Customer Reviews

The Blue Pocket Book of French Verbs : 333 Fully Conjugated Verbs

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I purchased this 333 Verb book after using the Big Blue Book with 555 French Verbs, principally because this smaller version is lighter to carry and I can refer to it with one hand as I read French-language literature.

This volume has most of the best of the Big Blue Book 555 Verbs (which I have also reviewed) -- it seems basically only to be smaller (type size as well as the book itself) and has fewer of what it identifies as Top Verbs, 30 as opposed to the Top 50 in the larger volume.

I have also reviewed the 555 Verb book.

This looks as if it will be great for travel. The classic "500 verbs" book (by a different publisher) is much bulkier and heavier. This includes idiomatic usages and all the other info one would expect to find, even though it is smaller.

I decided, after starting my first year of French at university, that I needed a smaller and similar version of the "501 French Verbs" book that I have, to bring to school with me. "The Blue Pocket Book of 333 French Verbs" is perfect - I really do wish they made versions of this for other languages as well (other than just French and Spanish).

At the beginning of the book, not only are explanations given on how each verb tense is used, but -re, -er and -ir verbs are conjugated, and there are usage examples in sentences. On one page, there is a list of the "top 30 verbs", selected for their high frequency and their use in many common idiomatic expressions. Beside each verb on this list is the number of the page that has the verb fully conjugated.

Each page of conjugated verbs has a "Usage" section at the bottom. There are several example sentences and often a little section of related words.

The verb tables are easy on the eyes. The layout is great. I think the only (very minor) thing that could improve it just a bit is if the names of the tenses on these pages were a different color than the conjugated forms of the verb.

I think 333 conjugated verbs is a lot for a small book like this, and the index contains 2700 most common verbs. If you're going to get one French pocket verb book, buy this one.

I recommend this book to anyone taking French in university or high school. It's small and lightweight but does indeed "pack a punch" for its size.