Customer Reviews

English-Persian Dictionary

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If you are just beginning to learn the Persian language this book is not for you. The book is written in the Persian language without the English letter translation. The Persian print is also very hard to read and decipher. It also lacks a Persian alphebet for the user. If you know Persian and can read Persian, then this book would be great for you.

If it's a Persian dictionary, of course the Persian words are going to be in Persian script. It's the same with the dictionaries of any other language, duh. Please no more entries by people who have been studying Persian for two days ... learn the script, at most it will take you a couple of hours. There are generally about three factors that comprise a good Persian dictionary: it includes some form of phonetic representation of the word, verbs need to be shown with their present tense roots, and examples of usage (with an emphasis on the use of prepositions and also commonly found idioms). This particular dictionary doesn't seem to give you any of these three. If you want a good dictionary stick to the 40-dollar Aryanpur volume. It makes all of the competitors look like crap.

This dictionary likely has more than you need, unless you happen to be a professional translator of Farsi and/or English, but it is miles ahead of the other dictionaries, which tend to contain too little. Please note, however, that this book is one half of a two volume set. The companion volume is the Hippocrene Standard Dictionary: Farsi (Persian) - English Dictionary, also by S. Haim. By Webster's, I am referring to the quality of the dictionary, rather than any definitions, which, to be clear, are not here, only translations.

I am learning Farsi--I don't speak Farsi. The dictionary appears to be made for the Persian speaker who needs to check the meaning of an English word. None of the short vowels are marked--so the student must guess at the correct pronunciation. My Iranian friends love this dictionary, but it is not very helpful to me. The best dictionaries for the student are: 1. Persian-English, English-Persian Learner's Dictionary which contains the Farsi script, transliterations and the present tense verb stems and 2. An English Persian Dictionary by Gilani--very large vocabulary with Farsi and transliterations but no present tense verb stems and "one-way" only. It has no Persian to English. I have all of the above and seldom use the one by Haim.

This is a very thorough dictionary in terms of scope.

The English words include pronuciation guides while the Persian words do not.

The print is so small that some of the letters blur and are difficult to distinguish. A couple have actually been rubbed in the production process so I can't figure them out without the help of a native speaker.

It is necessary to read the included key/explanations in the beginning in order to follow the organization.

Conjugation is not (at least in my observation) thoroughly included/covered.

I wish I had NEVER spent my money on this useless Dictionary! If I knew how to 'write' in Farsi, then it would be great. I need a Dictionary, just like all other language to language dictionaries; the words in English and then the other select language. Even if the alphabet is different, it should have it written 'phoentically' to say the least!