The Bantam New College French & English Dictionary

This bilingual dictionary's two greatest virtues are its compact yet readable format and its affordable price. And, as a bonus, there are brief grammatical summaries and lists of irregular verbs. These reminders are packaged with the two-way translations for convenience, never meant as a substitute for an exhaustive reference. This meets my limited needs, as someone who comes across the occasional French word in passing. Most high school language students will also find that it has all the vocabulary they need. This isn't a scholar's reference, though. Translated definitions tend towards the terse, so they won't cover all usages of a term. And, to keep cost down, it's printed on pulp stock, so it won't last forever even if handled gently. It offers plenty if you don't need much, and that's good enough for me right now. //wiredweird

I receied the French dictionary in good time and was glad it was available.

This is a very usable bilingual dictionary. With 70,000 entries, it's all I've ever needed to get through daily life in French or even read non-technical books. Complete pronunciation information is given for entries in both languages. At the beginning of the French-English section is a very comprehensive summary of French grammar, including the complete declensions of 76 irregular verbs. With such a summary, you don't need to carry a grammar book along if you have this dictionary with you.

Whether you like French or not, this small package packs a huge punch w/ its plethora of words. What really pleased me were all the idioms and phrases I didn't expect in a ENG-FR dictionary as small as this one. Its range of words, from the usual to the oddball, is great and I keep it next to me always when writing in FR. I've yet to find a dictionary as small as this one yet with the same wealth of reference.

Probably the best of the Bantam New College series dictionaries, in my opinion. Its simple guide to French usage is simple enough to retain its clarity yet provide a good-enough overview so that one might compose small sentences with fair accuracy