As Nepal’s exposure to international arena has spanned across various sectors, Nepali people are dealing with an increasing need of the English language in their life. Although a few dictionaries of small sizes were helping people translate between English and Nepali languages over the years, the old dictionaries did not cover enough of the words to make the process seamless.

Scholars and other people involved in making deals in English had somehow managed to convert the English words into Devnagari script. This created a lot of confusion when it came to interpreting the language in the local context.

Responding to that difficulty, at a time when the demand for a good dictionary was growing, professor Pathak has published a comprehensive English to Nepali dictionary.

For people with dedication and commitment to serve, age does not make any difference in doing good work. This is what the 83-year-old Nepali professor of English has shown by publishing the first-ever highly authentic translation dictionary from English to Nepali.

At a time when the trend in Nepali use of English words with its own unique meaning is growing, professor Pathak’s dictionary offers an opportunity to the users of language to see their own words for English.

Professor Pathak has made diverse contributions in Nepal. From being a professor of English to serving as a Zonal commissioner, he has immensely contributed to country during his prime time. Publishing the English-Nepali Comprehensive dictionary at this stage, professor Pathak has helped to further enrich the Nepali language.

“The dictionary is designed to make the users more self-confident and competent in using English words, phrases, idioms and proverbs, with their standard Nepali meanings. Meanings of English words in Nepali are presented in such a manner that their users would be able to use them confidently and appropriately in both writing and speaking."

According to the publishers, the dictionary contains more than 130000 words with their pronunciation in Devanagari characters with the aim of enabling the Nepali readers to know how they are pronounced. Nepali meanings of scientific, technical and literary English words are given in such a way that the users can easily comprehend them. Different senses of words in their meaning are also recorded in Nepali. Their use is illustrated in English sentences with their Nepali meanings. Words relating to different mythologies are also explained in short. Literal, figurative and symbolic meanings of English words are also given in Nepali. The dictionary is also designed to be useful even for English knowing people who are interested to acquire some knowledge of Nepali.

Headwords are arranged in an alphabetical order. To repeat the headword in the entry, to show an alternative word or phrase, the slash is used. Somebody and something are abbreviated respectively to sb and sth.

“It is heartening to note that the book received remarkable response from teachers, writers, scholars, researchers, lawyers, translators and students. The dictionary will play a role in helping the people in translating the materials published or written in English to Nepali, creating an effective channel of communication between Nepal and other countries of the world,” said Shankar Raj Pathak. Translation of English text into Nepali is another special means to disseminate various kinds of information and though needed to broaden the mental horizons of people of Nepal, even in its rural backwater.”

The comprehensive Dictionary of English to Nepali is one of the few documents published from individual efforts to serve the broader section of readers, researchers and students.