French Pocket Translators

Accurately translate French with ease, using these French pocket electronic translators. Order yours today, and never be lost in French translation again!

French Translators

These French electronic translators provide two-way translation with natural human voice (hear a sample). On sale now, with free shipping and (for 900 and iTravl) FREE extra language (limited time only). Order your French electronic translator by noon Central time, and it'll ship on the same (business) day.

Features

These are your three best choices for French translation. All three French electronic translators have these features:

Sentence translation (text-based, but LUX also has speech-based).
Speech recognition.
Real human voice.
Language Teacher program.
Universal any-direction translation dictionary (183 languages, 180 in LUX).
14,000 categorized phrases.
eBook reader, MP3 player, various useful apps.
Virtual keyboards (iTravl has only virtual keyboards, no physical one).
Brilliant color touchscreen.

Below each picture, you'll find what's different between these French electronic translators.

Which French Translator?

These are your three best choices for French translation. But which French electronic translator best suits your needs? Here's a summary:

LUX-EFr: The newest portable Free Speech Translator, with WiFi.
900Fr: Offline translator, best for language learning.
iTravl NTL2Fr: Offline communicator, best for travelers.

All three French electronic translators have the features listed under the Features tab; under each picture below, you'll find what's different between them.

For entry level or multi-language French electronic translators, we have more options here.

Translate French Instantly

This section explains what the French translation tools are on these French electronic translators, and how they work. These French translation tools help two people communicate, even though one speaks French and the other speaks English. These translation tools are designed for both you and the French speaker to use.

Free speech translation. Available in the LUX, only. This feature allows you to speak your own random English sentence and get the French translation, as long as you have a Wi-Fi connection. The French speaker can also speak a French sentence and you can hear it translated in English.

Full text translation. This feature allows you to type in your own random sentence. It's also called sentence translation.

Pictured Dictionary. With the talking 183-language Picture Dictionary (180 in LUX), you can translate in any direction. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Either person can look up a word and show the other person a pictorial representation. It's simple, quick, and clear.

Translation Dictionary. This, like the phrasebook (below), is a standard feature in today's electronic translators. It allows word for word translations. In the higher end models, it also has natural human voice output (see specs tab) and provides additional information such as common phrases in which that word is used. In the Ectaco line, it differs from the Pictured Dictionary in that it doesn't have the pictures or all the languages, but does have a massively deep vocabulary for the language pair it covers.

Phrasebook

The audio phrasebook was recorded with professional native narrators. Consequently, it delivers superb voice output.
The "You may hear" function helps another person select an answer from a list of canned answers. For instance, having picked the topic "In a restaurant," you choose a phrase. The waiter wants to reply to that phrase. You then select the "You may hear" option listed in the restaurant category (there is such an option in each category). The waiter can select the answer from the list provided.
A "phrase" is usually a complete sentence. It's called a "phrase" out of tradition.

Sentence Builder

This handy, easy to use feature is a word substitution tool for existing phrases in the phrasebook. You don't actually "build sentences" with it. Here's how you use Sentence Builder:

Choose a phrase.
Tap on a hyperlinked word in the phrase. This brings up a short list.
Tap a word from the list to replace the hyperlinked word with the one you tapped

French pocket electronic translation devices

Learn French Quickly

These French electronic translators provide easy to use programs to help you to learn French or the French speaker to learn English.

Language Teacher. The interactive language teacher system is a powerful tool for learning other languages. It can listen to you and tell you how well you pronounce something in another language.
Linguistic Crossword. A crossword puzzle that helps you learn new words in the target language.
Linguistic Flashcards. Four different flashcard games that help you learn new words in the target language.

Click here for details

Why Buy

A French pocket electronic translator gives you control over when, what, and how you communicate to the French-speaking person. It also allows them to reply to you in kind. Some advantages include:

You can communicate on your schedule. No need to arrange for a French human interpretor.
Less chance of "phone game" errors. Remember the phone game you played as a kid? You pass a simple message around a circle of people and by the time it gets to the end it's entirely different. Eliminate that kind of error by leaving out human interpretors and using your pocket translator to directly communicate person to person.
Share intimate thoughts without embarrassment.
Reduce or avoid the cost of hiring a human interpretor.
Reduce or eliminate the hassle of providing transportation for you, your French counterpart, and a human interpretor.
Use your pocket translator's Language Teacher program to gain a working knowledge of French for basic situations. The program is fun and easy. It even helps you correct your accent, using speech recognition.

