English Usage (Collins Cobuild) 2nd Edition, Kindle Edition

Very useful

I ordered a secondhand edition of this book on Amazonbut was disappointed to find it did not come with theCD-ROM. There was no mention in the seller's reviewabout the cd missing, so I assumed I was purchasing a complete edition.

Good!

should have it.

Exellent

I bought this book because I have a copy from a local library and I was using it so much I thought I would buy a copy to keep.I was a little disappointed simply because this new copy was printed on thicker paper and was thicker and harder to open than the copy I had from the library (4 cm thick than 3 cm, exact same content, same addition, same ISBN number). Apparently this is because they were printed in different places. The thick one was printed in Great Britain by William Cowles Ltd, Beccies and London. The thin one printed by the Courier Corporation USA, Stoughton. I was surprised I had no idea they could be such an aesthetic difference between the same editions of the book. But this is just my fixation.I am a native English speaker writing my Ph.D. thesis, I find this book is a useful resource for technical writing. It has listings of a great many words and their exact usage in all situations. It also has a section on grammar which I found useful if a particular sentence structure is giving me problems. I for one recommend it.

As a university EAL teacher, I have used the first edition frequently, so was happy to see a new edition and very pleased it was available for Kindle. I find English Usage an excellent resource for answering the kind of on-the-spot questions students ask about word usage. For example, what's the difference between "under", "below" and "underneath". English Usage provides clear and succinct answers to this kind of question, with sample sentences demonstrating how to use the words. Differences between British and American English are included throughout, and common student errors highlighted.

COBUILDのUSAGEの第２版です。前の版はＣＤ－ＲＯＭ版の辞書に入っていたのを使っていましたが，辞書と同様に例文が実際に使われたことのある文ですので，ネイティブの息づかいが感じられます。この版も同じです。けっこう英語を使っていてあれっと思うことが出ています。ただし，COBUILDほどコーパスに重点を置いていないと思われるSwanのUSAGEの方が日本人の学習者や教師には向いているように思えます。Swanは何度も日本に来ていますし，ノンネイティブの気になるところもわきまえて書いているような感じがします。

Introductionに「Simply enter a word in the search box at the bottom of any page and select "Search Dictionary".」とありますがKindle Fire HDにはsearch boxは見当たりません。検索できない事は辞書として致命的な問題なので星一つにしました。Fire HD未対応ならそのことを明記して頂きたいと思います。