dictionary

No matter how good a program is it may be a good idea to get a hard copy dictionary. Just wondering if someone might have a recommendation. Perhaps some books are better than others. Was also looking for a german hard copy periodical or mag which might deal with the simple things in life. That is, no jargon or advanced language yet at the same time not being a kids mag etc. Danke

I have a lonely planet German phrasebook. Its a great reminder of how to say common phrases. I usually run through that intermittantly while still doing rocket german on the website. It cost $12 (AUD) at the airport (which im sure if more than it would be at a book store). At the back of the book there is a English-German and German-English dictionary with most words. Probably the best thing ive gained from this phrasebook is every word has the pronunciation spelt out next to it. (E.g Zwei - Tsvai, Huete - Hoy-te, Nachmittag - Nahk-mi-tahk) Which has been great if your like me and like to see how things are pronounced in a way were there can be no confusion.

"lonely planet German phrasebook", check. Tho the vocab programs are nice seems a hard copy dictionary is needed. You feel a tad proficient after some effort to then see some real german print to find you know nothing. Luckily jargon is another issue. Thanks

I use Cassell's German-English--- English/German Dictionary. Recently purchased "English Grammar for Students of German". It is for me a great help. I bought it through Amazon.com - about $14.00

Some advertising materials are easy to understand like the Air Berlin member card brochure they sent me. Or things like tourist info/adverts for businesses.

I picked up a copy of McGraw-Hill's German Student Dictionary. It is a basic student German/English dictionary that contains essential words for beginners. It is a great reference tool.

The best tool to have is a quality Talking Dictionary translator. Tools without the verbal translation have limited use for the beginner. The problem I had is finding a good electronic unit. Most are pretty poor and do not offer much for a serious German student. If you are visiting a cheap 10.00 unit is fine. If you are serious you need a quality unit. Printed dictionaries are of little value any more. They may be cheap compared to electronic devices but, they are very out dated. Even a cheap 10.00 electronic unit does more then a dictionary. I do not recommend them at all.\n\nThese then can cost you a lot. Further it is very confusing on which one to buy. I can save you a lot of time and money. By far the best unit for the is the ETACO EBOOK style unit. At around $160.00 dollars it is a real buy with 600,000 German words, phases and detailed translations in many forms and it talks. The phases are offered in super clear manner and words fairly well for electronic voices. It cannot be beat in general. They offer a complete line of great products.The Unit is easy to carry and use any place. I do not recommend the more costly units unless you really need them and have a bunch of money to spend. They offer a lot of cool technology. But it has a price.\n\n BUT, nothing beats a basic course like this for learning.\n\nwww.ectaco.com\n\nThere is A LOT on this site and you will get lost without help. You are looking for\n ECTACO Partner C-4Gm English <-> German Professional Talking Electronic Dictionary & eBook.\n\nA fantastic product at a fair cost. This is a fantastic source for the language student in general.\n\n\n\nFor the facts on Germany from a person that lives there, you can contact me. I am happy to help. [redacted]

Any recommendations for on-line dictionaries? I found something called Beolingus: http://dict.tu-chemnitz.de/de-en/

I use....www.leo.org for a dictionary online and I have an iPod so I use a free dictionary by bab.la which has over 500k words.

I've found an amazing German on-line dictionary and Grammar- www.canoo.net After putting in any German noun or verb in the space next to suchen it will take you to a page where you can change the language to English by clicking on the British flag. Then, if you do a word search it will give you the spelling, inflection, morphology , synonyms and meanings (plus examples ) of any noun, verb or adjective plus links to several on-line dictionaries.