Customer Reviews (1)

Pour Tante Gilberte
Who would of thought that someone would have the patience to analyse the oddities and differences between French and English Cliche's?I have been using my book to help me learn French and it nuiances.Merci BeaucoupTante!I will treasure it forever, as did Frederic! ... Read more

Product Description
Book is an illustrated translating dictionary for children who are native Italian speakers learning English. ... Read more

Product Description
Speak and write perfect English!
• BBI teaches you how to combine words with words to form phrases (so you can say “
mortgaged to the hilt; I want something badly”). • BBI also teaches you how to combine words into structures to form clauses and sentences (so you can say “I
want you to go = What I want is for you to go”). • So BBI helps you with both vocabulary and grammar.
• BBI shows you important vocabulary and grammatical differences between American and British English.
• BBI gives you plenty of examples that can serve as models for your own use of English.
• Some of these examples are authentic quotations from works of American and British literature.


This Third Edition of the BBI Combinatory Dictionary of English is an expanded and updated version of the First Edition (1986) and its Revised Edition (1997), both of which were favorably received. In this third edition, the contents of the BBI have been increased by over 20%.
In the selection and presentation of new material, many sources have been used, including:
• Internet searches;
• The British National Corpus;
• Reading and listening to English-language material;
• For Grammatical Patterns:
A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language (Randolph Quirck et al.); • For Collocations: Lists of Lexical Functions (compiled by Igor Mel’cuk et al.).


The BBI has been “highly recommended” by the English-Speaking Union.
Using the BBI: A workbook with exercises is now available online at:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/z.bbi.workbook ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Excellent for laying to rest those niggling doubts
Even native speakers of English need a little help sometimes and this book helps settle any questions regarding troublesome prepositions, especially if you work between different languages and sometimes get confused.

a must-have book for all English learners
When I first knew of the existence of this book, I wondered: why, there should be such a dictionary in every language! And, yet, how come I didn't even once think of searching for that kind of dictionary in English?? I should have known of it much earlier!

English is my second language, and even though I belong to the cateogry of "advanced" learner, I still have difficulty, for instance, in locating the right preposition or adverb that go with certain verbs or adjectives. For example, the very subtle difference in meaning between "be familiar to vs. be familar with" is a very difficult one for a non-native English speaker like me to grasp. The BBI dictionary of English Word Combinations aims to address problems unique to ESL learners, including the one I just mentioned. Keep it handy, and it will let you command more accurate & "real" English.

An excellent tool for translators
This is an extraordinary tool for translators into English. It is a dictionary of collocations, and provides information that is hard to find in otherdictionaries. It helps you find thatelusive word that goes with another, andanswers many questions about whichpreposition to use.

When you forget your prepositions...
The BBI Dictionary of English Word Combinations is useful for the ESL student, but also for professional translators. Translators are often "in the zone," between both the source and target language andforget the simplest phrasal verbs. I've found this book helpful in sweepingup those messy pronouns that betrayed the original source language of mytranslation. Praise to the authors. They would have gotten 5 stars if therewas more emphasis on modern use of the word combinations. The ESL readerstill won't know what it means "to come out" (as in announcing asexual preference or a hidden attribute) by consulting this book. But, Iknow, writing a dictionary is like sweeping the beach!

Very helpful Dictionary for International Students
I have studied English as Second Language for a long time. Personally reading is easier than writing because my country's education system emphasizes reading and I didn't have many opportunities to practicewriting. It is always confusing to me to decide what idiom and wordcombination are correct. I took ESL classes for 2 semesters at CommunityCollege in Michigan. At that time, I only depended on LongMan Dictionary.However, while writing my homework, I felt my dictionary was not enough tosupport my poor English skill. In writing class, my instructor recommendedthis dictionary. I bought it. I am using it effectively.If you feelsomething is missing in your dictionary, I strongly recommend thisdictionary for supplement. ... Read more

Product Description
The grammar, syntax, and technical vocabulary of classical Tibetan used in Buddhist works. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

Unbalanced but necessary - there simply aren't any other options
I have very mixed feelings about this book, but feel compelled to give it 4 stars nonetheless. Why? Because what you can get here, you simply can't get anywhere else. The only other decent introduction to Classical Tibetan that exists (so far as I know) is that by Stephen Hodge, and it is much smaller and will simply not give you the depth of grammatical knowledge of vocabulary that this book can. Some reviewers have complained about the "Tenglish" approach, but I can't really think of any other way to present Tibetan grammar in a comprehensible way. Goldstein does the same thing, though less explicitly, in his "Essentials of Modern Literary Tibetan" (in all the transliterations) and it works for me.

