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Product Description
Review
National Geographic Traveler, September 2006
'Lonely Planet Phrasebooks. Portable, pocket-size, cheap, and available for almost any country you might want to visit...'
'Lonely Planet Phrasebooks. Portable, pocket-size, cheap, and available for almost any country you might want to visit...'
Product Description
Extensive two-way dictionary and sentence builder puts the right words and phrases in your mouth. Includes easy-to-use tips for pronunciation and grammar.
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a review on the 4th edition. Being Brazilian myself, I bought this book as a gift for a British friend who has a Brazilian partner, but I decided to examine it beforehand. I have found things that strike me as simply unacceptable in a phrase book.
The translator, or whoever was in charge of the text, often makes mistakes that suggest she/he is not a native speaker, or that she/he has been living abroad for too long. Some examples: "portuguêses" (wrong accentuation), "pasagem" (wrong spelling), "amanha" (missing accent), pronunciation of "você" misleadingly indicating that the first syllable should be stressed, "kilo" (wrong spelling) etc. - all that was just in the first pages. The translator also seems to have a problem with the crasis accent, which appears to be wrong almost every time.
If you follow the book, you will end up saying "É um hora" (It's one o'clock) instead of "É uma hora"; if you are vegan, you will use a word just invented by this book, "vegitalista" (there is no such thing); and the crying-out-loud, ear-hurting error that would be unacceptable even at a kindergarten level: "estrupo" instead of "estupro".
The very low price and the huge variety of situational expressions included in the book may compensate for the errors for some people. (There is even a very amusing section on sex talk!) However, on almost any given page I randomly pick, there is a typo and/or a grammar error. I have learned that most typos are actually consistent spelling errors. In addition, errors in the pronunciation keys are not rare, sometimes indicating the wrong syllable to be stressed. That brings us to another serious problem posed by the book, which is the pronunciation system (barely understandable) and the choice of a regional accent. Do not believe them when they say that there are small variations in pronunciation across the country. I am not saying that they should provide a key for all possible variations you can find, but the differences can be huge indeed, and this book does not even mention that.
To sum up, it should have undergone serious proofreading before being published. The way it is presented now, it damages Lonely Planet's reputation.
The translator, or whoever was in charge of the text, often makes mistakes that suggest she/he is not a native speaker, or that she/he has been living abroad for too long. Some examples: "portuguêses" (wrong accentuation), "pasagem" (wrong spelling), "amanha" (missing accent), pronunciation of "você" misleadingly indicating that the first syllable should be stressed, "kilo" (wrong spelling) etc. - all that was just in the first pages. The translator also seems to have a problem with the crasis accent, which appears to be wrong almost every time.
If you follow the book, you will end up saying "É um hora" (It's one o'clock) instead of "É uma hora"; if you are vegan, you will use a word just invented by this book, "vegitalista" (there is no such thing); and the crying-out-loud, ear-hurting error that would be unacceptable even at a kindergarten level: "estrupo" instead of "estupro".
The very low price and the huge variety of situational expressions included in the book may compensate for the errors for some people. (There is even a very amusing section on sex talk!) However, on almost any given page I randomly pick, there is a typo and/or a grammar error. I have learned that most typos are actually consistent spelling errors. In addition, errors in the pronunciation keys are not rare, sometimes indicating the wrong syllable to be stressed. That brings us to another serious problem posed by the book, which is the pronunciation system (barely understandable) and the choice of a regional accent. Do not believe them when they say that there are small variations in pronunciation across the country. I am not saying that they should provide a key for all possible variations you can find, but the differences can be huge indeed, and this book does not even mention that.
To sum up, it should have undergone serious proofreading before being published. The way it is presented now, it damages Lonely Planet's reputation.
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
At first sight, a useful book despite a dictionary at the back that contains some glaring omissions of basic words such as 'from' and 'please', as well as other useful words such as 'sting'. Its culinary reader is threadbare too, with plenty of omissions - annoying when tried to decipher a menu.
But the real flaw is in the phonetic spellings of the Portuguese words. The author uses 'ng' to indicate the nasal vowels that characterise Brazilian Portuguese, but this only works about half the time. The rest of the time you're just mispronouncing the word.
