English-Dari Phrasebook for Aid Workers [Paperback]

Robert Powers (Author), Mir Abdul Zahir Sahebi (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 536 pages
• Publisher: Rodnik Publishing Company (January 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1929482094
• ISBN-13: 978-1929482092
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,234,198 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #69 in Books > Education & Reference > Dictionaries & Thesauruses > Foreign Language > Persian & Farsi

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Decent enough, but be careful, May 1, 2009

By 

Rob (Goldsboro, NC, United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: English-Dari Phrasebook for Aid Workers (Paperback)

I am currently taking a Dari language class with an instructor who is from Afghanistan and speaks Dari, Pashto, English, and a number of other languages. I've used the book a number of times to verify how good it is before I try and use it in Afghanistan. While much of it has been fairly accurate, I was rather amused when my attempt to say "I am confused" was in the book as "I am a car" in Dari. Some of the translations in the book are not Dari, but a combination of Pashto, Persian, Urdu and Arabic. Since it doesn't tell you about that, I recommend you tread carefully when using it. Another issue is that it doesn't have any way to go from Dari to English, so it is of no help when trying to understand what someone wants you to do.
The book itself is fairly usable, with words and phrases set up in a dictionary format. If you want to say something, you just look for the key word and scan through to find the sentence you are looking for. Some of pronunciation guides are a little different than I would use, but are good enough to make yourself understood.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect combination of a dictionary and phrasebook, September 14, 2009

By 

X. Wang (Seattle) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: English-Dari Phrasebook for Aid Workers (Paperback)

This is a perfect combination of a dictionary and phrasebook. Phrases are arranged under word headings, examples are given in both Persian script and transliteration. So you can simply find the key word (in English) of the sentence you want to say, then you probably find the type of sentence you need listed under the word. It is a very compact and comprehensive dictionary and phrasebook. However, an ideal user, who can make the most out of the book, should already have some knowledge of Dari/Persian/Tajiki.

User should also note that the language used in this book is written Dari, so it may not be the kind of Dari one hear the Afghans speaking. A serious learner should have some understanding of phonological and morphological difference between written and colloquial Dari. Thus this book is recommended to be used together with Eugene Glassman's Conversational Dari (with audio CDs) [...]

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Get this one first, May 10, 2008

By 

John A. Wecker "john w." (virginia, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: English-Dari Phrasebook for Aid Workers (Paperback)

This book is excellent and should probably be the first one to get if you are heading to Dari-speaking Afghanistan. The vocabulary is limited to some extent, but the explanations and definitions are the best I've yet encountered in a English-Dari dictionary. The phrases included also seem well thought out and pertinent.