Customer Reviews

Schaum's Outline of French Vocabulary

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The first time I saw the book in a book shop, I didn't buy it because it looked like it was meant to be used by students cramming for exams. Maybe this is indeed the purpose of the book. I am an adult learner trying to learn French on my own. Since I don't have to pass any exams, I didn't think the book would be of any use to me. The second time I saw the book, I bought it anyway because it wasn't so expensive and I thought maybe I would pick up some useful vocabulary anyway. The book is surprisingly good. In fact, this is the best book I've found on vocabulary building. Its 46 chapters and the appendixes cover the words and phrases needed in a wide variety of situations. Maybe advanced students may find the book easy, but the level of difficulty is just about right for an intermediate learner like me.

I borrowed this book from a library but I think I need to spend a bit more time on it so I have decided to purchase my own copy. Basically it's different from the other vocab. books which it has exercises for you to do for each unit, and the materials are not very condensed, as with other vocab. books where they just categorize and throw a bunch of vocabs at you. Learning vocab needs drill and exercises, not pure memorization and I think this book does well in this area. I think if you really follow the book and work on all the exercises you will learn a lot. The only thing which made me take a star out of my rating is that the pictures and perhaps the layout of the book is a bit boring...ZZzzzz and outdated but actually the book wasn't very old at all.

I am also going to try out the grammar book and I hope that works well for me.

The book is a very good collection of French Words and is properly indexed with word lists. A must for any student learning french at any level.

I have given this product a hundred per cent rating because:
1)it is easy to understand and
2)it is comprehensive; it contains some topics, such as "L'enseignment" and "Au travail" that are rarely found in other books of its category.
I recommend this product to anyone who wants to learn French fast and easily.

Schaum's book here is the best book I've found on vocabulary building. Although it is targeted at students taking exams, the book's rich content will benefit any serious student of French. A whopping 46 chapters, divided into 10 major units covering Travel, Services, Food, Shopping, Medical Care, Home Life, Entertainment, Sports & Leisure, Education and Work, and Appendices on Numbers, Time Expressions, The Francophonie, Clothing & Shoes Sizes, etc, it provides tons of vocabulary items, to meet most of your everyday needs. It is also illustrated with many pictures (black & white) e.g. interior of a car, an airport, bathroom, etc with items labelled.

Most other vocab. books simply categorize topics and then throw a long list of items at you, with no drill/exercises to help reinforce your learning. For me vocab. acquisition and retention need drill and exercises to complement memorization. The book's drills and exercises do just that. Apart from Schaum, Practice Makes Perfect's French Vocabulary by Eliane Kurbegov, is the other book I know that also offers exercises to complement the categorized topics. However, at 22 Chapters, it is only half the size of Schaum, and nowhere as comprehensive.

I own several vocab books: Schaum's, Practice Makes Perfect, Mastering French Vocabulary by W.Fischer and 10,000 French Words by W. Rowlinson.

Overall, I rate Schaum the best.

Note: I have not checked 6,000+ Essential French Words which comes with a CD that reportedly pronounces several hundred essential words, allows you to build flash cards and I think also has exercises.

I studied French for many years. I can tell you much of the vocabulary in this book is very, very useful. I would fancy that an American student of French would benefit from this than a Canadian one, since they would be less likely to cover these terms in French courses on the high school in the U.S., and they wouldn't cover these everyday words in Canadian French university courses or American ones. You are dealing with terms related to cars, sports, travelling, hotel reservations etc.. I think that is useful, and you can't feel fluent without knowing these terms. I have a very old version of this book (1985), and I eventually want to get this newer one and compare.

This book can be very helpful as an aid in learning what to expect and how to respond to various experiences in French speaking countries. This book gives examples of giving and getting directions, what to expect at a bank, train station, or restaurant, etc.

As a beginner trying to self teach myself basic French, this is a fine reference to fall back on.