Customer Reviews

French Grammar (Teach Yourself)

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From the Introduction: "This book is based on a grammatical progression and is intended for a variety of learners from beginners to those wanting to brush up their grammar skills."

I took French for three years in school and wanted to brush up, and this book was perfect. I can't speak for those who have no prior knowledge of French (although as you can see, the author claims the book is suitable for beginners) since I already knew most of the vocabulary used. If you don't know a bit of French you will probably have to study a little more carefully.

I really like how the book is organized. Generally, a discrete unit of grammar is covered in each chapter, and the book contains just enough examples to be helpful but not boring. The end of each chapter contains a section called "pour aller plus loin" which deals with things that you might find confusing about French, like when to use 'y' vs. 'en' (as a pronoun) and when to use 'c'est' vs. 'il est' or 'elle est'.

The author takes great pains to make the book painless! The chapters are entitled things like "Imagining what could happen" rather than using grammatical terms like 'mood' and 'conditional'. This is fine with me and I find it quite pleasant. The examples relate to a single storyline that runs through the book, which also makes it more interesting and personally relevant. Reading a chapter at a time (there are 18) is a manageable amount for someone with some background--it's not boring and is easy to remember the information presented.

One more thing I liked is that example sentences are presented with translations that attempt to convey intent rather than word-for-word translation. One thing to note, though, is that the English seems to be British English--but it is not that hard for an American to "translate"!

I really recommend this book; it has helped renew my confidence in my French language skills.

This is not a bad book, just not nearly as good as the usual Teach Yourself series. The Teach Yourself Beginner's French Grammar is much better, and no less advanced.

This is very poorly organized as a reference. Even the index is skimpy. It mostly follows the organization of a "topics" test -- which is not how I want a grammar book organized. That said it does a decent enough job of running over basic French grammar. But there are a lot of books in this area and this is one of the weaker.

I found this book to be quite interesting to read. It helps me to review key points of the grammar studied in the classroom and makes interesting reading if you need something on a cold rainy night. Grammar points are clearly explained however the topics are listed only in the table of contents. In future editions of this book it might be prudent to make a more detailed list for an index in the back. Specific points could then be located more quickly than having to read through an entire chapter.

This book has a solid approach of linking grammar topics with communication functions. The book does a good job of showing the particular real-life contexts in which the various structures can be used. In addition, the explanations are straightforward, non-technical, and clear.

The fatal flaw, however, is that the book lacks both vocabulary lists in the units and a glossary at the end of the book. I think that this book might still be useful as a supplementary resource, but it can definitely not serve as a primary self-instructional course.