Phrase book

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 simple pronunciation guidelines and typically 1000–2000 words covering vocabulary.

A phrase book generally features high clarity and a practical, sometimes color-coded structure to enable its user to communicate in a quick and easy, though very basic, manner.

Hand-written phrase books were used in Medieval Europe by pilgrims to the Holy Land; major European languages, Greek, and Hebrew were covered.

The earliest known example of this genre is a 1424 manuscript compiled by one Master George of Nuremberg, and intended to help Italian merchants to use High German.

[6] James Thurber wrote a satirical essay, "There's No Place Like Home", concerning a phrase book he came across in a London bookstore, Collin's Pocket Interpreters: France.