Product Description

Learn how to read in French - starting right now! "The Easy Reader Series" books are unique, easy-to-follow guides based on the premise that the best way to learn a language is to start reading it immediately! Whether you're a brand-new beginner or an advanced-beginning learner, the new editions of these popular titles give you ways to dive into the language with engaging readings that progress in difficulty to match your growing reading skills. This process will allow you to rapidly build comprehension and confidence as you enjoy the stories. "Easy French Reader" begins with the adventures of two friends, an American and a Parisian, as they learn about their respective cultures. As you read about their experiences, you'll discover the nuances of language and culture right along with the students.The next section contains a colorful history of France, from ancient Gaul to the present, offering biographical sketches of famous personalities including Charlemagne, Joan of Arc, and Napoleon. The final section features four abridged short stories by famous French authors that allow you to practice your grammar and vocabulary skills on authentic works of French literature. Progressive format makes it easy to quickly build comprehension. Marginal word glossaries conveniently present new words and phrases. Exercises challenge language comprehension and build reading skills. Fully updated new editions, featuring expanded exercises and answer key.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3335 in Books
• Published on: 2003-10-01
• Original language: French, English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

From the Back Cover

Learn how to read in French--starting right now!

The Easy Reader Series books are unique, easy-to-follow guides based on the premise that the best way to learn a language is to start reading it immediately! Whether you're a brand-new beginner or an advanced-beginning learner, the new editions of these popular titles give you ways to dive into the language with engaging readings that progress in difficulty to match your growing reading skills. This process will allow you to rapidly build comprehension and confidence as you enjoy the stories.

Easy French Reader begins with the adventures of two friends, an American and a Parisian, as they learn about their respective cultures. As you read about their experiences, you'll discover the nuances of language and culture right along with the students.

The next section contains a colorful history of France, from ancient Gaul to the present, offering biographical sketches of famous personalities including Charlemagne, Joan of Arc, and Napoleon. The final section features four abridged short stories by famous French authors that allow you to practice your grammar and vocabulary skills on authentic works of French literature.

• Progressive format makes it easy to quickly build comprehension
• Marginal word glossaries conveniently present new words and phrases
• Exercises challenge language comprehension and build reading skills
• Fully updated new editions, featuring expanded exercises and answer key

About the Author
R. de Roussy de Sales is a nom de plume used by NTC editors

Customer Reviews

Easy French Reader
I wish this book was available when I was first learning French at school many years ago. It provides excellent consolidation for those with a basic knowledge of French, increasing vocabulary and expressions, without the additional complication of too many tenses. The questions at the end of each section (with example annswers at the back of the book) are well worth spending time on, as they really do help check correct understanding. My only criticism, and this is minor, is that I felt some additional "on page translations" would have been useful, but a decent dictionary rectifies this. The content, including an abbreviated review of French history makes it eminently readable

A Clever Approach to Constructing Sentences
This is an excellent book for a beginner who wishes to go beyond the typical phrase book/audio materials. The way this book is written; the reader, even with a very basic knowledge in French, can understand, get the general idea and relate to the stories and facts presented. The sentences and phrases used in the book, particularly in the first sections (Julie and Marc in Paris), are constructed in an easy to understand manner. They, in a clever way, avoid the use of more complex grammatical features. Only a very basic French grammar would be required to read this book. The entertaining feature of the book combined with its straight forward sentence structure encourages the learner to read further and construct new knowledge and understanding in French.

really helpful
You should only start using this book once you are confident in French pronunciation, which usually means after the first couple of chapters in your regular textbook.

I am one of those people who love learning another language by reading, partly because I enjoy reading and partly because I learn alot about the language this way. I like finding patterns in foreign texts I read and figure out for myself what they might mean, abit like what mathematicians do.

By reading longer texts like this, you get to see the structure in the language, this clarity is sometimes lost in textbooks because they tend to use rows of one-line sentences rather than flowing dialogues.

You can use this book alongside you basic French studies or just afterward, it is also a very good book for revision purposes if you don't want to go through a textbook again.

You don't need to know every word in this book to benefit from it, I for one did not.
The only drawback is that you will not be able to do some of the excercises until your grammar and vocabulary knowledge has caught up.

My main use of this book was to increase my reading speed and to get a closer, more personal, feel of the language.
This is something you only get when you immerse yourself in a language, by reading, for example.

If you focus on pronunciation and speech-flow, you will notice that your reading speed will increase significantly even after just the first couple of sections. You also build up an intuitive sense of the grammar and words.
If you want to impress your teachers, then this book is a good investment.

The excercises are mainly comprehension excercises, and they are very well crafted to give you a balanced challenge: not too hard and not too easy.
If you are new to French don't expect to be able to do all of them until you know abit more, but don't let this discourage you, just do the ones you can and go back to the others later.

My only complaint about this book is that the dictionary at the back is really short, so you should really get a dictionary.
Also, the dictionary in the back does not show the pronunciation of the words.