At last, the ultimate phrasebook!
 

:))

This may come in handy for my husband:
<b>My wife fell overboard about ten miles back. </b>
<i>Ma femme est tombée par-dessus bord, il y a quinze kilomètres.
Mi esposa se cayó al agua unos quince kilómetros atrás.
Meine Frau ist vor ungefähr fünfzehn Kilometern über Bord gefallen.</i>

This is particularly useful for the Lounge:
<b>Can we declare this thread officially dead? </b>
<i>Pouvons-nous déclarer que cette discussion est officiellement close ?
Podríamos declarar esta discusión oficialmente muerta?
Können wir diesen Thread offiziell für tod erklären? </i>

Seriously, are there any good phrasebooks for people going to Paris, Germany, Austria? Our D knows a very little German & the rest of us speak English. Haven't seen anything about phrasebooks.

Rick Steves has a series of very practical phrasebooks which I've found helpful, including medical, symptoms.

Would you recommend that all-in-one phrasebook that is German, Italian & French or the individual language phrasebooks?

HImom: I would recommend individual language phrasebooks, as well as dictionaries.

If they were all in one (which I've never seen and I haunt the language sections of bookstores), my mind might explode.

I have had a Berlitz European Phrase book for decades. I do not know if it is still in print or not.

Yk, so it takes a husband another ten miles to advise someone his wife fell overboard..too funny!

Patrick,

Since nobody else has said so, thank you for posting that phrase book. It is hilarious! I can imagine the stunned look on folks faces if you would actually use some of those in conversation.

:-)

Oh, so that's what he was saying. I should have taken him up on it.

I like the Berlitz phrase books and the delightful "What Kind of Food Am I?" for menus.

Have you ever considered that we might be insulted because you haven't learned English?

Gotta learn it in 3 languages :))

HImom, I found it, Fodor's has several phrase dictionaries posted on the website, enjoy! :)

http://www.fodors.com/language/

I am still roaring from some of those phrases and sentences. I especially like ordering "Closed on Wednesday."

Where is the Cathedral?
Où est le bordel ?
- - I'm thinking of setting up my husband with that one, next trip to France.

Thanks so much for these suggestions. I printed out the food & common phrases from the fodors site & ordered the Rick Steve's combined phrasebook--English, German, French & Italian. It was $6, so we'll see how it does (it's very portable anyway).

Loved that website, lol! I had a great teacher in a French class I took a couple years ago and she taught us some slang and some snarky phrases. We had a great time in that class, lol.

HImom--The Rick Steves phrasebook for France is good, but I really like the Berlitz one better. I think the layout is better as well as the phrases. It can be harder to find though. If you have trouble, look online at Powells.