Chinese-English Dictionary [Turtleback]

Chik Hon Man (Editor), Ng Lam Sim Yuk (Editor), Chik Hon Man (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 9622019226 | ISBN-13: 978-9622019225 | Publication Date: January 15, 2000 | Edition: 2 Sub

The first of its kind because it uses both Cantonese and Mandarin romanizations. It features over 6,000 of the most commonly used single-characters and over 12,000 terms to illustrate the use of the characters.

Product Details

• Turtleback: 624 pages
• Publisher: The Chinese University Press; 2 Sub edition (January 15, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9622019226
• ISBN-13: 978-9622019225
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 3.9 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #578,416 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great pocket sized E-C dictionary w/ Cantonese pronunciation, January 12, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Chinese-English Dictionary (Turtleback)

The only other English-Chinese dictionaries w/ Cantonese pronuncation I can find are: One from Rita Choy, which is just a 3200 character list without compounds, another one from Rita Choy which is a beginner's guide that includes (among other references) compounds for 801 characters, and one from Roy T. Cowles, first written in 1914, which contains ~5300 characters including a lot of "Cantonese" characters (ones not found in regular Chinese publications), but requires you to flip to other page(s) to look up compounds, and I sometimes can't find modern newspaper characters in it. Please let me know if you know of other C-E dictionaries w/ Cantonese romanizaton.

This one is more complete, ~6000 char's, and so far, I haven't found a newspaper/magazine character I wanted to look up that's not in it. It lists the compounds (usually 2 per char) along with their Yale Cantonese pronouncation underneath the main char. The pinyin Mandarin pronounciation is also given for the main char. Char's can be searched by radical, stroke count, and Cantonese pronouncation. It even has a plastic coated cover to protect it from wear!

Its main drawback is that it only lists traditional char's, without the simplified ones used in mainland China. Also, because of the limited number of compounds, it is best used along side a more comprehensive C-E dictionary.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Correction to 1/12/01 review, January 22, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Chinese-English Dictionary (Turtleback)

Oops, to correct a mistake in my previous 1/12/01 review, I meant to say that the indices only lists traditional characters and traditional radicals, so you can only look up traditional characters. So if you want to look up a simplified character, you need to know its traditional form first. The simplified form, as well as the common traditional variant(s), is listed in parenthesis after you've found the traditional one.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Execllent chinese-english dictionary!, May 1, 2006

By 

Phoenix "Love Books" (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Chinese-English Dictionary (Turtleback)

This is an excellent resource for native cantonese speakers. I agree with another reviewer that in chinese you use a combination of words that create a whole word. If that is what the other reviewer is looking for then I'd recommend the "Glossary of Common Colloquial Cantonese Expressions," by Simon So; "Dictionary of Cantonese Slang," by Christopher Hutton and Kingsley Bolton.

This dictionary is very helpful because it has 6000 listings of characters and within the definitions it gives examples of how words are used. I find it useful and I am very happy with this dictionary. If as other reviewers are looking for a dictionary with simplified characters, look elsewhere. This is a traditional character dictionary geared toward traditional chinese. Within each definition it includes the mandarin pingyin pronounciation for those who are reading the characters using the traditonal format in mandarin.