Dictionary

[ugly-boy.livejournal.com]

Sorry I post so much... But I'm going to get some money soon and I want a really good English-Russian/Russian-English dictionary. One with technical terms, slang, rare words, etc. I know I'm a beginner, but I hate chintzy little beginner's dictionaries. Also, it has to use Cyrillic, I can read it quite fluently, though it takes me awhile, and I don't want to depend on romanization (plus there are no romanization schemes that I really like =/). One more thing: a dictionary with a nice description of Russian alphabetic order and also basic grammar (syntax, other basic things like this) would be helpful. The number 1 thing that I want is a lot of words with detailed, practical definitiosn/translations, but the numbner two thing is a good grammar description.

Comments

[linearb.livejournal.com]

I've got the two big Oxfords. Russian-English (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0198641540/) and English-Russian (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0198641680/). Both are out of print. However, I'm pretty sure that the The Oxford Russian Dictionary: Russian-English, English-Russian (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0198601603/) is the previous two, bound into one volume. This was the one recommended by all the russian faculty at the University of Texas.

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[ugly-boy.livejournal.com]

Hmmm... Those all got pretty mixed reviews. I'll keep them in mind, though.

[linearb.livejournal.com]

If you find something better, let me know.

By the way, if I remember correctly, you read french? The larousse Saturne Francais-Russe Russe-Francais is a great midsize dictionary. Never forget to leverage your knowledge of other languages!

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[ugly-boy.livejournal.com]

Oh no, mon français est horrible! Thanks, anyway, though!

[sekhet.livejournal.com]

My favorite is the Katzner. The smaller oxford is simply trash if you're reading anything of any sophistication, and the larger oxford, in two volumes, is unwieldy and, in my opinion, not as good as the Katzner.

I can't remember if there's any grammar discussion in it. Frankly, I cannot imagine that the cursory grammar that would fit into a dictionary would be of much use to you, especially as a beginner.

The standard grammar reference I would suggest is Terence Wade's Comprehensive Russian Grammar. It may be a little more detailed than you need at this stage, but as far as Russian grammars written in English, it's the gold standard.

A supplementary book that I've found useful is Derek Offord's Using Russian: A Guide to Contemporary Usage. As the name suggests, it's less a grammar and more a handbook on usage, particularly useful for moving beyond the stage where you can construct sentences that are "grammatically correct" and into the stage where they're in Russian, syntactically and stylistically correct.

Daum and Schenk's Handbook of Russian Verbs is a good resource for conjugation. Frank Miller's A Handbook of Russian Verbs is a good text for figuring out the distinctions between similar verbs, and understanding correct usage.

Actually, the book that you might find most useful is Leed and Paperno's 5000 Russian Words: With All their Inflected Forms and Other Grammatical Information: A Russian-English Dictionary with an English-Russian Word List. That will give you the most commonly used basic Russian words with all the pertinent grammar. That's probably the best starting place for you, since, if I recall correctly, you're teaching yourself.

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[ugly-boy.livejournal.com]

WOW! Thank you. That's very helpful, the Leed and Paperno's 5000 Russian Words... book sounds very helpful.

[flinter.livejournal.com]

http://lingvo.yandex.ru

the best online dictionary

Яndex

[ugly-boy.livejournal.com]

I use the яndex translator (http://www.lingvo.yandex.ru) rather frequently, but it has two main flaws:

1. The first is more my flaw, really: I don't know enough Russian to read most of the entries and come up the best word of the choices it gives.
   
2. I need a print dictionary, for non-online work.
   

But, I still think that Яndex is pretty great (I even link to it on my userinfo!) and it has been helpful to me.

One question: Is there an Russian -> English translation feature on there? How do I access it?