The Oxford Russian Dictionary: Russian-English English-Russian

by Della F. Thompson

Release Date: 29 October, 2002

Edition: Mass Market Paperback

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Excellent value

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).

waste of money

Yes, it was an inexpensive book, and now I know why! What a huge disappointment. If you don't already know how to speak/read Russian, then this is NOT the book to get. It literally just gives the English and Russian words, but no phonetics so you have no idea how to pronounce the word in Russian, rendering the book useless. I would return it for a refund, but postage would cost more than the book itself, so I'm stuck with it! Goodwill maybe?