Customer Reviews

Romanian English, English Romanian: Dictionary & Phrasebook (Hippocrene Dictionary & Phrasebooks)

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

 

 

After living several years in Romania and studying the language and doing my best to get by each day, I have waded through many Romanian language texts and found most to be cumbersome and trying at the very best. I have encountered a number that were not written by native speakers of Romanian and thus contained numerous grammatical and spelling mistakes which could badly mislead an unsuspecting beginner. Most of the dictionaries I have seen are written for a speaker of Romanian who is studying English rather than vice versa and this makes a big difference when it comes to interpreting the definitions given. Many dictionaries are full of terms that are not applicable to everyday conversation and activity but were added just to impress the buyer with the broad scope (however irrelevant)of the text.

I cannot comment on how easy to understand the grammar and pronounciation guides are in this particular book because I found this book only after I already had a thorough understanding of those two things. I can say, however, that the phrases in this book are very accurate and very natural to Romanian conversation and will come in handy to any traveller whether you are in Romania for business or pleasure. I have shown this book to my Romanian friends for further confirmation and they have agreed with me in full. I still refer to this book myself from time to time when I am writing emails or letters and can't think of exactly the right way to put something. The dictionary may be small, but I think it is more than enough to provide an adequate beginner's vocabulary which you can build on as you learn more. For serious study of the language, this book is only a basic introduction and can never take the place of a real live instructor. But if you just want to know the basics before you step off the plane in Otopeni, I advise you to pick up a copy of this one.

But a couple more words of advice if you are planning a trip to Romania: Do NOT trust guide books or cab drivers. ;)

Although it may seem funny, I bought this book to improve my English (I am a native speaker of Romanian) and found it helpful. However, if you want more than elementary Romanian I would suggest to buy some English-Romanian/ Romanian-English dictionaries, phrase books, and grammar books published in Romania which are far more complete and accurate (there are now many Romanian online bookstores, just google "editura").

I bought this book for an upcoming trip to Romania. It advertises itself as a grammar book, dictionary and phrase book.

The grammar section is overly complicated and not at all well-laid out. I became so frustrated that I could barely make my way through the section.

The dictionary part seems adequate.

The phrase section is handy but there are no pronounciation guides. The pronounciation was laid out in the beginning of the book, but I kept having to refer back which was annoying. Still, I am unsure of most of the pronounciation.

I got the feeling that this was based off of British guide book models from the 1960s. Very proper, overly complicated and not very well-laid out.

This was the only book we took on a recent visit to Romania. We thought that it would work very well as it seemed comprehensive and slim for travel. When we actually tried to use it everyday it was better than nothing but practically useless. Many of the words that should have been in the translation part could only be found in the phrasebook part. Not at all useful when struggling to put a sentence together. This happened so often that we just left it behind in the hotel rather than continue on with it. I think that for what it purported itself to be, it is a total failure.

I started using this dictionary believing it to be a simple and straightforward way of learning some simple words in Romanian.

However, having learned a number of nouns I then discovered that many of them were old words, no longer used. If you want to learn Romanian that most Romanians will understand then don't use this book.

Nu bine!

This dictionary phrase book is very helpful when traveling in Romania. Sections on every day phrases, travel phrases, going to the market and shopping. Very helpful book.

DID NOT help me learn any Romanian expressions of any importance! Will keep searching.

If you're looking for a comprehensive English-Romanian dictionary, look no further! This is one.

However, if you're a little more picky, and you actually want to be able find the translations for common words, you might want to look elsewhere. This book is sorely lacking.