Rick Steves' French Phrase Book and Dictionary,   ISBN:9781598801866

Customer Rating: 

We used this mostly for the menu decoder. There was a surprise moment when we used it for the medical description at a pharmacy. This book paid for itself there!

Customer Rating: 

An intelligent and useful phrase book but full of surprises. You have to read the whole thing--how to handle yourself in a bar (Viva la France!!), how to tell the taxi driver that he is going so fast that you are going to throw up, and on and on. But lots of useful stuff too, including phrases that a standard guidebook wouldn't think to tell you about.

Customer Rating: 

I don't give negative reviews on items I've purchased very often, but here goes.

When we bought this book, along with one for Italian, we thought they were great and very user friendly. This was before we actually arrived in France and Italy and really had to use them. When you're in actual situations where you need to find words and phrases fast, this book doesn't cut it, at all. The simplest of words I tried to find in the dictionary weren't there so I quickly went searching through the various sections trying desperately to find necessary words for the simplest of things like directions, traveling, etc. Amazingly, even though these phrases are the most important to use, the ones we needed, the words actually being used at the train and subway stations, weren't to be found. It was a waste.

I finally started using Google translator to put in the phrases I needed, and wrote them down. These worked much better than this book and we were able to do much more. Plus, I didn't have to spend time trying to find the right section, and the right spot where a certain phrase might, or might not, be found.

The book might be useful before you leave, to start to learn pronunciation, etc., but you could probably borrow a book from the library and learn the same thing. Save your money and go to the library, then use Google translator for phrases you'll really need for subways, trains, restaurants, etc.

Customer Rating: 

Mr. Steves pulls off another winner book. It is all you need if you do not speak french.

Customer Rating: 

we used some pertinent phrases on our recent trip to

France, so it was instantly helpful, plus entertaining.