Italian Phrase Books

These handy little guides for travelers offer a sweet introduction to the Italian language. Please read-on for more information, or view the Italian language resource page for LanguageJot selections.

There are several reputable phrase book publishers that I have found thus far:

• Berlitz
• Collins
• Dover
• Langenscheidt
• Larousse
• Lonely Planet
• Rick Steves’

Each publisher has their own idea of what is best to include in a phrase book. For the Italian language learner, it doesn’t really matter. As long as the book has enough phrases to warrant the price, the book is worthy. The whole purpose of having a phrase book is to grab nuggets of real-life communication.

To meet language learning needs for Italian, there are several phrase books available. For the ultra cheap, choose Dover’s Easy Italian Phrase Book. The most expensive in my selected list is the Berlitz Italian Phrase Book and Dictionary (~$9). Berlitz offers a package that includes a CD for just a few dollars more, a good choice for learning the pronunciation from a native speaker.

Of course Lonely Planet and Larousse also have good phrase books for Italian. If you plan to purchase the phrase book at your local bookstore, any on the Italian language resource page will do. However, if you plan to purchase online, I would choose the Berlitz Italian Phrase Book and Dictionary with CD.