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148 of 148 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Surprisingly great, October 11, 2006
This review is from: The Ultimate French Verb Review and Practice (UItimate Review & Reference Series) (Paperback)
(I have just started to use this book, and am a few chapters in, so keep in mind that this is a review of the format and structure of the book, not of every detail.)
I am trying to revive my French after seven years of dormancy, and I thought this book might help me to produce the French that, these days, I can only read. I was not wrong. One of the broad, general advantages of this book is that all of the verbs appear in full sentences (both in examples and in exercises). That means that working on the verbs doesn't mean just practicing declensions: it means expressing full thoughts.
One of the other reviewers also mentioned the question of register, and this is another of the book's major strengths. Since I mostly read French, the vagaries of spoken French are still mysterious to me. The authors not only discuss the different ways of using verbs and constructing phrases in formal, colloquial, or general speech, but they also do little things like giving pointers on words with difficult pronunciation. Brilliant!
Strength number three: the authors' attention to idiomatic expressions. While they do give lists of verbs, they also often teach verbs in ways that make it easier to remember and use those words. For example, when teaching "prendre" for irregular verbs, they also give a list of expressions (like, "prendre son temps") and later, a list of compounds like "apprendre" and "surprendre". I really believe that teaching words in related groups like this will make them mean more to a student and "stick" in the student's mind.
Since others have talked about the general structure of the book, I'll mention finally one superficial aspect. When it comes to language-learning books, they're not much use unless you actually use them. Superficial matters like layout, paper quality, and type are really important. This workbook is lovely. The paper is of better quality then those old disposable workbooks I used in my high school French class. The layout incorporates lots of white space, so I can concentrate on the words and even make notes beside them. I say this because I also looked at the authors' first book (Ultimate French Grammar Review and Practice) after I fell in love with this one, and that one looked a lot busier, and didn't have spaces for the exercise solutions! They clearly made some improvements this time around.
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93 of 93 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
AWESOME! AWESOME! AWESOME!, August 15, 2006
This review is from: The Ultimate French Verb Review and Practice (UItimate Review & Reference Series) (Paperback)
I have been studying French for about 8 years now and I consider myself conversationally fluent (I can get by without people looking at me like I'm crazy!) I am somewhat of an academic nerd too, so I own about every French language learning book out there. I've tried it all, but I think the Ultimate Frenc Verb Review and Practice is the MOST USEFUL intermediate-advanced french language learning book I have ever used. It's a god-send. There are a ton of books out there, but rarely do they cover those pesky French Verbs indepth. Most books gloss over verbs, reducing the learning to mere conjugation, but forgets to deal with the important part of using french verbs: USAGE! REGISTER!
Fine, so you can conjugate the verb Se Debrouiller (to manage). So what? But how do you USE it in the conditional? Does it have the same meaning? How do I make it function in an If/Then clause, which tenses do I use? This book covers all of that AND MORE INDEPTH! I was amazed at the number of exercises on just one small little topic.
The best feature of this book, is that it isn't just about Verbs. Each chapter goes through main parts of grammar too! So while you may be in a chapter about the "imperfect" there will be a lesson on how to position a sentence so that one can fully exploit the "imperfect" tense, or how to place adjectives in with the tense, where are they placed for each tense, would you put an adjective directly in front of the auxillary verb? Umm yeah, the book goes into that much detail.
My only caution is that the book assumes you have prior knowledge of French, and I think at least at the intermediate level. Many of the grammar points are advanced for those who might have learned French in high school or took one college course. I would describe the grammar points as giving you a refresher first and then once you're caught up, they through you an interesting advanced grammar zinger to stretch your learning ability.
Great book, get it. You won't be sorry.
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67 of 68 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent, but with one small issue, September 13, 2006
This review is from: The Ultimate French Verb Review and Practice (UItimate Review & Reference Series) (Paperback)
I've just begun learning French on my own, and this book has certainly helped immensely with my understanding of the fundamentals of French. Everything is explained very clearly with ample exercises to truly implant the rules and logic of the grammar in your head.
That being said, there is one small issue I'd like to point out, though it's perhaps more of a tweak than a correction. It'd be great if the book had a verb glossary at the end. As it is now, if you forget the meaning or usage of a verb or verb phrase, you have to flip back through the previous chapters of the book and try to remember where you saw the verb in question originally. It would've been much better if it also had a single glossary of all the covered verbs. It's not enough to knock it down to four stars, as it's usually the difference between searching for five seconds instead of for three, and it's only an issue if you actually have forgotten the specific verb in the first place, but it's a small addition that I would've found very welcome.
I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants a very readable primer on French grammar. Despite its intended readers being "advanced beginning through advanced," this absolute beginner rarely felt overwhelmed, and when I did, there was always the answer key!
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