Which brand of English dictionaries is the best one?

furrykef   Wed Oct 03, 2007 11:56 am GMT
Another point:

<< Americans prefer only American-made stuff because they are weirdos. They are suspicious about anything that is not American made. >>

Well, if you want a dictionary of American English, it's quite reasonable to want the dictionary to be American-made. After all, we know it best. I wouldn't say that Americans mistrust the Oxford English Dictionary, though. It's pretty prestigious, but a lot of people don't use it... possibly because Oxford's most famous for really large dictionaries that are impossible to carry, though they do make smaller ones.

- Kef
Skippy   Wed Oct 03, 2007 12:00 pm GMT
Right, Merriam-Webster's.

lol and yeah Americans love stuff that's made in America, but that hardly means that half our stuff doesn't say "Made in China" or "Made in Taiwan" or "Made in Malaysia" etc.
Guest   Wed Oct 03, 2007 1:31 pm GMT
I am talking in the broader scheme of things. Americans think that they are best people out there in the world and America is the best country out there in the world. American-made stuff is the best stuff out there in the world. They read only American history, American authors, novelists. american newspapers. WTF? This self-righteous nature of Americans is so grating, you know.
furrykef   Wed Oct 03, 2007 1:47 pm GMT
Yeah, but it's also grating hearing other people talk about it all the time.
Skippy   Wed Oct 03, 2007 8:47 pm GMT
lol well... American authors and novelists make up an extremely large proportion of total authors and novelists... Plus, they write in English and typically publish in America, so they're more available. Americans read newspapers based on where they live (i.e. in Dallas they read the Dallas Morning News, in San Diego the San Diego Union-Tribune; unless of course it's something like the Wall Street Journal or USA Today, which are still in the US (and printed in English). You can't really give us a hard time about that... People in the UK read the Guardian and the Times, people in Germany read Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and der Spiegel...

Also, American brands and companies often do well internationally (McDonald's, Coca-Cola, etc.).

Maybe it's just a cultural difference you're going to have to get used to... Texans are proud to be Texan, Bavarians are proud to be Bavarian... Scots are proud to be Scottish... So naturally we're going to see the good in where we're from.

On the other hand, Americans are completely mystified and awed by anything European... American women love European accents (English, Irish, German, anything really), the architecture, the art, the history, the food is UNBELIEVABLE...

Anyway... I'm sure this was grating for you to read. Too bad, makes sense to me.
JIAJIA   Thu Oct 04, 2007 3:25 am GMT
I've always wondered why such a lot of people prefer Collins Cobuild to Macmillan, I thought again and again, finally I found out the key answer.
Maybe for English native speakers, Collins Cobild would be kind of better, but for non-native speakers (for example: Chinese), we usually consider Macmillan a little better than Collins Cobuild in some respects, especially it's perhaps designedly composed for non-native learners from the viewpoint of foreigners, instead of mading for Americans, Britishers, or Australians. All in all, I like to choose Longman, Oxford, and Macmillan, of course, in fact, Collins Cobuild still has some advantages itself. This is just my personal opinion about famous English dictionaries.
Guest   Thu Oct 04, 2007 3:27 am GMT
hey Skippy... you know how I get really wet and warm down there?... when I pee myself <33 ;)
Skippy   Thu Oct 04, 2007 12:39 pm GMT
lol my bad...
Guest   Fri Oct 05, 2007 10:23 pm GMT
hahahahahahaha I peed myself too, from laughing :)
Dawn   Fri Oct 05, 2007 10:55 pm GMT
if you want a dictionary that includes the American pronunciation (using IPA symbols) try Cambridge Advanced learner's dictionary. It features the WestCoast American accent. You can access it online

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?dict=CALD&key=19720&ph=on
Alexei   Sat Oct 06, 2007 12:31 pm GMT
I use the electronic version of Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary (don't know the edition). I think for non-nataive speakers (as I am) it's excellent. A LOT of examples. Even if there's an example sentence containing the word you need in an article for another word it shows it to you.

And very good structure and readers friendly interface.

Really helpful. I compared it to Webster's Dictionary (electronic one) that I'd tried to use, and the latter was not a patch on Oxford's...
Me   Sat Oct 06, 2007 4:23 pm GMT
I fail to see the attraction to dictionaries that use superfluous IPA symbols. These symbols are totally counter-intuitive and excessive. The phonetic schemes used in the American Heritage dictionary and Merriam-Webster are far superior and much less confusing. Leaning how to interpret IPA symbols is almost like trying to learn a new language itself.

And don't even get me started on the metric system. :)
Jack   Sat Oct 06, 2007 5:07 pm GMT
if you own the 9th edition of Merriam-Webster Collegiate dictionary, you'll quickly find out that all the hands that worked to produce it were extremely intelligent. It the only dictionary that can stand up to your majestic New Oxford English dictioary. Americans are really into it!
Jack   Sat Oct 06, 2007 5:11 pm GMT
If you own the 9th edition of Merriam-Webster Collegiate dictionary, you'll quickly find out that all the hands that worked to produce it were extremely intelligent. It's the only dictionary that can stand up to your majestic New Oxford English dictioary. Americans are really into it! They have an excellent feel for English. Thanks
Milton   Sat Oct 06, 2007 5:25 pm GMT
American dictionaries have many advantages, but pronunciation help is just not one of them. They use weird, phonologic (and not phonetic) symbols, and many times, the only one pronunciation possible is given, in some words they prefer the WestCoast pronunciation (like /A/ in Chocolate instead of /Q/, in some words they prefer the East Coast pronunciation (like /Q/in Dawn instead of /A/... They are not consistent at all. If you follow their preferences, you'll end up using an accent no ones have (in which some words are pronounced in a Western way and some words in a BackEast way...) If US pronunciation is what you're after, try LONGMAN PRONUNCIATION DICTIONARY - they include boh BackEast and WestCoast US pronunciation, using IPA symbols.

Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary is good too, with conservative (Low Back Merged but not shifted) Californian pronunciation, in IPA symbols as well.