Customer Reviews

Teach Yourself French in 24 Hours

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

 

 

I have been actively learning french for almost a year now and have over 60 french texts on my shelf, some published in france. The thing that really stands out in this book is that the author seems to know the confusions the english speaking learners regularly run into, such as the difference between c'est and il est. I have not come across a book in my entire collection that explains this, but this book has one section devoted to just that. I also like the way things are arranged - each lesson is designed to be finished within an hour, and there is a test at the end of each section to reinforce your learning. With some texts you could spend a lot of time in one chapter and quickly give up due to the lack of sense of accomplishment. With this if you religiously devote an hour a day to it, you could really finish it within 24 days. I personally think this book is one of the more exceptional grammar texts out there, especially if you have not been exposed to french grammar at all. But obviously to master a language, you need to supplement your study with lots of different kinds of materials - audio tapes, video, story book, play, etc. One book can never be enough. But if you want to get a good head start with french grammar, this is a really good one to go with.

This book introduces French grammar and vocabulary in 24 lessons, claiming each lesson can be read in one hour's time. Perhaps, but learning will definitely take more than one hour.

The good things: if you are into lists of things, this book is for you. It has lists of intransitive verbs, common reflexive verbs, common adverbs, to name just a few. If you like plenty of examples, it has them. It provides a guide for pronunciation and Web sites for the alphabet and for practicing some difficult sounds.

The bad things: Some translations into English are incorrect. In the passe compose chapter, the list of verbs that use "etre" as an auxiliary verb is not complete. If you like plenty of reading and writing exercises, you'll have to get a supplemental book. No audio.

Now, this isn't a bad book on its own merits: Dr. Griffin introduces grammar functionally, how to speak in the present, what are the most common irregular verbs, how to form negations, and so on. This approach was used brilliantly in one of the best language books I've ever seen, "Easy Spanish Step-By-Step (Step By Step)," and all explanations are as crystal-clear as they are brief. Now even under the best of circumstances this approach won't work for someone looking for quick tourist-survival phrases, or who's trying to get a grip on the pronunciation, but handled well, it's a great way to learn how the language works and to begin expressing relatively complex thoughts very quickly.

Furthermore, unlike most, the author is up-to-date on modern colloquial French, such as the fact that virtually everyone says "on" instead of "nous" for "we," which the majority of French books either ignore or gloss over. He also acknowledges that "ne" is generally omitted in spoken French, another important truth that most materials prefer to ignore, causing their learners to sound like a dorky Mr. Data to French ears: "Zhuh nuh say pah."

With those strong points, what's missing? Simply some actual instruction! There are no readings at all! No sample letters, no headlines, nor short texts of any kind. It gets worse, though: there are no exercises! No "translate the following sentences in French," no "use the following verbs to describe Jean's day," no exercises, period! This lack reduces the book to being an simplified reference book rather than a useful learning text.

Whereas Easy Spanish Step-By-Step (Step By Step) had entertaining readings and copious exercises to drive the lessons home, this book only presents a pathetic "quiz" of ten multiple-choice questions at the end of each chapter. To put it bluntly, you test yourself on your ability to remember a couple of key points for 50 minutes.

A less serious gripe I've got is that the book feels like it's mostly whitespace. That's a bit of an exaggeration, but the margins and leading are SO generous that what takes 460 pages to present here would likely take around 300 in a book by most other publishers. At times the material feels too scattered, blown across several widely-spaced pages instead of being presented concisely in more compact and easily-digestible lists and paragraphs.

Why is it that compared to Spanish books, French books seem so bad? I've been looking for the French equivalent to the superb Spanish book I've mentioned earlier, but it doesn't yet exist.

This has been the best book on French grammar that I've read so far. It contains no photos, illustrations, or extensive cultural sidebars so you get 400 pages of detailed information on French grammar with no distractions. There are at least 3 to 6 sample sentences for every grammar rule, far more than are to be found in other textbooks. After reading several other beginner French books, I was able to expand my notes with the far more detailed information in "Teach Yourself French in 24 Hours". I think this book really put me over the top in my French studies because now I can read anything written in basic French, like other French textbooks, but not French poetry or newspapers which requires a greater vocabulary.

