Danish Dictionary: Danish-English, English-Danish (Routledge Reference)

Rating:
Summary: Danish side needs work
Review: I agree completely with the previous reviewer. Routledge has published in a relatively inexpensive format a dictionary originally published in Denmark. The only addition is a VERY inadequate section on Danish pronunciation and noun and verb inflection. The dictionary should have pronunciations for all the Danish headwords and grammatical information on plurals, irregular verbs, etc., at the headwords. This has the potential to be a great dictionary for English-speaking learners of Danish. As it is, assuming it's aimed at the English-speaking market, why did Routledge even bother? Very disappointing. Danish deserves better.

Rating:
Summary: Buy a Different One if You Can
Review: I'm in total agreement with the other two reviews. This dictionary has the vocabulary in place--but that's where a dictiorary's job should start. It's where the Routledge dictionary ends. Really necessary in a translation dictionary are the genders, plural forms, verb forms, good pronunciation keys, and idiomatic usages; even better are cross-referencing of cognates and "false friends," entries to help you understand nuances and etymology. This dictionary is sorely lacking in all these categories--most aggravating is the lack of plural forms, verb forms, and irregular forms in general. You can use this dictioary to read Danish, but you sure can't use it to help you write the language (not unless you want to write the Danish equivalent of "Me go store and buy two bits bread"). Routledge (I imagine) wouldn't have done this with an Italian or French dictionary: Danish is a small language and, with a cornered market, they did a cheap, slapdash job. Fortunately, there is a very good Danish-English Dictionary available. Unfortunately, it is published (as far as I can tell) only in Denmark. They're really good.

Rating:
Summary: Comprehensive -- but that's it.
Review: This is one of the more comprehensive Danish-English dictionaries I've seen (and it's better than the Hippocrene dictionary on that strength alone), but the fact is that it was made for Danish speakers learning English, and not English speakers learning Danish. As a result, some very basic features are missing: the plural form of Danish nouns and the pronunciation of Danish words. Without that information, this dictionary is fairly worthless.