Why you need a
Spanish-Spanish dictionary

Spanish translators often forget the importance of owning a Spanish-Spanish dictionary while at the same time building up their collection of other reference materials, such as bilingual dictionaries, specialized encyclopedias, and glossaries.

While many translators know the importance of owning bilingual Spanish-English dictionaries or English-Spanish glossaries, for example, they might not understand why at least one good Spanish-Spanish dictionary is important to have in their collection.

In order to understand the reasons, we must first understand what purpose dictionaries serve. First of all, bilingual dictionaries help translators or other interested in language know a possible corresponding term in the target language for a word in the source language. Notice that I said possible. A dictionary will never a translator make, but it has the potential to help someone narrow down the options.

Monolingual dictionaries, on the other hand, are different. Their job is to explain terms and concepts so that the person looking at the dictionary can better understand what the word means in the original language. Bilingual dictionaries do not do that. If a person does not know what the word means in English, looking it up in a bilingual English-Spanish dictionary might not necessarily help him because the dictionary will merely list the equivalent term in Spanish. A monolingual dictionary, however, will further explain what the word means and the context in which it should be used, further clarifying its definition.

Spanish-Spanish dictionaries function the same way, and this is precisely the reason translators should have these dictionaries in their collection. A Spanish-Spanish dictionary can help translators understand what a particular term means in Spanish and thereby help them translate it into something suitable.

There are many such Spanish-Spanish dictionaries available, and you can find either generalized ones or specialized ones. Two of the most popular Spanish-Spanish dictionaries that you can buy are the Diccionario de la Real Academia Española and the Pequeño Larousse Ilustrado. These are general Spanish-Spanish dictionaries and so won't have much in the way of super-specialized vocab, but they can be a great addition to your translation library.