What is a good MSA-English dictionary for beginners?

Just a beginning note, all Arabic dictionaries are in Standard Arabic. I don't think there is one that exists in a colloquial Arabic in the first place. To answer your question, www.almaany.com is truly among the best dictionaries out there, you just need to know how to use it. There are a couple reasons why I like it. It works as both a dictionary and a translator.

1. On the main page, it works as a translator. you can type any Arabic word and it will give you the English equivalent. If you type an English word, it will give you the Arabic equivalent.

2. In one of the tabs, it says: معجم عربي عربي. If you click on this, it works as a dictionary. It will give you the definition of the word in Arabic, the correct tashkeel of the word (i.e written with the short vowels), the plural form of the noun (in masculine in feminine if it applies), etc.

3. This site even does something that is even more amazing. If you return to the main page www.almaany.com (because it won't do this if you clicked on the معجم عربي عربي tab), it translates common expressions of English into Arabic and vice versa. For example, if you type in "add insult to injury," it will give you the phrase "الملح على الجرح" ("salt on the injury"), which is how you would say the same thing in Arabic. Or if you if you type in "two sides of the same coin," it will give you the Arabic equivalent phrase "وجهان لعملة واحدة". Or if you need to tell someone to fill-out a form, just type in "fill-out," and it will show you many examples of using the phrase "fill-out", one of which is "to fill-out (a form)" which is "مَلأ الاستِمارَةَ".

English Dictionary For Beginners

That's a really useful dictionary. شُكرا