Another reviewer commented that the book is overly pedantic in its detailed explanations and grammatical quibbling - well, what does one expect from a 700-page tome on archaic (more or less) philosophical grammar and vocabulary? You didn't think Classical Tibetan was going to be a walk in the park did you? In any case you can simply skip over the details when Wilson gets a little too in depth.

The major problem with this book as I see it is that it is fairly unbalanced. Meaning, in the first 7 chapters or so there are essentially no sentence/vocabulary exercises, leaving you to somehow (by rote, was my method) memorize some 150-200 terms that are introduced (and not easy ones - 'non-associated compositional factors' comes up, e.g.). This improves though, with quite a few exercises in the later chapters. This added context and required practice/effort really helps you to memorize the vocab and understand the grammar better. Presumably these were left out of early chapters so as not to discourage the student or to make it easier, but instead it just means you have lots to memorize without much contextual help - a big mistake, in my opinion.

Which leaves me at the final point, which is that this is a necessary book, I think, for anyone interested in Classical Tibetan. The field is simply too small. The only other 'intro' level books really are Craig Preston's "How to Read Classical Tibetan" series (two volumes so far, hopefully more to come), but these really aren't introductions. They presuppose thorough knowledge of how to read Tibetan and an understanding of its grammar, as well a fair vocabulary. He was also a student of Wilson's, so all his terminology and explanations etc. follow Wilson's style and terms.

In short: yes there are problems, sometimes it is a bore and overly pedantic, there are not nearly enough exercises for a self-learned... but you need this book if you want to learn Classical Tibetan. So get it and wade through it - it is worth it.

Extremely helpful for older students
This book has been a superb aid in learning Tibetan for me.I started learning Tibetan last year at age 48 with Lama David Curtis and Joe Wilson's book (especially the "Tenglish") has been a wonderful support.It really works for me.

A very useful book
I began my studies of Tibetan in late Oct 2009.It was difficult to choose a place to start.The book I found most useful for learning the "alphabet" was the Tibetan Language Pre-Primer by Cathy Kielsmeier.It is a very difficult language due to the fact that you as the student are going back to the very beginning of your language learning (think Kindergarten - and at least then you had some concepts of vocabulary and speech).I soon realized that it was best to have no expectations.I've spent at least 15-30 minutes every day even if it has felt like no progress was happening.It is about exposure.Without this initial step-by-step method to learn the letters, Joe Wilson's book would have seemed impossible.

I settled on Joe Wilson's text next after buying Craig Preston's How to Read Classical Tibetan (due to reading the reviews of both).Craig Preston is quite clear in his book's introduction that you should start with Joe Wilson's text and I would agree.I've now worked through the first two sections (13 chapters) of Translating Buddhism from Tibetan.In his first section Wilson takes you through all the methods of combining the letters into words and how the rules apply for pronunciation.In the second section, you begin to work with grammar.

In every chapter there is vocabulary (Buddhist dominant) and a section discussing Buddhist concepts.As a beginner to the world of Buddhism (about 18 months of study), I've found these explanations very helpful.I personally have found learning and seeing the words in Tibetan and having the real translations of these words discussed very helpful to my knowledge of Buddhism.His text is full of references to other sources should you wish to explore that as an option.

Have I made much progress? - YES - I can speak the sounds of what I see written in Tibetan in front of me if I refer to my notes.Do I know a few words? - YES - about 75 to 100 words.Am I now reading a few prayers and poetry? - YES.Overall have I made even a dent in what I need to know to read texts or speak the language? - NO.I keep reminding myself it's about exposure and patience.

There is an improvement that could be made to this book and that is for someone to create a workbook to go with it.After each lesson, there may be only 5 sentences to translate.It is not enough to have practice and to get it to stick.

In each chapter I generally felt I was in way over my head but pressed on anyway and now looking back to the earlier chapters I find that I have actually learned something along the way.I have decided to stop at this point in this book and am waiting for Fluent Tibetan to arrive.I feel that I need to hear the words within the context of colloquial use and focus on that for a bit.We all have different learning styles and it is important to explore that option.

For those who are reading these reviews to get an idea where to start, I will also mention that I did order David Curtis's level 1 materials in the beginning.I didn't get the video and his book and tape alone were not enough to begin to move forward in the language for me.I am now reviewing it again and am finding the 150 vocabulary words that he presents as a good place to start for me with trying to build a vocabulary.

For those who wish to go to the language source of Tibetan Buddhism and explore learning the language and thought of the Tibetans, Joe Wilson's book Translating Buddhism from Tibetan is a very good addition to your library of learning Tibetan materials.

