French Key Words and Expressions: The Combined Book

I am a modest Francophile. I love so much about the culture, the food, the country. ( But not blind to its dark side: don't get me started about Algeria or the Dreyfus Affaire ). My major interest is with the wonderful profound subtle gorgeous and vast language and literature .... but not so much with the spoken language. That being said, this book ( or combination of two books in the Kindle version I got ) is terrific ! Gives clear settings and the nuance of popular current French expressions. I review these constantly trying to make them part of my verbal resource when stumbling around speaking French. It definitely perks up my participation in French classes that I take from time to time !

There is a lot of information here, and good examples of how to use the idioms and expressions. However, there is no rhyme or reason to how it is all organized. The author states in the index that one only needs to do a search in the kindle version and it will take you right to the page where the phrase that you are looking for is located. Not so! When I tried this, the search came back with "no entry" even when I entered an item I had just read. Therefore, it is very hard to find that particular expression that you just can't remember or it is something you ran across and now can't remember what it means or where it is located. So, therefore, while it is a good little e-book with lots of information, but it isn't exactly user friendly.

After some doubts regarding what book to buy, I've purchased a digital copy of this one; I'm very pleased with it.This truly is a good, unique and fun-to-read (yeah, I said it!) language book, which is not like any other book I've encountered.Having said that, here are some more specific remarks:1. This book isn't a replacement for a good, old-fashioned grammar book.2. There's an index with all of the phrases covered, but there are no links to the actual phrases, nor page numbers; I really wish they'd fix it.3. As opposed to some other language books, you can really notice the effort put into converting it to a convenient, easy-to-read kindle edition.I strongly recommend it.

Even if you learn just half of these expressions by heart, your comprehension of spoken and written French will increase a great deal. I'd say I understood 25% more of what I watched by virtue of knowing the common expressions as enumerated in this book.For a tourist, there is a lot here that will help you get around French-speaking places. For someone who aims for fluency, this can be a crucial stepping stone to grasping the way Frenchmen actually talk.This book is the most important thing I have read in learning the French language (what I know of it, that is).

I love this little book and never tire of whipping it out and paging through it whenever I'm stuck somewhere waiting. I have it on my iPod Touch, so it's always in my pocket. Having just developed a decent reading comprehension in French over the past few years, I'm fascinated by this sort of thing. This author really goes out of his way to make it fun. My only complaint would be that I could stand it being a bit better indexed. It's not always easy to find what I want. I wish someone would do something like this for Joual!

Okay. I'm going to give you the good news and the bad news about this book very briefly. Then, I will go into some details for those of you who are interested.The good news is that this book is indeed useful for those attempting to master French beyond the second-year level. The words and expressions discussed occur frequently for the most part, and I believe that most of the comments about the words are correct. The majority of the examples are authentic and practical. All in all, this is a good book for anyone wishing to polish his or her already functional French.The bad news is that this book is amateurish and sloppy. It is replete with careless errors both in English and in French. I will give a list below, but they are legion. When I first saw this book advertised in the French Review, I thought it might have been written by a retired French professor eager to provide future generations of students with some helpful hints. Nothing could be further from the truth. No French professor would have written such a poorly edited book.Saul H. Rosenthal never explains his credentials in French. He mentions a daughter who is presumably a native speaker of French, but he doesn't talk about either a wife or his own educational background. I get the impression he is an American who has lived quite a bit of time in France, long enough to have picked up the lingo but not long enough to have mastered it. The book appears to be self-published and certainly self-edited. It is sad he did not seek out some serious help in preparing this book for publication.Now, let me offer some details. I will put the page numbers in parentheses. Mr. Rosenthal is "apostrophe-challenged." Consider some of these mistakes. "It's literal translation" (23), "ones fingers" (48), "Dont I know" (50), "it's very nature" (70), "the speakers words" (96), "on ones guard" (115), "here are some examples of it's use" (213), "to attract someones attention" (256). The errors in punctuation are simply too numerous to mention.What about the French, you say? Well, for those of you who know French well, take these examples. "Le nuit" (9), "huit heure" (17), "la réponse est arrivé" (17), "Il faut lui demandé" (36), "tu te soûle" (53), "je fait" (63), "t'en fait pas" (84), "les premiers trois axiomes" (113), "j'ai travaillais" (146), "de ce qu'elle à dit" (153), en vacance (157), "quel beau gateau" (168), "quelle mauvaise caractère" (169), "j'ai souvent eu besoin attendre plusieurs heures" (213), "je me fait beaucoup de soucis" (219). There are certain other infelicities. For example, the sentence "Fais attention à toi quand tu vas skier" (88) is translated as "Be careful of yourself when you go skiing." There are others as well.Finally, I would question some of his comments about register. On page 224, for example, "zut!" should not be translated by "damn" or "hell" because it is not profanity in French. "Shoot," "darn," or "rats" are more accurate examples of the register. Likewise, on pages 64 and 241, "je m'en fiche" and "je m'en fous" are not in the same register. "Je m'en fiche" is more like "I don't give a hoot."Occasionally, I might quibble with some of his renderings into English. For example, on page 252, "Je suis malade depuis huit jours" would be better translated "I have been sick for a week" than his "I have been sick for eight days."Well, there you have it, the good, the bad, and the just plain ugly. I leave it to you to judge whether or not this is a worthy book to add to your library or to give to friends.

Iamnot interested in developing skill to be able toconverse in French. I want to be able to read French. I like this book, because it develops my French vocabulary and common phrases. And, above all, it is interesting. I read five or six expressions at a time.

The kindle version is superb providing idiomatic obscure French, difficult or almost impossible to ascertain from most French/English dictionaries. For anyone wishing to learn everyday idiomatic French expressions in a very well presented format, with numerous examples provided where required; this book is a real gem and exceedingly good value and worthy of five stars.

The content is very interesting and I have had many 'ah yes' moments reading it, so it has helped with my French. However, it is not a reference-type book. You cannot search for something that you may have heard someone say. It is a book that you have to read front to back.

Like having the author in the room with you, a one to one lesson. Easy to follow, a delight to pick up and just browse through, I think this is going to be a very useful tool.

Really excellent selection of everyday expressions. Particularly liked the very readable commentary which discusses usage and throws in a bit of etymology. Kindle version is searchable by key word but in some ways paper version would be easier to use quickly via an index. Great aid to speaking more colloquial french.

Four stars is because I haven't finished this book yet but it is good. It is possibly the best book of its type that I have found. Recommended.