Customer Reviews

Larousse Pocket Dictionary: Polish-English/English-Polish (Larousse Dictionary)

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Want to know a word in Polish? Using Larousse:

1. Look up the English word.

2. See how to pronounce it. (The English word, that is.)

3. See the spelling of the translated word in Polish.

That's it!

Doughnut [pronounciation here] n. peczek, m.

No pronunciation of the word you are searching for.

Most people looking for a language translation don't need the pronunciation of the word they are using to look up, but want the pronunciation in Polish. And ... the Polish word is NOT even listed in the Polish listing of words! (No peczek. No wszy.)

Don't waste your money on this one. It isn't for beginners. I guess the Polish-English half is good to read a newspaper in Polish (but then you only need half the book!).

Yes it is true! My friend in Poland and I converse online with voice. Often we must either one of us look up words and translate. She has often expressed envy over my dictionary. Also, she has testified how accurate it is.You won't find wiatr (fart) in there, but now you can write it in the back, since I told you what it is in English. The dictionary is made of paper that feels good to the skin, which is another consideration I have when buying books.

There are two sections at the end of the book. The first delineates irregular English verbs and the second gives full conjugations of Polish verbs.

BUY IT! This is the only Polish dictionary you'll need unless you will become a professional translator and require access to hundreds of thousands of very technical words. This is a dictionary for the common person who has common conversations or reads common Polish. It is inexpensive too! Wow! After this review and the price, you know you want to buy it.

On the whole, this is an excellent dictionary. Lots of entries with multiple definitions. I've found pretty much everything I've looked for in this little dictionary. It includes an IPA pronunciation key for all words. Since for the most part Polish is phonetic, this isn't necessary per se, but for a beginning student like myself it's a great feature. It also includes grammatical gender and irregular plural form, if applicable.

I do have one minor complaint, namely that the Polish prepositions do not indicate the case (declension) of the noun that follows. My Langenscheidt Russian dictionary has that info and it's immensely useful. If you don't know your Polish case endings by heart, you might have to dig through a grammar book to find the info you need. Still, I suppose I might be expecting too much of a pocket dictionary like this one.

The printing is basic black-and-white, but it's perfectly adequate and the binding is good. And at a penny plus shipping for a clean used copy, it can't be beat.