Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2005 6:48 am
Just wanted to slightly alter/make slightly clearer the rankings that I gave in the first post regarding the dictionary+CD-ROM sets:
Winner, it's a toss up between the LDOCE4 and the MED. If you can live without the full-colour print of the Longman's paper dictionary, or the added bonus of the Language Activator on the CD-ROM, the MED is such a good dictionary (with a powerful CD-ROM also) that many might be as happy if not happier with it rather than the Longman set.
Runner-up: Cambridge Advanced Learner's (now in a Second Edition), although if the newer versions of the Oxford CD-ROM have more features than they used to offer, then I'd choose the OALDCE pack (because the OALDCE is certainly the better book of the two).
>>>Honourable mention: OALDCE7
COBUILD is now in a Fourth Edition, but you'd be better to try to pick up the Third (see earlier posts and antimoon.com for comments).
Regarding the books themselves/only, it is very hard to decide which is best out of the Longman, MED or Oxford (best to own 'em all, I say!), but I'll stand by my original rankings (these three in top position, followed by the once-innovative COBUILD, then the somewhat characterless Cambridge).
I usually refer to my Longman first (mainly for clear layout of frequency information i.e. the ordering of the words and phrases), but I also usually reach for the MED soon after (I often like the way it defines the function of a phrase); as for the OALDCE, it sometimes includes a phrase or idiom that isn't to be found in the other two dictionaries just mentioned, and its definitions can sometimes be clearer just by virtue of sometimes permitting a little more length and complexity in the phrasing.
American English: I've always been a fan of the Longman Advanced American Dictionary.
Winner, it's a toss up between the LDOCE4 and the MED. If you can live without the full-colour print of the Longman's paper dictionary, or the added bonus of the Language Activator on the CD-ROM, the MED is such a good dictionary (with a powerful CD-ROM also) that many might be as happy if not happier with it rather than the Longman set.
Runner-up: Cambridge Advanced Learner's (now in a Second Edition), although if the newer versions of the Oxford CD-ROM have more features than they used to offer, then I'd choose the OALDCE pack (because the OALDCE is certainly the better book of the two).
>>>Honourable mention: OALDCE7
COBUILD is now in a Fourth Edition, but you'd be better to try to pick up the Third (see earlier posts and antimoon.com for comments).
Regarding the books themselves/only, it is very hard to decide which is best out of the Longman, MED or Oxford (best to own 'em all, I say!), but I'll stand by my original rankings (these three in top position, followed by the once-innovative COBUILD, then the somewhat characterless Cambridge).
I usually refer to my Longman first (mainly for clear layout of frequency information i.e. the ordering of the words and phrases), but I also usually reach for the MED soon after (I often like the way it defines the function of a phrase); as for the OALDCE, it sometimes includes a phrase or idiom that isn't to be found in the other two dictionaries just mentioned, and its definitions can sometimes be clearer just by virtue of sometimes permitting a little more length and complexity in the phrasing.
American English: I've always been a fan of the Longman Advanced American Dictionary.