Mastering French Vocabulary: A Thematic Approach (Mastering Vocabulary Series) [Paperback]

Wolfgang Fischer (Author), Anne-Marie Plouhinec (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0764123947 | ISBN-13: 978-0764123948 | Publication Date: July 1, 2003 | Edition: 2

This French word-power builder presents more than 5,000 words and phrases with translations into English. The feature that makes this vocabulary book distinctive is the way words are divided into themes, grouped together so that the foreign traveler or language student can find words related by subject. The subject themes include business terms, medical terms, household terms, scientific words and phrases, units of measurement, clothing, food and dining, transportation, art and culture:24 separate themes in all. The new second edition has been expanded and updated with increased vocabulary.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English, French --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Back Cover

French words and phrases are presented with their English translations according to themes reflecting experiences that we encounter in our everyday lives. This novel approach to words and their meanings allows both travelers and language students to find the related words that they need grouped together for fast and easy reference. Newly expanded, and categorized according to 41 themes, this bilingual phrasebook contains a total of more than 12,000 useful terms.

Phrasebooks in This Series:
Mastering French Vocabulary
Mastering German Vocabulary
Mastering Italian Vocabulary
Mastering Spanish Vocabulary

Product Details

• Paperback: 544 pages
• Publisher: Barron's Educational Series; 2 edition (July 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764123947
• ISBN-13: 978-0764123948
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #65,173 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #33 in Books > Education & Reference > Dictionaries & Thesauruses > Foreign Language > French

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

150 of 151 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful resource for students of French, December 30, 2001

By 

Paul Walther (Jamaica Plain, MA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mastering a French Vocabulary: A Thematic Approach (Mastering Vocabulary) (Paperback)

This book is the best tool I have found to aid in aquiring a solid and useful French vocabulary. It was well thought out, is very comprehensive, and has made my time spent studying French more productive. This is because I'm able to focus my studies on the most used words on the topics most important to me.

The authors claim the number of words needed to take part in simple conversations is 1200 to 1500. To assume an active role, 2500 to 3000. And to do so without having to ask "what does that word mean?", 5000 to 6000. Langenscheidt's "Basic German Vocabulary" judges the magic number to be 2000 words, in order to carry on everyday conversation or read a text written for the average native speaker (2000 words constitute 80% of words used in all written and oral communication). This book, Mastering French Vocabulary, seperated their nearly 6000 words into those to be learned first, numbering about 3000, and those to be learned later, numbering an additional 1943. They were organized into 35 thematic categories (which were broken down into further sub-categories) to make learning easier and more enjoyable (this approach worked well for me).

Some examples of the 35 categories used are: biographic information, appearance and character, feelings, making evaluations, shopping eating and drinking, clothing, fields of art, at work, politics, weather and climate, and colors and shapes etc..

Aside from the quantity of words, and the nice organization into seperate themes, the authors wrote out each word phonetically using the International Phonetic Alphabet, just as any quality dictionary would, but something most other vocabulary building tools fail to do. This was complimented by the best explanation of the french pronounciation of the IPA that I have yet to see.

The only criticism I have is the small number of example sentences used to supplement the vocabulary given. Langenscheidt's "Basic German Vocabulary" had at least one example sentence for each entry, and even the other foreign language books in Barron's Mastering Vocabulary series have a great deal more examples. The French version has a mere 1310 example sentences, which roughly means there is an example sentence for every sixth vocabulary word given. The current Mastering German Vocabulary: A Thematic Approach has 4,900 and the Spanish and Italian versions have about the same. The French edition is noticeable thinner than its counterparts, ...

I was disappointed when I found there was an example sentence for only one out of every six entries, and doubly so after I discovered the same publisher did such a better job with the other editions in the series. But its practical pronounciation guide and inclusive list of the most important french words, still makes it the best -French- vocabularly resource avaliable.

74 of 75 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars instead of memorizing the dictionary..., February 21, 2002

By 

Maria B (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mastering a French Vocabulary: A Thematic Approach (Mastering Vocabulary) (Paperback)

Sometimes I've wished I could just increase my vocabulary in a huge chunk by reading the dictionary--but of course that isn't very practical or efficient, since on my way to learning useful words I would probably be distracted by hundreds more unuseful ones. This book offers the practical alternative to reading the dictionary! You can start with the chapters that are most interesting to you, and even within those chapters, see at a glance the subset that will be the most useful to start out with (sections of chapters are divided into "learn first" and "learn later" parts). Every time I have looked at this book and gone through a chapter or section, and then have a conversation, watch a movie, or read a book in French, I've recognized words that I just saw in this book. I sometimes prefer it to a dictionary--there is an alphabetical index of French entries--because when I look up one word I might be intrigued by and learn some of the related words near it. The introduction talks about the painstaking and lengthy process the editors went through when trying to decide what words were useful enough to include in these books, and how to categorize them--that is exactly the kind of thing I would hope the creators of a vocabulary book would do. I very much recommend this book for someone (like me) who has a good functional grasp of the language but is short on vocabulary. If you already have a very strong vocabulary, it might be useful for filling in any gaps (or for self-validation of your vocabulary prowess!).

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Solid ,and very helpful, January 21, 2005

By 

Gerald Davis "Gerald Davis" (Melbourne, FL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mastering French Vocabulary: A Thematic Approach (Mastering Vocabulary Series) (Paperback)

This book is great for beginner and non-beginner alike. Its modular approach not only takes the boredom out of memorization, but aids in retention of vocab and makes it easy for use as a reference guide. It's quite enjoyable. I recommend it to the beginner and someone (like me) who's looking to brush on ages of non-use of francais, ce livre est tres magnifique!