:12:35Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Volta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/ce73a5/32.png) [@Volta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Volta)\
**Post date:** [December 3, 2001, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spanish-english-spanish-dictionary/96557/1 "2001-12-03T04:12:35Z")

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I’m a Spanish student and I’m looking for a good comprehensive dictionary to increase my vocabulary. The two I’m considering at the moment are the HarperCollins Spanish Concise Dictionary and the Random House Spanish-English English-Spanish Dictionary. The HarperCollins seems to be very on edge culturally and it has enough technological terms and acronyms (though I didn’t do a thorough analysis) but the Random House one seems pretty good as well and the price is more appealing ($15 vs. $6—not that much of a difference but enough to pique my interest).

Any suggestions? What should I go about looking for in this kind of dictionary?

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**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\
**Post date:** [December 3, 2001, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spanish-english-spanish-dictionary/96557/2 "2001-12-03T05:52:19Z")

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Off to IMHO.

bibliophage  
moderator GQ

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**Author:** ![beegirl13](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/848f3c/32.png) [@beegirl13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beegirl13)\
**Post date:** [December 3, 2001, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spanish-english-spanish-dictionary/96557/3 "2001-12-03T16:04:11Z")

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I’ve got the Larousse Pocket Spanish-English English-Spanish dictionary. It’s good for a lot of idiomatic expressions and such, but it uses British English, which doesn’t always work if you are an American- “What the heck is a lorry?!” [sub]Yes, I know what it is now. But I didn’t in 9th grade[/sub]. I don’t remember whether the Random House dictionary (the one most of my classmates have) has vulgarities or not, but I know my Larousse dictionary does, which I always found interesting. And it only cost me $4.50 (American).

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**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\
**Post date:** [December 4, 2001, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spanish-english-spanish-dictionary/96557/4 "2001-12-04T00:35:32Z")

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For nouns, consider the Oxford-Duden Pictorial dictionary. It’s PACKED with things – especially “specialisms” – that you’ll never find in a regular dictionary.

It also works well for naming things in English that you never knew the name for!