This book is one of the greatest purchases I have ever made! It provides what is sorely needed in the Latin language - a comprehensive conversational guide. Other foreign languages have no shortage of such books, but for some reason people think that no one needs to speak Latin. Even if you have no interest of speaking with Caeser, using this book will vastly help your comprension and understanding of Latin. Amo Latinam linguam!

Nowadays, many of the western schools close their Latin lessons or lectures because this extinct language is getting less important. I think, however, learning Latin is still very important because we cannot ignore our cultural heritage. However, learning this extinct language only through the written classic material would not only be cut and dry, but also be easy to forget. This book is quite different from the ordinary Latin manual. In this book, the Latin is not the extinct language, but the living one. With this book, we can learn Latin just like we learn everyday English. I would like to recommend this book for those who want learn Latin but feel very difficult.

This book fully recognizes the importance of the oral in the learning of any spoken language. Even the reading of Latin needs to draw from the oral, something utterly neglected in the past. That explains what teachers of the deaf have been telling me about the struggles of their deaf students in learning to read English. Students of a language must hear the language at normal conversational speed and with the correct inflection for them to gain a sense of it as a language. Their learning of it is sealed only when they themselves speak it that way. Imitation of fluent usage-- and that includes sign language-- is the only way to learn any language, and that includes Latin. So what if nobody is speaking Latin routinely anymore? That does not mean Latin is a "dead" language; it's merely dormant. It comes to life again when someone speaks it and makes it sound conversational. The best reason for studying Latin is that you consider it to be a beautiful language-- and it is-- and you love it. To get a "You are there" sense of ancient Rome, students need to speak the language as it deals with topics from Roman life. I went through high school Latin back in the 1960s, learning it only as a written and translated language, and not very well I'm sure. I didn't get a sense of Latin as a language that was routinely spoken for everyday things. Professor Traupmann's lively dialogs capture what Latin would be like as a living language. In one dialog two sisters, Olivia and Victoria, are bickering; and in another Annetta pretends to seek advice from her sister Christina but is actually hitting her up for a loan, which Christina figures out. There are a great many other interesting and lively dialogs in this book, all begging for re-enactment. Traupmann combines scholarship and a sense of Latin as a living language in his book. I intend to get the audiocassettes that go with this book.

This is an excellent small dictionary. I use it constantly, and rarely fail to find a word in it whether I'm dealing with ancient or medieval texts. I own a number of Latin dictionaries both large and small, and I always start any word search by looking in this one. Some of the spelling conventions take some time to get used to (most notably, there are many entries under 'j' that I would have expected to find under 'i'), but after using it for awhile I have become accustomed to its quirks. The grammar tables in the front are logically structured and easy to read--very useful in those amnesiac moments when all of your declensions run together.

This is a great dictionary for Latin translation. It contains copious idiomatic definitions that are not found in the other dictionaries of its type. It also points one in the right direction if only one priciple part of a verb is known or if spelling variations exist. Furthermore, the grammatical charts at the beginning of the dictionary are invaluable.

I purchased several Latin dictionaries prior to this one and this is by far the best. Other Latin dictionaries were almost Byzantine in the way they presented their information. This dictionary is straight forward and includeds instruction on conjugations and declensions. It also lists the four principle parts for every verb! Who could ask for more? No more wondering whether or not mitto conjugates as a regular verb. It has helped me to excel in my Latin 1001 and I plan on using it throughout my studies as a Latin minor.

I bought a copy of this dictionary and to my great disappointment, there are a number of errors which obviously are not typos. Check the word "exorbitant" on the English-German side and you will see the translation, "schwindelhaft", which actually means bogus, or fraudulent. This is only the tip of the iceberg.There may be a lot of similar mistakes we haven't found yet.

Several months ago, I set out to teach myself German. I did a couple months of searching, going to book stores to actually examine and compare the materials before I spent my money. Out of several English & German dictionaries I looked at, the Bantam New College Dictionary is THE best. It is thorough and comprehensive, easy to use, and priced right too. An excellent resource to help with German language.

I am German and searched for a dictionary of the English language. Instead of buying expensive German dictionaries of the English tongue, I bought this English dictionary of the German tongue. It's the quarter of the standard price for such a dictionary in Germany (e.g. Langenscheidt) and it surely helps a lot. Buy it !