Czech English by Nina Trnka, 0870529811, Lowest Book Price Finder

Customer Reviews:

For some a necessary evil

I have been living in Prague for two and a half years and in this time I have been (very) slowly teaching myself Czech.

It is true that in the Czech Republic you will find concise dictionaries that are better in just about every department, but unfortunately they are aimed at Czech's learning English and so they are missing two features that this dictionary (just about) has:

1) A guide to pronouncing the Czech alphabet.

2) The sex of the nouns (for the record there is three: male, female and neuter).

The second point is only important when you start to learn the grammar, which unless you were intending to live in the Czech republic I would advise you to avoid, as (I have been repeatedly advised) it makes Latin grammar look easy. However, if you want to learn Czech grammar you need to know the sexes of nouns.

So if you were going on a short business trip or vacation to Prague I would advise that you wait and buy a concise dictionary from one of the bookshops there. However:

1) If you aren't visiting Prague straight away, but are instead visiting rural areas first (where not so many Czechs speak English and bookshops are thin on the ground) then I would recommend that you buy this book.

2) If you want to move beyond barbarian Czech and learn the grammar, and you want a dictionary to carry around with you, then this is a must for finding out the sex of those nouns.

I'm giving this book five stars as unfortunately for many it will remain a necessary evil, but with reservations.

NOT a good resource!

I purchased this dictionary years ago just prior to relocating to Prague. It was one of the few such dictionaries available at the time for English-speaking Czech language students. I found the book to be woefully inadequate in the number of words, examples of usage, and grammar points given for each entry. I have a rather large collection of dictionaries now in both the Czech and Russian languages and Trnka's book was one of the worst I'd ever seen. I ultimately disposed of the book. In fact, most Hippocrene language books I've seen in bookstores are of very poor quality. As a linguist, I would never recommend them. One would be much better off purchasing Czech published dictionaries as I eventually was able to do.

Nina Trnka dictionary is very handy for travellers

Some of the people who wrote a review for this dictionary and gave it one star have no idea what they're talking about. This dictionary was created for travellers to use while they were trying to bus or backpack their way through the Czech Republic and wasn't intended for use in an intensive Czech language study. You people make this out to be the worst dictionary ever written. You are mistaken. I personally used this dictionary on my recent trip to Moravia and found it very helpful for travellers, so you "so called" Czech dictionary experts should consider what this dictionary was intended for before you go slamming it and giving it only one star.

Lacks important words, sometimes poorly translated

This is such a bad dictionary I am surprised it is still being bought. Many essential words are lacking, and on more than one occassion have I faced an incorrect translation in this book. I have to agree with the other reviewer - buy a dictionary when you get to the Czech Republic. There are about seven or eight other concise English-Czech Czech-English dictionaries to choose from, and any of them are better than Hippocrene's.

This dictionary is poor as far as content goes.

If you really want a great Czech-English Dictionary you will have to go to the Czech Republic. I found that this particular dictionary did not have many useful words and that some of the information was inaccurate. Over in the Czech Republic they have a great pocket-sized dictionary that they sell in all book stores. Those are the better ones.

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