French - Hindi Dictionary, the first comprehensive dictionary of its kind in French, is a kind of an encyclopedia, giving explanations of historical, technical and other words with many synonyms. The usefulness of such a labour was further enhanced by the detailed elucidations of important terms relating to geography, history, legends, philosophy, literature and grammar. All pertinent information which could be helpful to the users of this Dictionary has also been included.

Apart from the explanations of difficult words, varied synonyms of many words have also been
given: for instance, amongst others, for girl, there are 56 synonyms which can be found in this lexicographical work. Hindi equivalents of French idioms have also been furnished here, as, for example, with the words langue and pain. The words which have no equivalents in Hindi are either transcribed as borrowed words, or translated. Hence, this Dictionary is an elaborate work composed of nearly a monumental 50,000 words. It is author’s life time achievement.

This work has been assessed by Mme Nicole Balbir of the Ecole des Langues Orientales, Paris, and the Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages, Hyderabad, (now called English and Foreign Language Institute) and the work has been found to be of a high scholarly nature. The work has also been subsidized by Ministry of Education, Government of India.

The functional characteristics maintained in this compilation will make it useful to the learners of French and Hindi at school, college and post graduate levels, as well as to the researchers and teachers of these two languages. It will also be useful for translators and interpreters in these linguistic fields of studies.

[The number of students studying French has been increasing. With the traditional French teaching centre being in the Northern region of India, namely, Banaras Hindu University, the need for such a publication was felt to be more as more Departments teaching French were initiated in Delhi itself with increase in the opening up of Alliance Française Centres teaching French in Northern India. With globalization and outsourcing, learning French appears to have gained ground as global job opportunities are growing. ]

S. Sadashivan [1912-2009] was a retired diplomat of the Indian Foreign Service, having spent long years abroad on mission, especially in francophone countries.  He retired as Cultural Attaché, Indian Embassy, Kampuchea  in 1973.