Product Description

This dictionary gives a unique and invaluable description of today's Welsh, illustrated by examples drawn from a wide range of contemporary sources. It will be of interest and help to native Welsh speakers and to English speakers studying or working in Welsh.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #217300 in Books
• Published on: 2000-05-18
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 560 pages

Review
This is probably the most useful dictionary of modern Welsh available; although relatively small in size, it contains a wealth of information which the learner will find helpful and easy to use ... visually well produced. Forum for Modern Language Studies

From the Author
A new Welsh dictionary for a new millennium
This two-way dictionary has been designed and compiled with the needs of learners of Welsh at all levels particularly in mind. It comes with a range of revolutionary features and innovations to enhance its user-friendliness and accessibility: illustrative sentences and examples for many headwords; translation guidelines giving help in problem areas where Welsh and English usage differ; full grammatical information for all word categories - e.g. noun genders and plurals, unpredictable verb stems, comparison of adjectives, etc; detailed coverage of the system of mutations - what they are, where they are used, and how to spot them!; mutations marked typographically throughout; special usage and pronunciation notes for problematic headwords throughout; special page and half-page information boxes dealing in detail with major points of difficulty; a completely up-to-date wordbase - if you want to know what 'scratchcard' or 'ozone layer' are in Welsh, here's where to look! All these features, and many others, add up to an exciting new dictionary for a new Welsh millennium.

Customer Reviews

Essential tool for native-speakers, learners and the curious
This dictionary, like others in the Oxford Pocket series, takes a fresh approach to setting out material specifically with a learner's interests in mind. Combine this with Gareth King's refreshing approach to presenting the spoken Welsh language in all its variety, as seen in his Colloquial Welsh book and Grammar of Modern Welsh grammar, and you have the first genuinely useful dictionary for learners and one that can teach native speakers a great deal about the language too. The boxes, on individual verbs and usage, for example, mean that those curious about Welsh can find out more than the bare essentials of its grammar from the dictionary. Highly recommended.

Good learner's book, but some surprising omissions.
This is a very good book for learners (like myself) with many examples of usage and idioms. However there are some notable omissions. The grammar section is an aide-memoire, not a textbook substitute.

A useful feature of most dictionaries is that every translated word offered in one direction should also appear in the other direction. Often, when you look up the suggested word, it has a meaning subtly different to what you had intended. This dictionary often offers a word in the English/Welsh section, which has no entry in the Welsh/English section.

For example, missing in the Welsh/English section are "amaeth (agriculture)" and "amaethwr (farmer)". Ffermwr (farmer) does appear in both sections, but amaethyddyaeth is given as a translation of agriculture, only appearing in the English/Welsh section.

This dictionary is very useful, but you will also need a more comprehensive dictionary to fill the gaps in this one's vocabulary.

Seems very good
I've just started learning Welsh, on my own, and I'm finding this dictionary very useful - not just for vocabulary, but also in helping me understand the way verbs work, tenses etc.

The only problem is, I've only had it a couple of weeks (if that), and already the crumby paperback binding is coming adrift and pages are beginning to come out. I've in no way abused the book and I'm certain every copy will be exactly the same - it's just that kind of half-hearted binding.

I'd recommend it for the content for complete beginners though - it seems to be helping me, and it's very clear. Shame Welsh seems so complicated! I will keep studying.