Customer Reviews

French Now! A Level One Worktext

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

 

 

This workbook is great for drilling basic vocabulary and crucial concepts of grammar into one's head. I love having plenty of space right in the book to fill in the answers.

But unfortunately, there's a big problem: the answers to the exercises are NOT PROVIDED in this book! This can be a real headache -- what if you are drilling and drilling, unaware that you are repeating the wrong usage over and over?

According to the book's Preface, "A separate teacher's manual is available from the publisher." However, no such manual exists, as I found out by checking the publisher's web site. A separate "French Now Answer Key" is listed here on Amazon, but is described as Out of Print and is in fact unavailable anywhere.

Instead of this book, therefore, I recommend "French the Easy Way" by the same author. It's another workbook using the same format; in fact, the identical stories are used, as well as most of the same exercises. But that one DOES supply an Answer Key in the back.

Of course, if you are using this book in conjunction with a class and/or a teacher, it might still suit your needs, since the teacher can point out your mistakes. But for independent learners, I cannot recommend it.

This would be a very good course if not for the fact that the audio part of the program does not cover dialog part. For beginners being able to herar what the language sonds like is very important. I have used Spanish NOW by Barrons with tapes that include dialogs. What a difference!

There is a lot of knowledge in this book.
It tends to move fast, throwing a lot at the reader at once. It would be good for a classroom, but for the home schooled French learner, it is gonna be tough.
Take your time with this book.
That is my only complaint of this book, now -
The good points - Grammar is well explained. The glossary is good for being a "glossary" in a book. (may want to have a French dictionary just in case)
The approach of this book is to first teach the more common words and grammar. The author interjects much humor in the scenarios used.
For the price, I don't think you will find a better book. It is one of a few books that are not only "fun" but educational.

Some complain there is no answer key? True, but by the time you study a text, you will have enough examples to complete the exercises given. Many involve "Write 3 sentences explaining (this or that), and for those, there is no way the author could know what a person would use for their own words.

As with ANY course in language, look for real life usage to get the most. A course can only cover so much.

An excellent book! Much better than Decouverte Et Creation. It actually makes learning French FUN and SIMPLE! I'm taking a college French course and I wish they had assigned this book to us. Not only is it hundreds of dollars cheaper than all the text, workbook, and tapes they tell us to buy, it is 10 times more helpful.

This book will slowly yet effectively build your confidence as you progress from lesson to lesson. It helps you to integrate learned words by actually using them in effective exercises. The lessons flow perfectly. You will learn BY DOING, both in writing and in speaking what you write (or in speaking before you write). It is not at all boring, I promise I never once yawned while I breezed through the first two sections.

Another great thing about the book is its format. Vocabulary words pertinent to the exercise will be on the same page or the next, in addition to the dictionary at the back of the book, so that you don't lose concentration by flipping through pages to find the meaning. Instructions are in English but it doesn't take away from the learning. This is a great self-teaching book.

With it, I recommend a CD-ROM program called "Smart French." It's helped me to understand spoken French and to improve my accent and conversational skills. I'm only a beginning French student but I've never been this interested in learning a language before.

I'm homeschooled, so there is no one really to teach me but the book. I tried SEVERAL different French book and tape combinations, but this is the only one that has worked! I don't even need to listen to the tapes, I can understand French just from the books dialogue and speak it just hte same. Highly recommended for a beginner, and those learning on their own.

This workbook is a very good book for a beginner. It teaches you French grammar very well. There are dialogues at the beggining of every chapter that has new vocabulary words for you to learn. This workbook was set up very well and teaches you all the basics of grammar and vocabulary, and a little beyond. I think you should buy this book if you really want to learn good French.

This book helped me a lot when I first started to learn French. I studied by myself over the course of a year by filling in the pages of this workbook whenever I had nothing else to do (which was often). I didn't even notice that there were no answers. I never checked because it's straightforward enough that you can know whether you're right by looking at the textbook/ explanation part that precedes the exercises.

A year later I studied with a French tutor for several months and he used this book. I think he said that the author (Kendris) has written some very good French resources so I am searching for some of his other books. Unfortunately it looks like Level 2 is not available here.

The French Now! Level 1 book is a great book to have for grammatical instruction. There are short stories at the beginning of each chapter with each one having a bit of an ironic twist. It helps you to understand those difficult issues like reflexive verbs and passé composé and even the partitive article. 4 stars you ask? Well, like most language acquisition, it is always good to be in a classroom with lots of motivated people just like yourself.

This book is okay and nothing more. It's a cheap way to introduce oneself to French; however, there are several spelling errors in it.

The book is easily written to understand the grammar basics for learning French from scratch on your own. The book I assume was intended to be used in a classroom setting as some of the exercises require listening. There is no cd accompanying this book nor are there any answer keys to verify responses for written exercises. However, if you want an easy to read guide for basic grammar and vocabulary, this book is sufficient for this purpose.

In conjunction with the above workbook, I would recommend buying another self-study book with an audio cd so that you can hear the pronunciation while following along the text at the same time. Most language book publishers today include a cd with the text in their current publications.