1810 Could anyone recommend an Italian/English Dictionary

[QUOTE=Sharon]hi, am looking for a good dictionary (along the lines of the English/French Collins Robert) Which is the best?
many thanks[/QUOTE]

How about English/Italian Collins Robert....... ;)

I would recommend GARZANTI.

Francesco
[url]www.learnitalian.bravehost.com[/url]
[url]www.italianradio.bravehost.com[/url]

rotflol!!!! - assumed 'robert' was a french company, did not occur to me to check it out...thanks will check out amazon

[QUOTE=Sharon]hi, am looking for a good dictionary (along the lines of the English/French Collins Robert) Which is the best?
many thanks[/QUOTE]
Our preference is for the large Collins Italian on the reference bookshelf at home and for general use the smaller Collins Easy Learning Italian dictionary.

I use Collins Sansoni's ENG/ITA - ITA/ENG, covering extremely well also special words from different fields

I have plumbed for the Pictonary, that has diagrams of everything from Neuclar reactors, cuts of meat from different cattle, to different types of insects.

Eact topic is broken down and shows all the sub-components with reference numbers that then have the English and Italian (and includes m/f). I think it is a Oxford book, I bought it from Borders for around £15 - much better than a plain dictionary, especially if you are looking for example, specific technical words :eek: linked to a trade such as electricians/roofers.

Hope this helps!

We were on a flight recently and in one of the airline magazines (that have all kinds of things that you can buy) they had a pen called a "Quicktionary II Elite"
(this is the name of the version you can get in Bi directional dictionaries which would include translations from English to Italian, and Italian to English).

This is a version of their "Readingpen" that:

* Scans a single word or line of text.
* Speaks and spells aloud words, lines of text, definitions and Thesaurus
entries
* Displays dictionary, Thesaurus entries and word syllabication.

I really don't know much more, as I only have a page from the magazine.

Here is the website for this translator. I'm going to check into it, as it seems like a really useful tool.

[url]http://www.wizcomtech.com/[/url]

I like the idea of the picture dictionary for learning the language. A few years ago Corriere della Sera put out a 2 vol Visual English Dizionario Illustrato Ital/Eng and Eng/Ital. Originally published by Dorling Kindersley.
Also great for learning and seeing are the Richard Scarry kids books like "Tutti a Scuola".
I use the big fat Grande Dizionario Hazon Garzanti Ital/Eng and Eng/Ital for my work as a translator..but some specialized terms are not there. There are online dictionaries too . I dont have the link. Anyone ?

I use the Oxford Paravia Italian dictionary - the "midsize" one. I'm not an expert on dictionaries but I'm yet to come up with a word that's not in it.

[QUOTE=Rafey]I have plumbed for the Pictonary, that has diagrams of everything from Neuclar reactors, cuts of meat from different cattle, to different types of insects.

Eact topic is broken down and shows all the sub-components with reference numbers that then have the English and Italian (and includes m/f). I think it is a Oxford book, I bought it from Borders for around £15 - much better than a plain dictionary, especially if you are looking for example, specific technical words :eek: linked to a trade such as electricians/roofers.

Hope this helps![/QUOTE]

wow, that sounds terrific for my hubby. He's just bough a camera mobile phone so he can take pictures to go to the store to say "vorrei questo!"

[QUOTE=greatscott]We were on a flight recently and in one of the airline magazines (that have all kinds of things that you can buy) they had a pen called a "Quicktionary II Elite"
(this is the name of the version you can get in Bi directional dictionaries which would include translations from English to Italian, and Italian to English).

This is a version of their "Readingpen" that:

* Scans a single word or line of text.
* Speaks and spells aloud words, lines of text, definitions and Thesaurus
entries
* Displays dictionary, Thesaurus entries and word syllabication.

I really don't know much more, as I only have a page from the magazine.

Here is the website for this translator. I'm going to check into it, as it seems like a really useful tool.

[url]http://www.wizcomtech.com/[/url][/QUOTE]

you've reminded me that I have one of those. Bought it on a flight on a whim and never used it. It's packed now (I think) but must resurrect it and try it on translations.

the online dictionary i use from which you can get into a vast forum if you want to get more deeply involved in the meanings of particular words is:
[url]http://it.wordreference.com/it/en/translation.asp[/url]

Hi

are you still looking for an italian dictionary. i am currently studying italian, and have a fantastic dictionary, also used the same make last year for spanish.

if you want me to i will look it out tonight, as it is a strange name beginning with 'L'?!

Tracy

Thanks - have now ordered Dizionario Garzanti Hazon di inglese 2006 from IBS Italia - postage is quite pricy (18 euros) - but i await its arrival with bated breath.. am reading an Andrea Cammilleri novel in Italian ( in desperation as the English translations are filtering slowly through and i am addicted - tho the latest 'the smell of night' is due out imminently)

[QUOTE=tuscanhills]How about English/Italian Collins Robert....... ;)[/QUOTE]
Garzanti is a good dictionary my son uses it for his Italian GCSE

many thanks for all the very helpful advice - I have now taken delivery of the garzanti and it is very useful and comprehensive. The only drawback from and anglophone pint of view is that it is primarily intended for speakers of Italian, so a lot of the slang expressions I am trying to nderstand from andrea cammilleris novel 'un mese con montalbano' are not in it. So the next stage will be for me to get an italian/italian dictionary to get the gist of those......

[QUOTE=Sharon]hi, am looking for a good dictionary (along the lines of the English/French Collins Robert) Which is the best?
many thanks[/QUOTE]

I use several:

Cassells
Langenscheidts (they also publish an excellent guide to grammar)
Collins
Harraps Multilingual (Nicolo Zanichelli)

If you have a PocketPC (WindowsCE, iPaq etc) then you can get a free dictionary downloaded from Microsoft which appears to be excellent. It's easy to sue and I've been relying on it for difficult moments during conversation for several months now. (It even had the Italian for "grouper" - cernia) which is handy when discussing the dish of the day.

[quote=lotaresco]I use several:

Cassells
Langenscheidts (they also publish an excellent guide to grammar)
Collins
Harraps Multilingual (Nicolo Zanichelli)

If you have a PocketPC (WindowsCE, iPaq etc) then you can get a free dictionary downloaded from Microsoft which appears to be excellent. It's easy to sue and I've been relying on it for difficult moments during conversation for several months now. (It even had the Italian for "grouper" - cernia) which is handy when discussing the dish of the day.[/quote]

Hello, your back again. Thats good more useful info. You've missed some pretty heated threads, or maybe you didn't! ;)