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Longman Dictionary of Common Errors
ND Turton, JB Heaton
Longman, Pearson Education
India reprint 2004
Reference
Pages: 375
ISBN: 81-297-0733-0
Paperback

You must have encountered a host of dictionaries in your life - fat ones, slim ones, from the multi-volume to the pocket version, general dictionaries to those that are for a specific discipline. But you would perhaps have greeted few with the enthusiasm that you'd be willing to give this one.

Here's why. For irrespective of the volume of information - meanings, suffixes and prefixes, synonyms and antonyms, even usage - that the other dictionaries provide - most of them do not point out common errors. This is where this dictionary scores. It not just points out what the common errors are but also gives the correct way.

The book, first published in the UK in 1987, was immensely popular when first released, and has been constantly updated.

Examples of the entries:
language
x  I speak Arabic language all the time
v  I speak Arabic all the time
x  I spent the whole year learning English language.
v  I spent the whole year learning English
x  They know Japanese language.
v  They know Japanese.

speak/learn/know etc + name of a language (WITHOUT language): She speaks fluent English and a little German.' 'Do you know any Malay?' 'I'd like to learn Mandarin.'

Note that the Arabic/English/Japanese language may be used when you talk about a language may be used when you talk about a language in terms of its history, structure, users etc: 'The English language has evolved over many centuries.'

rainfall
x  There was no rainfall for over three months
v  There was no rain for over three months

rainfall  = The amount of rain that usually falls in an area during a certain period: 'The whole region has a very low rainfall at this time of the year'. Note that rainfall is mainly used in technical cycles.

The dictionary follows the usual alphabetical pattern for the entries, is simple and effective in its presentation and provides meanings and usage for the entries as well. For all who are confused between where to use first/first of all/ at first/in/at the beginning - well this is where you can remove these cobwebs.

There are special entries too such as word combinations which tells you for eg that "deep" can be used with concern but not change, or that income is high, not great. There are sections on using progressive tenses, verb-noun combinations, use of prepositions, use of uncountable nouns and many such areas where errors commonly occur.

Compared to a usual dictionary, there are far fewer entries. But each one is a fairly detailed explanation, and anyone wishing to improve his or her knowledge of English would be well advised to invest in this dictionary.