Five Language Visual Dictionary

I've used this book for 8 years and it's been wonderful! Its main section is divided into categories, with each category having a picture or illustration accompanied by the word in each of the five languages. There are many, many words -- more than you can learn! Especially helpful if you want to concentrate on a particular category; e.g., types of food. Everything is in-depth. In addition, it has many maps of the world, with names of all the countries. Everything is very up-to-date (yes, even after 8 years!). Perhaps the best feature is the index. There is one index for every language, so if you know a word in one language, it'll tell the page where that word in all the languages can be found. Next to the word in the non-English indexes is an "m", an "f", or an "n", denoting the gender. I love it!

This dictionary is absolutely fabulous, both as a reference and as a learning tool. You will be hard pressed to find a more comprehensive visual dictionary on the market, as there are over 6,000 words with over 1,600 vibrant images in this book. The words are organized categorically -- hotel, food, travel, etc. making it exceptionally easy to find words.You should know that this book contains 5 languages total, but the English used is the type used in Britain. This doesn't detract from the quality of the dictionary, but some words will jump out at you if you are from the States (like me). You can easily understand the American equivalent and it is actually kind of cool to see how they say it in England.There is one minor problem with this dictionary: They do not specify the gender for all the words in French -- such as "l'appareil-photo". The gender could go either way due to the apostrophe and the book does not specify in these cases. Not to worry, however. For one, there are patterns with the French gender system which will allow you to make an educated guess. Second, the gender of a word is not as important as you think (if you make a mistake, its not too critical).If you frequently study these languages or plan on studying them, this dictionary will help you quite a bit. For the money, you really can't go wrong.

I highly recommend this book for everybody that speaks at least one of the languages that are included, and wants to improve his/her knowledge of one or more of the others. Of course, this is a good resource for people that already have some background in a foreign language: it does not teach grammar or syntax, but will expand significantly your vocabulary, and help remember the words that we learn. I personally purchased it and I am very happy with it. I am a mother-tongue in Italian, and I am fluent in English and Spanish, and a beginner in German. I use the book to fix some new words in English and Spanish, and to expand my so far limited vocabulary in German.The only negative side (that I found so far): be aware that the book teaches the British form of English words, and not the American English version. I personally have tried using some new words from the book in conversations in the US (where I live), and some friends corrected me saying that those English forms are never used here.

About ten years ago, I bought from you a copy of the 5 Language Visual Dictionary. I was so impressed by this volume that I have since bought five additional copies as gifts for fellow language enthusiasts in my family, including my son, my daughter, and three cousins.. Their reactions have been just as favorable as mine.

As an ESL tutor and member of a multi-lingual family, this is an indispensable resource book. The excellent photos D&K is know for make this easy to use and very timely. People love spending time looking through the book for pleasure well after they have found the information they needed.

Super

My daughter loves this book

I bought this book for my daughter that is interested in learning about multi-languages. After reviewing it, she loves the content, the depth of the languages in the book, and the accuracy of the translation.

This is so good. It is aimed at people how are going to spend time in a country. It is split into very comprehensive sections. The body, travel, shopping etc. Each page has pictures of places, the airport, train station and the like with things labelled in the five languages. No great lists of words to trawl through find the picture find the word and if worse comes to worse point to it.The section on the body would be invaluable if you are unfortunate to become ill and need to see the doctor or go to hospital, everything is in glorious technicolour.It is not pocket size, it is not a travel dictionary or phrase book, but if you are learning a language and need more than the very basics it is just the job.You can get it in single language format as well and the pictures etc are just the same but with only one language so if you need more than one language it is more ecconomical to get this.

This visual dictionary has more than 1,600 colourful images and its 400 pages are divided into 19 chapters as follows: About the dictionary, How to use this book, People, Appearance, Health, Home, Services, Shopping, Food, Eating out, Study, Work, Transport, Sports, Leisure, Environment, Reference, Index and Acknowledgments.For each picture you get its meaning in five languages, and for each word you have its definite article showing the gender. Very interesting is the presence of pictures showing actions, so that you get the verbs as well as some useful phrases. At the end of the "Reference" section you have "particles and antonyms" and "useful phrases" - essential phrases, greetings, signs, help, directions, accommodation, eating and drinking. The index is divided into five parts, one for each language, and the names have their gender shown by means of the letters m, n, f .I particularly enjoy playing with this book by showing a picture and letting my friends guess its meaning in the foreign languages they have studied, and think it's a useful tool for teachers, students or professionals, for the topics are covered in detail. Last but not least, the dictionary is published by DK, i.e. it's a Dorling Kindersley Book, a Penguin Company.

This is a really well presented tomb of a book with everything you could possibly need for visual learning. The languages that I study are all here and you can browse and learn all of the different words at the same time. Excellent buy for those wanting to learn a new language or brush up on the vocab here and there.

Extremely useful for travelling across Europe. The content is extensive and the quality of the pictures excellent, making point and show possible if you cannot pronounce the words. The only downside is it is a bit heavy. It would also be useful for any one, child or adult, who is learning one of its included languages.

Very useful & great fun to dip into especially in comparing the languages. As so much of modern English has its roots in, or taken words from, these languages, this applies even to the reader with little or no previous knowledge of these languages.In all, well up to DK's imaginative and excellent standards.