Practice Makes Perfect: Basic French, Premium Second Edition

I've studied 3 romance languages myself in a traditional school setting (H.S. & college) setting, I've taught ESL to adults & to children for decades. When I was younger, I did an exchange summer where I lived abroad (and I arrived in that country knowing zero of the language). I have foreign language speaking relatives (through marriage) & I have had to learn some of a foreign language on the job. A close family member is a native French speaker. And now, here I am, teaching 2 kids French at home (one H.S. with some previous schooling in French, one 5th grade [but ahead academically] who has zero experience learning a foreign language). So, I feel extremely well positioned to write this review. The short of it:*** THIS BOOK IS AWESOME!!!! *** Also, it is very accurate & modern.This book is a workbook, but one that does not require a corresponding textbook (so an all-in-one). For that purpose, this book, McGRaw Hill's Basic French by Eliane Kurbegov, copywrite 2017, is amazing. Best by far!!I'm in education, so I have seen a TON of workbooks for language, and this one is really complete, well laid out, the work exercises are interesting. The learning & work is achievable, but still challenging enough. It's just great.Target audience is adults & high school students (but a 4th or 5th grader who is a strong reader & has home support could use this). It could be used in a school setting (school or homeschool) but this would also be fantastic just to learn French on your own.HIGHLY recommend this for ANY of the following situations:1. Main resource for homeschooling (add in youtube learning program(s) & picture dictionary)2. A supplement for a homeschooling program (for additional practice)3. A supplement for a high school French class (U.S. level 1 and/or 2)4. A supplement for a college French 1 class5. Prepare in the summer for a high school or college French class (start class with some background/confidence)6. A supplement for a middle school French program (I have a 5th grader doing it, it can work for a younger kid)7. For a tutor to use with a student struggling in French class8. As the main workbook for a middle school or high school French Class (so assigned by teacher)9. To teach yourself French as an adult!What it is not designed for:1. To prepare for a short trip (it's too thorough; it does not overly focus on travel phrases)2. Business French (but it would be a great 1st step or could be used in conjunction with a business Fr. program)3. "Boot camp": this won't get you speaking French in 3 weeks (but, really, what will?)4. Trying to date/socialize with adult French speaker(s): it's "clean cut" & avoids adult social situations5. If your only goal is oral/speaking (duh! its in. print, it's a workbook)Having said the above, if your goal is "to learn French" I think this is book an EXCELLENT place to start! You can always buy a second book or use the internet to add on to that goal (to add in a little more emphasis on travel or reading or socializing). Regardless of which those paths you are one, all really start with first just learning the basics and getting proficient in the language in general: so again, I highly recommend this book.26 things I LOVE about this "Basic French" book:1. Good amount of written work (you need to immediately apply new skills if you want to remember them!)2. Not just "work" but COMPLETE teaching of concepts (it's like a hybrid textbook-workbook)3. Work varies in difficulty (brain needs a break after something really challenging); example: the vrai ou faux (true/false) is an easier way to seal in understanding or to review after earlier doing sentence translations4. Work varies in format (fill in blank, write out translation sentences, matching/sorting, multiple choice, true/false, writing out conjugations, fill in blank [cloze], reading a paragraph)5. Wisely has text boxes with a few needed-but-not-yet-taught words right above above exercises in beg. of book's exercises6. Explains concepts VERY well7. Excellent clear examples when teaching new concepts8. Avoids introducing too much new learning at once - NOT overwhelming in the slightest!9. Entire book is very approachable - not intimidating10. The "tone" of book is straightforward (not cutesy, no cheesy "characters")11. It is NOT aimed primarily at teens (though teens will like it) which eliminates "cheesy" factor12. Does not assume you are in a classroom setting (never says "talk with your partner" or such)13. Vocab is balanced: no overemphasis on travel needs, or dining, or teen hobbies/interests14. Many opportunities to practice the essential skill of French masculine/feminine/plurals for nouns/adjectives15. Has interspersed word lists (ie common descriptive adjectives) by theme, & they're formatted to stand out16. Work exercises & lessons wisely assume students can use cognates to help them understand17. Assumes you're smart enough (so won't be boring), but not a genius (so not frustrating)18. Does not write out phonetic pronunciations (in days of internet, that's unnecessary & would be visually awkward)19. Order of concepts/lessons (syllabus) makes total sense20. Good pacing: moves on (so it's not boring); spirals back (as all lang. books do) to reinforce previous learning21. Does not get bogged down in details, & avoids linguistics (avoids unnecessary "why's" so you can keep moving)22. Builds up to reading paragraphs gradually; doesn't slam reading passages before you are ready23. By end of book, less "instruction" & new vocab - and more opportunities to do work & practice/refine skills (this is as it should be!)24. It IS possible to skip around somewhat in first third of book if that works better for your purposes (following another syllabus)25. Formatting / look of each page is really excellent (not overwhelming whatsoever)26. Easy to flip back & forth & find previous skill (essential in a language book)Even more to love: minor features that are great:1. Includes some fun (even funny) examples in the vrai ou faux & "fun facts" which keeps interest higher2. No pictures (it's better to get that in a separate picture dictionary or online) except 1 page for clothing3. Paper is sturdy so easy to write in a sharp pencil (won't tear)4. Book is not too heavy/thickMinor negatives:1. The French is up-to-date, but some examples featuring "current" people/events are dated (when learning personality traits or family vocab, etc., sometimes a few examples are celebrities from 1980s-90s that today's students will not know), but it's not a deal breaker2. There is no index in the back (but Table of Content in accurate, and also the first page of each new chapter lists in clear detail all that is covered in that chapter3. Space for writing sentence translations assumes your penmanship is not too big4. Cover says "Total Language Study Program" - no one book was