User Manual

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English-Italian section
The plural form of a noun is only given:
• if it is ‘irregular’;
• if there are two plural forms
• in the case of nouns which could be confusing.
Phonetic transcription
The correct pronunciation of the English words is given in the symbols of the IPA
(International Phonetic Alphabet).
Countables and Uncountables.
Three symbols are used to indicate whether English nouns are countable or not:
= uncountable (that is, the noun has no plural form),
and = uncountable-countable, or countable-uncountable (according to the
frequency of one or the other form).
The absence of any symbol in the case of a common noun means that it is countable.
Phrasal verbs
Each phrasal verb is preceded by a club (
) and is treated as a full entry.
Literary quotations
More than a thousand quotations of 139 British, Irish and American authors have
been included.
Compound entries
When the derivation of a scientific term is evident, it can often be found under the
principal entry.
Italian-English section
Plural forms of nouns are indicated only
• when irregular
• when two forms exist, one masculine and one feminine
Feminine forms of nouns
These constitute headwords in their own right only when there are specifically
feminine English equivalents and examples of usage
Otherwise, the ending of the feminine form appears in brackets after the headword of
the corresponding masculine form, with recourse to cross-referencing when the two
forms are alphabetically removed from each other.
Foreignisms
These are included when they appear to have gained full acceptance in the Italian
language.
Augmentatives, diminutives, terms of endearment, pejoratives
It has obviously been impossible to list all variant forms which so enrich the Italian
language.
However, words which have quite independent meanings from the original headwords
appear as full headwords.
Adjectives
For adjectives which are in effect past participles, reference should be made to the
verbs from which they derive, where relevant examples can be found. Here again,
however, those adjectives which for various reasons require separate treatment have
been listed as headwords in their own right.
Italian pronunciation
The pronunciation of each Italian headword is indicated by an accent, printed in bold
face in the case of words in which it is obligatory in writing.
• An acute accent on
e and o indicates closed pronunciation.
•Voiced s and z are indicated by a dot placed underneath.
•A similar dot under the cluster gli indicates that the g is pronounced hard.
Irregular inflections
Irregular English words given as translations are indicated by an asterisk ( ) placed at
the end of the words.