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Essential 36 travel phrases
in 20 languages
what you get
36 phrases cover nearly every exchange a traveller has: greeting someone, asking where something is, ordering a meal, paying, and getting help when something goes wrong. Pick a language below for all 36 phrases, each with a plain-English respelling and a card you can print.
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Phrases in every language
36 phrases each, grouped by region. Every one opens the full list with a plain-English respelling under each line, and a card you can print.
Europe
Asia
Middle East & Africa
one sheet
Hello in every language
All 20 greetings on a single page — print it, or keep it on your phone. Free, no signup, no watermark.
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The country and
the language differ
People often search for a nationality rather than a language, and the two frequently do not match. Here is what is actually spoken.
- Brazilian → Portuguese
- Mexican → Spanish
- Nihongo → Japanese
- Mandarin → Chinese
- Jewish → Hebrew
- Iranian / Persian → Farsi
- Filipino → Tagalog
- Indian → Hindi — though India has 22 official languages
- Holland → Dutch
- Swiss → German, French or Italian, depending on the canton
- Austrian → German
- Cambodian → Khmer — not yet covered here
- Jamaican / Patois → Jamaican Patois — not yet covered here
- Nepalese → Nepali — not yet covered here
- African → Over 2,000 languages. Swahili, Amharic, Yoruba and Zulu are the most searched
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Thirty-six phrases,
six situations
Every phrasebook follows the same template, so once you have used one you know where to look in all of them. Each phrase carries a plain-English respelling — never IPA, which is no use to anyone standing at a pharmacy counter.
The essentials
The six words that carry most of a trip.
Getting by
What to say when the conversation outruns you.
Getting around
Streets, stations and the one question everyone needs.
Food and drink
Ordering, allergies, and asking for the bill.
Shopping and money
Prices, cards, and politely not buying anything.
Emergencies
Worth reading once before you need them.
Or skip the
memorising
OmniTalk speaks all 20 of these and forty more, in real time — point the camera at a menu, or put the phone between you and let it translate both sides of the conversation as you talk. It works offline once you download the language.