ever going to be that (marketing is a thing, so I'm not bothered)My one "Negative" (not a big deal to us - we will supplement)1. By the last 2/3 or 1/2 of the book, students could perhaps. be able to do more frequent, and/or longer reading comprehension (like, 5 paragraphs), but this book keeps the reading comprehension to short 1-3 paragraphs, and they not appear super frequently. however, this can fixed by few online sources or another book, or by taking next level of French.One positive for us that could be a negative for you:1. There are no dialogues (sample conversations) or dialogue cartoons (taking bubbles), so you don't see back-and-forth sample conversations (having said that, written dialogues in my opinion give a false sense of security that you can understand an oral dialogue for listening comprehension (listening to a recorded conversation/dialogue) when. in fact reading it (even if. such a thing had talking bubbles) would inot at all build listening skills... AND further, people in real life NEVER follow the "script" that you could memorized from a written dialogue, so written dialogues end up not being helpful at all if goal is to have a real life conversation with someone on a specific topic/need: it's better to just learn foundations of French well (which this book will help you to do!) and then adjust as needed when you are in an actual real life situation.Head's up:I have not checked answer key for every bit of work, but so far everything seems highly accurate. We have a native French speaker family member and I ran some of it by that person, plus I google translated a bit as well to check that the answer key is accurate, and it all seems quite accurate (note: if any reviewers are saying work written in the blank lines is "wrong" that person sadly bought a used book & someone else (long ago) did it wrong & resold it). My book is all blank on all lines & arrived brad new. There are zero handwritten looking "samples" for any exercise, including problem number one, and that is true on every single page. If your book is new, all lines on all pages should be blank for all exercises. Mine was, as promised, new, and with incredible fast delivery, so we are very happy. Just wanted to throw that out there as sometimes for some books on Amazon, things get resold. That did not happen for us at all (it arrived new, answer key is correct).COMPARING SIMILAR BOOKS: we have 2 other French cover-the-basics books, this is the best of those three. Another book, by author Rochester, is too detailed for us (if we ever. need a reference with more details or want to know the why's, the internet has good resources) & that other book does not have enough opportunities to apply new skills & further that book is too challenging (if used alone) for beginners. We also have an older book Barron's Learn French and that one is so entirely set up for learning French only for the purpose of travel this for us it's really garbage. But again, this Learn French book by Kurbegov is wonderful, and ompsring it to two others makes me appreciate that even more.HOW TO USE "Basic French" by Kurbegrov to very effectively learn French AT HOME:1. Obviously, use the book.2. Watch a Youtube video for each main verb (present tense) as it is introduced, to hear the correct pronunciation. My favorite resource by far is Learn French with Alexa (it is beyond excellent, she is really easy to understand & very enjoyable to watch, channel is very well organized to find what you need, I'm a huge fan), but I also really like Learn French with Pascal and also Learn French with Vincent. Supplementing with youtube is essential: pronouncing aloud French words from a written source is VERY tricky!! French is notorious for this: many letters are silent; fairly often you have to slide together two words (but only aloud not in writing!) so it changes the pronunciation of so many things when you try to read aloud, and it makes it hard to take dictation; changing spelling to indicate masculine feminine sometimes inexplicably (to my level of current understanding) doesn't change the pronunciation even though the spelling just changed. I could go on and on. That is not even accounting for the fact many sounds themselves (the basic phonemes) are hard for English speakers (the R!!).3. Get a good color Picture Dictionary! Usborne makes the best. They make two (I have both): the smaller one with more pages is extremely thorough, whereas the larger (dimensions, but thinner) covers less but would be better for kids and it is still quiet good (and the latter has dialogue with talking bubbles if that's your thing).4. For visual vocabulary words with pronunciations: website language guide .org is amazing! Excellent pronunciation.5. For kids: tagadatsointsoin on youtube has well produced read alouds of children's picture books (and not only is production quality good, but book text is visible & they do not read too fast (and also the reader(s) avoid baby talk). These provide great breaks!6. To understand the "why's" and as an extremely comprehensive reference: Lawless French website7. For a syllabus/plan if you will not follow the one in this book: then use Lawless French website, click on the Beginners, Checklist (but fyi, the site is going to be very similar to the plan in the "Basic French" book)8. To conjugate and reverse conjugate any word: Reverso conjugation. website in French (amazing!)9. If learning for travel, be aware it takes a while for a book to come to print. So if you need French for travel or a student exchange program, you'll need to consult youtube (or a website) for vocab & dialogues related to the following: texting, phone etiquette, ride sharing, wifi, streaming, asking for directions (book assume the use of paper maps or guidebooks/they never show how you'd use your phone to show a passerby where you are trying to go), anything related to computers, how to go through an airport security. All those & anything new and/or affected by technology will need to be learned on your own via youtube (or another online source). This is true for any French book you will buy.10. For French culture & immersion (listening comprehension practice for beginners): youtube's Immersion French with Tomas (he has a unique way of teaching exclusively in French, he is very animated, his videos can be cheesy (intentionally!) but that gets you to remember, and he is so friendly- I love his content! There are other youtubers providing scenes from daily life, such as My French Story hosted by Pearl (she is younger, really positive, and fun; and I like that as a POC she shows the truth that many French people in Paris today have diverse backgrounds) and also the channel Comme un Francaise, which is good (but fyi host Geraldine talks fast and some topics will not interest kids).The End: Ok! I hope you buy this awesome book, and best of luck on your language journey!

