Russian dictionaries

[lovimoment.livejournal.com]

A friend of mine has suggested that I quit relying on my Oxford Russian-English dictionary (which really is excellent, although space considerations sometimes limit full explanations of idioms, etc.) and start using a Russian-Russian dictionary. He says it's much easier to understand the different shades of meanings and implications of words if I'm using a real Russian dictonary. But I'm having trouble finding one I like. While I was in St. Petersburg last month I looked at some in bookstores, but most of them just had definitions, and as a non-native speaker I need all the notes on irregularities in usage, spelling, etc. as well as idioms.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Are there are any good Russian dictionaries out there that are helpful to an advanced learner? (Or any online or on a disk? That would be even cooler...)

Comments

[cema.livejournal.com]

Not quite what you'd want, but bookmark dict.rambler.ru (http://dict.rambler.ru)

There are several more dictionaries available online, but I am not aware of any that would fit.

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

All three classic Russian-Russian dictionaries are available online, Dal (http://dic.academic.ru/library.nsf/enc2p/) (19th century,) Ozhegov (http://dic.academic.ru/library.nsf/ogegova/) (1930s-1950s) and Ushakov (http://dic.academic.ru/library.nsf/ushakov/) (1930s), but the usability of their online versions is somehow questionable: they are digitized in a funny fashion when you have to click three to five times to get to the work you are looking for, and you aren't sure that you are going in the right direction until the last click.

[bwww.livejournal.com]

Lingvo?
http://lingvo.yandex.ru, but it's not so difficult to find .iso and burn it on CD.

[temcat.livejournal.com]

Lingvo has only bilingual dictionaries, while parent wants a Russian-Russian one.

[solito.livejournal.com]

That's not exactly so - Lingvo has Russian-Russian dictionaries, but you will have to find them in the Web.

[temcat.livejournal.com]

I see...

[fox-c.livejournal.com]

I find gramota.ru (http://www.gramota.ru/) to be very helpful. It searches multiple types of dictionaries at once: a regular one for definitions, one that specifically deals with irregularities in conjugation, one that specifically notes stress and stress shifts, and then two that are like a thesarus (synonyms, antonyms).

I find it to be *very* helpful.

[farkash.livejournal.com]

You can also try gramma.ru
http://www.gramma.ru/SPR/?PHPSESSID=df53bc229145800985847d7b9f017f3f
They have few dictionaries, grammar section, idioms, etc.

[logodaedaly.livejournal.com]

Others have given helpful suggestions of what's available online, but frankly, I'll tell you that your friend is really mistaken. I got the same advice, and it was wrong—you will probably never stop relying on a dictionary like Oxford (or Katzner—if you need more detailed information, you might try a copy of it) unless you've lived in-country two or three years already.

[lovimoment.livejournal.com]

Thanks everybody for all the helpful suggestions! I'm going to check them all out tonight when I get home from work.

I lived in Russia for about a year, but I find that the more I speak, the more I have trouble spelling things correctly. (It used to be the other way around...spelling was a lot easier.) So I'll probably always need something for that at least. And the problem with the Russian-Russian dictionaries is that sometimes you don't know all of the connotations, etc., of the words in the definition. I still think it has some advantages, though.

Thanks again to everyone for the help!

[kehlen-crow.livejournal.com]

slightly offtopic, but still
You know, I use English-english dictionaries - THEY help me feel the word but not translate it - so you will probably be always using a Russian-English dictionary as well ;)