Dictionary of Spoken Russian: English - Russian, Russian - English

Washington, D. C.: War Department, 1945. — vi, 573 pages. — (War Department Technical Manual).The Dictionary of Spoken Russian differs somefwhat from the average dictionary, for it is a dictionary of words only secondarily. The basic unit of commimication is the phrase or sentence. These phrases and sentences, the fundamentals of language activity, are indexed by word entries. Some words are not illustrated by sentences; the word April, for instance, equating with апрель, needs no special illustration for anyone familiar with the basic patterns of the languages involved. On the other hand, words like do, make, or чем, быть require extensive illustration for any but native speakers.The vast majority of the illustrative sentences in the Dictionary of Spoken Russian are on the standard colloquial level; but some slang is involved, and some purely formal or "literary" expressions, if they are common in daily life, as in newspapers, documents, signs, and correspondence. Proverbs are included when they form part of everyday speech habits. Rare, archaic, precious, or provincial expressions are left out simply because there is no room for them in a dictionary of this scope. The Russian is the colloquial speech of Moscow or Leningrad, with D. M. Ushakov's Толковый словарь русского языка, Moscow, 1935-1940, as the basic authority. The English is general American colloquial. Usage in English and Russian was determined by a consensus of a large number of native speakers in both languages. A conscious attempt has been made not to be arbitrary in usage, and to be descriptive, not prescriptive. A dictionary of a spoken language must always catalog what is said, not what certain individuals think people should say.This dictionary has an English-Russian side consisting of four thousand common word entries, together with subentries (phrases and idioms) and illustrative sentences. The Russian English side consists of 7,700 word entries, with subentries and illustrative sentences. In addition, the dictionary contains a grammatical summary of Russian to which irregularly inflected Russian words are coded, and appendixes dealing with weights and measures, signs, proper names, foods, holidays, and so forth.English-Russian
Russian-English
Grammatical Introduction
Text
Appendixes
Gazetteer
Weights and Measures; Money
Territorial and Administrative Structure of the USSR
Glossary of Special Soviet Terms
Names of the Days and Months
National Holidays
Russian Foods
Military Ranks and Grades
Abbreviations
Important Signs
Given Names
Numerals