Great bit of fun at a bargain price.

The thing is, when you go to WH Smth or any other book shop for a useful Lanquage phrase book, you normally have to pay between £5-10. Not any more.

The Easy Spanish Phrase Book is a useful and well thought out little number.

The book is split into sections relating to everyday holiday use.
Obviously you are not going to speak fluent Spanish with this book, but when you go to Spain on your holiday it is nice to try to speak the local language and this in itself gets the respect of the locals.

Well worth buying and putting in your suitcase to Spain.

A good buy at a bargain price.

brilliant, the best book on writing

Wannabe a writer is the best book on writing since"On Writing" by Stephen King.<br />The way Jane Wenham-Jones approaches the subject is very entertaining and in her usual humorous and unique style.<br />This book is packed with advice and a down to earth and realistic insight into the life of a wannabe writer.<br />I can't praise it enough. It is a book that I will carry around with me to keep me motivated when I'm flagging, entertain me through the lows, and remind me that anything is possible.<br />It's a great book to buy for the people around you to read, as they will get a great insight into why we wannabe writer's, are the wonderful, if sometimes difficult characters that we are.<br />Buy this book for yourself, if you are a wannabe writer, or for anyone who wants an entertaining, informative book, you will love it!<br />

A must for every Dad about to give away his daughter!

As a bride-to-be, I want to be sure that my big day goes as smoothly as possible. I can try to control most things, but the speeches are out of my hands. I have bought this book to help my Dad not to embarrass himself or me, well, not too much! Making the Father of the Bride's Speech is easy to read and full of practical advice. The author writes clearly about the different stages of the speech and includes helpful ideas as well as examples of jokes, quotes and how to be sensitive without being sloppy. This book is a must for any Dad about to give away his daughter, especially if he's not used to public speaking, or just totally overwhelmed about the do's and don't's of making a wedding speech.

Effective Retention Programme

I started to use minds maps last year after studying some of Tony Buzans books on mind maps. I find them very effective at putting thoughts to paper and as a quick memory aide. So I was quite interested in how this technique could be used to aid learning french.<br /><br />I have to say that I was pleasently surprised at how effective this technique helps you to retain words and phrases.<br /><br />Tonys belief is that your brain works by connection and that mind mapping connects word and phrases easily together.<br /><br />My own experience is that peoples brains work in different ways, some people think in pictures, some in numbers, some with words. So I think this technique will work well for some and probably no difference for others.

Excellent Book

For the price, this is a must buy for anyone learning French or needing a handy lookup.<br /><br />All words are placed in context with a French sentence alongside an English translation.<br /><br />Come on - for this price, do what I did an just buy it!<br /><br />Worth every penny!

Excellent practice for those wanting reading skills

I bought this book on the basis of the review by another Amazon reader. He sounded like he was doing what I wanted to do - acquire reading skills. And he is right - this is an excellent reader. There’s a wide range of stories and the translations on the opposite page are excellent. There is also an extensive vocabulary at the back and questions so you don’t need a dictionary with you. There are brief introductions to each author, in English. It is excellent value for money and the language is sufficiently difficult to challenge anyone with reasonable skills in French but not so difficult as to make the task impossible. My level was just post O level (I didn’t do A level but I had done an extra year of conversation). But I haven’t touched French for more years than I care to admit. Along with some grammar books, this has really helped to build my confidence and my vocabulary and it hasn’t been painful. Many of the books are geared towards children or people wanting conversations skills so I found this a good way to get the skills I wanted. The stories are short and the styles are varied so even if one particular story doesn’t appeal to you, you see a different style of expression and the effort is worth it. I wish there were more like it!

YOU MUST READ THIS BOOK

This book is simple to understand, truthful and full of good communication skills. I have read many books on dealing with people but this is the best. If the Bible is THE book for the religous then this is the Bible for people who seek better relationships. You will never regret this purchase!

An effort hovering between odd and interesting

Mr Timoney claims to know"all the words" but shares only a very limited selection in this book, excluding for a start almost all the rude ones, which makes it pretty hard to unleash one's inner Gaul, as promised by the book's cover. Beyond its limitations there are some good entries in this book which is a very modern sort of product but one that left me ultimately not quite satisfied. It is a book because it looks like a book, and is indeed very attractively presented. But it is really just a long list, or a list of lists. Why am I not satisfied? It is not just for the missing obscenities (I have Genevieve's Complete Merde for those) but the missed opportunity to be just a tiny bit more interesting and to show (dare I say) maybe just a little scholarship. Some subjects are opened but not explored. What does it mean to be bilingual? Or fluent? This book will have more to teach intermediate level students than it reveals to anyone who is already pretty fluent. Those who really want to polish their French should be buying books in French.

