Customer Reviews

Essential French Grammar (Dover Language Guides Essential Grammar)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Wow! I just finished reading this. I've never seen a french book this good. The first 80 pages go into all the different parts of speech (nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, pronouns, etc), and explains how they're formed and used. States the rule, states the exceptions, gives two or three examples, and then moves on to the next thing. The next fifty pages are lists of idioms and cognates. I get so tired of language books that teach you things in drips and drabs with lots of exercises and dialogs, and this is perfect, because all it does is teach you french grammer as fast as it can. I wish I had found this long ago.

I read through this book a few times to help me recall and extend my ability in French grammar. I found it very useful in helping me attain a decent level of proficiency in a short period of time; however, it lacked certain elements of French grammar. Ultimately this deficiency led me to buy Berlitz's French Grammar Handbook.

I don't agree with the cover of the book when it states that it contains everything needed for speaking and comprehension. It would have been helpful if it contained such elements as the pronoun usage of y and en as well as a mention of the past historic tense. When I tried to read _Le Petit Prince_ with the aid of this Resnick's book, I had trouble making out some of the sentences, but after purchasing the Berlitz book, I didn't have any problems.

"The purpose of this book is to enable you to achieve greater fluency with the phrase approach, not to teach you to construct sentences from rules and vocabulary," says Professor Seymour Resnick, in the Introduction of "Essential French Grammar." He goes on to say that his book is not supposed to be used as a primary text for a university course but for adult self-study. First, read the entire book--it is short but pithy. After this quick overview, one will be familiar with the areas in which one needs to concentrate. This little grammar book is designed to help one speak French better: "On apprend à parler en parlant." (One learns to speak by speaking.) Yes, one does make mistakes, especially with verbs and verb tenses, but with practice one can improve.

"Essential Grammar" is such a handy little book. It reviews all the parts of speech with practical examples of usage. There are sections on vocabulary-building techniques and tips on how to build a specialized vocabulary based on one's immediate needs, such as travel or business communication. There is a list of 2,500 cognates (the most often used words that share French and English forms); the author recommends several methods for easy memorization of these words. The book concludes with a glossary and index.

Highly recommended as an aide to learning or reviewing French grammar and vocabulary!

I really enjoyed studying from this book. It gives a good solid foundation for first-time learners of French. The book is easy to understand and split up into small chapters. I would really recommend this book to anyone interested in learning French.

I recently spent two weeks taking an immersion course in French - in France. As a complete beginner to the language the classes were difficult at best since they were taught exclusively in French! While this method may be best for learning vocabulary, pronunciation and general speaking methods its not so good for grammar! I spent my evenings reading this book and it completely filled in the gaps about grammar rules, etc. In fact I highly recommend this book at a necessary supplement to any self study approach.

I find this book to similar to French Grammar (Barron's Grammar Series). Both books provide a quick reference to French grammatical concepts. But this book doesn't list the parts of grammar as logically as French Grammar (Barron's Grammar Series). Also, this book wouldn't be beneficial to you if you don't already understand English grammar.

Here is a list of what's in this book:

Introduction
Suggestions for Vocabulary Building
Written Accents
Word Order
How to Form Questions
Nouns/Articles
Adjectives
Adverbs
Verbs
Demonstrative Adjectives and Pronouns
Comparisons of Adjectives and Adverbs
The Relative Pronouns "qui" and "que"
Negative Expressions
Idiomatic Verbs
Telling Time
Some Useful Expressions
Vocabulary Tips
Vocabulary Building with Cognates
A Glossary of Grammatical Terms
Index

Brandon Simpson

I were using this book for my French reading exam. It provides all essential grammar points for a 250 word translation exam.
If you are in intermediate or more advanced level, a more detailed grammar book would be better.

The publishers have stuffed a great deal of information into these tiny, paperback books. They're great to have on-the-go, as they are not bulky or heavy at all, but contain all the general (and sometimes specific) information that you will need at that time. I also bought these books for other languages.

I think this book is very helpful and a very nice source if you do not have much time to study French with classes etc... It is very small and its advantage is that you can easily locate what you are looking for and especially since it provides you with the literal meaning of what you are saying but in English. This latter part has been really helpful for me since I can compare the English grammar with the French one. For example, a book might tell you what how to use the direct object... but if you are not even sure what a direct object is in your own language the whole explanation may not make much sense. I would definitely advise buying it.

I am a fairly new French student - I found this little book to be quite helpful and easy to read. The small size adds to the appeal and it is the type of book I can see myself returning to, to refresh my learning. It is good value for money. It does not contain everything you need to know but is a good little primer.