5 comments about Berlitz Self-Teacher: French.

1. This is great stuff! I developed better-than-decent proficiency at both French and German, starting from ground zero, working with these books for only a week or so. I would prefer a few more rules frankly stated as such: I found that I had to infer rules from what at first seemed like irregularities or surprises in a sample text. I don't know how the author(s) managed, but the odd assortment of dialogues is evidently sufficiently ingeniously chosen that one builds a strong practical vocabulary--certainly to make oneself clearly understood and to have educated foreigners truthfully tell you that they're most impressed with the extent of your command of language X. Warning: German will prove somewhat more difficult than French, as the conjugations are more detailed, the genders are more numerous (three versus two), and the declensions of adjectives and nouns will definitely present an onerous burden that one never fully gets used to. (BTW, the older printings were preferable--I'd rather have an honest green overcoat with the German or French text than have a black-and-white overcoat with an arrow pointing to it that says in English, "Um, er, pretend that this thing here is colored green.")



2. I am trying to learn french in order to pass a CLEP test. I had 2 years of french in high school, but have forgotten most of it. I have tried to compile a comprehensive study regime in order to read, speak and hear the french language. Currently I have Learn in Your Car French, French in Action videos on the Internet, and this book. The Berlitz French book is an enjoyable route to learn how to read French and even word pronounciation. Each word has in this book book has a pronounciation guide underneath it. This feature is really great. As you are learning new vocabulary, you learn how to say it correctly.



3. I'm not a native speaker, so I don't claim to be an expert, but this is my main criticism of the book: Apparently it hasn't been revised since it was first published in 1949. The old-fashioned pictures are quaint, but some of the sentence constructions are not. For example, some of the first questions are of this pattern: "Est-ce le mouchoir?" This is grammatically correct, but people don't actually talk like that (and, I don't know: do people still carry hankies?); it would be more natural to say, "C'est un mouchoir?" There is no index, so if there's something you want to review, you'll have to search for it. There aren't any in-depth explanations about grammar, just occasional short notes from the "professor." The book's purpose is to give you the sense of the whole language through repetition and recycling of lessons--so in that sense it may work well for some people. Users may like the English translations and transliterations; I find them rather distracting. As an instructor of beginning French,I'm still looking for a clear, engaging, inexpensive introduction to the language.



4. Just the steak....without the sizzle!!!! I agree with a previous reviewer that there is a reason why a 60 year old text has held up so well over the years. The instruction is intuitive and builds logically. The pronunciation is transilliterated to facilitate pronunciation. Each leçon is approximately 3 pages long. A certain activity is described in about 50 sentences. Each sentence is in French, transilliterated French, and English. Subsequent sentences build upon the prior ones. At the end of each leçon is a self test of about 15 questions, with answers. Each leçon might take 10-15 minutes, depending on your skills. Effective study sessions can be multiples of that duration of time. Each chapter also has a "Note to Student", where important explanations are given. Concise...convenient....easy...and fun!!!!
   This text is also a wonderful adjunct to any other French course(s) you might be using. I believe that there is a tendency to use the latest, most expensive, most hyped language course methods out there. While we all learn differently, a daily, conscientious approach is required, regardless of the course (or cost). My experience with Amazon has been that the most highly rated products do not disappoint. Many of the popular language courses today harp on immersion, as opposed to vocabulary and conjugations. They claim that your first language was learned that way. While I do not disagree, and concur that throwing you in the deep end will force you to learn to swim, the adult brain does learn differently than the child's. Sometimes we need to know WHY it was said like that. Buy, use and enjoy this gem!! You will not be disappointed. Bonne chance!!!!



5. A great tool for non-French-speaking beginners.
   
   Memorize phrases in just minutes!
   
   Not for the intermediate or advanced speakers, but a really great way to teach yourself the basics of French.

5 comments about 1001 Most Useful French Words (Beginners' Guides).

