Rating: Summary: I looked at this book in the store.... Review: ... and promptly thought `who thought it was a good idea to leave out the niqud [vowel points]?' Transliteration is all very nice, but learning proper pronunciation is impossible without the niqud. My advice is, learn the alef-bet and get a decent dictionary.
Rating: Summary: The Most Valuable Study Aid In My Hebrew Library Review: As I have studied Hebrew the last three years, I have found Webster's NewWorld Hebrew Dictionary to be the most valuable tool amongst my texts, tapes, and teachers! If you're studying Hebrew, don't be without this dictionary...it's incredible!
Rating: Summary: Basically good info, but poisoned by the tranliteration Review: Everyone has noticed the problem: transliteration can be too confusing. Someone else made the excellent recommendation: learn the alef-bet (and the pointing system.) Then get a real dictionary.
Rating: Summary: Truly an Excellent Addition Review: Having shopped just about every bookstore on the West Coast and purchased several other Hebrew/ English dictionaries, and several on learning Hebrew, I can -- contrary to some reviewers -- recommend this book strongly. Nothing else comes close in the ease of use, clear print, grammer, and pronunciation guides. There is no other book I have seen which comes close to being as useful, a fact the other reviewers fail to note. Perhaps that's a sad statement on the lack of popularity of learning Hebrew for adult readers, but it's true. I do agree, however, that you need other books to learn Hebrew. A dictionary is not the best choice for that. Despite the other negative reviews, in my opinion this is a very good dictionary, and have no trouble in recommending it as your first choice amongst Hebrew/ English dictionaries.
Rating: Summary: Good for novices Review: I agree with Alexis. The good point (why it has two rather than one star) is that the font is large. A plus for someone like me who misplaces his glasses. WNWHD features the main word entry in transliteration, not actual Hebrew script. But although transliterations are just fine there are two big problems. First, transliterations can be non-standard and confusing---they should have used an symbol for symbol of every consonant and vowel-point as most of us use in biblical Hebrew. But worse than this, and second, is that when reading Hebrew you will be seeing either consonants (as in most modern Hebrew publications) or vocalized (i.e., with vowel-point/niqqudim) and that's what you'll want to look up in a dictionary. You want to be assured by seeing the direct correspondence between the word you are reading and the one you look up. For some beginners, this means do all the funny symbols look exactly the same in both?? But in this dictionary you have to know how the word sounds, then compare to their transliteration, and only then do you see the actual Hebrew characters. This seems unnecessary and convoluted. After some practice you can "get the thing to work." But the approach may be revolutionary to some, but bass ackwards to me. ;-)
Rating: Summary: not very useful Review: I found this dictionary to be of no use in my learning Hebrew. I was attracted to this dictionary because the format and fontsize suggested that my eyes would not suffer the fate of the old Persian miniature painters while using it. However, its primary (and critical) failing is that if you are trying to translate a Hebrew word whose pronunciation is unknown to you, you are really out of luck. You have to guess at several different transliterations; this can be a very lengthy chore, sometimes without reward. If your only need is to translate from English to Hebrew, this is indeed a very nice dictionary. But if you need to translate words in Hebrew to English, get another dictionary.
Rating: Summary: Not usefull at all. Review: I presumed, that I would be able to find thousands verbs that start from lee... (infinitive), but found just no more then 50-60. I was unable to find such words, like "leerdof", "leez'of", "leez'om", and hundred others. I was able to find "leerdof" only from another part of book, when I was looking for tranlsation of english word "follow". I believe this book is very unusefull for anyone.
Rating: Summary: Helpful for beginners, but you can do better! Review: I presumed, that I would be able to find thousands verbs that start from lee... (infinitive), but found just no more then 50-60. I was unable to find such words, like "leerdof", "leez'of", "leez'om", and hundred others. I was able to find "leerdof" only from another part of book, when I was looking for tranlsation of english word "follow". I believe this book is very unusefull for anyone.
Rating: Summary: Useless for beginners Review: OK, so you see an (unpointed) word in a newspaper and you want to look it up in this dictionary. You have to know how it is pronounced to find it quickly. Otherwise you slog through different sections. "Let's see, is that first syllable 'lo', or 'lee', or 'la'... Never mind. Buy a pointed dictionary and skip this one unless you already know the language
Rating: Summary: Helpful for beginners, but you can do better! Review: This dictionary disintegrates almost from day one. Because of its thickness, the pages soon separate from the spine, necessitating the use of rubberbands to hold it together. Although this book was helpful to me when I first began my Hebrew studies, I should have taken a few minutes to learn the Hebrew vowel pointings (nikud marks) and then purchase a regular Hebrew dictionary rather than a transliterated type. I have the Alcalay dictionary, and I love it. It is FAR more useful than this paperback dictionary. Advice: Go with the Alcalay, if you can find one (out of print right now!).
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