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

Franziska Buck (Author), Anke Munderloh (Author)

Book Description

Series: Lonely Planet Phrasebook: India | Publication Date: November 1997

- comprehensive two-way dictionary and easy-to-use sentence builder
- pronunciation for every word
- from shopping & eating to camping & football: everything the traveller needs to klatsch German-style!
- includes useful culinary dictionary & insider information on language etiquette & culture

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Lonely Planet takes the fear out of travel and the dread out of German. Like all their foreign language titles, the German phrasebook is klein, hilfreich und billig (small, helpful, and inexpensive). The editors tackle German grammar in 30 easy pages, but you needn't sweat it if the mere mention of past participles makes you cringe. There are pages and pages of learnable, speakable phrases to enable you to get help at the hotel, ease your way around the market, and let you babble in the beer garden. There are chapters on chitchat and transportation, jargon for health and politics, and a beefy chapter devoted to food (from a variety of wursts to finding vegetarian cuisine) and drink--beer, wine, and nonalcoholic beverages. With vocabulary for business and religion, camping and clothing, family roots and finding a job, this phrasebook loosens the tongue and lets you make the connections your trip is about. --Stephanie Gold

Language Notes

Text: English, German

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Lonely Planet; 1st edition (November 1997)
• Language: German
• ISBN-10: 0864424515
• ISBN-13: 978-0864424518
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 3.6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,001,969 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #69 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Reference > Dictionaries & Thesauruses > Foreign Language > German

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Lonely Planet German Phrasebook, May 26, 2000

By 

Randall K Kloko (Logan, Utah) - See all my reviews

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

This is one of the hippest, most up-to-date German phrasebooks on the market...which is unfortunate, because it also contains more errors than any other book written by Germans about the German language that I've ever seen (and I've seen plenty). Typos (p.47: 'reffen' for 'treffen'), mismatched paradigms (p.41: 'to have' used for 'to be'), mismatched phrases (p.68: 'with child/pensioner' confused with 'concession'), factual errors (p.50: 'ab' called a preposition; p.51:'anstatt' and 'trotz' listed as acc./dat. prepositions), uncorrected computer glitches (p.36-38: 'ibt' and 'ebt' for 'isst' and 'esst'; 'wei' for 'weiss') and organizational gaffes (a footnote on p.62 referring you to p.62) are just a few examples. There are also misleading definitions due to the differences between British and American English: A 'chemist' is defined as a 'Drogist', which is fine if he works in a British drugstore, but a chemical scientist is a 'Chemiker/in'.

I caught about 46 such errors. On the other hand, the book is more fun to read than the typical phrasebook and has all the useful cultural info and quirky personal insights that mark the Lonely Planet series. Still, when there are so many minor flaws, you've got to wonder about the whole product.

Bottom line: I'd recommend it only if you can have a qualified German teacher proofread it for you before you use it.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A comedy of errors, April 15, 2003

By 

Robert A. Post (Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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

After I had bought this book and set about seriously reading it, I discovered too many errors. At first I thought I had not remembered my high school German, but after checking dictionaries I realized this guide book was very flawed with incorrect translations. It reminded me of the Monty Python sketch with the Hungarian tourist and his Hungarian-English phrasebook: "Oh my nipples explode...." When I went on my European vacation I didn't take this guide along.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Great content, too many typos, October 23, 2001

By 

xiann "a reader" (USA) - See all my reviews

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

If you learned German in high school or college and know the vocab and grammar but don't know how to find a cigarette or a club (without sounding stupid), go ahead and buy this book. It will provide phrases that you never learned in high school but will be invaluable while you're traveling around German-speaking countries, especially if you're young and hip. If you don't already know German, buy something with fewer typos. There must be a typo on every 4th or 5th page in this book. (Although I haven't actually counted.)

Two notable phrases from this book:
"Where can I find lesbian club?"
"I'm still a groupie after all these years."