Customer Reviews

New Thai-English, English-Thai Compact Dictionary for English Speakers with Tones and Classifiers

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I just spent the last hour "playing" with my new "three-way" English-Thai, Thai-English, Thai sound-English dictionary from Paiboon publishing.... I say "playing" because this dictionary is not only better than its predecessor, but for a lover of the Thai language, it is just plain "fun!"

First of all, this is the best Thai-English/English-Thai dictionary on the market, anywhere, bar none. I don't even want to waste time explaining why it is "better" than the would-be competition.... But I suppose a few words are necessary. The advantages of the earlier edition -still- have not been matched by any other dictionary... 1) Comprehensive yet compact, 2) The only dictionary that allows the critical "third-way" of looking up a word in Thai, by it's pronunciation in English 3) Utilizes the most accurate and user friendly pronunciation system in existence, and 4) Has lots of cool extras presented with a "real life" no b.s. approach, with no loss of the subtle complexity of the language at any turn.

While Thai uses an alphabet, the word ordering in the dictionary is not immediately apparent... very frustrating... Benjawan and Chris (the two authors) explain a simple way -and- the "real" way to quickly look up words. Problem solved.

Thai has multiple letters that sound like "P" or "S" or "F" or "T" or "K"... Maybe you have heard a word spoken and want to look it up, but you have no idea what "K" or "T" was used to actually start the word because you have not mastered "tone rules" enough to guess. If you don't think this is a problem, you have not tried to understand spoken Thai. This dictionary provides a whole section that lets you look up the word by the way it sounds IN ENGLISH. Then it directs you to the right Thai letter and definition. In an awesome improvement from the earlier edition, you are directed to the correct Thai word by page number in the Thai spelled section... eliminating the need to essentially re-print definitions in this section; a move which saves a large amount of space that the authors have used to fill with a much larger amount of entries than in the previous edition.

Let's say that you read something in Thai, but of course it is written in some crazy font that does not remotely resemble the standard Thai letters you have assiduously struggled to learn.... No problem... the dictionary has a section that shows each Thai letter in a number of different fonts.... Much as the previous edition, but improved by depicting in one place, the name of the letter (written in Thai, phonetically and with the English translation of the letter's name), it's "class" (high, low or mid), along with the various fonts.. AND how the letter would sound at the beginning OR the end of a word (not always the same!)

Maybe you are more than 20 years old and have something less than 20/15 vision or the mind reading ability of Thais to decipher the micrographic small print in which Thai normally appears... No problem. The authors have graciously increased the font size that allows your eyes to luxuriate in washing over the beautiful Thai script without placing the book under a microscope! I should note here that the physical dimensions of the book are somewhat larger than the previous edition, but it is still quite manageable enough for a cargo pocket and has the advantages of the larger script, more entries and more extras. The authors consciously have made efforts to be more efficient so that every extra page provides added value and not just added size.

Oh... this is my favorite .... In Thai, most nouns have "classifiers" (in other languages also known as modifiers or quantifiers or measure words). We have but few examples of this in English, but in Thai they are the norm. So, for instance, you would not say that you had five children and leave it at that. You would say something like you have "child, five people" or "television three devices." These words like "people" or "devices" and when to use which are VERY annoying because while there is some predictability, what word you use with what noun is not obvious... most of the time in fact. It is like knowing that you have to say that you want two "slices" or "cuts" of pizza, but that you want two "pieces" of candy. How would you know how to say that in English if you did not already just "know it" as a native speaker? Well, it is 100X worse in Thai.... But the dictionary comes to the rescue by offering two advantages from the earlier edition and something I NEVER SEE in other dictionaries (except one, but done poorly). The Paiboon dictionary lists the appropriate classifier along with the entry of each noun if one exists for that noun... thank god! Secondly, to give you some idea that the classifiers are not all picked out of a hat, there is a small section in the back that lists major classifiers... not as a laundry list, but by explaining the different classifiers used within each kind of idea, such as classifiers often used with food, or in writing or in classifiers that have something to do with a shape of the object etc. A really ingenious descriptive technique.