Poor
Note that other reviews are from about 10 years ago.
This book is extremely dated... the fonts themselves are Pierre Roubillard's old (very crude) font set.
The grammar is accurate enough, but very ponderous. Here is not a translator, but an academic, pedantic scholar. If you merely enjoy the "fun" of intellectual scholarship and mental nit-picking, this is for you.
If you really want to read or speak Tibetan, then Tournadre and others are appropriate. Actually, it is quite shameful that they are charging $50 and the book has not been updated in 15 years. Is this laziness or arrogance?

great book if you really want to lean tibetan...
Hi guys, well i've been living in Nepal for the last 4 years and i can tell you that learning tibetan (and by this i mean really know it) its really hard, but i found that wilson's book is actually great not only coz it does work but also coz it provides you with the tools to do it... its the best next thing just after learning tibetan from tibetan grammarians

so what i would suggest is...
get wilson's book, then if you are completely new go through the whole book, coz it provides basic concept on Buddhism and lots of vocab (all really useful)... if you are a bit more experience then learn by heart apendixes 4 and 5 which deals with verbs, and clases which are a primordial part of tibetan (but for some reason some "serious" books dont even mention them... oh by the way tibetans do study tibetan talking about cases)...then move on to...

Craig preston's how to read classical tibetan... which if you don't know by heart appendix 4 n 5 is rather useless... but otherwise excellent to show how to make the complex sentences (pages long at times) into short and readable clauses or sentences... besides it also completes wilsons lack of talk or not wanting to talk about transitive and intransitive verbs (which they also exist in tibetan and are of great importance when trying to get across the right meaning)

last but not least... in my experience there have been tons of mistranslations all over the place even by "famous" translators... thats why i recommend Tony Duff's excellent Illuminator dictionary...

until the day that someone explains tibetan grammar the way tibetan study it and understand it these are the tools for anyone who is serious about learning tibetan, and when the time is right go and get teachings on tibetan from a tibetan grammarian... then the whole world is open to you... once again i think these are the best for whats outer but once you see the real thing you wont go back... ... Read more

Product Description
700 pages with 10,000 entries, this unique dictionary simplifies the complex hip-hop slang vernacular. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

good sources
Purchased this for a young man who enjoyed the book.He loved it, said it was well done.

Street Talk
I was delighted with the book and the bargain price but the shipping was very slow.

useful
Street talk is an excellent reference book for street slang and "urban speak" The one fault I have the way the book was put together is the lack of a glossary of everyday words with a page number to find the slang.
The slang is arranged A-Z with example sentences. Which is useful but if you wanted a slang word for a specific term, say "Jail" you have to search the entire book to find it. I do recomend the book. It is useful, funny in places, and quite unusual.

No desk reference set should be without it...
On the shelf below my Microsoft's MFC Library Reference Volumes I and II, various Resource Kits, and such, right between my Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language and my Roget's International Thesaurus now resides Street Talk.Considering linguistics, we've all been victims of our own ignorance.A parent or guardian, a teacher, a trusted friend, might point out that the weather has no bearing on whether or not you should go clean your room, that while you can go out and play, this does not guarantee that you may go out and play.As we grow, we sometimes discover we've derived the wrong definition by context.So early on we learn, when in doubt, to look it up.

Yet one day we find ourselves disembarking the number seven train at Grand Army Plaza and reading that "Crack is Whack", or we hear in a song on the radio that "The club is full of ballers with their pockets full grown", or our child returns from school pleased with himself because the general consensus is that his rapping skills are "crackin'" and that some of his friends did try to "bite" him and failed horribly.We ask ourselves if the author of this social commentary was in favor of or opposed to crack?Is the club full of baseball, basketball, or football players?Are they laughing at our child? In a good way or in a bad way? And has physical violence come in to play?Has our child been fighting, albeit in self-defense?We find we have some questions.

Along comes Randy Kearse, filling the reference void.We read on page 607 that when something is whack it is poor in performance or not cool, thus the message sprawled over the century old mosaic tile work is in fact a heartfelt endorsement of social reform.On page 36 we learn that a baller is one who makes and spends large amounts of money; we may then conclude that one with pockets full grown has this large amount of money on hand and that our singers should have a splendid time this evening.On page 128, to our parental relief, dismissing our errant assumption that his friends are cracking up laughing at him, we understand crackin' - an event or place filled with excitement and energy, or is hip or happening.It is, after all, important to a young teen to be held in high regard by his peers.Further, on page 53 we read byte - to copy or imitate.It is a widely accepted fact that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.We conclude that our child is navigating the road to adulthood with at least some measure of social success.

If you wish to better understand your local graffiti artist, or the little bit of music they squeeze in there between all the talk and the commercials, or your child who is enduring every growing pain you've ever experienced, yet, somehow differently, then I recommend Street Talk by Randy Kearse.

