Lonely Planet French Phrasebook & Dictionary

621 Pages·2018·5.96 MB·English

by  Lonely Planet

French audio phrasebook
September 2018
Published by
Lonely Planet Global Limited CRN 554153
Cover Image
Cafe on Île St-Louis, Paris. Danita Delimont/AWL ©
ISBN 9781788686303
Text © Lonely Planet 2018
cover illustration © Lonely Planet Publications Pty Ltd 2009
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Although the authors and Lonely Planet try to make the
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this book.
acknowledgments This edition of
Lonely Planet’s French phrasebook is
based on the previous editions by the
Lonely Planet Language Products
team, Michael Janes for the French
translations and pronunciation
guides, and Jean-Pierre Masclef who
translated the Sustainable Travel
section.
Lonely Planet’s Language Products team consists of: Tali Budlender
(Associate Publisher), Annelies Mertens (Managing Editor), Branislava
Vladisavljevic and Laura Crawford (Editors), Celia Wood (Managing Layout
Desiger), Wibowo Rusli (Layout Desiger), Wayne Murphy (Cartographer),
Yvonne Kirk and Glenn van der Knijff (Production Support).
Thanks also to the others who contributed to the previous editions on which
this one is based: Jane Atkin, Julie Burbidge, Karina Coates, Francesca Coles,
Adrienne Costanzo, Ben Handicott, Jim Jenkin, Piers Kelly, Yukiyoshi
Kamimura, Emma Koch, Paul Piaia, Fabrice Rocher, Karin Vidstrup Monk, Meg
Worby, and last but not least, Daniel New who created the inside illustrations.
make the most of this phrasebook …
Anyone can speak another language! It’s all about confidence. Don’t worry if
you can’t remember your school language lessons or if you’ve never learnt a
language before. Even if you learn the very basics, your travel experience will be
the better for it. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain when the locals
hear you making an effort.
finding things in this book For easy navigation, this
book is in sections. The Tools chapters are the ones
you’ll thumb through time and again. The Practical
section covers basic travel situations like catching
transport and finding a bed. The Social section gives
you conversational phrases, pick-up lines, the ability
to express opinions – so you can get to know people.
Food has a section all of its own: gourmets and
vegetarians are covered and local dishes feature. Safe
Travel equips you with health and police phrases, just
in case. Remember the colours of each section and
you’ll find everything easily; or use the hyperlinks
provided in the Table of Contents. Otherwise, check
the two-way traveller’s Dictionary for the word you
need.
being understood Throughout this book you’ll see
coloured phrases beneath each translation. They’re
phonetic guides to help you pronounce the language.
You don’t even need to look at the language itself, but
you’ll get used to the way we’ve represented
you’ll get used to the way we’ve represented
particular sounds. The pronunciation chapter in Tools
will explain more, but you can feel confident that if
you read the coloured phrase slowly, you’ll be
understood.
using the audio You’ll notice the audio icons beneath
a selection of phrases in this book. Use the audio to
help master your own pronunciation, or use it on the
road by letting it do some of the talking for you.

For more details, see the introduction.
INTRODUCTION
introduction
French is one of the most widely taught languages in the world – chances are
you already know a few phrases. Thanks to an invasion of England in the 11th
century, it’s also been a major contributor to the vocabulary of English (so if you
missed out on the French lessons, you’re still sure to know many French words).
After centuries of contact with English and a shared prehistoric ancestor,
French offers English-speakers a relatively smooth path to communicating in
another language. The structure of a French sentence won’t come as a surprise
and the sounds of the language are generally common to English as well. The
few sounds that do differ will be familiar to most through television and film
examples of French speakers; the silent ‘h’ and the throaty ‘r’ for example.
That’s not to say that what you hear on television is completely accurate, but
adopting a faux-French accent as you make your way with this book will
probably help you more than you’d expect.
Though distantly related to English, French is more commonly associated with
its Romance language siblings, Italian and Spanish. These languages developed
from the Latin spoken by the Romans during their conquests of the 1st century
BC. French evolved in a different way to Spanish and Italian though (which even
today are relatively similar) – comparing the modern forms of these languages
gives an idea of just how distinct French is.
at a glance ...
language name: French name in language: français fron·say language
family: Romance key country: France
approximate number of speakers:
1st language: 80 million 2nd language: 50 million close relatives: Italian,
Spanish, Portuguese donations to English: numerous – some estimate three
fifths of everyday English vocabulary arrived via French
After enjoying the practical advantages of speaking French (being told of a
cosy vineyard way off the tourist track, discovering that there’s little merit in the
cliched reference to the French being rude), you’ll find the reasons to speak
French just keep growing. Regardez the significant body of literature (the Nobel
Prize for Literature has gone to French authors a dozen times), film, music ... but