Product Description

Intermediate This whimsical collection of colloquialisms entertains students while providing insight into French-language idioms, customs, and humor. Grouped according to theme — from "Our Animal Friends" to "Speaking About the Body" to "Food for Thought" — the idioms are illustrated with humorous cartoons that provide keys to understanding the literal and real meanings.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #416 in Books
• Published on: 2000-01-01
• Original language: French, English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 160 pages

Synopsis
This whimsical collection of colloquialisms entertains students while providing insight into French-language idioms, customs, and humor. Grouped according to theme - from "Our Animal Friends" to "Speaking About the Body" to "Food for Thought" - the idioms are illustrated with humorous cartoons that provide keys to understanding the literal and real meanings.

From the Publisher
HUMOROUSLY ILLUSTRATED TO SUGGEST BOTH THE LITERAL AND ACTUAL MEANING OF THE EXPRESSION. LITERAL AND IDIOMATIC TRANSLATIONS PROVIDED. EXPRESSIONS GROUPED ACCORDING TO THEME. DIALOGUES OR BRIEF NARRATIVES PROVIDE A COMMUNICATIVE CONTEXT FOR

Customer Reviews

Interesting, useful and funny
I'm not a French speaker or learner myself, but bought this as a gift for a friend who is tackling the language. I'm sure they'll enjoy it as it's quite fun compared to the dry language texts I had to wade through at school. It's interesting to see that some French idioms are quite similar to ours but have an unusual slant. For example, where we have 'Pushing up the daisies', they have 'Eating the daisies from the roots up'; we write 'Rubber cheques', and they write 'wooden' ones (like taking a 'wooden nickel'?). Others are quite surreal 'Falling backwards into apples' sound quite painful, but to the French this is a soft landing. Although it's amusing, the text is scholarly enough to be useful to the serious student and the cartoons are excellent. You can't argue with the price either: great value.

101 French Idioms
I totally agree with the other reviewers (on whose recommendation I bought this book). I am a 'returner' to French, having learned it at school and college, but not having actively used the language for several years. I have also bought another, advanced French course, but wanted something else that would be fun to learn; this is certainly it!

Although it is both funny and witty, it is not only that. As well as a literal and figurative translation, the book gives a typical dialogue of how each idiom may be used. I have already learned some excellent phrases, which should liven up my dialogue when I visit France. I am also thinking of buying a copy for my French friend who's learning English, as it would also be good for a learner from the French person's perspective too. Well done Jean-Marie Cassagne on a first class product. I am now going to purchase the accompanying volume, French Proverbs and hope to enjoy that, too.

Fun and useful!
I *love* this book. I bought it because of a recommendation by another reader and it's everything they promised. It had me in fits of laughter and I started using the idioms immediately because the pictures and the explanations show you the circumstances where the idiom is appropriate. I surprised the French speakers I know by my sudden use of apt figurative language. It really is fun to be able to use these sayings. The cartoons are amusing and each one is followed by a dialogue where the saying is used so you can see how it will fit into a conversation. I couldn't stop using them but luckily the people I was addressing were tolerant and highly amused.

There are 101 idioms with cartoons, followed by a dialogue or a description. At the back are translations of the dialogues and a list of the idioms in alphabetical order and by key images. So, if you know you want to something to do with 'dogs' for example, you can look up dog and find the idioms associated with that image.

I can't recommend this highly enough. It helps you practise your French without even realising that's what you are doing. I'm intending to order the proverbs as well! it is a real bargain. It was worth that just for the laughter it brought.