"Teach Yourself French in 24 Hours" is not one of those books that tries to be a shortcut to the language. It covers far more than conversational French. It is a very thorough introduction to the entirety of the French language (but still just an introduction). I recommend this book if you are looking for a single text that encompasses levels 1 to 3 in typical French textbooks.

This book has a lot of good info. I don't think it would be a good starter book. I have studied French for a couple years, so I have somewhat of an understanding. This book is a good review, good practice for reading and writing.

BUT - I think they try to cram too much into this book for someone who is a true beginner. It is very boring to read. Strictly the grammar and no real fun. And it can be misleading, he says something about conjugating 99% of French verbs, which may be true, he forgets to mention that the other 1% of the verbs not mentioned are VERY common and irregular verbs.

Good for some solid review, but not much for a beginner. To me it is a review.

I have to agree with Kelly1Kanobee. This book is not for newcomers to the language. If as a beginner I had picked up this book, I would have gone no further than Chapter 2.

The author, a French professor approaches the language from a linguistic perspective, introducing the beginner to unnecessary exceptions and idiosynchirises. The key to learning I believe is to equip the reader with the ability to read, write and speak very early on in the learning process, albeit the ability to construct short, basic sentences. This book will not allow for this.

The only thing you will take away from the early chapters is the ability to count to 1000.

I would highly recommend the French for Dummies book, its a simple and comprehensible approach to the language.

I found this text very useful for me since it allowed me to recall my long lost high school French, and become familiar with the language again, after 10 years.

My wife has the paper verison of this book. it's excellent. I ordered Kindle version based on the written copy and was EXTREMELY disappointed.

I want my money back, and apparently there is no way to get it back, even though Amazon controls what gets to my Kindle and has no reticence about snatching things back from others, like Orwell's 1984.

What's the problem with the Kindle version? The book is loaded with text tables. The publisher could not be bothered to have someone type them and lay them out for easy reading. Instad, they are scans that are shrunk so small, they are absolutely illegible.

You can change type size, but there's no way to magnify an embedded image with the Kindle. That makes many dozens of tables absolutely unreadable. Ever tried to read a book where most of the important details are in the tables and all you can see is the surrounding text?! Well, in this case, that's pretty much useless.

This is the very worst Kindle version I have ever seen. If this had been my first Kindle download, I'd have returned the Kindle in disappointment.

I purchased Alpha Teach Yourself French in 24 Hours (ATYF) quite some time ago, and it has been sitting on my shelf gathering dust. Shameful! ATYF is overflowing with information, with excellent descriptions of concepts, and an exceptional amount of material on exceptions-to-the-rule. At times, maybe too much!

In a sense, the book is like a lesson-based grammar. It slowly goes through each category of information, having already covered nouns and adjectives before even touching on verbs, and only once all these pieces were there getting into prepositions and conjunctions. And while the presentation is thorough, it does make it hard to create examples in the context of real sentences until the book is half-way through.

I would not suggest this for study by itself, or for complete beginners, though this would likely be the perfect text for refreshing your high school French after years away from the language (as it was for me). This course is also not aimed at just conversation, as many courses are. Extended sections are spent on formal communications in writing and for business settings, and literary forms that will not be used in conversation at all are touched on by the end.

Other than numbers, and lists of prepositions or verb forms matching stated exception cases, there is very little effort to provide regular vocabulary in each lesson. Once the last half of the book is reached though, vocabulary learning begins in earnest. The vocabulary is extensive, much more than can be handled in one sitting. This is going to require frequent return and study to get a full handle on.

Overall, the stated goal is that each chapter would take an hour to read. And while one the surface this is true - you can read it straight through in an hour - I spent between two and three hours on every chapter. That included reading it through either once or twice (and taking notes while doing this), then posting from my notes on my blog. And I would not say I spent enough time on the material, especially the vocabulary. So take the "in 24 hours" with a grain of salt.

The material is well stated, and very little of the language is left untouched. I just had this feeling of drowning by the end of every lesson.