1. Simply put, I learned more French from this two dollar book than from all other French books combined!



2. While that is not really a complaint - this isn't a hardbound book, but rather a complement on how useful it is for someone who realizes the importance of getting the first thousand words of French down cold. I've gone through it twice, thoroughly, and have a new copy which I'll use to go through it again. It is that useful with examples of usage and extra category vocabulary at the end. If you can use a thousand words in a foreign language well, you can get by. If they are a foundation to greater learning because they build confidence, you will progress beyond your wildest dreams. Knock one latte off your menu this week and spend it on this.



3. I give this 3 stars because, FOR THE PRICE, it is a decent book. Who can complain at the price? I DID, however, just do two reviews for "Routledge Frequency Dictionaries", and found them to be better overall. I gave them 4 and 5 stars, so I HAVE to give this one fewer stars. If the rank were out of ten stars, the others would have had 9 and 8, and this one would have been 6.
   
   If you are looking to have a basic, but somewhat impressive, vocabulary, and do it quickly and at a low price, this is a good book. I bought this book, but I am STILL waiting for the Routledge Frequency Dictionary for French.



4. Great guide that can help you learn French words anywhere. I read it on the treadmill and while flying. Each word has corresponding English word and a sentence in English and French. Excellent guide.



5. This is a great reference book, but don't expect practical applications. After all it is a tiny book.
   Good to pick up vocab though.

5 comments about Larousse Concise Dictionary: French-English/English-French (French Edition).

1. I purchased this dictionary because I was studying for an upcoming exam- it was a translation exam and I was allowed to have only one dictionary at my side. This was it ! I passed in no small part due to the ease-of-use and the clarity of the definitions.
   
   The typeface is easy to read and the multiple definitions are clear and easy to understand. I found the translations to be helpful even when facing idioms and proverbs in reading. The number of entries is very good for a dictionary this size- it's certainly not pocket-sized, but it's not a brick, either. It's a perfect student dictionary for levels beginner through intermediate (advanced students may, of course, need something more specialized.)
   
   Highly recommended !



2. Great IPA for vocal music majors
   
   I bought this product for a Voice Diction class I am taking. It was surprisingly hard to find dictionaries with accurate IPA for as many languages as I needed (German, French, Italian, Hebrew, Russian...etc). Larousse had a great product so I bought three of them and intend on getting more when I need them. If any of you vocal music majors out there need the dictionary for the IPA and as a guide to pronunciation, this is a great product and I highly recommend. Thanks!



3. As a student of both English and French languages, this seems to be the perfect dictionary for me. If I don't know a word in a language, I take a look at the other and vice-versa.
   
   Comme un étudiant autant d'anglais que de français, ça me semble le dictionnaire parfait, peut-être. Si je ne connais pas un mot dans une langue, je le cherche dans l'autre et vice versa. Voilà!
   
   Paulo, from/du Brazil/Brésil



4. The product was heavier than I hoped it would be. I actually owned the Pocket dictionary, but I lost it. I recommend you buy the Pocket dictionary because of it's lighter, although, it's not pocket sized.



5. This book is very helpful. It covers a lot of vocabulary and gives accurate translations. The explanation is very clear. I bought a used one, so it did not cost me a lot. However, one needs a working knowledge of French to make best use of this dictionary.

5 comments about Play and Learn French (Book + Audio CD): Over 50 Fun songs, games and everyday activites to get started in French (Play and Learn Language).

1. Charming and age appropriate. Engaging for the parent and digestible for the child. I am so happy someone did this. Its unique



2. I am a little disappointed with this product. Although the book is great for non-French speaking parents (it has French on one side and English on the other, along with illustrations) the cd is not very entertaining for a baby or toddler. Not to mention, at many points, the voice on the cd does not even sound like a native French speaker (I speak French and have lived in France). There is really only one person speaking the entire time (it sounds like the same person does the adult and child voice), and the whole cd is the "adult" saying or asking something and the "child" responding. There is no music or anything that would make my baby want to listen to it.



3. Considering there's a big fat spelling error right on the front cover, you're best to avoid this and look for something else that's been better edited and reviewed more closely.



