Easy Spanish Phrase Book: Over 770 Basic Phrases for Everyday Use

This book is cheap and small and has pretty much every phrase you would want to learn to get by on a trip to a Spanish speaking country. I bought it as a companion to the CD lessons from a different company and it helped me clarify a lot of what I was learning just by ear. Each phrase is followed by the phonetic spelling of how the words are pronounced, which is really helpful to remind you to drop the "h"s in "hay" and pronounce the word as "I" and not "aiy". Since it's small enough, it can go right along with you on your holiday to help you get your message across in Spanish.

There are indeed useful phrases for the traveler, but the way they show how to pronounce things is pretty awful at parts and you'd sound really weird pronouncing some of this stuff... for example:
English: "I want to leave these packages for a while" =
Spanish: "Quiero dejar estos paquetes un rato."
Their way to pronounce this is: "KYAY-ro day-HAHR ESS-tohss pah-KAY-tess oon RRAH-toh"
I know how to pronounce things well after over a year of learning spanish...Even looking over the small pronunciation guide in Madrigal's Magic Key to spanish will help a lot more with pronunciation. That sentence is more like "KYEH-roh deh-HAR ESS-tohs pah-KEH-tess oon RRAH-toh"
Anyway, still there are a lot of useful phrases and people will still probably understand some things, even using the book alone. My spanish boyfriend does think some people actually do only rely on books like these for pronunciation because he says he's heard tourists from America speak similarly to this and that it sounds weird. Even though it's obviously best to read a pronunciation guide AND hearing things being said, if you are only reading how to do it, the book could be a lot more helpful and improved.

Well, it is still a good book, but I could see a few improvements that could make things better.

The book lists phrases, yes, phrases...nothing more.

For example, after you say, what time do you open, in Spanish, you will have to search next thing to say digging entire book.

Again, it only lists simple phrases by the category.

I'm a bit disappointed by the five star rating......

(By Edward Trimnell, author of "Why You Need a Foreign Language & How to Learn One," ISBN:1591133343)

Everyone has to start somewhere, and this book is a good place for beginning students of the Spanish language to start. This slender volume provides a lot of expressions that you can readily use as you begin to interact with Spanish-speakers.

In the initial stages of language study, it is often difficult to extract the functional sentences you need out of a textbook or more extensive course. This book is just the remedy you need for that problem. It is also a bargain for the price!

You can't beat this book - for the price and the small, yet concise and relevant content. Learn how to tell time, order food, go through customs, as well as greetings and social conversations just to name a few. Especially helpful are the pronunciation guides listed below each phrase. Muy bueno for the traveler or beginner.