I can't believe it took this long to describe a critical aspect of the dictionary... the English pronunciation system. .... Of course it is best if you learn how to read Thai... but even then, there are more than a few exceptions to the rules and beyond that there are exceptions in the way a word is pronounced in everyday speech (versus the way it appears that it should be pronounced). The "Paiboon" system takes two minutes to learn and is vastly more accurate than any other, including the actual and dreaded "official system" which gives us words like Suvarnabhumi. Try to use -that- word and make it to the airport! In any case, the Paiboon system is used in all of the Paiboon published books and CDs on learning Thai... As those resources are also the absolutely best way to learn Thai, you might as well own a dictionary that uses the same pronunciation system.

Above all, this is the only dictionary with a sense of humor. There is a section on vowels, consonants, tone and parts of the language that seems to empathize with your struggles instead of making it seem like understanding Thai is all simple and you are the only idiot not getting it all. It makes you feel like you have a friend helping you through...

Look, if you already own the older version of this dictionary, keep it for street use until it falls apart, but BUY this new one... it is a quantum leap beyond an already fantastic product. If you own any other dictionary or none at all... THIS is the one to buy. You can buy something bigger, but you would be wasting your time and getting a monster book you won't want to use. Good luck and enjoy!

I was already a big fan of khun Benjawan's previous dictionary (I owned four copies to make sure I had one handy wherever I was). I purchased this new version as soon as I heard it was available.

I had two small complaints about the previous version: first, sometimes words I was looking for was only in one section and not the other (only in the Thai-English but not English-Thai for example) which did cause some translation delays, and secondly it seemed like there were more than a small number of words that were omitted, which forced me to rely on my much heavier (but more thorough) Mary Haas dictionary. The good news is that these problems seem to have been taken care of in the new version; at least so far as I can tell having had it for a short period of time.

I am also greatly looking forward to the Desktop Edition that is mentioned in this pocket version as becoming available in late 2009.

I purchased this dictionary as soon as it was available from the publisher. This dictionary is a great improvement over the previous edition. The inclusion of classifiers and "word register (formality)" is of great utility to any serious student of Thai. The introduction is also vastly improved. It serves as a quick reference for the Thai language as well as a guide for using the dictionary. It is packed with useful information including a pronunciation guide, examples of Thai font variations, and classifier usage.

As mentioned by other reviewers, the previous edition seemed to be lacking more than a few common words. During my most recent trip to Thailand, I kept this dictionary in my backpack at all times during the trip. I found its coverage of the vocabulary I encountered in "real life" nearly 100%.

Like the old edition, the new edition includes the "Thai Sound" section makes it easy to find that word you heard on TV or overhead in a conversation.

In summary, this edition is a must have upgrade over the old edition. Don't hesitate to purchase it.

This new edition is a quantum leap forward. Very user-friendly, elegantly presented with crisp and clear fonts, thoughtful tools such as sidebars to find a letter quickly, and the most helpful inclusion of classifiers that go with the nouns. With many new benefits, it's still conveniently sized if you are inclined to study on those long bus rides.

I bought this book for my son who moved to Thailand to teach English. After I received it, I thumbed through it and really liked the 3 way translation - English to Thai, Thai to English, and English-Thai-Symbols. This book (if he takes advantage of it) could really help him navigate the streets of Bangkok more easily- being able to look at the symbol language and translate that into English. I hope he uses it a lot. I would if I were in Thailand.

The Three Way Thai English Dictionary is an excellent tool and must have for the beginning Thai language student. Very well organized with clear instructions and chart tables on use and pronunciation of the Thai alphabet and tones. Benjawn makes it easy to pronounce the various words.She has beautifully organized this dictionary into three parts: English, Thai words(written with Roman letters showing annunciating) and the Thai script. This dictionary should be used in combination and in conjunction with her Thai language for beginners, Thai language for intermediate learners and Thai language for Advanced learners course and accompanying cd's. She uses the Paiboon pronunciation system so it is easy to annunciate the words and letters and various vowels of the alphabet. A must have for the enthusiastic and serious foreign language learner!

There is a software version of this dictionary available from wordinthehand(dot)com. While this won't mean much for those who need something while traveling (I use a Talking Dict), the software version has excellent pronunciations of every last word in the dictionary. Not written pronunciations -- spoken voice pronunciations.

