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Recommend a French grammar & phrasebook?

  Tags: Phrasebook | Grammar | French
 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes Post Reply
Jeffers
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 4907 days ago

2151 posts - 3960 votes 
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Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German

 
 Message 1 of 5
12 February 2012 at 8:57pm | IP Logged 
As the title says, could you recommend a good, readable French grammar? I know opinions will vary about what good and readable mean, but just let me know what you'd recommend, and why!

Also, taking up that Irish polyglot's advice to learn a phrasebook, could anyone recommend a good phrasebook to use? I'd prefer one with a CD.

I've been learning French for about 6 months (slowly), but have a family holiday in France this summer, so I want to kick it up to the next level.

Thank you!
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Elexi
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 Message 2 of 5
13 February 2012 at 10:04am | IP Logged 
How about the Collins easy learning grammar:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Collins-Easy-Learning-French-Grammar /dp/0007367821/ref=sr_1_5?
ie=UTF8&qid=1329123701&sr=8-5

In the same series there is this slightly-bigger-than-a-phrasebook with MP3 download

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Collins-Easy-Learning-Dictionaries-
Conversation/dp/0007229747/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1329123737 &sr=8-9

or this CD based one

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Collins-Gem-Learning-French-
Phrasebook/dp/0007358482/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1329123805& sr=8-10

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Jeffers
Senior Member
United Kingdom
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2151 posts - 3960 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German

 
 Message 3 of 5
15 February 2012 at 2:43pm | IP Logged 
Thank you Elexi. I flicked through the Collins grammar in a bookshop the day after I posted my request. It looked good, but I still wanted to see people's opinions.

Have you used any of these books? I was hoping for feedback about which books are useful and why.

One phrasebook I've been thinking about is the DK one, here on Amazon. Has anyone used it while travelling in France?
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magictom123
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 Message 4 of 5
15 February 2012 at 7:33pm | IP Logged 
Madigrals magic key to French is floating around the net as a pdf file I believe. If you can find it, get it.
It's like a more in depth Michel Thomas course with 100's of questions. Very good in how it simplifies
grammar and expands vocabulary at the same time.

As for a phrasebook, doesn't Benny always use the Lonely Planet ones? I don't think they come with
audio though.
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Jeffers
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 4907 days ago

2151 posts - 3960 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German

 
 Message 5 of 5
03 March 2012 at 8:26pm | IP Logged 
Today I sat in a bookstore with Collins Easy Learning French Grammar, and BBC Talk French Grammar. It seemed to me Collins gave slightly fuller explanations, and uses more technical language (which I'm fine with). However, I bought the BBC grammar because it has a chapter on sentence structure.


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