Customer Reviews

Persian-English English-Persian Learner's Dictionary

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

 

 

Most English<->Persian dictionaries on the market are designed to serve the needs of native Persian speakers who are learning English. This dictionary is designed specifically for the English speaker who is learning Persian. It includes a Western alphabet transliteration of Persian words in addition to the Persian alphabet spelling. It includes the "present root" of each Persian verb -- essential for learners. It includes minimal explanations of ambiguous words, e.g. "earth (planet)" vs. "earth (soil)". In all other cases, it just lists the translated words. The dictionary was written by the author of the Lonely Planet Farsi Phrasebook. I've compared most of the English<->Persian dictionaries -- this is the best for learning Persian.

This is the closest thing to a complete, practical Persian-English dictionary out there. Still, there are errors in it, such as spelling and transliteration. The other glaring issue is that the Persian section is organized by English transliteration. This is counter-intuitive to all but the most elementary Persian learner. All other dictionaries I've used are arranged according to the Persian spelling. This is a particularly difficult issue if you one, are unsure of a word's pronunciation, or two, do not subscribe to the author's pronunciation. Persian is far from a standardized language, and the nuances of modern Persian pronunciation can make word finding difficult. The word mim-jim-mim-'ayn could be transliterated as either mojamma', mojamme' or majma' based on the Arabic. To look this word up in this dictionary, you need to know that the word is pronounced majma'. Lastly, there are fewer entries than one would expect from a larger-than-pocket-size dictionary. One positive is that every word has pronunciation in its entry and it is of recent print, so it includes neologisms and other words of recent convention which other dictionaries leave out. Another is that it has both English to Persian and vice versa. Far from perfect, but still very useful for the modern student. A good companion would be the Hans Wehr or Nicholas Awde Arabic dictionaries to help with Arabic-dervied vocabulary, which is about 60% of total Persian vocabulary. Xoda hafez.

Decent Persian (aka Farsi, Dari) dictionaries are hard to find. Persian words are typically not written with the short vowels, and almost nowhere will you find reference books that tell you how to pronounce these words. This is one of the few dictionaries that show you the full pronunciation. The printing is clean and easy to read. The definitions are concise, and mostly right-on.

Two gripes:

1. The Persian-English side is sorted by the way Persian words are pronounced, not by the way they're written. This is a huge problem, because when I need to look up a word I don't know, I also don't know how it's pronounced. Words that begin with an alef, for example, might start with an "a" sound, an "e" sound or an "o" sound--and I lose a lot of time trying to guess where the word might be listed.

2. The vocabulary provided is good, but not very extensive. You'll find yourself needing many words not in the book.

The best Persian dictionary I've found is the Aryanpur (also available at Amazon). It's correctly sorted, has a huge number of words, and--most importantly but most often overlooked--tells you what those unwritten short vowels are! But it's also pricy and too heavy to sit comfortably in your lap while you read. If I'm on the go and can't lug around the Aryanpur, this Learner's Dictionary is my second choice.

If you are seriously interested in learning Persian, this dictionary will help you for the first couple weeks, then irritate you endlessly. As an avid linguist, I have to say it is abysmally deficient for genuine study. It is more akin to a "lexicon" than a true "dictionary" in that it provides a list of words and their counterparts in the foreign language. I recommend going to Ketab dot com, where you can find a fantastic collection of dictionaries. Sure, they're a bit more expensive, and they're not bi-directional, but they're SO much more worth the cost.

1. There are no usage examples, and no clarification when multiple entries appear.

2. The dependence on transliteration is also surprisingly more cumbersome than you would imagine. The Persian alphabet really only takes about a week, maybe two, to get to a point where you can lose the training wheels, and, at that point, having to function in transliteration is a pain. Especially with the fact that if you see a word in a newspaper or whatnot, it won't have it's vowels (except, of course, Alif, Vav and He), so you have to just fumble unless you know how to read it.

