Customer Reviews

The Ultimate French Review and Practice (Book+ CD-ROM) (UItimate Review & Reference Series)

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have loved the French language since I studied it in college and have tried to practice it whenever possible, traveling, seeing French films, reading newspapers in French. I bought French language books for review but always felt I was at a standstill, never really improving. It wasn't until my daughter started studying French in high school and I was looking for books for her that I began to make progress. That was the day I found The Ultimate French Review and Practice in a bookstore.

The book explains all the grammar points of the language so clearly and concisely and the exercises use real situations and everyday, authentic language. The culture notes are fascinating and connected thematically to the exercises. The articles and ads from French language newspapers with their accompanying exercises have really helped me to read and understand. I have been so motivated and inspired by this book.

I couldn't imagine anything better until I was in a bookstore and voilà, there was The Ultimate French Review and Practice with a CD-ROM. Several weeks into my use of the interactive CD-ROM I'm so excited that I have to write in to let people know about it. I'm working my way through the hundreds of exercises that are all new and different from the exercises in the book. I can practice all the grammar points of French and the exercises are referenced to the chapters in the book so it's easy to check my answers and find explanations. The diagnostic and review tests are extremely helpful.

What I especially love about the CD-ROM are the Audio Modules which are great for improving your listening comprehension skills. They have dialogues or narrations spoken by native French speakers. If I don't know a word I can consult the Glossary or the pop-up definitions. I find it very helpful to repeat after the speaker the Ten Key Words and Expressions that precede the audio passages. The topics of the audio passages are very varied and there's a wealth of idiomatic vocabulary based on the topics. My daughter, who is now studying French in college, is dazzled by what I can say about shopping, choosing a career, traveling by plane, eating in a restaurant, even falling in and out of love. She says she hasn't learned nearly as much in her courses and plans to borrow my CD-ROM! Je crois que je vais avoir un succès fou (as one dialogue character says)!

As other customers already pointed out, this book is good, and very well organized. I'm using it to complement the less than average French classes I'm taking in college.

The reason I took out 1 star is because this CD is bad. I had a lot of trouble to install it on my Windows Vista, and after installed, every time I open it or change chapters I get 4 different error messages asking to debug. That would be ok if the CD's audio part was great, but it isn't. It consist in 12 *very short* texts that give you only a tiny glimpse of pronunciation.

So save a couple of bucks and get the book only!

10/15/08 - EDIT to add: I've found a great free resource to learn french, full of audio files, it is a website made by the University of Texas at Austin: http://www.laits.utexas.edu/tex/index.html

I cannot rave enough about this book. First, it is extremely engaging and well-organized for a French grammar book. It is geared toward the Intermediate student (as, for example, the lesson instructions are in French). However, if you are an advanced beginner looking for a challenge, don't shy away. There are tons of exercises to reinforce your learning, including a CD with a diagnostic test and other learning tools (including some auditory dialogues). If you are looking for an excellent grammar book to supplement your auditory learning, I highly recommend this one!

I bought this book a couple of weeks after moving to Paris. Having taken 1 year of high school French and struggling through the college requirements, I arrived in Paris being able to say my name and that i was American (not the two best sentences to know in Paris!). I had basics (avoir and etre), but there was just SO MUCH missing. I found this book to be a very practical tool for real French speaking and French life, not just textbook French. The text is very instructional as the lessons are very concise and easy to understand, each one building on the previous. There is also an index where you can look up necessary vocabulary, and the sayings and expressions in the last chapter of the book are extremely helpful. Lots of good grammar but also vocab, and some cultural info. I've recommended this to many English-speaking friends who moved to France and need a refresher course. That said, you do need SOME knowledge of the French language before beginning this book - it starts out basic but it's not for a complete beginner. Bon chance et bon courage!

The glowing reviews for earlier editions of this book still apply, so I won't repeat them. Just wanted to let fellow Mac users know that the CD-ROM that comes with this 2nd edition of the book does work for us now. It loaded easily and is working perfectly on my Macbook so far, though admittedly I have not used it extensively yet. Thank you, authors!

The Ultimate French Review is the single best book I know for learning and reviewing basic principles of French grammar. It uses multiple and increasingly complex illustrations, and comes with a series of well presented CD's with French speakers. For those who have had some initial training in the language, this volume is the next logical step.

I teach French and Italian at a private college preparatory high school. This is an exceptionally good French Grammar book. It functions as a repair kit for grammatically challenged students. The grammar explanations are clear, and the exercises are abundant. I use it as the main textbook in my advanced classes.

This is not for beginners, but for someone with a few years of basic high school or college French this is perfect to brush up and improve those lacking areas that were either missed the first time or have been forgotten a few years after taking French courses.

I leave it on the coffee table and work through the short exercises (with answer keys!) during TV commercial breaks or for half an hour before bed. The grammar rules are explained very concisely, chapters aren't very wordy. Most of the pages are taken up by the exercises and vocab tables with translations (most bang for your buck).

I took four years of French in high school but didn't pay too much attention in class during the final two years. After five years I am kicking myself for not absorbing the more complicated grammar and vocab in my later French courses. When I saw this book at the bookstore I flipped through it for five minutes and was sold.

This is one of the best french grammar books I've seen. It is outlined beautifully and easy to comprehend. It describes things in the simplest of terms, therefore making it easy to understand.

I tutor a high school student and I had her buy it. We usually teach the grammar from this book, not her class french book. The CD is superb. The exercises are great. It allows one to practice constantly. It definitely helps.

I love this book. I recommend this to someone who is just starting out and the accomplished speaker.

This is a solid French review for advanced beginners prepearing for intermediate courses. Or for intermediate/advanced students needing a refresh. The structure is sound. Good examples. Pretty thorough. At the end it has a chapter with a lot of commonly used phrases which is not found in other books.

Why 4 and not 5? The CD-Rom (which is actually pretty good practice) is PC only.... Seriously, the publisher should've thought through this. It's a hassle going to the public library to do the CD-Rom exercises.