Customer Reviews

Easy Russian Phrase Book: Over 690 Basic Phrases for Everyday Use (Dover Language Guides Russian)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

If you can read Cyrillic, and know basics of pronounciation and a little grammar, this book is great! A fellow reviewer commented that you can't lose by buying a book for $1.50 or $2.00, and I agree, as long as you fulfill the few basic conditions above.

This book is packed with "690 basic phrases for everyday use." There's very short mundane and useful phrases like "Please speak slowly", "I am an engineer", "Wait a moment!", "Please show me the way --", "Send my regards to your aunt and uncle" to longer, more useless phrases like "You indicate the amount of insurance on the form. What does it contain?" (Useless unless you work in the Russian insurance business, of course.)

Each phrase is written in English, cyrillic, and then a phonetic english representation of the cyrillic. It's not too bad, if you follow just the phonetic representations, but preferably you should go pick up some pronounciation from a recording or a friend or a teacher who speaks russian.

When you're at the stage of knowing a little Russian, having a small book like this to read through helps build vocabulary and idiomatic knowledge.

Caveat Emptor: it's totally worthless by itself! The inside of the book says that this was originally a manual accompanying a Dover recording called "Listen & Learn Russian." Of course, leave it to Dover to squeeze a buck out of a now-defunct recording.

I confess that I have some previous experience with the Russian language and that had I not already known basic letter sounds and inflection I might not have gotten much from this book. Out of curiosity, I asked my 8 year old to try some of the words and short phrases and she did pretty well in sounding everything out.

The best section of this book deals with food. In a situation when you have very little Russian but desperately need to tell the waiter "Without cheese, please" or something similar this book is aces. It also teaches everyday pleasantries for travellers but a person would need much more than is contained in this book to get around a Russian speaking country comfortably.

Hey, for a dollar fifty cents, even if you only get a few phrases out of it, it's small and would be good to stuff in your briefcase or bag for quick reference in a pinch. Worst case scenario, you could point to the necessary words as they are well grouped according to the situation or topic at hand.

Why not buy one that's worthwhile? I bought this and it's worth what it costs, i.e. not much. Spend a few more bucks and get the Lonely Planet Russian Phrasebook. It has a small dictionary, lots of phrases and traveling info.

I can't even give it two stars for being so cheap. Don't waste your time.

This Easy Russian Phrase Book is very useful in learning everyday basic Russian phrases. For every question stated, many answers are displayed. Each question/answer is written in English, Russian, and phonetic pronunciation! Topics include everything from asking how one is doing to an example of an actual conversation. I would recommend this book to anyone who needs to know Russian basic words and phrases.

I have several Russian phrasebooks. Except for one I have that had nothing at all in English/Greek alphabet phonetic pronounciations, this book is pretty useless.All the phonetics written in the greek alphabet are in a horribly hard to read print, and are too overly phoneticized with extra letters that bring you to the point of confusion. That is, if you can even make any sense of them. It's not clear where the stress on the word should be, which of course, is very important so that you don't sound like a buffoon when talking to Russian people. I was looking at the book, and saying to myself, if I didn't have any prior knowlege of this language, or live where people speak Russian, I wouldn't be able to make out one thing in this book. I'd say it's A WASTE OF $1.50, even such an inexpensive investment won't pay off, especially for someone just beginning. Go for the Lonely Planet Russian Phrasebook with 2 way dictionary. THAT'S a GREAT book, it's availiable here at amazon too. Spend only a little more, and get a book that REALLY gives you EVERYTHING you need to learn how to speak Russian. Da Svidanya sa seechyas!

It's a very simple book. You have an english phrase and its translation including pronuntiation tips. A good book if you know about russian language. Not the best choice for beginners. Perhaps a good help for travellers.

Finally...a phrase book I can use immediately. There are some discrepancies, such as "I want to eat cake"---most likely you would say "I would like to eat cake", but my tutor says I wouldn't get thrown out of a restaurant or someone's home if I said "I WANT"!

Phrases are grouped by topic and are listed by page number in the index. Pronunciation is below each phrase. Don't be confused by the "floating" /y/--it is explained, but can still lead to one saying the y sound, instead of softening the preceeding consonant (they probably should have used a non-letter symbol).

A good starter book.

Des not provide phonetic assistance. If your not an english major or have post doctoral gramatical skills, buy something else. However, for a buck and a half, it can sit on the shelf until the spring garage sale.

Taking a 10 week Russian language class and found this book very helpful with the at home learning process.

These phrases are generally useful and informative, but I would recommend it much more for people traveling to Russia without extensive knowledge of the language than students trying to learn it.