The biggest omission of all, though, is as follows. In Brazilian Portuguese, when a 't' is followed by an 'e' or an 'i', this means the 't' is pronounced like the 'j' in jam or 'ch' in church. It soon transpired that this is a key and crucial part of Brazilian Portuguese speech and it's not mentioned anywhere in this book, thereby rendering several phonetic spellings inaccurate and useless.
Interestingly I later discovered that the Lonely Planet guide to Brazil, published two years later than this book, does include this bit of information in its few pages devoted to the language - but if they now know this to be the case they should really have withdrawn this Brazilian Portuguese phrasebook and published a new edition with the correct phonetic spellings. Given that this is the third edition of the book, the fact that it will have taken Lonely Planet four editions of the book to include a fairly rudimentary aspect of pronounciation does not inspire confidence that they know what they're doing. As it is, the book is devalued and my confidence in the Lonely Planet brand weakened.
But the real flaw is in the phonetic spellings of the Portuguese words. The author uses 'ng' to indicate the nasal vowels that characterise Brazilian Portuguese, but this only works about half the time. The rest of the time you're just mispronouncing the word.
The biggest omission of all, though, is as follows. In Brazilian Portuguese, when a 't' is followed by an 'e' or an 'i', this means the 't' is pronounced like the 'j' in jam or 'ch' in church. It soon transpired that this is a key and crucial part of Brazilian Portuguese speech and it's not mentioned anywhere in this book, thereby rendering several phonetic spellings inaccurate and useless.
Interestingly I later discovered that the Lonely Planet guide to Brazil, published two years later than this book, does include this bit of information in its few pages devoted to the language - but if they now know this to be the case they should really have withdrawn this Brazilian Portuguese phrasebook and published a new edition with the correct phonetic spellings. Given that this is the third edition of the book, the fact that it will have taken Lonely Planet four editions of the book to include a fairly rudimentary aspect of pronounciation does not inspire confidence that they know what they're doing. As it is, the book is devalued and my confidence in the Lonely Planet brand weakened.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I learnt a lot in a short time, mostly beacuse I knew Spanish and there were alot of similarities as well as the fact that the book was well set out, with all the most day to day situations clearly highlighted. I was able to practise what I learnt during my two week holiday and in that time I think I learnt quite a lot.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
spot on
another great book has be really helpful and i would advise anyone to get it who wants to learn Brazil langue
Published 1 month ago by shane free
Brazilian Portuguese (Lonely Planet Handboo0k)
As with other Lonely Planet Phrasebooks I found that this book contained a comprehensive range of topics, contained in a handy-sized book. An excellent travelling companion.
Published 11 months ago by patsand
A Handy Little Book
This great little book is small enough to carry in any bag and packed full of all the basics you need to get you started. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Raspberry
Very nice book
I've bought this little book for a friend and was highly thanked for that, I thought was only by receveing the present but when I had a look at the book I was impressed with pretty... Read more
Published 14 months ago by Regis
Useful
Useful for any English-Speaker wanting to learn Portuguese.
However, it would be more effective it was co-authored by a Brazilian. Read more
However, it would be more effective it was co-authored by a Brazilian. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Andre Loureiro
Every little helps
That book is brilliant, I do not speak much Portuguese but it has so many useful phrases to help you get along!
Published on 3 Jan 2010 by S. Luebs
Going to Brazil? Buy this and make it your companion!
We were lucky enough to visit Brazil and found this book and absouloutley invaluable guide! The phrasebook was dead useful, and when we managed to lose it after a boozy night on... Read more
Published on 24 Oct 2006 by Mr. Anthony P. Collins
Great
This book is great ..it also tells you the history of brazil like the european settlers and Africans as well and also the Nigerian language that influenced it it's great stuff ... Read more
Published on 19 May 2006 by Kida
Useful little number!
Bought this book for my mother in law to take to Rio with her. She is studying portugease at present but it nervous to use it in sentences and out of the classroom, without her... Read more
Published on 8 Sep 2003
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