Sooner or later most people find that using a pocket dictionary can hinder communication more than it helps, since words are often listed that are interchangeable in some contexts but that elsewhere can muddle the sense of a sentence if certain distinctions are not made.
A large group of words that should be used with care are adverbs like "now" or "first." Trotting out the right variant when speaking is really a matter of practice, but with some of the more common adverbs, a few basic distinctions make the process much easier.
Seichas and teper' can both be translated into English as "now." Both can be used to mean "at present" or "at the moment" (Gde on seichas/teper' rabotayet? Where is he working now?), but only seichas can mean "right now" (delai eto seichas, do it immediately), while you would use teper' to say "nowadays."
The general word for "again" is opyat': Ya opyat' goloden (I'm hungry again). Yeshchyo raz more distinctly means "once more" or "on one more occasion": Yesli on eto skazhet yeshchyo raz, ona budet yego rugat' (If he says that once more, she'll tell him off). Snova is used to mean "afresh" or "anew": nachat zhit' snova (to start life afresh).
"First" is translated as snachala when "first of all" is meant: Snachala my poshli v biblioteku (First we went to the library). Prezhde vsego is similar but is used to express a sense of priority: Prezhde vsego zakonchim etu rabotu, a potom sdelayem eto (Before everything else, we will finish this job, then we'll do that one). Prezhde vsego also means "first and foremost": Pushkin prezhde vsego poet (Pushkin is first and foremost a poet). Vpervye is a synonym for v pervy raz or "for the first time": Ya vpervye proboval etu yedu v Rossii (I first tried this food in Russia). Vo pervykh is used for "in the first place" or "firstly": Vo pervykh ya goloden, vo vtorykh ya khochu spat' (First, I'm hungry, second, I want to sleep).
Dolgo means "for a long time" referring to the duration of a state or action: My dolgo zhdali yego (We waited for him for a long time). Davno means "for a long time" preceding the moment of speech: Ya davno ne byl v kino (I haven't been to the movies for a long time). Davno also means a long time ago: Etu mashinu ya kupil davno (I bought this car a long time ago).
"Exactly" or "precisely" translates in various ways. Rovno is used with numbers or quantities: rovno v tri chasa (at three o' clock precisely). Tochno is combined with identifying words to mean "exactly": tochno takaya zhe ruchka (exactly the same sort of pen).
These are just a few examples, but hopefully they show the worth of checking out the differences between different variants, which when used correctly will do much to improve your command of the language.
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