Customer Reviews

The Ultimate French Verb Review and Practice (UItimate Review & Reference Series)

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

(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.

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.

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!

The Ultimate French Verb Review and Practice: Mastering Verbs and Sentence Building for Confident Communication is a wonderful book! I have been using the basic French I learned in high school and college for my work in the fashion industry. Now that I'm being transferred to the Paris office of my company, I need to take my French to the next level. I already own and constantly refer to the Big Blue Book of French Verbs, also by Stillman and Gordon, which is a great reference book full of verb charts and examples of usage.

The Ultimate French Verb Review and Practice lets me actively practice and improve my French. It has plenty of exercises to practice verbs in sentence completion, rewriting, and translation exercises. The tremendously useful Building Sentences part of each chapter provides a simple explanation of how to build different kinds of sentences, including with a verb and infinitive construction, indirect object pronouns, the passive voice, conditional sentences with contrary-past-fact conditions, and many more.

The material is well-organized and the explanations in English are very clearly written. Each of the twelve chapters is devoted to a different kind of verb tense or mood, including two chapters on irregular verbs, which are very challenging. Many important French verbs are irregular - aller, avoir, ętre, faire, prendre. I finally can use them correctly thanks to the explanations, conjugation tables, and expressions using the verbs.

The chapter organization also enables me to focus in on exactly what I need to work on, for example, if I need to practice the past subjunctive, I can go straight to that section in the second of two chapters on the subjunctive.

Since I started using the Ultimate French Verb Review and Practice, I've increased my working vocabulary enormously, and already gained more fluency and confidence in speaking, reading, and writing French in business and social contexts. Next I'll check out the Ultimate French Review and Practice. I hope the authors of The Ultimate series, David M. Stillman, Ph.D., and Ronni L. Gordon, Ph.D., keep the new products coming!

I love "The Ultimate French Verb Review and Practice"! Now that I'm retired I'm pursuing my passion for gourmet food and wine, so my wife and I will be visiting the Cordon Bleu in Paris and taking a cooking course in Lyon, France this fall. "The Ultimate French Verb Review and Practice" is helping me improve the French I studied in high school and college. There are loads of exercises that let me practice writing verbs in sentences in all the tenses. It's so easy to use - each chapter deals with a particular verb tense or mood. The Building Sentences sections of each chapter explain how to construct different kinds of sentences. I find the two chapters on irregular verbs especially useful. Never have irregular verbs been explained so clearly! Thanks to the well-written, crystal clear explanations in English, the many verb conjugation tables, ample practice exercises, and useful everyday vocabulary, my wife and I feel prepared to communicate in French during our time in France.

Yes, David Stillman and Ronni Gordon have done it again. Years ago, when I bought The Ultimate French Review and Practice, I was certain that it was the most thorough French grammar book I had ever encountered. However, the newer Ultimate French Verbs Review and Practice carries coverage of the French language a step further. Don't be fooled by the title. To be sure, this is a book on French verbs, one which provides just about everything one might wish to know on the subject. But, it is also packed with up-to-date vocabulary such as computer and internet terms and a wealth of extra tidbits covering other aspects of usage and French language history and development. I took my first French class in 1961 in a high school language laboratory and have been captivated by the language ever since. I went on to study French in college for four years. Since that time, I have continued to read French and to use the French soundtrack on DVD movies as a means of experiencing the language on a regular basis. Living in West Virginia, I rarely get a chance to speak French. It's so nice to have the two Ultimate books to recall things I already know and to learn new things. One little gem I had never encountered before is the use of "vous autres" to emphasize the plural use of "vous." It is simply the French equivalent of "you all" or "you guys." I had always wondered if the French had a way of saying that. Now, I know. The French, however, go a step farther. They also have "nous autres" or "we all" to emphasize the inclusion of particular groups in the use of "we" as opposed to the generic "on" which is an all-inclusive non-particular "we" and is also rendered as "one, people, you, they, etc." I had come across "nous autres" in high school, but never "vous autres." I haven't nearly exhausted the comprehensiveness of this book. I am sixty years old. I will probably never need another French book in my lifetime. These two should do it quite well.