France Facts

Language: French (Paw lay Voo Frawn say? –Do you speak French?)
Government: Republic with an elected President, Current President is Nicolas Sarkozy
Third largest country in land area after –Russia and the Ukraine.
Religions: 64% Roman Catholic (4.5% practicing), 10% Muslim, 3% Protestant, 1% Jewish
France shares borders with five other countries - Spain, Luxembourg, Belgium, Italy and Switzerland.
Capital and largest city: Paris, population 2,203,817.
French Flag: red, white and blue
Highest mountain in Western Europe, Mount Blanc, 4,748 M (15, 782 Ft).
Second largest gorge in the world - Verdon Gorge, 200 M deep. 25 kilometers long.
The village of Les Eyzies was home to Cro-Magnon man 30,000 years ago.
Longest river: Loire – 1,012 kilometers (629 miles)
20% of France’s territory lies outside of Europe, 2.5 million French citizens live in overseas departments and territories known as DOM TOMS.

Weather. Cool to cold winters in the north; hot summers in southern France on the Mediterranean Sea. Uptight Americans beware - French women seem to shed their tops when around water - pools, drinking fountains, and, of course, beaches.

Topography/Geography. Two borders of oceans Atlantic/English Channel/North Sea on the north and the Mediterranean Sea on the south. Broad plains, low hills and plateaus, elevated plateaus and high mountains, wide, lush valleys with gaps.

Today, trains are France’s main mode of transportation, but rivers were the first. Throughout its history canals have been used to navigate and make the rivers more efficient. The Briare Canal is the oldest. Constructed between 1604 and 1642, it connected the Loire and Seine Rivers, and was built to help alleviate grain shortages between the regions. The 150 mile long Canal du Midi, built between 1667 and 1694 was a shortcut between the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea.

Paris began as a small Gallic settlement 2000 years ago. In 250BC, a Celtic tribe, called the Parsii, established it as a fishing village in its current location along the Seine River.

The French and the Americans have a long history of friendship. The French fought along side the American colonists during the American Revolution. In 1886, on the 100th Anniversary of the American Revolution. the French presented the U.S. with the Statue of

Liberty. There are three replicas of the statue in France, all represent friendship. Two are in Paris – on Swan Ally Island in the Seine River and in Luxembourg Gardens. There are others are in Colmar, and Bordeaux, France. Ironically, there is another replica in Hanoi, Vietnam, former French colony.

#1 thing to do in Paris - see the Eiffel Tower! Built between 1887 and 1889 and opened in 1889 as the entrance to the World’s Fair, it was the brainchild of two engineers, Gustavo Eiffel, an expert in metallic structure, and Maurice Koechlin, a French-Swiss structural engineer, the main person behind the planning and design.

#2 thing to do in Paris - visit the largest art museum in the world – The Louvre. Review from the Lonely Planet Guide Book: Musee du Louvre - Traditionally the Louvre’s raison d’être (reason for existence or being) is to present Western art from the Middle Ages to 1848. The Musée d’Orsay takes over from that time forward.

France is famous for fashions, perfume, fine wines, cheeses (over 350 kinds) the Tour de France a pro cycling race that takes place every year in July. Last, but not least, fine cuisine AKA haute cuisine. Thought to be the best in the world, French chefs prepare pate de foie gras (paw tay duh fwaw graw) – paste of fat liver, and croissants (flakey crescent rolls), quiche (keesh) (flakey cheese pie).

Odd fact: As romantic as the French seem to be (some say the French make love more often than the citizens of any other country), their word for dancing (daw sing) came from the Americans soldiers during the war.

What should you say to the one you love? Phonetically spelled, technically incorrect, but still fun!