A Pocket Dictionary of The Spoken Arabic of Cairo, English-Arabic [Paperback]

Virginia Stevens (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 2000

With more than 6,500 words, this fully revised and expanded dictionary will enable you to converse in no time without struggling to learn the Arabic alphabet.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Virginia Stevens, an instructor of English as a Foreign Language at the American University in Cairo, has taught foreign languages for twenty-seven years.

Product Details

• Paperback: 222 pages
• Publisher: AUC Press; 2nd edition (December 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9774242882
• ISBN-13: 978-9774242885
• Product Dimensions: 5.9 x 4.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,664,871 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a must-have for all who wouldn't be misunderstood, June 5, 2004

By 

Sonia (Saint-Petersburg, Russia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Pocket Dictionary of The Spoken Arabic of Cairo, English-Arabic (Paperback)

You may take it from a most diligent student of Arabic who came to spend a year in Egypt able to read everything including 7-th century poetry and the Qur'an, only to find herself unable to converse with people and understand what the ... they mean - this little dictionary has been a tremendous help to me as it will be to you. Given the shortage of textbooks and dictionaries of spoken Arabic (books by M.Salib and A.at-Tonsi, both from AUC, are to be praised and recommended, but hardly anything else), Stevens's dictionary stands out as one of the most helpful. couple it with a SUPERB Egyptian Arabic-English dictionary by M.Hinds and Badawi (worth any price, more thrilling than any detective story), and you have a fair chance of getting your 'ammiya (i.e. colloquial Arabic) right. Even if you're not planning to invest much time in it but are only going to spend a few weeks in Egypt, still it is worth having.
More to the point: it covers practically all the words you need; transcription is accurate, simple but not oversimplified, as is the case with most phrasebooks that will get you just nowhere. Last but not least: it also contains essential bits of colloquial grammar (which is rather simple, so no need to fear).
Good luck!

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Instructor, December 17, 1999

By 

Ken Swan (U.S./Egypt) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Pocket Dictionary of the Spoken Arabic of Cairo: English-Arabic (Paperback)

Great pocket book for use as a starting point. Armed with this 200 page book you can usually get your meaning across to most Egyptians... they may want to 'correct' your pronounciation, but they understood what you said. The format is simple: English word followed by Egyptian pronunciation spelled out in Roman letters. Very simple once you get the hang of the few new sounds in Arabic. I lost my copy when I got back to the states and it was the first thing I looked to replace when I returned to Cairo this year.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Handy Little Book, November 7, 2003

By 

Ameena (Saint John, New Brunswick Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Pocket Dictionary of the Spoken Arabic of Cairo: English-Arabic (Paperback)

This handy little book is great for someone who is not focusing on the Arabic script...but wants instead, a quick pocket reference on hand. Its format is English-to Transliterated Arabic only (no Arabic Script). Verbs are given in the huwwa form for both Perfect and Imperfect tense. Lots of useful sub-entries.
Plural of Nouns and adjectives and basic rule charts included at back.
This book is based on the glossary in Spoken Arabic of Cairo textbook (by Maurice Salib) and works conveniently as a supplement to it.
As the title suggests it is more of a dictionary than a so-called guidebook. I find it more thorough than the guidebooks available, yet without the benefit of phrases. It has many more word entries (6,500 including the sub-entries).
Probably would be more useful for someone studying an Egyptian course than as a stand alone book for someone trying to learn the Egyptian language....but is great to have on hand when you need a quick check for that Egyptian word that you need.

IF you are looking for a great Egyptian course that will teach you the ins and outs of spoken Cairene Arabic with a full range of conversational topics, situations and vocabularies....this is not it....try the text mentioned above by the co-author Marice Salib...by far the best available course....all you need beside it is a native speaker to help a little with pronunciation and to practice the language with.