I have heard that Paiboon is going to be bundling the paper dictionary with a CD containing the software version sometime in the near future. If that happens, it should be a runaway best-seller.

I'm kind of a Thai dictionary fanatic, and I love the Damnern-Sathienpong Thai-English dictionary, which also features Thai pronunciations --- but not nearly as clear as the ones from Paiboon.

UPDATE --- 1/11/11-----

The software version has been upgraded, and now contains almost 100,000 word entries. If you bought the original version, the upgrade is free.

I am so new and I really needed a good dictionary for this rather "strange" written language. Following the Thai itself with its 44 consonants and 20 some-odd vowels is not all that easy to learn at once. Of course, looking at English-Thai is a no-brainer. Then, the third option, phonetic transcription, was so easy for me right away! It is much faster than peering alphabetically through the Thai-English section. I actually heard a couple of words as well as saw the Thai script. I looked it up in the phonetic transcription, and, right there, next to it is the page number. I went to the page number each time and, looking up and down each of the two columns of Thai-English, there is the script just as I could see it. This system works and, for a beginner, it is essential! I tried the other dictionaries to no avail! This, I feel, recommends this dictionary rather well.

With the internet these days, there's less of a need for things like printed language dictionaries. There are several excellent Thai-English dictionary websites, which is what I generally use. Sometimes, though, you need to look up words and don't have easy internet access - like if you're in Thailand. If you're serious about the language, phrase books (such as the generally good Lonely Planet phrasebook) are practically useless if you're trying to communicate with someone whose English isn't great, as is my situation - communicating with someone who doesn't speak a lot of English, and can't read it much.

I bought this to use offline to facilitate communication. Like most Thai dictionaries (including the online ones), it's sometimes a little ambiguous about which sense of the English word is implied - but it's generally less of a problem here than in others because there is an explanation given in case of ambiguous meaning. This is sorely lacking in the online dictionaries, so a big plus for this printed one. Generally there's little question about what meaning is being used for the translation.

Unfortunately, the Thai-English and Thai Sound-English sections are less useful than the English-Thai section. The Thai-English section is generally just as good as the English-Thai section as far as I can tell, and worked fine for Thais to look up and point out words that they weren't sure of the English for when speaking with me. However, I don't think the definitions are differentiated as well in that section (I'll note that of course it's hard to translate many things well) - I was often pointed to words that made no sense in the context of the conversation, and while there is often more than one translation listed for each word, sometimes there isn't one that makes sense. My point is that even with contextual clues for the translations in this dictionary, you will probably still run into communication problems if you need to rely on it.

I'm not sure what to make of the Thai Sound-English section. It sounds like a great idea, but if you're like most native English speakers, the way Thais speak is very difficult to decipher. Even if you get someone to speak a word out slowly and enunciate each syllable clearly, you may still have trouble decoding the sound into the transliteration system used here (which I think is among the best, all things considered - the same used in other Paiboon Publishing books). I've basically never gotten any use out of this section, and not for lack of trying. Learning Thai script is basically easier than the effort required to use this section. I suppose it could be useful once in a while though.

One thing I'm disappointed about here is that in the Thai-English section, there is no transliteration of the English word into Thai script. This makes it essentially useless for a Thai person who may wish to use this to learn how to read and speak English. Granted, this is clearly labeled as being for English speakers, so it's not really fair to knock it for this. But, I think it would have been a hugely helpful addition for many people. I ended up buying a Thai-English dictionary in Thailand that included transliteration of the English words, but if there is an equivalently good dictionary as this meant for Thai speakers, I couldn't find one (they probably do exist, but I looked in several large bookstores). The one I ended up with was rather mediocre, but the transliteration was the killer feature.

I ended up giving this dictionary to the person I bought it to communicate with, in Thailand. Ultimately, despite a few nice things about using this printed dictionary over the various websites, the websites are much easier to use for translation or for helping to learn the language.

Dictionary thoroughly goes over how to pronounce the difficult Thai syllables in an easy to understand approach. Have not really tried to look up the Thai words to get the English translation yet, but that seems pretty straight forward.