Which French-English Dictionary?
 

I want to buy a comprehensive dictionary(not a travel version, I have 3 of those) to use as I read French-language websites. I know many of you study French and will have recommendations. Currently I use Collins French Concise Dictionary, with 200,000 entries, but I'm looking for something with far more entries.
Thanks, Barb

Larousse is highly regarded.

I use "Le Petit Robert" which is more literature-oriented than the Larousse and comes with lots of quotes to help you understand how a word is used and how it has evolved over the years.

Top of the top is "Le Littré".... but it comes in 20 volumes !
(btw French is my mother-tongue)

As a translator, I use the Robert & Collins Super Senior, which comes in two volumes and is absolutely excellent. One step down from that is the Robert & Collins Senior, which is also extremely good, and very comprehensive.

For a monolingual dictionary, I agree that the Petit Robert is probably your best bet.

I've just splashed out for Harraps Unabridged, and am very pleased with it:-

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Harraps-Fren...618&sr=1-1

"I've just splashed out for Harraps Unabridged"
Yes I also have the Harraps and agree that it's good too. Particularly for idiomatic expressions, sayings, etc.

Barb, if your browser is Firefox, you can install an add-on extension called gTranslate that uses Google Language tools. Just highlight the word or phrase and right-click to get the translate option.

This may be an faster way to read foreign language websites, but I know it's not always correct. Sometimes, though, a sense of the word and context is all that's needed.

I'm sure IE has a similar extension available.

Another vote for Harraps. As for Collins, I've never bought the French dictionary, but when I took classes at the Italian institute in London, the teachers told us NOT to get Collins, it had too many errors (she pointed out a few, which I've forgotten).

"when I took classes at the Italian institute in London, the teachers told us NOT to get Collins"

I have Collins Italian/English and Portuguese/English dictionaries and don't rate either very highly.

The French Robert-Collins (at least the Senior edition) <i>is</i> very good though - I use it every day.

Interesting, hanl, thanks for that info. I avoided buying a Collins French dictionary because of the poor rating of the Italian dictionary. And I do need a new one, my Harraps dates back to 1982!

A translator I know (who works at the European Commission) recommended the Collins Robert CD-Rom to me. If you're planning to use it as you read French websites, a dictionary on your computer could come in handy.

BTilke, I love dictionaries (always have!) and have far more of them than I really need!

I think the best thing to do when buying a new dictionary is to think of a few words or phrases you've always had trouble translating/understanding and look them up in several dictionaries and see how they compare. It's true that as the Collins and Harraps are both excellent, it's probably more about what format one prefers...

Hanl, do the inside covers of Harraps still feature 50 famous English proverbs (chosen by Anthony Burgess)and their French translations (front) and 50 famous French proverbs (as selected by Pierre Daninos) with their English translations (back covers)?

example: once bitten, twice shy translates as &quot;chat echaude craint l'eau froide&quot; (sorry, I'm too lazy to hunt up the accent keys)

and &quot;ne reveillez pas le chat qui dort&quot; translates as &quot;let sleeping dogs lie &quot;(wonder why the French use cats and the English dogs for the same expression).

BT, I'll have to check when I get into the office on Mon!