The Complete Idiot's Guide to Learning French, 5th Edition Paperback – June 2, 2009

This book was recommended for an adult education French class at the local library. Now I haven't been able to devote the time I should to this class because of my work schedule. However, I am generally pleased with this book. The CD helps some. What I really like is the phonetic parsing of the words and phrases in the beginning part of the book. Very helpful in learning how to sound some of these out, until it becomes second nature. Again, I haven't spent enough time to really be able to judge the overall layout and content of the book, but from what I've seen so far, it seems to be very well done. And MUCH, MUCH more affordable than those high-priced language tools you see elsewhere...learning a foreign language shouldn't set you back a king's ransom. My recommendation would be to pick up this book, along with a decent English-French dictionary, and go ahead and get Volume 1 and 2 of the Earworms Learning audio book (and the PDF phrase books) for French...those are also very reasonably priced and provide easy-listening at home or in the car to French phrases being spoken.

Well, I'm definitely a complete idiot, and I still haven't mastered it! I've been studying French on and off since 6th grade (I know how to do my regular ER-verbs still!), but with any language, to actually gain anything of significance you'd have to live in a French speaking community and immerse yourself in the language through much more than books... especially when you have no one to actually practice speaking with.

No one is going to become fluent in French by reading a book. But a book can give you enough of an idea to jump start your learning one or refresh your memory of what you learned in that French class you took in high school decades before. This book is the best of the "Idiot" type guides. It has the easiest type face to read. The explanations of the language are clear. The drills support what you are trying to learn. The pronunciation guide for words is the clearest of any of books of this type that I saw. Learning a language requires a lot of time and effort. This book doesn't eliminate those two requirements but it makes it a little easier to do it. Thank you Gail Stein for making this book as clear as can be.

I have a mixed review about this book. I like that it has good pronunciation guides for the words - this was what attracted me to the book.The vocab is a good intro vocab - enough to get a nice start in the language. It is geared toward a traveler learning the language.It provides a few exercises to practice, but only about 4-6 questions which is just not enough if you're looking to practice what you learned.I wouldn't be quick to recommend it to the serious learner of French, but I would to a new beginner.

The student (myself) was not very conscientious. Did learn a few phrases that helped in France.

Good grammar book that I used to accompany Duolingo and Rosetta Stone. CD leaves something to be desired, however. Very little content for only selected chapters.

Bought it for my daughter who is moving to Quebec City and needs to know some French before she gets there!

I had checked out this book from a friend and felt it was a must have for me. It is easy to understand and the pronunciation help is unsurpassed! I am using the Rosetta Stone method but found I needed more and this book filled in the gaps for me.

I feel like a complete idiot for buying this terrible book! After waffling on about how wonderful her language course is, and how she'll never ask you to memorise anything, or try and remember any complicated grammar rules, the author then goes straight into over 100 pages of French grammar rules! The CD features a woman with an extremely annoying American accent, and doesn't always follow the order of the book, randomly picking out words from each page...words that don't happen to have their meaning in English written next to them, as they're there to help your pronunciation! Which seems a bit pointless to me.Anyhow...it annoyed me, left me confused and frustrated and wishing I'd not bothered.I've since bought Collins easy learning French audio course, which is fantastic for learning useful phrases for a holiday, and by listening to all the conversations I've found I very quickly learned to recognise a lot of key phrases and helps to understand what is being said. After all, there's little point in learning to speak to people if you don't understand what's being said in return. I also bought another Collins audio course by Paul Noble...which is even better for learning how to construct your own sentences and really start to think in French. This is his complete course and is over 12 hours of audio. And no annoying American accents on either of them!Don't waste your money on this rubbish...the two other courses cost the same as this one terrible book!

Only a quick perusal so far yet an excellent introduction to the language.

Great product

I received the book damaged. It was supposed to be a new book. The book material itself is very interesting.

Excellent book. Well constructed. Good instruction