Lonely Planet French Phrasebook (Lonely Planet Phrasebook: India) (French Edition) [Paperback]

Marie-Helene Girard (Author), Anny Monet (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1997 | ISBN-10: 0864424507 | ISBN-13: 978-0864424501 | Edition: 1st

- extensive two-way dictionary & user-friendly sentence builder
- pronunciation for every word
- how to have fun with the French: food, wine and romance
- travelling basics: transport, health and shopping
- useful culinary dictionary for exploring gourmet options

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In few countries will you depend on your phrasebook as much as in France. Certainly some folks there know English, but you'll want to be able to greet people politely, make small talk, shop in the open-air market, and order food more varied than boeuf bourguignonne. At some point you'll probably want to swear like a French sailor, and who knows, you may want to croon sweet French nothings too. For all this, you need the Lonely Planet French Phrasebook. Along with help on grammar and pronunciation, the vocabulary of getting around, finding a room, shopping, and health, and a two-way dictionary in back, there are all the phrases you'll need to sound erudite au café, artsy au musée, and risqué in bed. --Stephanie Gold

Language Notes

Text: English, French

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Lonely Planet; 1st edition (October 1997)
• Language: French
• ISBN-10: 0864424507
• ISBN-13: 978-0864424501
• Product Dimensions: 5.3 x 3.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,763,728 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #92 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Reference > Dictionaries & Thesauruses > Foreign Language > French

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars "Can I buy drugs?": Yes. "Can you take our picture?": No., August 28, 2001

By 

Noah Green (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lonely Planet French Phrasebook (Lonely Planet Phrasebook: India) (French Edition) (Paperback)

We just got back from a 2-week vacation in France. We do not speak any French, and on the advice of the other reviews and the reputation of the publisher, we used this phrasebook for the trip. Boy were we disappointed! Tons of really basic things are missing from the book. For example, in the 2-way dictionaries and the food section, we could not find a lot of simple food items. What does "oeuf" mean? I'll give you a hint: you'll be as luckless in finding the answer as you will in finding the French word for "egg." The book also lacks standard travellers' phrases like "could you take our picture?" These are just a few of the many basic words, phrases, and terms that are missing here. What's even more infuriating is what this book DOES contain instead: an entire section devoted to "social issues," including talking politics, buying drugs, and dealing with the police if you are caught with drugs. My own views on these issues tend to be pretty liberal, but really - if you are not a native speaker of French, and are travelling abroad, do you have any business arguing social issues or getting involved in drug deals in a foreign country? And do these things really have any business being in a phrase book that doesn't even have the word for "egg"? I think the authors put in the extraneous stuff in order to fit in with Lonely Planet's hip, with-it image. Instead, they should have concentrated on making this book a little more helpful and useful. In France, the word "acceuil" appears in train stations, metro stations, airports, and on street signs. Not the most esoteric of terms, to be sure. The only place it doesn't appear is in this most useless of phrasebooks.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good, but..., April 25, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Lonely Planet French Phrasebook (Lonely Planet Phrasebook: India) (French Edition) (Paperback)

Let me see if I can help clear up some of the confusion caused by the mixed reviews of this book:

It is true that this phrasebook is sorely lacking in pronunciation instruction. The emphasis is on phrases and general sentence structure. The grammar advice can be hard to follow unless you are already familiar with basic French grammar. Therefore I would not recommend this book for beginners, especially beginners who truly want to learn French beyond just the words needed while traveling.

Having said that, this book is an AWESOME resource for those with at least some background knowledge of the French language. Pretty much every idea/situation you would want to communicate is in this book. It's very well organized and a handy pocket size as well. I had 1 semester of French each in high school and college, and while I don't speak French too well I still remember the basic pronunciation and grammar rules. I found that this book contained enough phrases and general information to jog my memory enough to the point that I can sufficiently communicate in French with the help of this book alone.

So if you know a little (or more) French already and are looking for something with lots of handy phrases, go for this book - it will serve you well. If you are looking for an introduction to the language and/or have an interest in learning French from the ground up, I would recommend purchasing some sort of book & tape set, maybe with this phrasebook as a backup guide while traveling. Hope that helps!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Indispensable book for your back pocket, July 15, 2000

By 

Ryan (Kirkland, WA, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lonely Planet French Phrasebook (Lonely Planet Phrasebook: India) (French Edition) (Paperback)

I picked this book up in Germany before I headed over to France and to my surprise it was actually fairly useful. The dictionary in the back wasn't very thorough. I ran across many words in day to day activities that weren't in the book. However the book is well organized by subject category. For any given instance this book had several phrases to use. It certainly came in handy where a straight dictionary would have not.