Customer Reviews

Arabic Practical Dictionary: Arabic-English English-Arabic (Hippocrene Practical Dictionaries)

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I bought this dictionary a few months back, just before the new semester. I also bought the Hans Wehr dictionary, which of course, is Arabic-English only. I think this 'Practical Dictionary' is a useful for English-speakers, in that it works how dictionaries work in European languages: words are arranged alphabetically, not according to the root ('jadhr'). Sure, once you're used to dealing with roots, and with some practise, it'll probably become easy to look things up, but when you're just trying to get your homework done in time for class, this book works well.

It goes from each language into the other, which makes it a handy little dictionary. Not quite pocketsize, but certainly easy to carry around in your backpack/briefcase.

As for the fonts, I'd say the Arabic font is adequate. For some reason, the English font is quite a bit bigger, especially the headers in the English-Arabic section, and so when you go back to look up an Arabic word, all of a sudden, it seems unnecessarily small by contrast.

This dictionary seems good enough for advanced as well as beginner students in Arabic. My only beef with it is that it usually does not have the short vowels printed there along with the consonants which are of immense help to the beginner. But at least it does have the transliteration of the word to help make up for that fact. It's also not too cumbersome to carry around with you.

A handy but not quite pocket-sized dictionary of 18,000 entries that must have been compiled using up-to-date source material. Look up coalition, extremist, bomber, martyr, military occupation, resistance, torture, prison, fanatic, graveyard, reconstruction, genocide, or refugee, and you'll find what you need. The Arabic script is crystal clear and of more than adequate font size. Short appendices include the days of the week, months in two forms plus the Islamic months, and country names. The phonetics for both the Arabic and English entries are easily understood, the dictionary being intended for both students of English and Arabic. This may be the only dictionary out there that you would actually ever be tempted to carry around with you. Lots of value for a very reasonable price!

This dictionary is just ok for the Arabic language. In the E-A section the words given to you for English words are correct to use about 65-75% of the time and they don't give many secondary or tertiary options for them. The Oxford is far better as E-A as not only do they give multiple meanings but they give appropriate prepositions and articles with them. As for A-E this dictionary is listed American style, completely alphabetically. However the Arabic language uses a root system to form words making the American way of looking up words is extremely inefficient for Arabic. If you know any Arabic at all the Hans Wehr is easy to use and the best dictionary by far for A-E translating.

In comparison to other compact Arabic-English dictionaries that I have bought, I, at first, found this book heaven-sent. As a second-year Arabic student, I found the large amounts of vocabulary extremely helpful... that is until I began to check my work with native Arab speakers. A number of words listed in this book are incorrect, and do not match up with their translated meanings. Sometimes the translations are extremely off base, and now that I've become aware of this fact, I use it less and less. It can be very helpful for basic words and for the beginner, but it's important to know that it contains a number of errors.

This is an outstanding dictionary for new Arabic students. It is very portable and has the necessities without bulk or extraneous info. Hippocrene did a beautiful job of identifying the essential without skimping the necessary. One caveat: Because of the way Arabic is written, looking up a word in Arabic is not at all easy. Still,this compact dictionary is all the new Arabic student could hope for.

Handily the easiest quick reference dictionary for arabic, particularly the English-Arabic half. While not as complete as the Hans Weir or the Al-Marwid Arabic-English, its a perfect mix of both, and all the English-Arabic dictionaries kinda suck. The Al-Marwid is useless E-A and the oxford isn't really accurate.

Excellent for any use and particularly at the price.

I bought this dictionary when I was doing an Arabic immersion Program through the University of Wisconsin. I was looking for a concise pocket dictionary to carry with me to class to suppliment the Hans Wehr Dictionary. I found this dictionary acceptable as a reference but not super helpful. It contains pretty basic vocabulary. If you are loking for anything more complicated, such as 'exile', it is pretty worthless. Although it does contain tranliterations of words, there is hardly any vowling. I found the the Oxford better as E-A since it includes voweling, multiple meanings and and also prepositions. However, the Oxford dictionary also has problems with accuraccy. The fact that the A-E section is aphebetical also makes looking up Arabic words combersium. If you are a first year student, this will probably be sufficient but beyond that you will quickly run into its limitations.

I find this dictionary very practical. The pronunciation is helpful (ie: romanized for Arabic). I teach English to Arabic speakers and they enjoy using the dictionary also as it gives the words which are common in speaking several dialects. It is small enough to carry in a purse or book bag. Any English speaker with a basic understanding of the Arabic alphabet and sounds, can use it to interpret either the spoken or the written Arabic.

This dictionary has some things going for it that make it worth having. The vocabulary it offers is very contemporary, the Arabic is printed in a nice-looking font, and quality English-Arabic dictionaries of any size are hard to find. So I made a lot of use it for classes where written compositions were assigned. And it isn't too heavy to carry around and won't take up a lot of room in a briefcase or book bag. My one criticism would be that the Arabic-English half is organized by alphabetical order, not by roots as most Arabic dictionaries are. Best suggestion: get this along with Hans Wehr (Arabic-English only) and get going right away learning to look up words by roots. It's a slow and painstaking learning process, but it's a very necessary skill in learning Arabic, so it's really better not to put it off. Use the Arabic-English half of Awde only if you're in a hurry to finish an assignment.