Customer Reviews

Persian English Dictionary (Hippocrene Standard Dictionary)

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This is a good dictionary for a beginning student of Persian language for the purposes of translating modern texts. It is not too daunting, avoids most of the archaic terms which make dictionaries like Steingass hard to use for a student of modern Persian and still manages to be relatively concise despite its small size. However, editor's claim that this book contains "hints for pronunciation" is almost entirely false - the author himself states in his foreword that this is a dictionary for writing, not speaking the words. There is no transliteration or vocalisation unless the word is considered tricky (unfortunately most are not) and so those intending to recite texts should consult a more through dictionary (possibly that of Lazard or even Haim's bigger dictionaries).

This dictionary is thorough. A well-educated native-Persian-speaker tutoring me was amused to find the dictionary has words he doesn't even know. The book will be more useful for me when I'm further along in my study of Persian.

My two main frustrations: 1) Pronunciation help is the exception. Most words show the Persian without any vowel markings, followed by (sometimes cryptic) English explanations/equivalents. Not useful in learning to speak, but fine for reading. 2) 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.

Probably a good buy for a Persian speaker learning English. Less so for vice versa unless the English speaker is advanced.

Def. a good book to have. But it is missing a lot of everyday words and does not explain slang or expressions.

This is a decent dictionary but very poorly made. I bought this dictionary only 2 months ago and the binding is falling apart. Unfortunately, there aren't many Persian dictionaries to choose from. The combined dictionay by Aryanpur-Kashani is the only other good bet even though the writing in it is very small and can strain your eyes.

Suleiman Haim published numerous Persian-English dictionaries from the 1930's to the 1950's. They were designed primarily for native speakers of Persian. This dictionary features a very small number of vowel signs in the Persian headwords, mainly to disambiguate words with the same consonants but different vowels. Its age, of course, limits the modernity of its vocabulary, and it definitely leans toward old-fashioned English renderings. This dictionary should be reasonably serviceable for an advanced student of Persian reading literature from the first half of the 20th century. For more recent literature, you should consider more recent dictionaries, such as The Combined New Persian-English and English-Persian Dictionary. Steingass (A Comprehensive Persian English Dictionary Including the Arabic Words and Phrases To Be Met Within Persian Literature) is undoubtedly the most comprehensive for classical Persian literature.

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: English - Farsi (Persian) 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.