NTC's Bulgarian and English Dictionary

Rating:
Summary: Best English-Bulgarian Dictionary Available!
Review: I will be serving a two-year Christian mission in Bulgaria. My first language is English and I have been learning Bulgarian, a task that would be nearly impossible without a good English-Bulgarian dictionary. I have looked at all the dictionaries on the market and this one is by far the best. The following three paragraphs are responses to the review made by "phoenixwinged".

It is true that the Bulgarian-to-English portion of the dictionary does not contain pronunciations for each individual Bulgarian word, but that is because Bulgarian can be read phonetically! The Bulgarian pronunciation guide in the front of the book is all you need to know in order to pronounce the words correctly. Once you memorize the Cyrillic alphabet (which is quite easy) you will be able to correctly pronounce any Bulgarian word. English, on the other hand, is not always spelled phonetically (i.e. knife, psychology, tough, etc.). This is why the pronunciations are provided only in the English-to-Bulgarian portion of the dictionary.

Contrary to what "phoenixwinged" stated, the definitions in the Bulgarian section of the dictionary are in English and the definitions in the English section of the dictionary are in Bulgarian. It is possible that "phoenixwinged" has an older edition of the book in which all of the definitions are presented in Bulgarian, but that is not the case with this edition.

It would be unwise to purchase a phrasebook instead of this dictionary. A phrasebook may be a useful companion to this dictionary, but certainly not a replacement. I have a Bulgarian phrasebook and it has not helped me very much at all. If you are serious about learning Bulgarian you need a dictionary, and this one is the best available!

Rating:
Summary: Great for Bulgarians, slightly lacking for English speakers.
Review: My old Bulgarian to English/English to Bulgarian dictionary was past the stage of being dog-eared, so I ordered this one to give it a try. After using it for a few weeks, I find it a perfectly adequate practical dictionary. I'm Bulgarian-American, not a scholar, so I can't speak for every nuance, but the translations are sound.

What I do have to mention is that this is clearly a dictionary for Bulgarians repackaged to fit a wider user base. What this means is that there are no pronounciation guides in English for Bulgarian words, but there are pronounciation guides for English words in Bulgarian. As well, all word definitions are in Bulgarian, in both the Bulgarian to English and the English to Bulgarian sections of the book. This is fairly typical for Bulgarian/English dictionaries and does not make this book any more lacking than others on the market.

My point being is that if you're trying to learn Bulgarian for the first time for a brief trip or an occasion, you might do better with a travel dictionary or phrasebook. What I as a Bulgarian-American who knows the language might find quirky or quaint would be frustrating and confusing to someone looking at words for the first time.

They say never to buy phrasebooks, but in this case, if you fit the group above, you might rather have that instead.

On a side note, this book is bound extremely well and has a nice, durable cover. This one won't be getting dog-eared anytime soon!