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French Language Instruction books:
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The best of French Language Instruction books by number of unique Reddit comments:
![Assimil French Pack : book + 4 audio CD 's [ French for English speakers ] (With Ease) (French and English Edition)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/515m0zs-WOL._SL500_.jpg)
Top Reddit reviews mentioning French Language Instruction books:
French for Reading is the exact book you're looking for. It's written for grad students in exactly your position and will teach you in 80-120 hours how to read academic french writing. I've found it to be quite effective.
I see that another user recommended Assimil, which is what I came here to recommend! However I think you should get the physical version! It's not too bad on Amazon, about $50 with the audio. I prefer the book version because I've heard the apps and e-versions of Assimil have some issues. Besides I feel like studying with a book helps me learn better (you might be different though).
Assimil's tidy little book took me from false beginner to reading Harry Potter à l'école des sorciers. That's a pretty good deal for $50. Nine months later and I'm still using the course occasionally, and now my husband is learning French with it too!
I also recommend getting a cheap basic grammar book like Easy French Step by Step -- that's the one I got but there are tons of other good ones like The Ultimate French Review & Practice. Assimil is great for comprehension and reading, but you'll want to have a more clear view of the grammar rules.
If you're looking at a simple introduction to French at a beginner level I'd recommend Easy French Step-by-Step. It's a cheap option so even if it isn't perfect you can't beat the price.
https://www.amazon.com/French-Step-Step-Myrna-Rochester/dp/0071453873
I got this for French and Spanish and I like it so far but I haven't gotten too deep into it yet. I was in the same boat as you so I'm using it to try and relearn the structure of the language just to fill in some gaps and voids in my knowledge.
There's a review for the French one on Amazon that's fantastic. I've grabbed a quick excerpt of it that I've found particularly amusing.
"I should mention some caveats. First, this book is not a booty call. It is a fairly intense study of written French. You can't just say to yourself, "Well, I haven't looked at this book for two weeks but now I'm horny for a little French so I'll crack it open." No, you must romance this book, pay attention to it each and every day, make it feel like it's the only book you're reading. If you leave it alone for a week or two, you will forget what you have learned and the book will find someone else who is serious about learning a language. It's that French."
https://www.amazon.com/French-Reading-Karl-C-Sandberg/dp/0133316033
There's a very inexpensive book called "English Grammar for Students of French." It might be useful for you to get a handle on some grammatical ideas that can be useful.
You got to get yourself a decent grammar book and work it through.
something like this:
It may sound silly but the For Dummies books for french are actually really helpful! Also, the Practice Make Perfect: Complete French collection (all-in-one, grammar, verbs) are great too. Both of the collections can also be found online in ePub & PDF form for free!
And I also second Lawless French. Tex’s French Grammar is one I used a lot in college as well.
Amazon or their website. I believe it'd be cheaper on Amazon. Unfortunately, their website is quite user unfriendly for a website designed for language learning (it's only in French.)
Here's the link to their website one. It costs you 70 dollars on their website while it costs you 63 dollars on Amazon. Unless you buy it from another source where it drops down to 54 dollars. I believe somebody once told me you can find the audio online for Assimil French, so if you can find that, then you can just buy the book only, which would lower costs down a lot.
Interestingly enough, Assimil actually has a course on Ancient Greek, Latin, and Egyptian hieroglyphics so once you learn French, you can always have fun exploring that :P
As for Rosetta Stone, I don't think it's bad, I think it's ridiculously expensive for what you're getting. I know that for Chinese, it's absolutely terrible (I had some friends try to learn mandarin using it and they had barely improved when I found them after finishing RS Levels 1-3.) For the price of 200 dollars, it seems like RS only promises to get you somewhere around B1-B2 as well, and given what I've heard, Rosetta Stone in actuality after finishing all the way through level 5 gets you only to A2, maybe to B1 which would put you around the same level as other programs such as Assimil, except it's much more expensive. Once you get to B1 though, it's quite easy in my opinion to advance, as you can finally consume some native content.
this is a really good book, I use it daily.
If you can't afford it I can try to get it for you.
Here's a link to Assimil. You can find the book + the audio easily on torrents. And I think you should read the reviews on amazon, and generally reviews about assimil about what makes it so great. They probably word it better than I do, however even though assimil claims to take you to B1, I think A2 level is more likely, and after finishing the book, you can immediately continue with their advanced book which should take you above B1 called "Assimil Using French".
I worked my way through this book and it was helpful. I suggest ripping out the answer key from the back of the book so you don't have to keep flipping back and forth. If you are into Anki, a lot of the exercises lend themselves to being put into flash card format.
If your French is decent the first few chapters will be easy, but it does cover just about everything. Will take you a few months to get through it all unless you just love grammar.
Verbs are not considered grammar
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Learn the most common verbs: etre and avoir first and also the modal verbs pouvoir, vouloir, devoir.
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Learn the patterns for regular verbs:
I, you, and he/she follow the same pattern for ir and re verbs: je sais, tu sais, il sait. Je dis, tu dis, il dit.
For er verbs I and he/she are the same. For you add an s: je mange, tu manges, il mange
We (ons), plural you (ez), and they (ent) are pretty much the same for all verbs.
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Exposure is key. The more you see it, the more you will recognize what is correct. Eventually you won't have to think "is it tu parle or tu parles", you'll just know.
>it must have something to do with the existence of a direct object but I don't really know what that means
Yes. A direct object is basically something that is acted on, as opposed to the actor or subject doing the action. In "Jane threw the ball to Tom," Jane is the subject, the ball is the direct object, and Tom is the indirect object. (Close enough for now.) You might find it useful to get a book like "English grammar for learners of French."
