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B1 to C1 French Grammar | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| tristano Tetraglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 3828 days ago 905 posts - 1262 votes  Speaks: Italian*, Spanish, French, English Studies: Dutch | Message 1 of 8 20 September 2014 at 11:04am | IP Logged |
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Hi all.
I'm currently studying at the Alliance Française and I would like to have some advices for one or two monolingual grammar books covering the grammar (with exercises) from B1 to C1 and of course also a refresh of the basics to complement my studies. Thank you very much in advance. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4790 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 2 of 8 20 September 2014 at 2:35pm | IP Logged |
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Hi, tristano.
I am using the series Grammaire Progressive du Francais by CLE. Especially levels Avancé and Perfectionnement might be interesting for you. It's probably the most widely known and used series in the world and for good reason. I think it it is of the highest quality and I usually compare similar resources for my other languages to it as well. Another great publisher, and much less widely known, is PUG. Their L'Exercisier is a grammar for B1-B2 levels and for B2-C1, there is L'Expression francaise ecrite et orale which I hope to start with soon. Another well known series is by Hachette but those were purely exercise books, without the explanations. They used to have five levels before a huge overhaul of the series and now they've got four levels, only up to B2. I didn't get the series becuase I like to have the explanations and exemples with the exercises. 5 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4690 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 3 of 8 21 September 2014 at 12:05am | IP Logged |
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Cavesa, thanks for the useful suggestions. I've been thinking of getting something from the CLE series for a while. I've asked this elsewhere, but haven't gotten any answers: can you comment on any other books in the CLE series? They have Grammar Progressive, Communication Progressive, Phonetique Progressive, Conjugaison Progressive, Orthographe Progressive, Vocabulaire Progressive, etc. There's another one called Exercices Audio De Grammaire (which only seems to be available in Niveau intermédiaire). They even have a set called Civilisation Progressive Du Francais, and another called Litterature Progressive Du Francais. All with three or four levels.
I suppose my first question is have you used any of the books other than the Grammaire Progressive series? Also, is there a lot of overlap between books of different levels? If I do the Intermédiaire volume, would there be a problem moving on to the Avancé or Perfectionnement? Edited by Jeffers on 21 September 2014 at 12:05am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4790 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 4 of 8 21 September 2014 at 12:58am | IP Logged |
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Yes, I've been using the Grammaire intermediaire, avancé and perfecionnement. I have one of them open before me right now as I am going through a huge grammar review now. My goal is to fill in all the exercises now (basically redoing those I filled in on copies from my teachers years ago, doing those I have missed so far or to which I have only read the theory, and so on). I find this series to be one of the most enjoyable ways to approach grammar systematically and the newest level: Perfectionnement is a real jewel.
I like the explanations, there is a lot of exemples, lots of exercises. Exercises are of several basic kinds. Fill in the gaps works nicely in the beginning, when you need to focus on the new grammatical feature (and you read more exemples while doing it), answer a question or create it, create sentences following an exemple, put present sentences into a different tense, create your own sentences. No nonsense like endless connections of parts of sentense, no questions about grammatical terminology. Quite everything is very practically oriented. There are as well pronunciation notes where it is relevant, which I like even though those are not that useful to someone who has had lots of listening input already. There is some overlap but it tends to work well. The overlap gives you a small review and basically assures you don't need to buy previous volumes if you are interested only in the later ones. The progress from a lower level to a higher one is quite smooth, the books are well thought out, in my opinion. I know the Vocabulaire series. Again, I had been getting copies from teachers in past and I plan to buy the intermediaire and avance levels for a common vocabulary review. Unfortunately, these books are rarely available second hand because they are among those people keep as a reference after finishing. They are just as awesome as the Grammaire. Should you master the vocabulary inside the three volumes, you shouldn't have any trouble moving to native materials or in many real situations in the country. And the books are a good resource for someone advanced who lacks the everyday vocabulary despite having read and listened to native resources a lot, which is my case. I don't want to be caught on something basic. I flipped through the Conjugaison once. It was probably not bad but I decided my money would be better spent on a cheaper and more complete reference Toute la conjugaison published by Albin Michel, which I highly recommend. The exercises and exemples of usage of various verb forms are well covered in the Grammaire series. I've seen the Phonetique well past the time of my beginnings so I can't tell you more. I think Communication is a good series and complement to Vocabulaire. More dialogues, more everyday situations. Might be useful for preparation for a stay in the country. But again, I didn't use it as I discovered it late. No idea about Orthographe. Civilisation might be good but I think such information can be accessed through other means as well and perhaps in a more natural and fun form than any textbook can offer. But it might be useful to learners with some needs and interests. I haven't even opened Litterature as I think there is no shortage of French books, bds, graded readers and so on to build your own ladder to reading skills. There are Exercises Audio and Communicative ones etc. I haven't used them. For some of the books, there is a new edition. It is more colourful and might therefore be more appealing to many learners. But I think it slightly affects the price, which isn't too low especially considering the key to exercises is always separate, and the paper is a bit more difficult to write on with a pencil in my opinion. But the new and colourful editions are surely pretty and not at the expense of the content, which is a rare achievement. And the new edition does have a note about cefr level as well. I think the Vocabulaire series now leads to B2 but I am not sure (I plan to buy the last tome from the next month's money) but I am now looking at the Grammaire PdF Perfectionnement and the authors are so sure to have covered it all that the graphics shows progress from B2 up to C2! 6 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4690 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 5 of 8 21 September 2014 at 1:23pm | IP Logged |
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Thanks for a very thorough review! I'm leaning towards the Exercices Audio De Grammaire, partly because it comes with an mp3 cd, and partly because the corrections are in the back of the book. The older version with audio CD had 5 CDs, so I'm assuming the mp3 CD has at least 3-4 hours of audio.
On Amazon, there are two editions for sale, one dated 2003 costing £19.50, and the other dated 2005 and costing £10.99. The cover pictures for both are identical, and both say "1 CD audio MP3 inclus" on the cover photo. I think I'm going to risk buying the cheaper one, and if it doesn't have the CD Amazon will have to take it back. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| tristano Tetraglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 3828 days ago 905 posts - 1262 votes Speaks: Italian*, Spanish, French, English Studies: Dutch | Message 6 of 8 22 September 2014 at 5:27pm | IP Logged |
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Hi, @Cavesa, seems that the forums deleted my previous comment.
Thank you very much for your advices! I'm not sure about one thing: which one should be done before? The Avance' or the Perfectionnement? Thank you again! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4790 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 7 of 8 22 September 2014 at 5:38pm | IP Logged |
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Avancé is lower level. You are welcome.
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4690 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 8 of 8 22 September 2014 at 10:50pm | IP Logged |
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My copy of Exercices Audio de Grammaire arrived this afternoon, so I gave it a review on my log: http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?T ID=37873&PN=1&TPN=11.
I bought the cheaper edition mentioned above, and it all seems to be in order. It doesn't really explain the grammar, so I think I will also buy one of the Grammaire progressive books. I consider myself to be a "mixed B1" (definitely up there on the receptive skills, but definitely lower on productive skills). I'm leaning towards the avancé edition because I'm finding the audio exercises intermédiare book to be a bit too easy. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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