4. I have bought this book for my niece, aged 6, who moved to Canada and needed to learn French. It was a very helpful first encounter with the language.



5. I love this - great for the price. We are going to have our first grandchild in six months. I have told my daughter and son in law that I will only speak French to the baby. Uh... now I must REFRESH! Mon Français est terrible!
   
   I wouldn't use this book and CD with the child... this is for ME to learn these phrases and perfect my pronunciation so I can play with the child. I don't see this as a book to sit down with, child in lap.
   
   It is very well organized and has pictures with words along the bottom of every page. These are great! I'm labeling things around the house. The nice thing about this book is that it has everyday language around everyday activities you would engage in with a child. It has little songs - not great music, but that is not the point. In our family culture, we make little songs of everything. Getting breakfast, walking the dog, washing hair - for our family this is a perfect book! It's full of little simple songs around activities.
   
   Many language products are designed for the traveler. I don't plan to ask the baby where the bathroom is or tell her I need a taxi. I need language products that cover everyday activities, household items, family relationships and events - that sort of thing. This is perfect.
   
   The book is splendidly organized. It even has sections that cover the language of play and of make believe... our favorite games. The way the information is presented is top-drawer. You have a column on the left in French, with certain words in bold. These are vocabulary words you are learning. On the right, there is a column with the English translation - corresponding words in bold.
   
   I'm playing the CD as I go about my activities at home - by the time we have our grandbaby, I should have it down. Very useful and very helpful. But again, not really a book you would sit down with your child and go through. However, I WOULD advise playing the CD for an infant. Just have it playing at naptime and during the day. The sounds of the language will be picked up by the infants. Infant brains are wired for language acquisition. Putting the sound of the language "in the ear" of the infant will definitely give him/her a terrific advantage. I'm shopping for other products for this purpose as well. And of course, classical music.
   
   I highly recommend this product - I've looked at quite a few. This book and CD will be useful for a long time. I am a doctor of psychology with a special interest in development. Assessing products through the knowledge of brain development, I cannot recommend this product highly enough. Again, parents should study it to pick up everyday language so they can use French casually at home, every day. And I recommend playing it for infants from day 1. It won't make a child more intelligent and it won't make a child into a language genius... this is only about getting the sounds of the language into the infant's brain so that s/he will have an easier time with pronunciation. There's no magic formula and no magic product... but if we take advantage of what we know about brain development, we can help children get closer to their potentials for learning without burning them out or stressing them. Learning should be fun. This product DEFINITELY will help you with that!
   
   One caution - the "child" on the recording is clearly an adult and sounds rather silly. But I can live with that. This is a terrific product.

5 comments about 501 French Verbs: with CD-ROM (Barron's Foreign Language Guides).

1. In this so-called Kindle edition, much of the type face is so light as to be completely unreadable on the Kindle. Do NOT get the Kindle version of this book (which is otherwise a great book). Does anybody who prepares these "Kindle" editions for the publishers ever actually look at them on a real Kindle?
   
   BTW, I have the Kindle DX, so this is not a size issue.



2. This is a good refernce in paperback, but on Kindle you can't search to a specific verb and the small type on the pages is unreadable.



3. I had a book like this many years ago and lost it; I am glad I found it again. Even though I am not fluent in French, this book helps me a lot, makes my reading and writing easier...



4. i downloaded the kindle 2 sample of this book. i was skeptical that it would be formatted well. i scrolled through sample expectimg to see what the verb conjugations would look like on the kindle 2. the sample did not include a single page showimg what the conjugations would look like. i will not buy this book at this tim eon kindle. i would guess the conjugation page is just a blurry jpeg. sorry for short choppy sentences. writimg on kindle



5. By now, I think these books on verb conjugations are widely recognized as essential for the study of all Latin languages. Still, I was surprised when, in my FIRST class with my French professor, he demanded that I conjugate irregular verbs like go and be. When I protested that I didn't speak French, he said, "say excuse me." EscusAy moi, I fumbled. Parle vouz francais? We? "You know enough," he concluded. "Now repeat the conjugations after me for go. "You'll need this for simple future tense. Do you have 501 French verbs?" I ordered it from Amazon, but it hasn't arrived yet. "Good. Now continue!"
   