Use the form ending in "que" when it's for the direct object; "qui" for the subject. So:
"Qui est-ce que tu vas aider a faire le ménage?" Who is it that you're going to help? Who are you going to help? You help them, just like you move a chair. They're a direct object of your helping, so it's "que" at the end.
"Qui est-ce qui va t'aider a faire le ménage?" Who is it that is going to help you? Who is going to help you? The person is the actor, the one doing it, the subject, so it's "qui" at the end. (And in fact you are the direct object in that one, the one being helped.)
There are two amazing books for reading.
Le Francais Par La Methode Nature is bay the most comprehensive French reader out there(1300 pages total). The first parts may be boring to you however it gets harder and much more fun. The good part is since it is designed to be self-interpretive thoroughly, you don't need a dictionary or anything else.
French for Reading by Sandberg is a book made for college students to teach them reading scientific, philosophical, historical, etc. papers. You don't need a dictionary with this one as well since almost every single sentence in French is also given to you in English right beside it. It is, so to speak, a parallel bilingual text.
Perrin's Fables with interlinear English translation is also quite fun to read.
You cannot self teach with that book. It's meant to be a teaching aid for a group class with group exercises. It's not a workbook that you can follow by yourself.
I suggest a workbook to start called Easy French Step by Step if you want to learn a minimum of French before going to the class
https://www.amazon.fr/French-Step-Step-Myrna-Rochester/dp/0071453873
I want to echo what u/danban91 said. Grammar can definitely be condensed down. Even at the university level, grammatical rules are taught slowly and drip fed. As proof that grammar can be condensed down, you can see all the Alliance Françaises that offer intensive grammar bootcamps that last ~a month. I think that your ability to learn and retain the grammatical rules mostly comes down to your own determination. As for recommendations, once again I'd just point to what u/danban91 said. Get a book, do the exercises, do them everyday, and be diligent about it. If you don't mind spending a little bit of money a book like this can really come in handy. There are many companies that publish books like this that organize and explain all the rules of grammar. In 3 months, your goal shouldn't be to master all of french grammar, but to have an adequate handle on grammar so that you can perform at a 10th grade level (whatever that means). I would go for breadth rather than depth.
As for vocab... that is a bit trickier and depends a lot on you. I have met people that can learn new vocab instantly and retain it forever. Others, where it is much harder. It may come down to a difference in just how their brain works.
I can't find a list of textbooks they use in high schools in the US, maybe I don't know what to search for, but I found a good book on amazon with explanations in English. Try to have a look for this book: https://www.amazon.com/Practice-Makes-Perfect-All-One/dp/1260121038/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1BDWD656QXQZD&keywords=practice+makes+perfect+french&qid=1649156748&sprefix=practice+makes+%2Caps%2C153&sr=8-1
Apparently it's not for beginners, but from the pictures people posted it seems like a good book. This is probably the book I would choose if I was learning French from English and had some basics already.
I’ve been using this one: Easy French Step-by-Step
I'm not sure about skill share but Easy French Step by Step is a good workbook.
<em>501 French Verbs</em> is a great resource for this kind of study. I had a book like this when I was learning French and I just memorised it. It was one of those books I'd just study a page or two and then bounce around.
There are lots of ressources to learn French in Quebec. I suggest Radio-Canada you can get a subscription and watch all the French series with French subtitles. Complete French all in one PDF to practice the grammar here If you have a few months to kill, sign up to francisation course, with 20 hours a week of French which is basically free for Canadians, you’ll get there. So, read books, watch shows with French subs, study ALL of the grammar, and if you can do francisation! With effort and discipline you can get there!
The best book I've found so far is English Grammar Students French Learning, it juxtaposes the two languages together to get a good grasp of what's going on.
I just received this and my French boyfriend skimmed through it and said it seems to be comprehensive. I've been working my way through it and, as a complete beginner, it's quite helpful so far.
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any decent grammar book would, as long as you consistently plug away at it.
having said that, this is what I used, and a very good one:
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You need to get a good grammar book and work it through.
Here is a good one:
Yes. There are lots of such lists available. You can find them in almost any good dictionary. You can find them also in books like Barron's "501 Verbs" or (as u/PunctiliousPenguin noted) the Bescherelle ("conujugaison pour tous"). And of course they can be found one at a time in various conjugator websites like Reverso.
You don't really need 501 verbs; 104 will do, since it makes for a complete set of models for "do X verb just like Y verb." (The back pages of Grevisse, a native grammar, needs even fewer pages.) And frankly, you won't even need most of the irregulars, only the more frequent ones, in terms of production. (Recognition is almost never a problem.) But that's where to find your lists.
The best way I've personally found is interacting with native francophones. I use a French Discord server for that which is nice because it's free. But the immediate feedback while chatting will help too. Plus a lot of it will be in context for you because you'll be engaged in the conversation. For this I tell people to use the french you know, fill in the gaps with English and build from there.
Subject-verb agreement will come naturally from learning the verb conjugations.
Your 4 year plan if you include another language might be ambitious if your time stays split between learning french, the 2nd language, and school study. Someone who's only learning french can get to a C level in 2 years depending how much they study and how much immersion they do. But I think for the average person it'd take 4 to 5 years to be fluent. You seem like you have a good head on your shoulders so I think attaining B level in your time frame is possible.
The book of verbs I have is Barron's which I got from off Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1506260640/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1