Here's Da Scoop on Moe Deezy's Book
I, and dozens of teens in the community with whom I volunteer, love this book.It makes a great ice-breaker, and a great resource for folks who work in communities where slanguage is frequently used.It is almost 700 pages in length, with what appears to be perhaps a 1000 entries.The entries not only provide a definition of each word or term, but also it's history (old school vs. new school, etc.) and examples of how the words might be used.Just leave it sitting around where teens hangout, and see what happens (they may read together, laugh together, critique and analyze the entries together).The book has a scholarly yet humorous appeal to it.I am a college professor myself, and my college students also seem to like this book.I think it has widespread potential for a broad range of audiences. It has turned out to be a treasure.It would make a nice gift for mature teens, parents, educators, social workers, nurses, business people, clergy, and politicians. Caution: it may not be suitable for pre-adolescent children because of some of the mature themes. I would love to see Randy "Moe Deezy" also author a Thesaurus along this line.I'm done.Now let me translate what I just said using entries from the book:Okay, here's da scoop (p. 485).Good googily moogily, this book is off the chain! (pp. 240 &396).I'm really clickin' with this book, and da shorties in my hood love this book too (pp. 115, 499, & 275). It's worth da cheese (p. 107).It handles business on the one hand, and makes you crack up at times as well (pp. 251 & 128). I also have to school shorties in college, and they dig the book too (pp. 484, 499, & 143).It's a tightly done book, and will interest everyone from the homies to the new jacks (pp. 578, 274 & 387). It's a wrap, peace out! (pp. 311& 418). ... Read more

Product Description
The main aim of this book is to help everyone who needs to understand Chinese at the basic level necessary for survival.

The book itself is divided into several parts. In the beginning you will find the Overview of Chinese characters and their pronunciation. Afterwards it is followed by 25 mini-lessons which contain the basic phrases both in Chinese and English. Every lesson also contains one or more pictures where the usage of a phrase is shown.

Vocabulary and Glossary are at the end of this book.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

An Invaluable Tool!
I bought this handy little book for a 3 week trip to Spain and was very glad that I did. While I had friends and family tell me it wouldn't be worth it, as we would only be in the country for a short time, I felt it I received value for it. And I have already been able to pass it along to others.

This little guide is small enough to fit into a purse, pocket, or backpack. It is organized clearly, but it does help to familarize onself with the various categories before actually using it. I found it to be accurate and was able to find everything on a typical Spanish menu within this guide - and we were in some "off the beaten path" places! While we are a bit adventurous in our dining experiences, it is always nice to know what it is that will be arriving on one's plate, and this truly helped. As well as guided our decisions, especially for food allergies.

If unsure about Spanish restaurants and menus, even in the short term, I would buy this guide and use it. It truly does help.

One of the best books for visiting Spain
When my husband and I were transferred to Spain we knew some Spanish, but the names of dishes and how they were prepared alluded us. Without this book we would have been completely lost that first year. We ended up trying more new things because this book had such trustworthy translations, more often than not a rarity in many travel guides. We highly recommend this book to everyone travelling to Spain.

A must-have for travel in Spanish speaking countries.
Well-organized and easy to use.If you do not speak Spanish, you MUST have this.This small book is worth its weight in gold.Translates dozens of variations of foods in short, descriptive terms.I got what I orderedEVERYtime, thanks to this book. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Must have for anyone trying to learn Russian
I highly recommend this book for beginners just starting to learn Russian, and also as a reference for students who want a review of the basics of the Russian language. ... Read more

Product Description
The Concise New Partridge presents, for the first time, all the slang terms from The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English in a single volume.

With over 60,000 entries from around the English-speaking world, the Concise gives you the language of beats, hipsters, Teddy Boys, mods and rockers, hippies, pimps, druggies, whores, punks, skinheads, ravers, surfers, Valley girls, dudes, pill-popping truck drivers, hackers, rappers and more.

The Concise New Partridge is a spectacular resource infused with humor and learning - it's rude, it's delightful and it's a prize for anyone with a love of language. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Andrew Jameson reviews Isidore Geld
This is a specialist book for translators from Russian to English. It has examples from scientific texts, but the information contained is equally valid for informational and academic texts of all types. Most interesting are the General Omission Rules on pages 156-157 which lay out some general principles. The argument put forward by the author is that the structure of Russian academic discourse is such that, in order to carry the discourse forward, Russian inserts more "dummy" words and process words than is usual in English. With a little training, translators can learn to distinguish these words with confidence and eliminate them without losing the sense of the translation in English.

This is what Russian-English translators need
Isidore Geld's "Dictionary of Omissions for Russian Translators" is a MUST for every RU-EN translator, be he/she either a seasoned professional or a newbee. The dictionary, though having some drawbacks (misspellings, and the cross-references could have been better organized), is still a very valuable tool because it opens the eyes of the translator to one truth: never believe that you know everything, because there is a lot you don't know, so learning must be continuous. In summarizing, its a pity that I didn't have this dictionary on my desk 10 years ago. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more