Talking Thai <> English Dictionary+Phrasebook App Reviews

This app has been one of my favorites for the past three years. One might look at the price and think thats expensive but not so. This app does so much and costs so little for what it provides. It is a value packed app. The new upgrade provides phenomenal additions. I am so looking forward to using phrases and categories. Plus a place for favorites too! Now I be able to save words and phrases that I am studying and want to memorize. If you have a passion for the study of Thai you need to buy this app. If you are going to spend time in Thailand this is the one app you need to buy.

Having this app on my phone gives me confidence to interact with Thai people in Thai because I know I can turn to it to assist me with the meanings and spellings of Thai words that I dont know. I wish I had known about this app when I first started studying Thai. Once I found out about it and started integrating it into my study and practice of Thai, my rate of learning increased significantly. Without this app, I would not be able to do my Thai reading and writing homework as correctly or efficiently as I do now. I love it and all the new features. The price of this app is money well spent, completely and absolutely worth it.

I have been living in Thailand for nearly five years now and studying Central Thai and Isaan Thai language in the NE. I cant imagine having attempted to learn the language and wade through the extensive Thai vocabulary from day to day without this app. There is not a single day that passes wherein I do not turn to this dictionary multiple times, whether encountering new words, working on a language lesson, or preparing documents for my work. Anyone who seriously wants to learn Thai language should have this dictionary app at his/her side everyday. It is an amazing tool and has become a very essential friend to me as I continue to try to grow in my understanding of and proper use of the Thai language.

If you dont know a single word of Thai this app will get you through just about anything. The phrases that were added in the last update are invaluable. I can only imagine how useful this would be for a tourist. Its like having a translator with you. You can look things up and then let your phone speak Thai. You can have Thais speak to your phone and then read it in English. This is another invaluable tool because Thai is tonal and has many new sounds for English speakers that must be learned. I have lived in Thailand for 20 years and I am told that I speak very well but I will never reach 100%. Thai and English are too radically different, at least for me. Thai people tell me I am fluent but I use this app almost every month. Just browsing through ot I learn new words and new ways to express ideas. Only issue I have is that it does not have all the vocabulary that I need. But I do not come across this issue too often. Also the app lets you suggest any words that it does not have. Hopefully my suggestions will be included in the next update. The vocabulary that is lacking is almost always high level language that I need for discussing things with doctors, lawyers, having philosophical or religious discussions and things like that which a tourist or newcomer to the language would not need. It is worth so much more than the price that they charge. You will not be disappointed!

I have used this app for 4 or 5 years and thought it excellent. Now with V 2.0 there is no comparison between Paiboon and all the other Thai dictionaries!!

We absolutely loved this app for 6 years and depended on it living in Thailand...then they decided to improve it and it is lousy!!! I spend more time trying to figure it out and find it useless now.

Wonderful application; I remember the author of the app because she wrote two Thai teaching books that I bought 5 years ago. Anyways, this is a great app that does better than a dictionary and in fact attempts to teach the language rules, which is great! Really well designed, with excellent aesthetics. I cannot recommend this enough if one owns an ipad because this is a serious tool to learn Thai. No other reference gives (1) transliteration, (2) reference to word/language rule breakdown, (3) pronunciation in a single package for Thai. Price wise, its expensive for an app but consider the resource thats available to you; its empowering. Great job again, Benjawan.

I purchased the dictionary to use as a tourist intending to stay in Thailand on her own for two months. The greatest value lies in the critical personal words included such as toothbrush, toilet paper and help (noun and command). On an ipad the dictionary is visually and audibly clear and crisp. If a tourist were in difficulty, the dictionary can be produced and a Thai person can either listen to the word or see it on the screen. I would think that the dictionary is exceptionally useful to those who are actually learning the Thai language.

Have loaded many different Thai English dictionaries in the past 8 years, on the computer, talking dic devices, iPhone, books, etc. This app towers over them all. Why? Simply because every word (yes EVERY word) has a real spoken pronunciation by a native Thai speaker. Theres many other good features for example whether the word is polite, informal, rude, etc, detailed reasons why each syllable is pronounced the way it is,etc. Very, very pleased! Best app I ever purchased.

This is exactly what Ive been looking for. As someone who is a novice at reading Thai, it is absolutely crucial to have the spoken pronunciation for every word. On top of that, the pronunciations are read loudly, clearly, and slowly, making them extremely easy to understand and repeat. The ability to see all of the different fonts is also a godsend, to which any beginning Thai speaker trying to read signs/menus in Thailand can attest. On top of all that, it is extremely fast.I always find it quite frustrating trying to look up a word in mid-conversation or while listening to a lecture and having to wait for the application to search for it. This app finds the word as quickly as I can type it every time. In sum this app = A++ and is totally worth the $25 price tag.

