Macmillan Essential Dictionary for Learners of English [antikvár]

Introduction Michael Rundell Editor-in-Chief The Macmillan Essential Dictionary has been especially designed to meet the needs of intermediate students of English. The word 'essential' has two meanings, and both meanings are relevant to this dictionary. First, because it provides the information that is completely necessary for your success as a learner of English. And secondly, because it focuses on the most basic and important features of the English language - the things that you need to know most thoroughly in order to make effective progress. Dictionaries exist in order to answer questions. To help us to give the right answers to the right questions, we - as dictionary makers - need to know who wUl be using the dictionary and what kinds of information they really need. All of this means making a careful selection from the enormous amount of data available to us. So how do we decide what is really 'essential', and how can we be sure that we have made the right selection? In creating the Macmillan Essential Dictionary, we have benefited from two valuable resotirces: • high-quality linguistic data: our large language corpora and advanced software give us the tools to identify the essential facts about English • expert advice: at every stage, experienced teachers, coursebook writers, and language students have contributed their suggestions and comments, telling us what learners really need to know The Macmillan Essential Dictionary builds on the success of its sister dictionary, the Macmillan English Dictionary, adapting its unique features to the different needs of intermediate learners. These include: • the 'red words': the most frequent and useful words in English are shown in red, so that you can easUy recognize the vocabulary that - as an intermediate learner -you need to know especially well. For this dictionary, we have identified 3,500 red words. More information about these words is given on the inside front cover. • maximum coverage: our goal is to include as many vocabulary items as possible, and this dictionary has more entries than any other intermediate learners' dictionary • special attention to 'coUocation' (the way words regularly combine with each other): over 130 new coUocation boxes provide a unique bank of data on natural-sounding word combinations • dozens of special notes: information on common errors and boxes that will help you to increase your vocabulary • study Pages: a 24-page central section, packed with ideas that wUl help you to become a better learner, including information on coUocation, word formation, vocabulary development, and much more We hope you wiU enjoy using the Macmillan Essential Dictionary, and we are confident that you wiU soon find that it is an essential part of your language-learning experience.