Fast French (The Gimmick Series) [Paperback]

Adrienne (Author)

Book Description

Series: The Gimmick Series | Publication Date: November 1984

The author of the popular Gimmick series offers a basic teaching tool for people who need to learn the rudiments of French in a hurry.

"The man or woman doing business in France, the tourist, the student at school, all have one basic need," writes the author of this handy book: "to express themselves so that they can be understood and understand at the simplest level." Fast French features:

• 1300 current, everyday words
• 24 well-planned lessons, of graduated difficulty
• a simplified, basic language.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Adrienne's vocabulary lists are contemporary, practical, and uncensored--you'll find words here that aren't in any other language book--and they group together families of words, which makes expanding your vocabulary painless...Whether you're trying to learn the rudiments, travel with globe-trotting panache, or get out of a prickly situation, Adrienne will show you the way. -- World News Features, Gordon M. Quarnstrom --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

About the Author

Adrienne is the author of The Gimmick Series language books for Spanish, French, German, and Italian. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 181 pages
• Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc; French Language edition (November 1984)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393301052
• ISBN-13: 978-0393301052
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,362,277 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great Review, October 30, 2003

By 

Diana F. Von Behren "reneofc" (Kenner, LA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fast French (Gimmick Series) (Paperback)

I would not purchase this book unless I had studied Frenh before. It is extremely light on grammar and concentrates mainly on providing the student with 1000+ vocabulary words that can be used in certain simple sentence structures. However, I believe the book's claim---you will be able to communicate in French as a tourist or business traveller, if you actually memorize the entire book and understand the grammar within its pages---to be true. But whether or not you will be able to accomplish this by using this book alone is debateable. Firstly, there is no accompanying CDROM to help with pronunciation and the author does not provide any phonetic spellings to help the student sound out the word in the correct way. Secondly some of the idioms used within the chapters are never adequately defined. The vocabulary is grouped thematically, but all this means is that you may find the word "Voiture" for car in a section that teaches the present tense. Adrienne summarizes all vocabulary in a French-English glossary at the end of the book, but completely omits the all important English-French section that is imperative for a language neophyte. Thirdly, the book covers the present, the future, and the passé composé but completely omits any discussion of the imperfait or passé simple. It is a beginning book, but these tenses should be, at least mentioned.

I bought this book because I liked the way it handled expressions that are needed for everyday conversation but are not always included in other beginning or intermediate books. For example, if I wanted to say "I am in the middle of eating" or "We were about to leave" or "How often do you go to class?". this book provides the means of expressing these sorts of indefinite ideas like "already", "not yet", "no longer" and "still" that we use all the time in English, but have no clue on a beginners level of how to express in French.

Bottom line: the book contains some hidden gems, but you must look for them and be at a point where you need little explanation; if you are not at a conversational level, or are strictly a beginner, purchase one of the more popular workbooks that includes a CDROM for pronunciation.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Concise is the key word here., June 24, 2002

By 

Gloredhel (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fast French (Gimmick Series) (Paperback)

I took some French in college, and wanted to review before starting classes again. This book is great for that purpose. The lessons are extremely concise. The drawback is that they might be a little too concise for beginners. Detailed explanations of grammatical rules/structure are not given; instead only very brief explanations followed by practical examples. The lessons are short, but they're effective if you really take your time and go through them slowly and thoroughly.

My primary complaint is that absolutely NO help is given with pronunciation. Not a single word or phrase is followed by a pronunciation key.

Overall, if you are looking to brush-up on your French, I would recommend this book. But if you are completely inexperienced with the language, this book might serve as a supplemental study guide, but not your primary resource.