Telugu-English/English-Telugu Dictionary & Phrasebook

This book is one of a kind. As someone who is fluent in speaking Telugu, but just learning how to read and write it, I found this book exceptionally helpful. It not only refreshed a lot of my knowledge, but it also taught me details that help me better understand how to speak, read, and write Telugu. Dr. Collooru starts off with an Introduction to the language and grammar, and then guides the reader through the Telugu alphabet, with English words and pronunciations as reference. Throughout the book, she emphasizes easy and digestible ways of pronouncing Telugu words. She included sections on the basics of grammar, basic phrases, and a diverse array of practical applications for the language, from communicating at a pharmacy to ordering at a restaurant. I appreciated the thoughtful and handy sections throughout the book, like "You Might See at an ATM" (with both English and Telugu script of the most common words), as well as her detailed, comprehensive, and concise dictionaries—she included both a Telugu-English dictionary and an English-Telugu dictionary. In my opinion, this book is perfect for all Telugu learners, whether just starting to gain familiarity with the language or completely fluent.

I mostly like this book. The phrasebook part is quite large and quite good. The dictionary part is quite good, of course it is not like a large dictionary of Telugu would be, but it is OK. The English-Telugu part of the dictionary is OK. It has both the spelling in the Telugu alphabet and also each word is also in the Roman alphabet, which is great for those who have not learned the Telugu alphabet. The Telugu-English part is similar, the only complaint can be that the Telugu words are written alphabetically according to the Telugu alphabet, so if you do not know the alphabetical order of Telugu, then you will have trouble finding a Telugu word when you hear it. But the alphabetical order of Telugu is easy to learn. I know it well, even though I have not learned to read in the Telugu alphabet. You can see the order of the alphabet close to the beginning of the book. The order is similar like in most other alphabets of India, for example in Hindi, which is the most important of the indigenous languages of India. There is a brief Telugu grammar in the book, which could be good enough for at least some general needs, though the case endings of Telugu nouns are not given, and while an example of the three main tenses is given, there is no information on how to form the tenses of the verbs. The information of how to pronounce the consonants is somewhat simplified, and sometimes not accurate. For example the ph consonant is not pronounced like English f, it is a strongly aspirated p. So it is really more similar to English p than English f. One problem is that some speakers of Telugu cannot pronounce the English f, so they use ph instead when trying to speak English. And similarly the th consonant is not like English th in thumb, it is a strongly aspirated dental t. And likewise the d consonant is not like th in English thus, it is somewhat different, it is a dental d, so different from English d, which is alveolar, but it is very similar to d in languages like French, Italian, Polish, and some other languages in Europe, which have the same dental d. But the pronunciation given is because speakers of Telugu have similar problems in pronouncing the alveolar consonants of English, so they put there the wrong consonant sounds when they cannot speak English well. But otherwise the description of the consonants using similar English consonants is not very wrong, of course it is simpler than using technical linguistic description of the consonants, which would be unfamiliar to most speakers of English, even though it is familiar to me, since I am a linguist. So it is not too bad for speakers of English who are not familiar with the technical linguistic terminology for describing the consonants. The pronunciation of the vowels is described fine using the closest English vowels. So It is a good book for what I want, and good enough for most speakers of English.

There is an absolute paucity of materials available for English speakers learning Telugu, but this book i the most useful print resource I've come across. Some translations are overly-literal, but the book is simple, consistent, well-edited. I wish the author wrote a Telugu textbook, too.

It was little disappointing. I expected a bigger volume with more comprehensive list.

I'm brand new to learning Telugu. A few native Telugu speakers had taught me a few words, but that was about it. I think this book would be very helpful if it had an audio tape to go along with it, but trying to figure out the pronunciation just from this book is a little hard. Also, in an attempt to indicate the pronunciation, the words are all in lowercase except the syllables where the emphasis is. So "friend" is written as "snEhituDu" which tells you where the emphasis goes... but looks a little confusing if you're trying to learn how the words are spelled. I probably just need to re-write the word all in lowercase beside it so I can look at that once I've figured out the pronunciation. I really haven't had much chance to look at anything yet besides the English to Telugu dictionary section, but the first of the book seems to be an explanation of grammar (pages 1-15). After that is the Telugu to English dictionary (pages 17-78), which I haven't found helpful because it's arranged according to the Telugu alphabet rather than in the ABC order of the English alphabet. So if I hear a word and want to know what it means, I would have to look through all the sections since I don't know where to find the letter it starts with, and then once I find that section I have to look through the whole thing because there might be words that start with adh right next to ones that start with apu and then the very next word starts with ame (so it's out of alphabetical order according to English). Then the English to Telugu section is pages 79-143. The remaining pages (145-286) are a "phrasebook" section, which I'm very interested in because it seems to have some very helpful phrases. They are arranged according to subject, like "hotel" or "banking" or "dining out." The last few pages of that section are about times and dates, so I think all of that will be helpful. So I think I just need to take some time to really look through the book instead of just picking it up and trying to find specific words at random moments. I'm very glad they made this book, because it's hard to find stuff on learning Telugu!

I sent it to a friend of mine who is learning this language and she loves it!

Many good options are available. This book does serve its purpose but it is not for someone who wants to learn the language. It is for someone who wants to teach the language. I wish it was little simple

A learning curve with this book. I expected a more comprehensive guide. I expected education into how to break down words and use them correctly. I'm a little disappointed but hopefully it will help in understanding my friend.

Simple, complet. the phonetic telugu is usefull for me, foreigner. Very good purchase

This book is just what I needed. There is a dearth of material to learn Telegu through English unless you are in Telangana or Andhra Pradesh. This has phonetic transcriptions-literation in the dictionary and suddenly my comprehension is looking up. Strongly suggest this book to any student of Telegu who is learning through English.

Great dictionary and phrase book. I found it helpful to me.