42 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A good reference, May 14, 2000
This is a good left-brain book. It is well organized. Everything about gender in one section, adjectives in another section, and verb endings in another section, unlike my current text book, which skips around a lot. I studied French on my own for two years with moderate success, then started in a class. I continue to use this book as a grammar reference because the index is very functional. One weakness is that there are no cassettes or CD's directly tied to this book.
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40 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A useful midlevel book for learning French..., March 7, 2001
This book is not perfect, but it is a good place to start if you're looking for a book which is well structured and don't mind the fact that there are no tapes or CDs. I took French for four years in high school, so I cannot really comment on how effective it is for persons who've never taken French at all. But I did find it very useful as a refresher course and for looking up grammatical rules and general info.
There are six overall sections, broken down into various chapters. They are: The Very Basics; Travel; Fun and Games; Problems; Let's Get Down to Business; and the Answer Key. Each section proceeds in a logical fashion, and there are often sidebars such as "Pitfalls", "As a Rule", and "Cultural Tidbits." These help break things up and keep it interesting while you're slogging along through a series of verbs or lists of items. There are often pronunciation guides for words, which are surprisingly useful, and there are sample sentences for common usage and everyday situations.
All in all this book is a good value for the price and I wouldn't hesitate to buy it again.
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28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Guide to Learning French, June 22, 2003
This review is from: Complete Idiot's Guide to Learning French, 3E (The Complete Idiot's Guide) (Paperback)
I am currently using this wonderful book by Gail Stein, who is "well-known language instructor who has taught in New York City public schools for over 20 years."
The book contains 26 chapters, and is very well organized. It contains tons of useful vocabulary and lots of useful information on grammar, idioms, etc. There is an ample number of exercises with the answers, so that the learning process is an interactive one.
I also like the book because of it's light-hearted approach. The lessons are fun, and her helpful and amusing comments make the book easy to read.
Another great thing about this book is that it teaches you right from the beginning how to pronounce French words correctly, something that many French language books don't do. In addition, most of the french words are followed by their pronounciation in paranthesis, for example: l'ami (lah mee). Because of this, you will be able to learn how to speak and understand verbal French, not only read and write it.
There is enough information in this book so that, with dedication and time, you can achieve an intermediate level of French using this book alone, which is what the book's goal is to do.
The book is very inexpensive, and a great value. I would strongly recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn French at the beginner's level.
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