The Oxford Russian Dictionary: Russian-English English-Russian

Rating:
Summary: Indispensible
Review: Don't try to teach yourself Russian without it. It'd also be great if you're lucky enough to take the language in a college class.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent value
Review: For the price, this is an excellent dictionary. In response to the person who writes below that this dictionary lacks Russian phonetic pronunciation, saying "I was disappointed that there is no guide to the pronounciation of the Russian words. My desktop English dictionary gives the phonetic spelling of English words. So why not a Russian-English dictionary that gives the phonetic spelling of the Russian words?," I think it should be pointed out that Russian spelling is, with very few (and generally well known) exceptions, phonetic. I.e., with very few exceptions, a word is pronounced exactly as it is spelled. The only difficulty you might have with Russian pronunciation is determining where the accent falls in a word you're not familiar with. This dictionary, like almost all Russian dictionaries, indicates where the accent (udareniye) falls for each word and variant positions (where necessary) based on changing the case, number, tense, etc. Since Russian spelling is already almost 100% phonetic, providing an additional phonetic spelling of each word in the dictionary would be redundant and a waste of space -- except, perhaps, only for those who have not learned the Cyrillic alphabet -- something which the authors of this dictionary probably assume its readers have already done. The best Russian dictionaries I think are the Oxford hardcover editions, and, for American English speakers, such as myself, the dictionary by Kenneth Katzner. This dictionary though is very handy though when you need something more compact. Even better is the old (1980's) version of the Oxford Russian/English English/Russian Pocket Dictionary which is smaller and more comprehensive, but apparently out of print. There is a new version of Oxford Russian/English English/Russian Pocket Dictionary (available on Amazon) -- but it lacks the old version's genuine "pocket" size and the content is somewhat different (it was edited by different people).

Rating:
Summary: Excellent value
Review: For the price, this is an excellent dictionary. In response to the person who writes below that this dictionary lacks Russian phonetic pronunciation, saying "I was disappointed that there is no guide to the pronounciation of the Russian words. My desktop English dictionary gives the phonetic spelling of English words. So why not a Russian-English dictionary that gives the phonetic spelling of the Russian words?," I think it should be pointed out that Russian spelling is, with very few (and generally well known) exceptions, phonetic. I.e., with very few exceptions, a word is pronounced exactly as it is spelled. The only difficulty you might have with Russian pronunciation is determining where the accent falls in a word you're not familiar with. This dictionary, like almost all Russian dictionaries, indicates where the accent (udareniye) falls for each word and variant positions (where necessary) based on changing the case, number, tense, etc. Since Russian spelling is already almost 100% phonetic, providing an additional phonetic spelling of each word in the dictionary would be redundant and a waste of space -- except, perhaps, only for those who have not learned the Cyrillic alphabet -- something which the authors of this dictionary probably assume its readers have already done. The best Russian dictionaries I think are the Oxford hardcover editions, and, for American English speakers, such as myself, the dictionary by Kenneth Katzner. This dictionary though is very handy though when you need something more compact. Even better is the old (1980's) version of the Oxford Russian/English English/Russian Pocket Dictionary which is smaller and more comprehensive, but apparently out of print. There is a new version of Oxford Russian/English English/Russian Pocket Dictionary (available on Amazon) -- but it lacks the old version's genuine "pocket" size and the content is somewhat different (it was edited by different people).

Rating:
Summary: it will help alot
Review: i have to say that i bought this book for this girl who lives in omsk russia.i like the girl. she had some difficulty in expressing some things too me, and as crazy as this sounds, her english improved with help from this book. english and russian cyrillic is in the dictionary-for translation. very recommended for russian women (wives)who marry american men, etc.

Rating:
Summary: waste of money
Review: I married a russian woman and this book has helped us communicate a great deal. We don't go anywhere without one!

Rating:
Summary: A lot of words, so little time
Review: I married a russian woman and this book has helped us communicate a great deal. We don't go anywhere without one!

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Reference
Review: I never thought that I would give up using Smirnitsky's Russian-English or Mueller's English-Russian dictionaries; I relied on them for so long. But any more I find myself automatically reaching for my new Oxford when I need to look up a word! My wife does too, when she's looking for the right word in English. I recommend it highly if you regularly need a good Russian dictionary.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Reference
Review: I never thought that I would give up using Smirnitsky's Russian-English or Mueller's English-Russian dictionaries; I relied on them for so long. But any more I find myself automatically reaching for my new Oxford when I need to look up a word! My wife does too, when she's looking for the right word in English. I recommend it highly if you regularly need a good Russian dictionary.

Rating:
Summary: Must have resource for learning Russian.
Review: I thought that this dictionary was great for aiding in learning the Russian language. However, you can't rely on this dictionary alone to learn the language, it is meant to be a reference book.

For the cost of the book, it is a good value. I went elsewhere because I wanted the book right away and paid double the Amazon price (still not expensive, but I could have saved some money).

I would definitely take some time to work on learning the Cyrillic alphabet before diving into this dictionary head first. The pronouncation is going to be very difficult, so audio CDs or taking a class on Russian would definitely be a huge benefit.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent value
Review: I was disappointed that there is no guide to the pronounciation of the Russian words. My desktop English dictionary gives the phonetic spelling of English words. So why not a Russian-English dictionary that gives the phonetic spelling of the Russian words?