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opaline's review against another edition
4.0
This book uses a really clever and novel approach to learning a language. Paul Noble quickly gets you speaking useful phrases in French rather than the not so useful phrases you may have learnt on a traditional French course.
The book starts with explaining to you just how many words are very similar in French to English and how we can use simple rules to move from one language to another (in most cases).
This is a book you have to work through from the beginning, page by page, it's is structured in particular way to aid learning. Each chapter slowly builds up a multicomponent phrase. As you go through the chapter, the author asks you to cover the answers written in blue with a bookmark or piece of card, to get your brain working and so that you actually work through the multiple micro-tasks. Each answer in French has a pronunciation guide as well as the actual written answer. There's no active memorisation required but the use of spaced repetition gets you effortlessly remembering how to say all sorts of different phrases.
At the end of each chapter are increasingly long word/phrase lists that the author encourages you to keep going through until you only get 3 wrong. That sounds hard, but the way you're taught to put phrases together and the spaced repetition actually makes this much easier than it sounds. Noble also reminds you to not try and do too much and that if it takes all week to get through the word list, that's ok.
You start learning how to put together the phrase "I spent the weekend in Paris and it was lovely" and end with being able to hold a conversation including things like "Yes, I feel like going back to Paris but I’m scared of flying, so I’m planning to take the Eurostar." Unusually you actually start using the past tense before the present one, but it makes sense when you think about the kind of things you usually want to talk about.
There are no long verb conjugation tables instead there are really useful tips like how to make an educated guess if a noun is feminine or masculine, and ways to remember how French phrases are put together. For example, "when your letter arrived" in English is "when your letter is arrived" if you literally translated the French. Similarly, "I need" in English, is literally translated from the French as "I have need of".
The book ends with ideas on where to go next as this book really is just a stepping stone to further learning although a really useful one. It definitely builds confidence and makes you realise learning a new language does not have to be as difficult as many courses make it. School may have you put off learning languages for life, but this book shows it doesn’t have to be that dull and difficult! I will definitely look up Noble’s audio course as this way of learning does seem much more sensible and useful than the usual ways!
Whether you are totally new to French, learnt a little at school but not used it since, or know some French but don’t feel like you know anything actually useful, this is a great little book to get you going and feeling confident about learning and starting to Speak in French.
The book starts with explaining to you just how many words are very similar in French to English and how we can use simple rules to move from one language to another (in most cases).
This is a book you have to work through from the beginning, page by page, it's is structured in particular way to aid learning. Each chapter slowly builds up a multicomponent phrase. As you go through the chapter, the author asks you to cover the answers written in blue with a bookmark or piece of card, to get your brain working and so that you actually work through the multiple micro-tasks. Each answer in French has a pronunciation guide as well as the actual written answer. There's no active memorisation required but the use of spaced repetition gets you effortlessly remembering how to say all sorts of different phrases.
At the end of each chapter are increasingly long word/phrase lists that the author encourages you to keep going through until you only get 3 wrong. That sounds hard, but the way you're taught to put phrases together and the spaced repetition actually makes this much easier than it sounds. Noble also reminds you to not try and do too much and that if it takes all week to get through the word list, that's ok.
You start learning how to put together the phrase "I spent the weekend in Paris and it was lovely" and end with being able to hold a conversation including things like "Yes, I feel like going back to Paris but I’m scared of flying, so I’m planning to take the Eurostar." Unusually you actually start using the past tense before the present one, but it makes sense when you think about the kind of things you usually want to talk about.
There are no long verb conjugation tables instead there are really useful tips like how to make an educated guess if a noun is feminine or masculine, and ways to remember how French phrases are put together. For example, "when your letter arrived" in English is "when your letter is arrived" if you literally translated the French. Similarly, "I need" in English, is literally translated from the French as "I have need of".
The book ends with ideas on where to go next as this book really is just a stepping stone to further learning although a really useful one. It definitely builds confidence and makes you realise learning a new language does not have to be as difficult as many courses make it. School may have you put off learning languages for life, but this book shows it doesn’t have to be that dull and difficult! I will definitely look up Noble’s audio course as this way of learning does seem much more sensible and useful than the usual ways!
Whether you are totally new to French, learnt a little at school but not used it since, or know some French but don’t feel like you know anything actually useful, this is a great little book to get you going and feeling confident about learning and starting to Speak in French.
ravenclawlibrarybooks's review against another edition
4.0
This was a great book for anyone who is struggling to learn French and feels like giving up. I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in learning French.
annarella's review against another edition
5.0
A very useful book. I wanted to refresh my French and I found this book very useful.
It's recommended to whoever want to learn some French or refresh their knowledge.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine
It's recommended to whoever want to learn some French or refresh their knowledge.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine
wordsandnocturnes's review
informative
fast-paced
4.0
Having read many books with snippets of French sandwiched between English, I have become interested in French for some time. I have learnt some French in Duolingo, but I was interested to see what it would be like to read a book like this one that has an emphasis on getting a basic grasp of the language in a simple manner.
What I liked best was the simple pronunciations under the French words that made them easier to pronounce. Repetition of basic French phrases also gave enough space to practice and remember said phrases without memorising them.
The straightforward and non-cluttered layout of the book also made it easy to concentrate and read through. This book is a nice introduction of useful French phrases for beginners. Even so, I would recommend listening to some French audio of sorts to immerse yourself in the language and to learn how to pronounce certain French words more accurately.
What I liked best was the simple pronunciations under the French words that made them easier to pronounce. Repetition of basic French phrases also gave enough space to practice and remember said phrases without memorising them.
The straightforward and non-cluttered layout of the book also made it easy to concentrate and read through. This book is a nice introduction of useful French phrases for beginners. Even so, I would recommend listening to some French audio of sorts to immerse yourself in the language and to learn how to pronounce certain French words more accurately.
ravenclawlibrarybooks's review
4.0
This was a great book for anyone who is struggling to learn French and feels like giving up. I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in learning French.
annarella's review
5.0
A very useful book. I wanted to refresh my French and I found this book very useful.
It's recommended to whoever want to learn some French or refresh their knowledge.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine
It's recommended to whoever want to learn some French or refresh their knowledge.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine
bionicjulia's review
4.0
Felt that I actually came away from reading this book with a French level up! This book was effective at getting you to understand how to construct real life, practical conversational sentences. Through a lot of repetition, the author then hammers home verbs and vocabulary. Very effective if you follow the book through in the way the author suggests. I only wish there was a volume 2 to continue with!
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