Customer Reviews

Collins Gem Irish Dictionary

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

 

 

Collins Gem Irish Dictionary, editors Séamus Mac Mathúna and Ailbhe O' Corráin is a user friendly, comprehensive up-to-date wordlist of English-Irish to Irish-English. It's a dictionary for looking up words just like the Webster or the Oxford. It does NOT contain any pronunciations of the words in Irish. It does contain abbrevations. The middle section is useful Irish grammar that includes extensive tables of regular and irregular verbs and noun declensions and key English words makes it an invaluable reference tool. The back section contains numbers used in counting and with nouns and time.

If you are learning to speak the Irish Gaelic language, I'd recommended you to try a lesson course with book that has pronunciations and a cassette to follow along. Some tips would be 'Learning Irish' by Micheal O'Siadhail, 'Irish Grammar' by Noel Mogonagle and 'Irish on Your Own' by Eamon O'Donaill. Some of these can help on the basics of learning the language. This compact source is handy to carry around with you if you're traveling. It seems to sell fairly well in Ireland where I got my copy while in Dublin. My other option to learning the language is to take a course well in a creditable school that teaches it. Also check through Eason & Sons in Ireland for Gaelic textbooks. Eason.ie is an excellent source in Irish books.

This is one of the few accessible Irish dicitonaries available, and one of the very few which does not presume past study of Irish. It is ideal for the American or Canadian learner, who don't always have access to native speakers or supplementary material. The multi-colored format makes searching for idioms and prepositional phrases easier, and it's refreshing to have the Irish-English and English-Irish in one volume. The only flaws I see are the failure to print the English meanings alongside the Irish headings in the verb charts, and the lack of a guide to pronunciation. Collins-Gem's Welsh dictionary is also ahead of the pack, making this company a leader in sensible and practical dictionaries for the Celtic languages.

--Antone

What is good about Collins Gem? Well, there are modern terms for modern things, many probably only coined for this dictionary. Not all of them are very good, but most are good enough. Sometimes, I have been somewhat irritated that the book has not utilised the terminology found in "Foclóir scoile" and "Foclóir Póca" extensively enough. Besides, the choice of entries has more to do with UK and Northern Ireland than with Ireland. And it is not only more obscure words that aren't found - the English-Irish section often doesn't have even quite common or everyday words. It looks, alas, that there really isn't a quite satisfactory pocket dictionary of Irish. If the Langenscheidt team would try it, they would probably be able to compile one very good pocket dictionary by combining this with Foclóir Scoile.

We purchased this along with the "teach yourself Irish" set. We returned this book the next day. It has no pronounciations for the Irish words, rendering it close to useless for beginners in the language.

A bucketload of words in a small format. If you need pronunciation and grammar, though, this is not for you. It is what it says, a dictionary, not a how-to book. But if you are learning Irish, this is a great reference to have, just like your Webster's and Roget's.

Having learned Irish for years, I find this dictionary to be quite a break from the norm, very up-to-date compared to other dictionaries available. Those that are complaining about the lack of pronunciation guidelines should know that there are three distinct dialects in Irish, with distinct pronunciations, and that it would be unfair to single one out to include in this dictionary. However, there is a standardised dialect, shunned by many people, especially native speakers, although it is accepted. If you don't mind using this dialect, then you should have a look for the "Foclóir Póca" published by An Gúm. I don't know the details because the covers are gone from years of use. It is a bit bigger than the typical Collins and has a blue and orange cover.

Has both English to Irish and Irish to English sections which my older dictionay did not. Type is very small for middle-aged people.

Everyone I know who is an Irish speaker or a student has a well worn copy of this little gem. There is a grammer in the center (between the English and the Irish) that is very useful. The only problem is that the type is quite small, well to be fair so is the book, and it doesn't have more obscure words. I highly recommend this book, particularly for students and travellers to Ireland as it is very compact and fits easily into a backpack.

This is an average dictionary. It has lots of words but is virtually USELESS if you intend on speaking Gaelic as it has NO PRONUNCIATIONS FOR ANY WORDS.

Do not buy this book if you are attempting to speak Gaelic. You will be thoroughly disappointed. If however you only want to look up Gaelic words and find out what they mean then it will do the job for you.

This is a good book, with lots of words packaged into a small space. I have run into words that I couldn't find in this book, though. However, if you are a serious student of any language you know that you can never make do with just one dictionary. I typically have about three or four dictionaries per language. Cross-reference your dictionaries to make sure you are getting the nuance you want from the word (I once heard a girl ask for "facil queso!" No, no, no!(Sorry about the Spanish reference in the middle of an Irish review. It's the point that counts, though.)).
This is a good dictionary for having on your shelf full of dictionaries.