   This book wasn't required for the class, but apparently, it was something the teacher assumed students would acquire.
   
   Needless to say, I was more than a bit dazed. When I studied Spanish, it wasn't until the 6th week we started conjugating verbs and even then, we started with regular verbs, keeping the irregulars until later. Perhaps this teacher has a point -- it's a little hard to say much when you can't say am, are, was, were, be, been, is or I'll go in the target language. It's as good a place as any to start, I suppose.

5 comments about Haitian Creole Dictionary and Phrasebook: Haitian Creole-english, English-haitian Creole (Hippocrene Dictionary & Phrasebook).

1. ok, I know a bit of French, but this book has helped a new Haitian student become better adjusted.



2. This was a very informative dictionary/phrase book.
   I already had the dictionary but this phrase book is a plus for anyone wanting to speak and learn more Haitian Creole.
   Sent in timely manner.



3. However, I wish this was more tuned towards more general subjects. Also, it seems to be solely concerned with the spoken language and nothing in regards to written language. However, the dictionary section does seem to be quite complete and in a pinch you could probably write mission-specific phrases.



4. Purchased these for my son-in-law who is a Baptist Minister. Several members of his congregation (including his wife) went on a mission to Haiti recently and they will be hosts to a Haitian student very soon. Another local minister saw them and asked me to order additional copies!!
   
   Haitian Creole Dictionary and Phrasebook: Haitian Creole-english, English-haitian Creole (Hippocrene Dictionary & Phrasebook)



5. I was very happy to find this dictionary for sale. It seems that most Haitian Creole dictionaries are somewhat dated and this one was actually a newer version which is important as Haitian Creole has been evolving over the past decade or so... It is very neat, compact and easy to use. At the end of the actual dictionary part of the book they include a phrasebook section that is organized well and helpful for putting together conversations and even looking at the grammar of sentences in Creole. All in all I was very satisfied with this purchase and have found it very helpful to me in my study of Haitian Creole.

5 comments about The Ultimate French Verb Review and Practice (UItimate Review & Reference Series).

1. Very good book love the explanations, they are very clear and to the point. Love the exercises. I highly recommend this book to people who are serious about learning French.



2. I love everything about this book,the exercises are presented in a way that conjugation of verbs are interesting and not confusing.The more I enjoyed my learning of french.I have so many reference books,but this is the must have.



3. French verbs are so complicated, but this book guides you to learn them in a simple step by step fashion.



4. I bought this for my francofile husband who is extremely particular - he loved it. It is the perfect book for someone who already has basic french language skills and needs to learn more about conjugation and vocabulary.



5. Out of all the French language study books that I have, I think that this one is the most useful. I'm not a newbie to French and for me the thing that I have the hardest time unraveling is all of the verb tenses. That is because once you get a decent amount of French vocabulary and grammar under your belt, that stays relatively static in the language and it is the verbs that become the key to being able to understand and express yourself in the language.

5 comments about Practice Makes Perfect: Complete French Grammar (Practice Makes Perfect Series).

1. I found this book well-organized and easy to proceed through. I have a lot of experience with French (studied in high school and college), but needed a review, so for me it was perfect. I really can't say how it would be for someone just starting out; I think most folks would want to be able to hear the words. But there are some great websites for that, so perhaps in conjunction with the web, this would be a good starter French grammar book.



2. If you're studying French grammar, it's usually because you have to ( student) or you enjoy French and want to improve your writing. I find this book exceptional because it provides the basics but won't bore the advanced student or teacher. This is a clear, concise, guide to basic grammar without the excessive prattle that fills pages and inflates the price of textbooks while boring students to distraction.
   It had been years since I studied French. When I picked up this smartly organized volume, I not only quickly began to recall what I thought I'd forgotten, but I also learned new concepts for thinking about grammar. Painless and highly recommended!



