Customer Reviews

Bulgarian-English, English-Bulgarian Dictionary (Hippocrene Practical Dictionary)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

From a beginner's point of view, this is a pretty good buy. It contains pretty much all the words you need to know to develop a basic vocabulary and more. The 8000 words are more than you need if you need a working knowledge of the language.

However, if you need a comprehensive dictionary - this is probably NOT your book.

Its also the perfect size :) You can carry it with you whereever you go!

I found this dictionary to be very limited. Its format is primitive -- it does not group similar words together as some of the Langenscheidt dictionaries do. I did not find it to be very helpful either in travelling Bulgaria or as a reference while learning the language.

Not an expert in the field, but I simply had trouble finding simple, common words in this dictionary.

The best thing about this dictionary is its small size.
However, it doesn't list any of the perfective verbs E-B or B-E.
Whenever I come across a Bulgarian perfective verb I simply cannot look it up in the dictionary because it's not listed.
If I want to translate from English to Bulgarian using a perfective verb, I'm out of luck if I try to use this dictionary.
In fact, the dictionary in the back of the "Intensive Bulgarian" textbook is more comprehensive than this stand-alone dictionary.
Very disappointing!!!

This dictionary is simply inadequate for serious study of Bulgarian. It would be more suitable for a tourist, used in combination with a basic grammar.

I am an American who learned Bulgarian at a fairly rigorous pace. I lived in Bulgaria and became fairly fluent in the language. This book was useful for about the first week of my study. Bulgarian verbs have two forms to all verbs and this book seemed oblivious to that as it only listed one. The translations were horrible and sometimes even hilarious. There are much better dictionaries out there do not settle for this one.

Having lived in Bulgria for two years I have a fairly descent knowledge of Bulgarianand being an American I can speak English pretty good(albeit with a northern Utah accent) Quite simply this is a terrible dictionary. For one thing the choice of words leaves much to be desired. For example, you can in the english portion you can find armament but somehow banana is missing. I don't know about you but I use banana I lot more than I use the word armament.

The Bulgarian section isn't any better missing key words such as taka and takiva. Zero is spelled incorrectly in the Bulgarian section so that it is pronouces with a p sound instead of the correct n pronuciation. Many of the definition are impercise and would do better as secondary definition. The Bulgarian word given for pen is actually closer to quill is one example.

There are some dictionaries which are slightly better, but the truth is that you can't get a good bulgarian dictionary in America, the best are made in Bulgaria. If you really want to learn Bulgarian (and I can't imagine why you would) then your best bet is to buy a grammer book and just learn the words of the glossary or just wait until you are in Bulgaria to buy a dictionary.

This is a very simple, basic dictionary. Does not separate meanings. Small vocabulary. Works well in restaurant environment for making small talk in both languages :) For serious study, use something bigger.

Great value for the price. This little dictionary is very handy for a beginner in Bulgarian. What I especially like is the accent marks to help you pronounce the words.

An excellent source for quick reference between Bulgarian-English and English-Bulgarian. Small enough to fit in the pocket for business or personal trips, it will keep the lines of communication open. However, if more depth is needed, then a larger dictionary will be required. This is a quick-reference, pocket version that will serve to get one by until a more detailed source can be consulted. For my purposes, international business, it has proven an extremely reliable source and I keep it with my GEM series (English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian) and Oxfords (Chinese, Japanese) and Berlitz (Swedish) pocket dictionaries for all overseas trips.