French phrasebook
 

Do you have a particular favorite French phrasebook? Do any stand out from the pack?

I always use the Berlitz publications. There are others that are probably just as good. But with French, a phrasebook without some kind of practice in pronunciation is rather useless. If you can, go to a book store or order a short course in French with cassette or CD audio. Listen carefully to the basics of the pronunciation, and correlate that to the pronunciation guides given in the Berlitz book (or whatever book you choose). <BR><BR>The pronunciation guides in any phrasebook, without actually being able to hear a little of the language, can be rather difficult to interpret, especially when there are sounds (such as the nasal &quot;on&quot; or &quot;en&quot; or &quot;an&quot; at the end of a French word, or the French &quot;r&quot;)that are not even in our vocabulary. So try to get something that will give you the correct sounds. Good luck.<BR><BR>

Rick Steves phrase books are great!! No kidding.

How do you understand the answer if it is not in the phrase book?

Along the same lines, I have found a series of menu translation books to be very invaluable. It is the &quot;What kind of food am I&quot; series and the book is called &quot;Eating and Drinking in France&quot;. It lists the French name for the food or preparation in alphabetical order and they are very easy to use. I think there are others like this also, but I like this one the best.

My favorite is &quot;French At A Glance&quot; (chock full or other valuable information, as well). Whichever you select, make sure it has phonetic pronunciations.<BR><BR>To me, a &quot;tape&quot; is not all that useful, since most include much you'll never need, and you'll never remember what you will need (or know that until you get there).<BR><BR>As for &quot;how do you understand the answer&quot;, many French (uncomfortable with the apparent assumption of some Americans that it's just not necessary to learn any French for traveling in France) are far more willing to attempt to (even splendidly) communicate with you in English, once they know you've made any effort whatsover to communicate with them in French.