Customer Reviews

Lonely Planet Scandinavian Phrasebook

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

 

 

For a small book, it contains a lot of information. It teaches you several phrases in six languages:
Swedish
Danish
Norwegian
Faeroese
Icelandic
Finnish

The book also teaches you some bits about culture in these countries as well. It could've benefited from a grammar section for each language.

Other reviewers have stated that Finnish is not a Scandinavian language. I believe that the publisher is actually referring to Finland's geographic location. It really is part of Scandinavia and also has a Swedish-speaking minority.

Brandon Simpson

Lonely Planet phrasebooks are often some of the best out there. They're aesthetically pleasing, mostly accurate, and cover a good deal of discourse that is likely to be exchanged. However, this is true for their single-language phrasebooks. Their multi-language phrasebooks are always a bit lacking.

With a book like this, especially one like this where there are three very closely related languages (Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish), they could've formatted it differently. If they'd had those three grouped together, and offered the appropriate translation on a single page it'd have made things for efficient, e.g.

Yes - Ja (D,N,S)
How are you? Hvordan gar det? (D)
Hvordan har du det? (N)
Hur star det till? (S)

etc.

They also should've introduced a simple pronunciation guideline at the beginning of the book that applies throughout, so that the letter J will always be shown as y in the pronunciation guidelines (which, it always is, but this is just an example).

But this is a standard fare multi-lingual phrasebook from Loneley Planet. If you've gotten any of their others, like Western European, Mediterranean European, or Eastern European, expect the same amount of content per language. I only got this because they've no offering for Swedish. What they should've released here is a Northern Germanic phrasebook, focusing on Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish. They should've put Finnish, Icelandic, and Faroese in a Northern European phrasebook, or something.

I bought this LP book in anticipation of my trip to Sweden. My friend was impressed at the many anicdotes and brief background given about the Swedish language. I would agree with the other reviewer, they should include a section on grammer in the next edition, but, I think having Finnish in this book is ok, even though it is not a part of Scandanavia,it is a part of the Nordic Council of countries. The truth is, many folks in Finland speak Swedish as well as Finnish. I highly recommend this book for any trip you may be taking to the Nordic countries, granted you may not speak fluently with this book, but a few phrases will help you make some new friends.

I didn't find it of much use at all. I bought this for our trip to Norway and hardly used it. It didn't explain to you HOW to say the words. The Norwegian language is hard and not useful if you don't say the words right.

The sections on pronunciation are well done, and the vocabulary and phrases seem practical and realistic. However, little attention is paid to grammar. Six languages are covered, including Finnish which is of course not Scandinavian. It may be a better idea to break this book up into two or more volumes in future editions.