European (Eyewitness Travel Phrase Books) [Paperback]

DK Publishing (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 17, 2003 | Series: EW Travel Guide Phrase Books

Essential words and phrases for every traveler. Includes: Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, and Swedish. Instant access to the key words and phrases you need to order a meal, reserve a hotel room, or just make friendly conversation. Unique system of imitated pronunciation enables you to "say it as you see it."

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: DK ADULT; Revised edition (March 17, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0789494868
• ISBN-13: 978-0789494863
• Product Dimensions: 5.9 x 4.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #435,727 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #37 in Books > Education & Reference > Dictionaries & Thesauruses > Foreign Language > Polyglot

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Helpful guide, February 19, 2004

By 

Rodrigo Llamozas (the last cubicle at the end of the hall...) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: European (Eyewitness Travel Phrase Books) (Paperback)

This particular guide is quite helpful if you're travelling to more than, say, three European countries and need to communicate in a different language in each one. It includes a lot of useful phrases and expressions in 14 languages (Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, and Swedish). It's very simple to use and it's organized in a way that simplifies looking for particular expressions, according to the different situations you may find yourself in.

However, if you intend to go to only one or two countries, you'd be better off getting the specific guides for those specific languages, as you'd be getting a bit more info than what you get here.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best overall EU phrase book yet..., August 24, 2006

By 

J. Biedermann (Madison, WI) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: European (Eyewitness Travel Phrase Books) (Paperback)

I searched all around for a phrase book that had pronounciation guides that actually match how one would say things in languages I know, french and norwegian. this book is dead on! Many others butcher the norwegian language and confuse french pronounciation. This book may not be as 'sleek looking' as others - but it is still small, quite accurate, and has something like 13 languages. Best find for phrase books!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good guide if you use it for what its designed to do (read details to see what I mean), October 16, 2007

By 

D. Miller (Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: European (Eyewitness Travel Phrase Books) (Paperback)

This book covers 14 languages in ~ 400 pages, so you get about 25-30 pages per language, which is not much. Basic phrases and some words. Excellent if you are hopping around Europe through several countries or if you will only be in a place for 1-2 days. However, if you are in a place for more than a few days you will want a book that specializes on that language and that includes a 2-way translation dictionary. This book does not.

This book contains the following for each language. Also for most of these this book has the English word or phrase, the foreign language equivalent and importantly a phonetic spelling of the foreign word or phrase.
- Introduction (pronunciations for special alphabet characters and letter combinations for each language)
- Useful phrases (30-40 basic expression like "My name is", "How much is it?" and "I've lost my passport"). Needed many more of these and I think it missed many common expressions.
- Days, Months & Seasons (self-explanatory, though in practice not that useful)
- Numbers (1-20, 30, 40 etc, 100, 1000, etc)
- Time (self-explanatory, though in practice not that useful)
- Communications (30-40 words and 15-20 short phrases such as "Where is the nearest phone booth?")
- Hotels (30-40 words and 15-20 short phrases such as "Do you have any vacancies" or "When is breakfast")
- Shopping & Eating Out (30-40 words and 15-20 short phrases such as "Do you have...?" or "May I see the menu?")
- Menu Guide - 250-300 words for food items that you'll see on a foreign language menu and english equivalent(e.g. Vino = Wine).

In all this is a great book if you want a small book to carry (it fit in my jeans pocket) and you will be going to places with multiple languages. However, if you are staying in just one or two countries for any period of time get a dedicated phrase book with 2-way dictionary.

My wife and I used it to look up about 10 basic things per language (e.g. "hello" "do you speak english" "I'd like" "One" "Two" "Thank you") as we came into each country. But after the first day or two in each country, we'd leave it in the hotel because a) we learned the basic words we needed b) nearly everyone spoke good english (even in Prague & Budapest) and c) this book didn't have 2-way dictionary for each language (which you can't expect in a book of this size and price).