3. This was a gift for my husband who is a Language teacher. He thought it was a good basic grammar book.



4. I purchased four french grammar books at the same time, and I have to say, they are all exceptional when it comes to learning French. These are a must have for ones library if you are trying to learn French and/or if you are interested in learning a few phrases with the correct pronunciation when arranging a trip to France.



5. Excellent condition---received in just a few days---exactly what I wanted. Thank you very much.

5 comments about Easy French Reader.

1. This is a great resource for French teachers. I use it in my classroom all the time. It also has a great section of history articles that is very easy to read for intermediate students and if you supplement a small activity to go with each reading it really helps the material stick. The history sections are short enough that they give you all the information that you need to know, but don't bore the students. The other sections are also fun and are great for quick activities for when you have substitutes.



2. The book is at just the right level for a beginner wishing to learn to read French. Each chapter starts with a small translation list for new words or expressions that show up in the main text thus helping you through the translation. Sentences are short and in the present tense, which is just what you want when you begin. There's also a lot of repetition, again good for the beginner.



3. If you are truly a beginner with no knowledge (or very little) of the language, I think that you will find this book discouraging. Even for me, at a more intermediate level, I find the title discouraging in that I feel like if this is supposed to be "easy" french (as it would be for a native speaker), it just shows me how much I don't know at what is considered an "easy" level. As others have said, only the more advanced words are defined in the margins, so if you have zero french background, you're going to be in the dictionary all the time and there may even be times, because you may not understand french verb conjugations, when you can't figure out what the infinitive of the verb form is or it will be unclear. And some of it just isn't going to make sense to you at the beginning level, like looking up reflexive verbs, etc.
   
   So, I think that this is a worthwhile book, but not for the very beginner. Get some grammar and vocabulary under your belt first so that you won't find this book discouraging and want to just give up on the language completely.



4. I really enjoyed this book but also agree that this text is not for an absolute beginner, you must have some knowledge of French. This is also a great supplemental text to anyone studying the language.



5. An absolutely great book to have if you are learning French or need a refresher. The exercises at the end of each story are great reinforcements for comprehension as well {the crossword puzzles are great too}! Plus the vocabulary is not hard to remember {I made my own flashcards using some of the words} and grammar is perfect for beginners. I also like the short stories at the end. All in all, I would definitely recommend this book to everyone.

5 comments about Rick Steves' French Phrase Book and Dictionary.

1. we used some pertinent phrases on our recent trip to
   
   France, so it was instantly helpful, plus entertaining.



2. Mr. Steves pulls off another winner book. It is all you need if you do not speak french.



3. I don't give negative reviews on items I've purchased very often, but here goes.
   
   When we bought this book, along with one for Italian, we thought they were great and very user friendly. This was before we actually arrived in France and Italy and really had to use them. When you're in actual situations where you need to find words and phrases fast, this book doesn't cut it, at all. The simplest of words I tried to find in the dictionary weren't there so I quickly went searching through the various sections trying desperately to find necessary words for the simplest of things like directions, traveling, etc. Amazingly, even though these phrases are the most important to use, the ones we needed, the words actually being used at the train and subway stations, weren't to be found. It was a waste.
   
   I finally started using Google translator to put in the phrases I needed, and wrote them down. These worked much better than this book and we were able to do much more. Plus, I didn't have to spend time trying to find the right section, and the right spot where a certain phrase might, or might not, be found.
   
   The book might be useful before you leave, to start to learn pronunciation, etc., but you could probably borrow a book from the library and learn the same thing. Save your money and go to the library, then use Google translator for phrases you'll really need for subways, trains, restaurants, etc.



4. An intelligent and useful phrase book but full of surprises. You have to read the whole thing--how to handle yourself in a bar (Viva la France!!), how to tell the taxi driver that he is going so fast that you are going to throw up, and on and on. But lots of useful stuff too, including phrases that a standard guidebook wouldn't think to tell you about.



5. We used this mostly for the menu decoder. There was a surprise moment when we used it for the medical description at a pharmacy. This book paid for itself there!