Oxford English-Hindi Dictionary

List Price: $49.75 Discount Price: $13.97

Customer Reviews:

Not very good, but certainly better than nothing. [Posted on 2007-01-11]
This dictionary is indeed rather complex. I read the script perfectly and even still can't make much sense out of a great deal of it. Whether or not its in script or not is not the issue here. The issue is alot of the words aren't really the words used in Hindi. They are more words adopted from English than the sanskritized words. So for those of us wishing to learn the traditional truely Hindi words this could pose a problem. Another thing that is ridiculous is alot of basic words such as "Spanish" aren't in this dictionary. For a dictionary that is supposed to be so concise I'd hardly consider basic words like "Spanish" a word to leave out. I am sure there are better dictionaries out there and wouldn't really recommend it, but I suppose it's better than nothing.

so/so [Posted on 2007-02-14]
not as good as Oxfords Hindi-English dictionary for an English speaker; however it is a good companion to the Hindi-English. For example get the word you need from the English-Hindi then look it up in the Hindi-English for a better understanding and grammar. I am glad I got it for that but I would not rush to get it b/c it is expensive and not very big.

A good start [Posted on 2007-12-31]
First, I am an American English speaker, but one who was trained at the University of Wisconsin in Hindi and have several years of Hindi language experience, including a year in India in Varanasi. This is the best such dictionary around. This English-Hindi dictionary is the best one out there, though with caveats noted below.

This is not a good sole reference for beginners. I would advise learning Hindi by taking a class, by using Bhatia's Colloquial Hindi audio course, by watching plenty of Bollywood and by regular tutoring from a native Hindi speaker. You can supplement that with the increasingly plentiful resources on the Internet. The study of Hindi is not an easy thing, though there are some good phrase books for travelers. It is still easier studying Hindi than other Indian languages, if you are not in India.

There is a great deal that still needs to be done before Oxford has a superb English-Hindi dictionary. This dictionary is bereft in contemporary usages. More Hinglish urban/Bollywood, and urban slang typical of Bombay and Delhi should be in this dictionary. Also, urban usage frequently includes words and expressions from regional languages such as Marathi or Urdu. I would like to see more commonly used words from other languages included in a useful dictionary.

An example: under the English word, "god", there is no suggestion of "bhagwaan". I don't understand this. It is in the MacGregor Hindi-English dictionary. I suggest that Verma/Sahai work with MacGregor to cross-reference both dictionaries more extensively, and start making the English-Hindi dictionary more indicative of contemporary usage.

Oxford, you are in the lead. Keep moving ahead with better references please.

Meant for Native Speakers [Posted on 2008-01-27]
I bought this book hoping that it would allow me to look up words in English and find an equivalent word in Hindi. This dictionary seems to be meant for native Hindi speakers who need English words translated for them. I say this because rather than giving equivalent Hindi words, the book gives a description of the entry in Hindi. For example (this is not a real entry) for a sun flower, rather than giving the Hindi word (if any exists) for sun flower, it will say (in Hindi) "A flower with yellow petals...".

I'm somewhat of a native speaker, but this dictionary doesn't help me at all since my goal isn't trying to get a description of things in Hindi. I totally wasted my money.

Oxford English-Hindi Dictionary [Posted on 2008-02-21]
Worthless. I purchased this product in order to look up a English word and learn how to pronounce it in Hindi. Forget it. You need to know how to read Hindi.
Worthless, don't buy unless your an expert in Hindi.

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