広い意味での語法辞典。一般的な語法辞典がhaveやany、muchといった英語の根幹をなす単語の使い方を示すのに対し、本書はattention、heavy、recommendといったもう少し一般的な単語の用法を、よくある誤用例と正しい用例を対比させながら説明している。way of lifeとlifestyleのような類義語の微妙な意味の差異についても解説している。ABC順に配列されているので、目当ての単語を探すのが容易である。
More of a manual than a dictionary, the book teaches its readers the fundamentals of writing concepts by refuting some of the widely accepted colloquialisms and common errors. From the standpoint of a native speaker, the dictionary serves no purpose what so ever because it is written specifically for the non-natives. At a deeper level, the book is well researched in the field of linguistics and it looks at all aspects of writing errors that a non-native might make during their studies. For example, the dictionary teaches you that, “my mother is taking an operation” is wrong and that, “my mother is having an operation” is the correct way of composing a sentence. With many examples like the one that I quoted, this dictionary will serve as a great partner in furthering your understandings of the English language. Furthermore, once you master the concepts in this dictionary and want to move on to something a bit more difficult, I highly recommend a book called Bryson’s Dictionary of Troublesome Words written by Bill Bryson.