Customer Reviews

French the Easy Way

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

What you'll find in this book:

LOTS of vocabulary
Idiomic expressions
Prepositions
Pronouns
Some noun grammar
Reflexive verbs (eg. je me sers)
Numbers
Imperative (commands)
Adjectives
Negations
Present and passé composé verb conjugation
Lots of exercises in each chapter with answers
A small dictionary

What you will NOT find in this book:

Any sort of middle-intermediate or advanced grammar
Any pronounciation guide
Other verb tenses besides the present and passé composé (like imperative, conditional, etc,.)

If you're beginning French or would like to brush up on the basics, this is a must read. Very well done. If you're already knowledgeable of some French grammar or are looking to better your French accent, this is not the book.

Overall, a well done book with very little clutter.

This is a nice book for anyone looking to learn the basics of the French language. It's essentially what you might learn were you to take French 1 in high school or an introductory college level course. The exercises are fun and engaging but there is still one flaw that is excruciatingly annoying if you are attempting to use this as a self-instruction medium -- the pronunciation guide is essentially non existent. Half a page for covering the complexity of French pronunciation? It's ridiculous that an author would create such a fine work, include so many helpful exercises and prompts, claiming that the purpose of the book is for "communication purposes," and then give essentially no detail-oriented instruction on the pronunciation of the language. More over, the pitiful little pronunciation guide is complicated to comprehend and in some cases, either blatantly unconcerned with certain special cases of French pronunciation or just flat out wrong. Perhaps I'm too much of a conspiracy theorist, but one paragraph inparticular from the introduction caught my attention. It reads, "The guide to pronunciation of French sounds...is merely a guide. If you want to improve your fluency and pronunciation of French, I would recommend "Pronounce it Perfectly in French," also issued by Barron's Education Series, Inc." Well, isn't that convenient.

All-in-all, it's a book ample in practice exercises, grammar points, and vocabulary, but Dr. Kendris' insistence that he wrote this as a communication guide, not for the purposes of merely comprehending writings, and the subsequent lack of pronunciation points is something that I simply cannot move past. So, if you know nothing of French or haven't already purchased a copy of the Barron's French pronunciation guide, be aware of this book's one serious flaw.

My French teacher had this book on her desk one day and I looked through it. We weren't using it as a textbook, nor were we learning very much French, but my teacher said that she would grade the work that I did in The Easy Way. I have been using this book for a few weeks and I have improved a lot. It has great dialogues with vocabulary translations at the bottom of the page, and great grammer explanations and practice. You'll be amazed at how fast you learn. I now know the most French in the class. I recommend, though, that you have somebody on hand who speaks French, just in case you get confused. Most likely, however, you won't be. It's in a very simple format and the explanations are easy to follow. I highly recommend French The Easy Way.

This book is perfect for someone already familiar with beginning French who wants to learn to conjugate verbs and increase their vocabulary. I had already taken a Conversational French course which taught me basic things like food, days of the week, colors, weather, basic phrases, etc. After that I tried a few different French grammar books that confused me more than they helped. But as soon as I started using "French: The Easy Way," my French vocabulary took off. You will still need to use tapes to master the pronunciation, but this book will definitely take your reading and writing of French to the next level.

This is a great book for filling in the grammar details while you do one of the tape-based oral courses that teach grammar only by example. The lessons are well formatted, each beginning with a dialog, then moving on to grammar points and lots of exercises, all with answers. The dialogs show enough sense of humor to keep boredom at bay, and the grammar explanations are simple and clear.

French the Easy Way is, in my opinion, a definate buy if you know nothing about French and are just starting out, or if you took it in school, totally forgot it (like me) and want to re-learn it. Basically, it's a work book and grammar book all in one.

I am so glad I bought it. In addition to providing a pretty solid foundation for further study, this book is a breath of fresh air. Many language books are confusing, illogical, ill-organized and just give you a bunch of seemingly meaningless phrases to memorize! The well-written lessons get to the point quickly without confusing you with a bunch of mumbo-jumbo convoluted phrasing. The lesson chapters themselves are organized one after the other in a logical sequence. The excercises, although kind of too simple at times, are overall quite effective and fun to do. Also for a beginning language book, the (often mind-numbingly dumb) reading material is actually pretty funny.

This book does not cover prononciation or French culture; it's just a bare bones BASIC grammar book with basic vocabulary. However, as simple as it is, it still packs a punch.

If you wind up buying this book, I suggest studying the lessons first, vocabulary list next, then onto the story at the beginning of each chapter. Rinse, lather, repeat.

This book is great for beginners. It has a lot of interesting dialogue with pictures and exercises. However, if you want more comprensive grammar explanations, you might want to purchase another more grammar-orientated book to go along with this one!

This book is a good book for learning French and if I had the patience to complete it I could probably be fluent. But, the problem is that if you don't have a formal tutor you are pretty much going to be slowed down a considerable amount. I had looked through the Italian book and finished that with flying colours. The Italian book had a detailed pronunciation guide that spanned several chapters. The French book has a page. That's right, a page for all the fun pronunciation of French and around two or three chapters for nearly phonetic Italian. I have been using a dicitonary to get through this book so far but I'm getting bored.

For the beginner that knows nothing, this book may not be the best. However, if you already know the basics, or want to use it as a supplementary text, this book is great. It's well worth the money, and has a little bit of everything. It's worth it just for the extra practice.

I used this book in my (French 1)classroom for the first few weeks. The kids liked it because the exercises were easy. It gave them confidence in the language so that they could see YOU CAN LEARN A SECOND LANGUAGE!!!