3. Strange entries... wanna' know how to say "f*ck"? It's there... "Metapsychosis"? Also there... so is "the day Mohammed was declared the prophet" (admittedly helpful culturally speaking), but it's only a few pages away from "maf'ul" which means "object, passive homosexual"... while I appreciate the author trying to provide a breadth of vocabulary, he could've used some of his energy providing an entry for a word like "Ra" (subject or D.O. marker)

Overall, I can't give this dictionary more than a single star... like I said, it's cheap, which is great, and for the money, it's pretty good, but, overall you'd do better going to Ketab dot com, or just getting the Lonely Planet Phrasebook. Which is AMAZING.

Best Persian-English Disctionary I have found to date. I few flaws, but better than any else available.

Ok, 18,000 seems like a lot of words, I'm sure there are millions to learn....But sitting down with my 2 Iranian friends - born and raised in Tehran, Iran - more than half the words we looked at aren't used. Some are completely wrong or don't even make sense.

Having dogs, "beshin" was one of the first words I learned (sit), this book has it as "neshin" which is wrong and doesn't give a beginner any confidence that the rest of the words will be correct. FYI - this author has spent the majority of his life in Australia, which may contribute to my problem of living in America trying to learn Farsi for Iranians from Tehran??????

The book is set up decently, easy to use, somewhat helpful. But not trustworthy to use. I wanted to write a letter, but can't be confident I'd choose the right word when there are multiple options, nor that any of the options are even right!!! Seriously, my Iranian friends looked at some words and didn't even know them.

This dictionary was a disapointment for me. It's missing very common phrases such as "in spite of" among many others. More importantly, there are often many translations for each entery but the dictionary doesn't clarify the differences among the translations. I wouldn't reccomend it to anyone beside an absolute beginner. Then, I think it might be suitable (if only for a short while.)

I'm learning Persian, and I always look for a good dictionary for the language I'm studying. This is the dictionary I keep coming back to.

Yes, as other reviewers have stated, the Persian-English version is in English alphabetical order. I will admit that this is short-sighted as it keeps from forcing an English speaker from learning Persian alphabetical order. However, many of the Persian language-learning resources out there don't teach Persian/Arabic script, and they can still use this dictionary.

The dictionary does not have the diacriticals that are used to show pronunciation, but this is not a problem because each entry has a transliteration spelling as well. My normal usage is to find the English word, then read the transliteration for pronunciation, then look at the Persian script to see how it is spelled. Then I repeat the word several times while reading the Persian script. I've found this to be an effective method to cement vocabulary that I'm learning elsewhere.

The typeface is a bit small, but easily clear enough for these 44-year-old eyes to read, even without reading glasses. *MUCH* easier to read than Aryanpur's "Combined New Persian-English and English-Persian Dictionary".

In short, this is the dictionary I keep referencing and coming back to again and again. The only reason that I didn't put in five stars is that I would like a larger edition that includes sentences to indicate common usage.

As one reviewer suggested, it's a book designed for someone who's not ready for the Persian equivalent to the Arabic "Hans Wehr". But, as such a person (a beginning student of Persian), I'm finding it very helpful and easy to use. And, it's small enough I can take it just about anywhere!

As a former Latin teacher, I appreciate the transliterations as a pedagogical tool. While those may offend the purists, I'm finding them helpful in getting me to use the language. That's a significant factor in keeping up the enthusiasm. I can grab and use a new word quickly. They're also very helpful in giving me an instant check as I read the Persian script. I've been at this about a month, and I find myself weaning off of them ... just as I gave up the training wheels when I learned to ride a bike "back in the day"!

This book is just what it's title claims, a dictionary for learners. It's layout is perfect for the beginner who is not competent in using a regular Persian dictionary, it's collection of words more than adequate for everyday conversation and the addition of present tense verb roots is invaluable. This book is my most valued Farsi learning tool.