I began studying French more than 40 years ago, in elementary school, kept going through junior high school, high school, and college, and continue to work to improve my written and spoken French even today. Even though I'm fairly fluent, I'm not a native speaker, and there is always room for improvement.

How I wish that a resource like "The Ultimate French Verb Review and Practice" had been available during my school years.

The book states that it is directed to "advanced beginning" through "advanced" learners. While the initial chapters -- covering regular verbs in the present tense, irregular verbs, the imperative form, and the passé composé -- should be at least largely within the grasp of someone at the "advanced beginner" level, the book may put such a student in fairly deep waters after that. I would commend it more to an intermediate student and above, with the initial chapters forming a combination of review of the basics and expansion of the student's repertoire of constructions and vocabulary, and the later chapters helping with more challenging aspects of the subject.

There are several things that set this book apart from others I have used.

First, the authors have a particularly clean and lucid approach to the various topics they cover. This is reflected not only in the English portions of the text, but also in the French examples. Many books of this kind tend to have rather forced and artificial-sounding examples, and classify them in rigid and difficult-to-remember categories. The authors here have managed to develop a more organic structure that makes sense without being forced.

Second, following the introduction of the material, the authors offer a number of different kinds of exercises, approaching the material from a number of different perspectives, to help cement the principles. This makes the material easier to grasp and easier to remember.

Third, the examples all sound natural and plausible, and cover useful sentences that belong in the toolkit of any speaker or writer dealing with everyday matters. The authors use each set of examples as an occasion to stretch the student's vocabulary and repertoire of common expressions and locutions. They also provide some extremely helpful explanations of nuanced differences between similar-sounding constructions that would not be obvious from mere literal translation. A number of discussions provide insight into differences between more formal written and spoken French, on the one hand, and colloquial spoken French, on the other. This contrasts with the more formal approach often found in French educational materials, which pretend that people speak only in perfect, grammatically impeccable complete sentences.

Because facility with verbs is one of the marks of fluency in French (or any language), this book serves an important function and serves it well. And it costs no more than far lesser books on the subject. This one belongs in the library of anyone serious about speaking and writing French with confidence.

I took French from 6th grade and went on to minor in it in college. I would never say I spoke perfectly, but I was fluent enough. 4 years of not reading, writing, or hearing french really took a toll though and I became super-rusty!
I've bought so many other french tools and while some held my interest for a while, none of them was a true workbook like this one. this book is GREAT. It's not designed for beginners, which I think is great because one of the things that makes me stop using something is when I get bored from re-reviewing the easiest stuff that I already knew. I feel so involved with my studying now- there are so many great exercices! the concepts are explained so clearly that I never get frustrated. (I had this one book in AP French in high school that explained everything in French- ugh!). Right now Ijust finished chapter 5 (I feel like I've accomplished something huge) and things are really coming back to me- I feel like I'm understanding the concepts so far even better than I ever did! Few things- I do wish there were more translations of difficult vocab words and some verbs in the book. Keep a dictionary handy. Also I wish there was a section for notes in the back. And others may find it helpful to do what i did and cut out the answer key in the book and staple it together. Nothing is mroe annoying than flipping back and forth to check your answers. (they should have made them tearable, that would have been cool!)

Amazing review tool. Not the only thing you'll need, but probably the most important one!

The "Ultimate Verb Review" is a must have for the price. It is a wonderful and comprehensive review of everything you ever wanted to know about French verbs (and then some!). It's a wonderful review, and it covers useful expressions like avoir de la chance, faire la cuisine, etc. It also includes small sections about other topics than just verbs. It talks a little bit about how to use direct and indirect objects, about au or en before country names, and several other topics as well. I would also recommend another book by the same authors, which is the "Ultimate Grammar Review" which covers all aspects of French grammar. This comprehensive book, however, does not cover verbs as well as this book, the "Ultimate Verb Review," does. This book is more comprehensive than the text book I am using in FRE 201, and should be able to answer all of your French verb questions.

I have used this book in two courses in which my students were supposed to read the grammar explanations and to do the exercises on their own, as a review. They gave me positive feedback with regard to the quality of the explanations, the examples used to illustrate the grammar points and the effectiveness of the activities included in the book.