Plain English explained brilliantly.

If you aspire to clear thought, if you are a teacher or parent, if you want to put right the wrongs of your schooling, you must read this book Bruton-Simmonds wastes not a single word in his demolition of the vulgar and the flabby in the way we speak and write today. But this is more than a book on grammar: clarity and precision of thought, he argues, go hand-in-hand with clear and precise English. I agree. I suspect this will be uncomfortable reading for those with nothing to say but who say it anyway. For the rest this is a littel jewel.

Quality keeps on improving!

I have a copy of a previous edition of this 'easy learning' dictionary and a friend has the penultimate one to this latest copy. As such, I feel well-versed to comment...<br />This new release is excellent. My wife and I, both in our 50's, are learning the language and we find this dictionary more than just a resource for looking up the meaning of words. It is a big help to us with our verb tables, especially the tenses and gives good grammatical breakdowns on many aspects of the language. <br />Perhaps if there was more help with pronounciations, it could claim to be a language course in one book. But that aside, it is very, very, good value and we both love referring to it at every opportunity. Definitely five stars from us!

easy peasy chinesey

"You must be really brave to start learning Chinese"...is the comment I usually get when i tell people I'm learning Chinese. This book makes it not exactly easy but at least possible. Colourful and attractive, the book explains why Chinese is how it is. The CD helps master the tones and sounds. There is lots of insight into Chinese culture like the horoscopes. Ideal for beginners.

Brilliant way to learn

In my quest to learn Latin, having been disappointed by other books, this was recommended to me by a friend. After reading the positive reviews on Amazon I decided to buy it.

I was not disappointed in it at all. This was exactly what i was looking for in a book:

It had stories to translate that focussed around one family so there was a familiar thread to them. Sometimes it even has (although in a very 'learning is fun' way) humour.
It had a gradual increase of vocabulary, giving any new words in a story down the side of it.
It had a full dictionary of all the words used in the book at the back of it, along with a section on all the grammar taught.
The grammar was introduced at the right rate and there were exersizes to test how well you had understood the new points. There were three-four exersizes every chapter (with 20 chapters in total), along with the translations.
The end of the book leads nicely on to the start of the next one so it is not difficult to continue.

I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn to read Latin. You will not regret buying it!

Excellent, but VERY big!

This is an excellent dictionary. <br /><br />Very comprehensive, and the font, colour scheme & general presentation make it easy to find the word or expression you are looking for, and are attractive. <br /><br />One warning though - this is a VERY large book; check the dimensions shown in the description before ordering! It will take up a large space on your shelf and will probably be too large to carry to & from college or on your travels. You may need a pocket dictionary as well, or go for the concise version of this one (which appears to be an excellent dictionary too).

A very useful and interesting book - you can't put it down!

You are drawn to this book initially because of its appealing cover illustration. On delving deeper inside the pages you'll find some fantastic proverbs used by the French and their English equivalent. Not only is it essential reading for any French language student, but for the non-French speaker it also gives an insight into the way that a different language develops. Fun pictures accompany each proverb and also an contextual example of how each phrase is used.
Above all it's a fun book to browse through, which will be really useful for anyone studying the language.

MR C. CLAY

I am currently doing a intermediate level of italian but find it always useful to remember the key verbs. I have used a lot of italian books in order to understand italian and this one explains and does what it says ''drills'' those verbs into your mind with a good set of exercises. A well organized easy to understand book perfect for beginners of Italian! I would seriously recommend it.

Don't waste your money on Muzzy

As a French speaker myself, I am constantly on the lookout for a way to help my four children (8,7,5,3) learn French. They have watched Muzzy for a couple of years now (on and off, obviously!) and have learnt virtually nothing, even with help from me. I have friends who say the same thing. My children learnt more in their first couple of hours watching Serge. Don't believe the BBC's hype and don't waste your money on Muzzy.

The best exercise book I've found

I've done a lot of reading on writing fiction, and this is by far one of the best. While other books talk about how to go about writing, this one gives you exercises designed to guide you to putting those ideas into practice. It's guarenteed to improve your writing! My writing group has used it for about a year and the members love it.