- Phrase book
A phrase book is a collection of ready-made
phrase s, usually for aforeign language along with atranslation , indexed and often in the form of questions and answers.Structure
While mostly thematically structured into several chapters like "interpersonal relationships", "food", "at the doctor", "shopping" etc., a phrase book often contains useful background information regarding the travel destination's
culture , customs and conventions besides simplepronunciation guidelines and a typically 1000–2000 words covering vocabulary.Also a concisegrammar and an index intended for quickly finding a particular context are common. In general a phrase book features high clarity and a practical, sometimes color-coded structuring with the main purpose to enable its user to communicate in a quick and easy though very basic manner. Especially with this in mind a phrase book occasionally also provides several possible answers for a given question, in order to enable the asked counterpart to respond in some degree by simply finger pointing at one of the answers. Additionalaudio material is often intended to benefit pronunciation and understanding competence. This kind of phrase books is often referred to astalking phrase book orvoice translator .Notes
The British comedian group "
Monty Python " featured a phrase book containing wrong translations in two of their sketches. [ [http://orangecow.org/pythonet/sketches/hungry.htm Monty Python Sketch: Dirty Hungarian Phrasebook] ] [ [http://orangecow.org/pythonet/sketches/hungry.htm#court Monty Python Sketch: Court (phrasebook)] ]References
External links
* [http://www.zompist.com/thought.html Unlikely phrases from real phrasebooks]
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