helpful for DIY
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Very useful for basic building materials and tools but really only for DIY use. If you're doing a complete refurb with French builders or setting up your trade in France then spend a bit more money on the "Concise Dictionary of House Building Terms", don't be frightened by the price, it's well worth it. I own both copies and this one stays on the bookshelf most of the time, and the other is on site or in the van.
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New owner
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Most helpful - a few french words can make you sound more experienced when dealing with workmen in France
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We could have done with this book years ago!
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This book even makes good bedtime reading. We have found it most useful and now even know the French names of building and decorating items we don't even need. I particularly liked the breakdown of terms into easily definable areas of renovation. Keep a copy in the car for handy reference, you never know when one needs a pied-de-biche.
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Invaluable!
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If you are going to be doing some building work in France then buy this book before you go! It is very comprehensive and has all the technical terms that you won't find in a normal english-french dictionary. The book is divided into sections (construction, decorating, plumbing etc.) which meant that i could 'swat-up' on decorating terms without having to trawl the whole dictionary for them. There is also a list of useful phrases and blank pages for notes - very helpful when you're composing questions to ask the builder.
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Helpful.. if you have time on your hands.
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We purchased this before we moved to France to help us obtain quotations etc., on a property we own. The book is in ten sections of different trades - not in alphabetical order - so if you want a word, you have to hunt through all the ten sections to find the right one, if it is there at all. This may be OK going from English to French, but if you have a French word and you don't know which trade it comes under (because you don't know the word, right?) you are left hunting between the ten sections and your regular dictionary as well. If at the back there was a complete list of French to English, then English to French as well as the ten sections, It would be getting 5 stars, however it doesn't so it fails as a dictionary, as it's not in alphabetical order. Shame.
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