Pronounce It Perfectly in French with Cassette(s) [Paperback]

Christopher Kendris (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1994 | ISBN-10: 0812080386 | ISBN-13: 978-0812080384 | Edition: Book and Cassette

Practical training emphasizes command of French vowel sounds and nasals--ordinarily difficult for English speakers--including vowels with and without written accent marks, as well as vowel combinations. Book and 2 cassettes.

Product Details

• Paperback: 166 pages
• Publisher: Barron's Educational Series; Book and Cassette edition (April 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812080386
• ISBN-13: 978-0812080384
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,256,036 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Dr. Christopher Kendris, an accomplished linguist, has worked as an interpreter and translator for the U.S. State Department at the American Embassy in Paris. He holds a Ph.D. from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, and diplomas with Mention très Honorable at the Université de Paris (en Sorbonne), Faculté des Lettres École Supérieure de Préparation et de Perfectionnement des Professeurs de Français à l'Étranger, and at the Institut de Phonétique, Paris. He is former Chairman of the Department of Foreign Languages and Supervisor of 16 foreign language teachers at Farmingdale High School, Farmingdale, NY, and has taught foreign language courses at various colleges and universities.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Really helped my French pronunciation!, September 26, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Pronounce It Perfectly in French with Cassette(s) (Paperback)

At first I was sceptical, but my doubts fell away after I started working through this book and tape combination. This is a very systematic and logical guide to French pronunciation that approaches it from the angle of French spelling rather than of the sounds (e.g., how to pronounce 'euil' in various words.) My spouse (whose French is excellent) commented right away that my accent was much improved! The only minor criticism I have (and the only reason for 4 instead of 5 stars) is that the book doesn't use the International Phonetic Alphabet symbols; I would recommend to anyone using it that he or she find a way to match up the sounds with the corresponding IPA symbols. This will help when trying to figure out the pronunciation of new words shown in a dictionary. Other than that, highly recommended!

32 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars French Pronounced Perfectly, June 8, 2000

By 

Amber Kimbro - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pronounce It Perfectly in French with Cassette(s) (Paperback)

As with Christopher Kendris's other French language books, Pronounce It Perfectly delivers impeccable grammar and pronunciation techniques. A relative newcomer to french language, I started with Mr. Kendris's French Now! workbook. This book teaches one how to conjugate verbs and formulate sentence structures. Pronounce It Perfectly then continues with another workbook and 2 cassettes which makes the task of learning French with the correct pronunciation flow very smoothly. Then continue on with his 501 French Verbs: Fully Conjugated......Arranged. You can't go wrong with Mr. Kendris's line of books, and definetely do not try to speak without first listening to the cassettes. They will make you more comfortable and understandable in the long run.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good but they could easily have made it better, May 27, 2005

By 

A. J Terry - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Pronounce It Perfectly in French with Cassette(s) (Paperback)

I bought "Pronounce it Perfectly" because I am teaching myself French from the Foreign Service Institute tapes series (which this is not part of). The FSI course is very good, but is mostly given at conversational speed, which means I repeatedly miss some nuances of pronunciation.

So, I hoped "Pronounce it Perfectly" would teach me what I needed and keep me from permanently hardening a bad accent. Tape I was great. However, throughout Tape 2, the speakers apparently realized they were running out of room. To make this minicourse fit onto the tape, they cut down the response time to almost nothing. I could barely draw breath before they were on to the next word. I found myself gabbling all my responses anyhow just to get through them before I had to listen to another word. True, I could press the Pause button, but doing that literally every few seconds gets old. As for the long phrases and minidialogs, there was no possibility of repeating them, so I had to just skip them. My accent, I'm afraid, did not improve much during the second half of the course--though I repeated it twice.

This is a shame, because "Pronounce it Perfectly" would easily have fit onto two cassettes if they had not continually repeated the same few sentences about procedure ("Repeat the words after the speaker," etc.) and cut the recordings of waltzes inserted between every unit.

As for flaws in the course itself--being thoroughly stumped by the French "R," I was disappointed to see it covered so scantily in "Pronounce it Perfectly." The course states there are three pronunciations for the French "R," but that the only one covered would be the Parisian pronunciation "as recorded by the speakers on this tape." However, the male and female speakers pronounced the "R" quite differently. And I would have liked to learn all three pronunciations.

Finally--feeling that the difference between French spelling and pronunciation is a mystery worthy of Hercule Poirot--I'd reallly have liked more explanation as to when the endings of words, as spelled, are left off when pronounced.