This review relates to Version 1.4, though I started using it under the prior version. This is not an inexpensive app. That said, it is the most used app I have on my iPhone. I live in Thailand and am taking an intensive Thai language program at one of the universities in Chiang Mai. When I first began, the ability to enter English words to look up Thai words was very helpful. Since there is no standardized transliteration for Thai, it was sometimes difficult after class to remember the pronunciation of a Thai word or its corresponding tones. The ability to hear the word spoken by a native speaker allowed me to hear the word properly pronounced and therefore filled an essential need. I have now reached the point where I can read and write the Thai alphabet. The app still remains essential to my study both in class and when I am studying on my own. While I have the authors paper dictionary (two copies, actually), they basically stay on the shelf at home since I always have the iPhone app with me. Despite the price, I would definitely buy it again and I recommend it often to my fellow students that have iPhones. I am hoping they finally come out with a desktop version for the Mac. Unfortunately the desktop version the have now only works on Windows.

They thought of everything in this app. So many features its unbelievable!

I dont normally write reviews, but this app is a tool thats too good to pass up. The pronunciations are clear and accurate. This dictionary tells you what words are outdated, impolite, vulgar, proper, and more commonly used. You can search for words in English, Thai script, or Thai sound(English characters). There is a section that goes over tones. Youre also given a link to a website that records your voice for practice. The help section has a lot of information on things like the Thai alphabet and introductory words. Good luck with your new language. I hope this review helps. ลูกครึ่ง

Ive never written a review before, but felt obligated to do so now. Just spent 3 hours with this thing, and is remarkable. I havent even touched all that is there yet. Ive bought several well known Thai language books over the years, even one with CD attached, but this takes the cake! $25 might seem like a lot, but I figure will come out to a cost factor of pennies per hour of usage. Having been there many times, I can tell you that spoken word is true to what is actually spoken on the street. But also gives you formal alternatives, if needed. "You get what you pay for" is certainly a fact with this app. My hats off to the developer! Good Job.

This is a wonderful program, which provides huge amounts of information in a very well-organized format. If youre using the Benjawan Poomsan Becker books for learning Thai its especially wonderful, because its default romanization system is that of the Becker books. But, not to worry -- you can switch to something like a dozen different systems. I especially like the history feature, so I can go back and find what I had looked up previously. And the spelling and compound word construction assistance is incredible. Weve found a few more words in this dictionary than in Beckers wonderful little printed dictionary. However, I would still say that the only major failing of this dictionary is the number of words. Hopefully, they will add more vocabulary for us to learn and use?

This was fantastically useful on my recent trip to Thailand! Thank You for such a great ap. unfortunately, my phone was stolen in Thailand. Is there anyway to get it replace? I didnt back it up to my computer...

Dictionary is great with pronunciations and Thai spellings but the app is lacking because it does not include phrases or idioms which are commonly used in speaking Thai. For instance if you want to say something like "wait a moment" this app will not help you but it will give you the Thai word for moment and its spelling but not a phrase used in speaking. Would give 4 stars if price was $4.99 because it is an excellent dictionary but way overpriced at $24.95.

This application is really well done and worth the investment. Being able to hear the pronunciation of every word (as many times as you like) is so helpful for working on the tones. I like the variety of look up methods - English, Thai script, and phonetic - and have even enabled the Thai script keyboard on my iPad so I can type in words I see. One improvement idea I have would be the ability to create your own word groups within the app. Now there are a few pre-set groups for numbers or months or days of the week. But it would be very cool if I could make a group for colors or fruit within the dictionary so I dont lose the linkage to the pronunciation or modifier info. This would be especially helpful for people learning specialist vocabularies. Thanks for the great tool, making studying on your own more fun and productive!

Ive been living in Thailand for a year now and I use this app every single day. Best feature: you can look up words not only in English and Thai, but also in transliterated Thai (for those who havent yet learned Thai characters). The dictionary is very comprehensive as well and includes many compound words and short phrases. Highly recommended.

This is a very expensive app by Ipod/Iphone standards, but it is worth every penny if you spend more than a few days in Thailand, or if you work with Thais in your own country. It takes a little time to get use to the interface and how searches are done, but it is definitive in its various uses of words, both Thai and English. I used it nearly every day and stopped carrying my Thai dictionary. It does not have basic phrases, but the Amazing Thailand App, which is available for free, covers things like that, and the two apps together make an unbeatable combination. One wish would be for a favorites button or tool since it can take a bit of searching sometime to find the exact word you are looking for, being able to tag that as a favorite would make this great app even better. The history is one way to do that, but the history was not consistent enough to be able to use it to quickly find favorite words. It is good with a number of technical terms and with the Thai keyboard, I could hand it to my collegues in Thailand so they could type in a Thai word on the few times when they did not know the English translation. This was particularly handy when trying to identify plants in the field, including herbs. Again, the ability to save favorites is the only thing that is lacking from my view.