Product Description

Youre no idiot, of course. You appreciate wine and brie, can pronounce "croissant," and know that "bonjour" means hello. But when it comes to actually learning the language, you feel stranded on the Eiffel Tower with no way down. Dont strap on your parachute just yet! The Complete Idiots Guide to Learning French, Second Edition makes mastering French fun and entertaining--instead of bogging you down with verb tenses and vocabulary lists. Youll feel confident about "parlaying" your new proficiency into conversations with native speakers. In this Complete Idiots Guide, you get-

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #313170 in Books
• Published on: 2003-04-25
• Released on: 2003-05-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 464 pages

Ingram
Packed with exercises, activities, and cultural tidbits, this book features idiot-proof techniques to help master pronunciation, grammar, and usage, readers are also given quick and easy methods to phrases and terms used by native speakers.

Book Info
Updated, user-friendly guide to enjoying language-learning. Text begins with basic material, provides a broader understanding of the structural patterns of the French language, and moves to a higher level of expertise and proficiency. Previous edition: c1999. Softcover.

From the Back Cover
You're no idiot, of course. You appreciate wine and brie, can pronounce "croissant," and know that "bonjour" means hello. But when it comes to actually learning the language, you feel stranded on the Eiffel Tower with no way down. Don't strap on your parachute just yet! The Complete Idiot's Guide to Learning French, Second Edition makes mastering French fun and entertaining--instead of bogging you down with verb tenses and vocabulary lists. You'll feel confident about "parlaying" your new proficiency into conversations with native speakers. In this Complete Idiot's Guide, you get:

Customer Reviews

Only good as a reference
If I were to learn French from scratch through this book, I would have given up in no time. The structure of this book is totally not for real beginners. However, since I have already studied some the ABC's of French, I find this book to be very useful as a reference book. Quite a few things are explained in detail and repeatedly that the reader may feel progress is slow but is actually learning something. The content is 4 stars but the layout is only 2 stars. Borrow it from the library to check it out!

good book but...
As the other reviewers have said, there are a lot of great things about this book. The author's tone is encouraging and the lessons are helpful. The pronunciation guide and hints are great. However, there are several typos and other typesetting and proofreading errors that take away from the quality of the book. Some even cause confusion. A book that teaches language should have been edited a little more carefully.

Excellent Guide to Learning French
I am currently using this wonderful book by Gail Stein, who is "well-known language instructor who has taught in New York City public schools for over 20 years."

The book contains 26 chapters, and is very well organized. It contains tons of useful vocabulary and lots of useful information on grammar, idioms, etc. There is an ample number of exercises with the answers, so that the learning process is an interactive one.

I also like the book because of it's light-hearted approach. The lessons are fun, and her helpful and amusing comments make the book easy to read.

Another great thing about this book is that it teaches you right from the beginning how to pronounce French words correctly, something that many French language books don't do. In addition, most of the french words are followed by their pronounciation in paranthesis, for example: l'ami (lah mee). Because of this, you will be able to learn how to speak and understand verbal French, not only read and write it.

There is enough information in this book so that, with dedication and time, you can achieve an intermediate level of French using this book alone, which is what the book's goal is to do.

The book is very inexpensive, and a great value. I would strongly recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn French at the beginner's level.