One thing that should be noted, is that this shouldn’t be used as a main, course book but rather as a supplement to a text or online course. Some people may recognize this by looking at it, but others may not. This is definitely a workbook, although it does teach throughout it. Overall, it’s really enjoyable and helpful and I don’t believe any prior knowledge is necessary to make use of it.I really enjoy the flash cards and audio that comes in the app too. The flash cards are for all of the vocabulary per lesson and the audio is for the answers to the main sentence translating exercises each lesson. I’ve only recently started the book but so far it’s great as I said, and I would recommend this to anyone who wants to practice what they’re learning or even to learn some things they may not have learned in their beginner course yet.

I'm on my third copy of this title. The first time around, I mostly copied the answer key, hoping to absorb the flow of the language. Each time I learned more and can now complete the exercises mostly on my own. I recommend repetition of workbooks instead of constantly moving into more difficult terrain. This is a great series. The workbooks are not mammoth like some...which can be daunting. They are also to be written in- and have a spacious layout. I don't like to write in a separate notebook- especially from workbooks with dense small print on cramped pages.

I have my kids copy out the vocabulary on flash cards to practice, then use the exercises to reinforce their usage. It's genius how the textbook adds little connector words so that kids can create useful sentences from the start--how rewarding to hear my children say useful phrases so soon after starting. Every 5 chapters there is a cumulative test. This will definitely help with school.

I bought this book to brush up on my French.I haven't spoken or written French in 30 years! This textbook/workbook brought me right back to my high school/college French! The lessons are easy to follow.They are filled with vocabulary and conjugated verb tables.There is plenty of room to write the answers to the exercises right in the book.The answers to the exercises are in the back of the book if you need them.

I loved this Basic French. But I'm having a hard time figuring out which book is next in the series? After finishing Basic French, which one is next? Someone please let us know.

What i was looking for , its awesome that you get to do the exercises right there

Good book! I've been studying for a little while prior to getting this book, so this will be an added bonus! YouTube videos, and this, plus other resources online will be as good as it's going to get for me!

Super recomendo, fácil e gostoso de estudar.

This is a very good book for helping to reinforce what one is learning in a beginner or advanced beginner French class particularly if you are not able to practice what you are learning with someone is already fluent in French.

I haven't used it yet, but it came perfectly well and it arrived earlier than I expected

What an excellent book. I am very happy with it.

Muito bom!