What do you think?
Rate this book
Chinese Phrases For Dummies
Hundreds of useful phrases at your fingertips Speak Chinese - instantly!
Traveling to China but don't know Chinese? Taking Chinese at school but need to kick up your conversation skills? Don't worry! This handy little phrasebook will have you speaking Chinese in no time.
Discover how to
Get directions, shop, and eat out Talk numbers, dates, time, and money Chat about family and work Discuss sports and the weather Deal with problems and emergencies
Traveling to China but don't know Chinese? Taking Chinese at school but need to kick up your conversation skills? Don't worry! This handy little phrasebook will have you speaking Chinese in no time.
Discover how to
Get directions, shop, and eat out Talk numbers, dates, time, and money Chat about family and work Discuss sports and the weather Deal with problems and emergencies
224 pages, Paperback
Published September 2, 2005
21 people are currently reading
40 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
February 20, 2014
Tones in the pinyin are wrong don't buy.
Tones in the pinyin are wrong don't buy.
I accidentally bought this book but I want to learn chinese so I thought it might be a decent reference anyway. I already know the basics of the basics and the tones in this book are often inverted or wrong. A word that should have a third tone in it has a first tone above it. If tones are so important in the chinese language which the book makes plain that they are necessary why not put the proper tones in the book? This particular "Chinese Phrases for Dummies" will make you sound like a dummy. Don't buy.
Tones in the pinyin are wrong don't buy.
I accidentally bought this book but I want to learn chinese so I thought it might be a decent reference anyway. I already know the basics of the basics and the tones in this book are often inverted or wrong. A word that should have a third tone in it has a first tone above it. If tones are so important in the chinese language which the book makes plain that they are necessary why not put the proper tones in the book? This particular "Chinese Phrases for Dummies" will make you sound like a dummy. Don't buy.
January 8, 2023
Somewhat helpful
October 24, 2012
Great collection of phrases. Uses pinyin with tone marks, with phonetics, which might be helpful but not entirely accurate. For example, ong is said to be pronounced "oong", and ang is said to be like the sound in "angst", which is a problematic example, because some Americans might pronounce with it with the "æ". But if you say it like this, and not like this you should be fine.
Doesn't have characters, which I guess is fine considering it's a "for Dummies" book. But if it did that'd bump it up to 4 stars.
Ultimate goal is to be familiar with these basic phrases before a trip to China.
Doesn't have characters, which I guess is fine considering it's a "for Dummies" book. But if it did that'd bump it up to 4 stars.
Ultimate goal is to be familiar with these basic phrases before a trip to China.
Currently reading
November 18, 2008this is supposed to help the rosetta stone project.
September 3, 2012
I like this book and I want to keep one copy of this...
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews