Customer Reviews

Modern Hebrew-English Dictionary (Yale Language Series)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
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This dictionary is small, but has some great features not common in other dictionaries.

Pros:

- It comes in two volumes, so you only have to carry this one (the Hebrew-English) with your Hebrew texts to do some reading while traveling.

- The text is relatively large (compared to other dictionaries of this size).

- It includes an abbreviation section at the end with common abbreviations (though this is NOT an abbreviation dictionary... it is an 11 page section. Because the actual dictionary opens as a Hebrew book, this supplementary material appears at the 'beginning' of Amazon's preview option).

- It lists many compound words, so you don't always have to look up individual parts (good for a beginner).

- It uses the "full" spelling in addition to vowel markings and irregular accent markings.

Best of all:

- It includes the required object prepositions needed with verbs - an important feature that is not found in many dictionaries!

- It includes noun genders and also notes when the plural is irregular - another feature hard to find in most dictionaries.

Cons:

- It is not as updated as other dictionaries.

- It has a limited vocabulary, so a larger dictionary will be needed for more advanced studies (though this is a nice feature when you are just beginning and don't want to look through too many words).

- It does not give example sentences, though some words have context clues and notes for clarification.

Neutral:

- Verbs are listed according to stem - some like this, some don't. Once you advance enough in grammar, it is easy to use this system to find any verb in any form.

- The cover opens like an English book (going left to right), but the actual dictionary goes like Hebrew book (right to left). This can cause confusion at first, but you get used to it.

Overall, I highly recommend this for those who are beginners to intermediate students of Hebrew. There are some cons, but I have yet to find a perfect dictionary for all occasions.

Note, however, that you will need another dictionary or the companion volume (which I do not have) to go from English to Hebrew.

I personally use this dictionary for reading Hebrew texts while I travel and also to look up prepositions and irregular plurals. I use a second, more complete dictionary published by Prolog for English-Hebrew translation and usually for looking up words at home.

Take this for what it's worth as I know the author. I studied under Professor Zilkha at U.T. Austin while finishing my B.A. in Hebrew and I remember when he wrote this dictionary. It was the late '80s and the most up-to-date dictionaries we could get our hands on were written in the late 1960s. When I did translations, I used it along with the more antiquated volumes to translate some highly technical words. So while it is in no way as comprehensive as Zilbermann it is a tool translators can make use of. No translator works with one dictionary.

There are common words missing. Should have bought the Oxford H-E dictionary I found later. This one leaves out many obvious words, but compact.

When I first looked inside this book through the "Look Inside" option, I thought it was a dictionary for hebrew acronyms, but when I bought it I found out that it wasn't, it was a small dictionary with some acronyms explained at the end as an appendix.

I don't recommend buying it, there are better dictionaries like the Oxford english-hebrew hebrew-english dectionary.