Franklin Electronic Publishers BES-1890 Speaking Spanish-English Dictionary

List Price: $119.99 Discount Price: $67.95

Features:

• Merriam-Webster Spanish-English Dictionary with 274,000 definitions
• 4,000 example sentences of word usage/New larger 11 line display with adjustable font size
• Phonetic spell correction
• Grammar guides with interactive quizzes, and verb conjugations to improve reading and writing skills
• Learning exercises includes Spelling Bee and Flashcards games using TOEFL words or My Vocabulary list words

Customer Reviews:

Hardware has bug... watchout. [Posted on 2007-10-29]
I bought this unit before there were any reviews written. I figured I would take a gamble since this is the BES-1890 (i.e. has a higher model number than the rest). There are some good features of this model and there are some bad features. I will skip these for now though and report on one feature that is an absolute showstopper:

There is a bug in the hardware that repeats the first line of anything written in italics. This is really really annoying and is very common. I have no idea how this made it past Q&A.

For example, I have the unit in front of me now. I type in "arte" into the Spanish dictionary. Here is what I get:

arte nmf (usually m in singular, f in usually m in singular, f in plural)
1: art

The part in parenthesis sounds confusing doesn't it? That is because it is writing part of the line and suddenly starting over again. I would say that I encounter this in 1 out of 3 words I look up.

This bug is enough of a reason to stay away from this product. If I knew this before I bought it, I wouldn't have.

Franklin electronic speaking 1890 spanish/english dictonary [Posted on 2007-12-08]
Convient yes.
But not as good as having a standard dictonary.The major drawback is that it can not translate idiomatic phrases neither you can hear any sound(spoken)of a word combined with another one.
On hind sight,perhaps a less costlier version of this will serve the learner equally & cheaply.
On the whole average(THREE STARS).

Fast, functional, and very useful [Posted on 2008-01-12]
I've had this dictionary about a month and a half and the few reviews I could find prior to buying it were not overly positive. But I bought it anyway and couldn't be happier with it. It is intuitive, very fast, and translates almost all the words I have entered. I have used it almost every day since I am attempting to move up from a high beginner to a strong intermediate in Spanish by month's end.

I have been in Buenos Aires for 11 days, with 20 to go, taking a 3 week Spanish course in a language school. I am in a low intermediate class and we have homework assignments and lots of exercises and speaking each day. I use the Franklin dictionary constantly when I don't know a word or need the equivalent in Spanish. The best part about the little computer in my opinion is the conjugations.

I have had and will have more class lessons in conjugations, so far only the present tense. When I am stuck on an irregular or any other verb I enter it into the dictionary, hit the conj key and bingo, aqui esta. Successively hitting the conj key takes you through all the tenses in all persons. While my classmates are fumbling around with their Spanish-English translation books, I have the verb, its meaning, and have already conjugated it, if applicable. It's my favorite feature and really helps me to learn the verbs and their forms.

The negatives are the rather poor audio for some of the translations (not all) and the fact that the screen is not backlit, although I have had absolutely no problem seeing it in normal or even somewhat low light.

I use it in restaurants here in Buenos Aires while I'm waiting or eating and can practice Spanish by inputting words or reading and translating phrases. It fits easily in the pocket of my shorts and I'd replace my BES 1890 immediately if anything happened to it.

If you're serious about learning espanol, or simply need a new translator, I recommend it. For the serious estudiante, it's more than worth the cost.

excellent product [Posted on 2008-01-19]
Excellent product! I bought this dictionary 1 month ago and besides to be very easy to use, this dictionary includes phonetic spell correction feature along with grammar guides and verb conjugations. to me it is super helpful!

Franklin Electronic Publisher [Posted on 2008-04-03]
This is probably the best machine that you will find. It has helped me when I visited El Salvador, because I didn't know how to speak any Spanish. The machine is easy to use if you speak Spanish or English.

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