Pocket Oxford-Hachette French Dictionary

It may well be a great dictionary, but don't expect to carry it around in your pocket. Hence, 4 Stars for the misleading title.


In France with this dictionary   September 27, 2000
21 out of 21 found this review helpful

Having now lived in France for just over one year and still needing to drastically improve my comprehension of the French language, I felt it would be useful to have a quality pocket dictionary to complement the large hard back version kept at home, thus allowing me to check the meaning of words as I came across them. Small travel guides are fine for most day to day activities, such as restaurant menu translation, travel related information etc. however you are forever coming across words that you don't understand or fully understand in their context. I have found this dictionary very comprehensive and invaluable as a translation aid, its provision of example word usage helps you to understand the different meanings and context within a sentence or phrase. In addition to its standard French to English and English to French translations, I also found it's sections on areas such as public holiday's, cultural information and letter writing advice very useful - an added bonus. My only two criticisms about the dictionary are one, its size and possibly its weight. The title "pocket .... dictionary" is perhaps a little misleading, it measurements are approximately 13 x 19.5 x 4.5cm and it weighs 0.75Kg, at touch too large to carry in one's pocket as you go about your daily business. In saying that it's fine for keeping in the car or carrying in a small day rucksack and perfect as a second dictionary for the office. Secondly, as a dictionary intended for "pocket" use, a version with a flexible binding as opposed to standard paper back would be perfect.