Customer Reviews

Latvian-English/English-Latvian Dictionary & Phrasebook

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This user-friendly book is a great introduction to Latvian. I am currently learning the language as a beginner and found this to be the most useful in teaching the basics of the language. There is grammatical notes, but the emphasis is on teaching the basics of pronounciation and phrases. Very practical and easy to use. Highly recommended!

I am interested in everyday language, especially in greetings, introductions and brief phrases that hint at your goodwill intentions. These useful aspects and more are dealt with in this book. After an introduction on phonetics, when needed the author continues to give advice on the correct stress of words the whole book long.

If you don't know ANYTHING in Latvian, book is for you. If you know something already a bit, don't waste your money.
For example, in page 109 (phrases page) are 30 words!!! 15 Latvian and 15 English (9 sentences).
You can take this book if you are going to visit Latvia for 1st time, and would like to learn "Hello, how are you?" in Latvian.
If you speak English, then you want to know words in Latvian. So, for example, with letter "d" there are like 115 words in English only..
This book should be called "Your first 10 sentences in Latvian", "...book for tourists". Not dictionary...

I bought this dictionary to aid me in my studies in Riga for four months, and truth be told I didn't end up using it too much, simply because Google Translate proved to be more useful in practice. That doesn't mean it's not a good introduction to the Latvian language, though. I recommend it to people who are approaching Latvian for the first time, or anyone who is planning a visit to Latvia. There are many useful phrases (and many more you'd never use) and the dictionary is decent, though if you're buying this to prepare for a trip to Latvia you'll probably end up buying a more substantial English-Latvian dictionary once you arrive. One of my Latvian friends in Riga whom I showed the dictionary to also noted that many of the words and phrases are now considered antiquated in everyday conversation. Nevertheless, it's a good start for anyone interested in Latvian, and I'm thankful to Jatniece for being one of the few people to create a sort of "beginner's guide" to Latvian for English speakers.

So why I am reviewing this is because... I really wanted to learn Latvian, and so my mom got this for me, and I was really excited when I got it! I think it's great, I take it to different places with me (School, events which take forever to end and end up being no fun at all, etc.) and it's so awesome because it is small and quite portable compared to the other books around. The pronunciations are described very well and are quite easy to understand, the dictionary is good, and the phrasebook part is also quite helpful. It doesn't include the non-basic things such as "There is a platypus in my bathtub" and other things that are uncommon phrases (Obviously), but it does have many good things you'll need to know as for whether you're just learning it (Like I am) Or learning for another specific reason (jobs, a trip, etc.) So... I think it's really helpful!

Generally, a very good overview of the Latvian language with fairly good explanations of pronunciation, grammar, etc. Consequently, something had to give considering the size of the book and the would be the size actual dictionary. It's a little light in this regard but overall a good value for the money.

The dictionary arrived in a timely fashion and was in excellent condition. I would not hesitate to order from the seller in the future.

Excellent little book, that I needed to write cards and some letters,
shipped , packing everything was excellent

The book I purchased was delivered to my house in great condition. It was if I had just bought the book at a book store.

This book has alot of helpful information, and it actually explains how the differnt tense and verb modifications are made. The phrases it contains may help you visit the country. overall for the tourist its a great book, for anyone serious about learning latvian, look elsewhere.