Customer Reviews
Great value. intuitive
You don't really need a speaking dictionary for Spanish since most Spanish words are pronounced the way they are spelled so don't waste your money on the 99$ version of this. This cheaper gadget is excellent for beginners such as myself. It seems to have the complete Merriam-Webster Spanish collegiate dictionary and it is very easy (and fast) to search. It includes many example phrases so you can find the exact word you want. It is easy to read and you can enlarge the font. A great value. I have had none of the negative experiences of the other reviewers. My guess is that one customer mistakenly threw the transparent screen out with the packaging (the plastic screen is wrapped in plastic with the instructions). Mine DOES have a screen and it has been sturdily protecting my dictionary since I bought it.
Very functional, great features!
This is one of the few electronic dictionaries that actually contains a true dictionary in electronic form. The entries are just like you'd see if you opened a normal spanish-english or english-spanish dictionary, with multiple meanings for the words and phrases, not like a pocket dictionary. And yet, it fits in your pocket!
Unlike the previous reviewer said, there is no flip top cover, and the battery compartment is very secure. Franklin must have revised its product.
The conjugations are the only weak part- while being functional, to be honest, Barron's 501 Spanish Verbs, a normal paper book, is a bit faster than this and gives you every conjugation at a glance. The dictionary will display a general conjugation, called an "overview" of the verb in each tense with an english translation (ie: Yo Soy - I am). Which, while useful for a traveler, is highly disfunctional for a student who knows what exact tense and subject he wants to conjugate the verb in. Accessing the full conjugations is easy, but slow. You must press a key to cycle through the tenses, but there is about a 1 second lag time between each tense, making getting to the pluperfect tense for example, very time-consuming. However, usually in the "overview" of the verb, you can figure out what the stem of the verb is for that tense, but you run into problems with stem-changing verbs, because all the different stems for one tense will not be displayed in the "overview" and you'll have to cycle through.
Typing is very easy though with your thumbs, or fingers (although thumbs i feel are easier and more natural)
Overall though, and especially given the fact that the main feature is the dictionary, it's a great product, certainly the best dictionary out there in this price range.
a time saver
I read lots of books in Spanish. The electronic dictionary fits perfectly in my hand, my shirt pocket or on an open page in the book. The typing is easy, the dictionary even looks for related words if I make a typo. Finding a word, even a complex lexical item, is easier and faster than in a printed dictionary. Being able to store words for later review and learning is a great feature. I find at least 95% of book text vocabulary. On my daily walks, I use the dictionary to communicate with latinos, improving my knowledge of the language and helping them to understand better the English language. A great tool, indeed, and worth every penny.
