Customer Reviews

Frenchâ English Bilingual Visual Dictionary (DK Visual Dictionaries)

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I minored in French when I was in college. The other day I stumbled upon this book @ a local Border's store. I had to buy it! This is a complete visual reference for those wanting to learn French or wanting to brush up on what they know already, or simply lear new words. I have always been a visual person, and this dictionary helps me remember the vocabulary since i can match it up to a picture.

The best thing about this dictionary is that it covers almost every topic imaginable, topics not even my French textbooks would cover such as health, clothing, services, shopping, food, studies, work, transportation, sports, leisure and the environment.

It covers such details such as computer and camera parts, to the positions in a football game, or members of a rock band. At the end of the book there's a list of useful phrases in french for everyday use.

I recommend this wonderful book. Kudos to DK publishing!!!

Dictionaries with pictures are a true favorite and this on will also be loved by anyone who loves cooking or eating French foods. The chapter on eating out will be especially helpful to travelers who may be required to order food in French.

This book is also small enough to keep in your backpack and many of the translations are very easy to learn. Like pizza is la pizza and sandwich is le sandwich. So reading menus will become much easier if you have this guide with you or could be useful while reading cookbooks.

The Dictionary is divided up into main sections:

People
Appearance
Home
Services
Shopping
Food
Study
Work
Transportation
Sports
Environment

Each picture is accompanied by a French and English Word. Each language also has its own index so you can look up words either way. A short section on useful phrases is also included. This makes the book especially useful and highly recommended. A speaking/talking dictionary (ASIN: B000BXIDFK) may be useful when learning pronunciations.

What is truly amazing about this way of learning French is that you remember the picture and almost instantly the name of the item appears in your mind as if you have developed a photographic memory. I love it! Also look for additional books to learn Spanish, Italian and German.

~The Rebecca Review

This is a fun, but very useful dictionary. I think being able to see the picture along with the word actually helps with remembering it. Several people in my adult immersion French class own this book--in fact, we call it 'the magic book'. I highly recommend it for beginners as well as interdiate and even advanced speakers.

I bought this book yesterday at B&N. For $12.95 it is an amazing deal and, in terms of vocabulary, you cannot get more bang for your buck. It is neatly organized, the pictures are great and it is the perfect size. I moved to Germany two years ago without an adequate vocabulary so I was motivated to not make that mistake twice. I did not go wrong with this dictionary. The best part is that covers so many aspects of daily life - almost too much information - put you can just focus on what's important to you. - James

Oh man... this could have been a 5-Star book but for one BIG complaint and one small complaint. Number one complaint: the book should have been bigger. Honestly the pictures were well selected and there is a lot of valuable information given, but the print and images are just too small to be pleasing. There's a picture, for example, of a television studio and there are six different items that are named, like la grue de camera (camera crane), but the page is so small that the publisher was forced to us an 8pt font. That's just not kid and old person friendly.

Our second complaint is that there is no pronunciation guide. I'm thinking they didn't include one because the pages are so small that would have compounded the text/image problem. Adding more information, in other words, would have just made things overly crowded. But I'm sure that there are plenty of people out there who are even moderately skilled speakers for whom a pronunciation guide would have been useful. (We can hope for an expanded addition.)

THE SKINNY:::
Wonderful book for those who are extremely fluent in French, but who need to learn the names of less common objects.

Somewhat useful for kids or adults at earlier learning stages. There is no pronunciation guide, but the detailed naming information is good.

Pam T~
mom of kids learning Français

This is a unique dictionary that for each word there is an illustration which is labelled in both French and English. The illustrations are in colour which clearly identifies the object being shown. This is an excellent learning and memory tool as this makes use of our natural abilities to think in pictures. For example, I often had difficulties in learning various names of trees, birds, insects or types of food etc because I did not know the English equivalent but because of the use of illustration, I can see clearly the item in question which facilitate and simplify the learning process.
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The dictionary covers a wide range of areas including health, leisure, environment, work, services, shopping, people, food, sports, work, transport and the home which we encounter on a regular basis. Because of this, those who are learning the French language are greatly assisted in grasping some of the common everyday terminology.

Among the drawbacks I encountered was on the pronunciation of certain terms, so often I need to refer to another dictionary. Also the font is very small. Such limitations may be the price for keeping the book small and portable, which allows me to carry it with me when I travel.

All in all, a good dictionary that is helpful and handy and is recommended for those learning the French language.

...would also recommend Oxford's Picture Dictionary which also offers good value, presents material in alternate settings as well as presents supplementary material.

I just love this dictionary! It has actually motivated me to learn some new French words. And, for me at least, having the pictures makes the words easier to remember.

The French English Bilingual Visual Dictionary is an outstanding resource for learning French (or even learning English) because it uses a sort of "Rosetta Stone learning style". You see the picture and then the French word to skip the middle step of translating the French into English before associating the English with the object. You directly associate the French with the object. This is how we learned as children because it is natural. In fact this user friendly book is helpful for both adults and children in learning French. The English words are also available above the French words in case there is any confusion as to the object in question. I very highly recommend this book for personal personal French study!

J'ai eu connaisance de l'existance de ce produit chez-un ami, et j'ai decidé l'acheter.

Je suis espagnole mais je connais le français et l'anglais et comme ça, le dictionaire bilingual est très prattique.

Je suis très contente.

Ça y est un bon achat!!!