French text books
 

We're headed to Paris late September for a week, and I'm trying to find a couple of recommendations for the old beginner/intermediate text books I had used in college French - It's been a while, but I think I learned best from these resources, as opposed to the "conversational" varieties that are out in CD, DVD, etc. now. Can anyone recommend a few good solid texts to help refresh my memory for this beautiful language? My pronunciation has always been fine - just need to recall the basics.

Thanks!!

Hi, I'm an elementary school French teacher (gr.4-6) and I use the following website to discuss grammar points with my students - they love the cartoons but also get the grammar points:
laits.utexas.edu/tex/

Sorry, I don't use textbooks very often anymore, but the Rick Steves French dictionary has a lot of useful information, even my students sometimes use it. It's very portable as well.

Bonne chance et bon voyage! :)

Salut, Katietwin. No books to recommend, but I do love this website: http://french.about.com/. Not only can you look up any grammar point that needs work (I have the subjunctive bookmarked)but there are also quizzes, games, MBs, 'mots du jour,' etc.Give it a try, & enjoy your trip. Maybe we'll cross paths in Paris two months from now!

Fantastic - thanks for the references, guys - I cannot wait! :)

Grammaire Progressive du Francais isbn: 2.09.033854.7

Hi, this is my recommendation for French texts; it was used in two different French schools that I attended in the past two years. There is a series, I think with beginners and intermediate levels; one book is devoted to grammar, the other, I think perhaps to vocabulary. It's written by French people, so I find it more authentic than American texts. You could probably order ith through Amazon, but I would do it soon, given that it would probably have to be shipped from France.
Bon chance! In the meantime, I would recommend logging onto French in Action on the internet, because I think that it's very good, and offers a critical aural component.
Bon chance!
letour

I know what you mean, I still think my college French text is superior to any subsequent course or method. I had a very good text, though, and it is the best language text I've had (and I've studied 3 formally). That is one co-authored by two professors at my alma mater, UCLA -- "Langue and Langage" by Oreste Pucciani and Jacqueline Hamel. I'm sure you can find that available online, new or used. It had a companion set of language lab tapes, also, which were good.


(letour, that is "bonne chance", by the way. There is agreement between a noun and adjective in gender. It just really bothers me whenever people butcher that simple phrase who say they have studied French. It also affects pronunciation).