Mastering French Vocabulary with Online Audio (Barron's Vocabulary)

Once you've mastered basic French grammar and basic conversational sentences, you need to learn vocabulary. One way is by reading newspapers and books in French. This is another, complementary way. The combination of the book and the mp3s is very effective. The audio is just the right pace, so you can repeat after the native speaker, who speaks clearly and not too fast. It is a great way to practice pronunciation of words you already know as well as the ones you don't. The occasional full sentences will remind you of some grammar, too. I find that reading 3-4 pages at a time and then listening to the audio (usually later, in the car) is very effective. The combination of the book and audio is a real bargain. Like other reviewers, I would gladly also buy a Kindle version if one were available. This book is a welcome addition to Assimil and Ultimate French as great tools for self-learning using a combination of text and audio.

Tons of vocabulary. I had studied 2 years of Spanish, so had the gist of the European languages from that. But, had never studied French at all, and thought it was beyond me. Just for the heck of it, I bought this and started listening to it and following along in the book after work for an hour or so 2-3 times a week for a few months before a vacation to Paris. In Paris, at the hotel, I'd get the morning paper and READ IT over breakfast. I read a long billboard in the train station describing 2 Paris parks, I talked to a local to find Metro ligne quatre. I could get the gist of most signs. It was very enjoyable. This is a great learning resource.

A great idea, a huge amount of vocabulary broken down by category and even better a very complete set of mp3's so you can hear the correct pronunciation. I would also love this book in a Kindle edition, it would be so much more convenient and portable, but one is not available. I happened to start with Chapter 19 - Time and Space and already came across a mistake on p. 405. Under the first box of INFO the time Il est... 9h 45 is written as neuf heures moins le quart and translated as quarter to ten. This should be dix heures moins le quart. Same with the next entry of 9h 55 (neuf heures moins cinq) This should be dix heures moins cinq. I wonder how many other errors there are that as a beginning learner of French I won't recognize and take as correct ....

This along with pronounce it perfectly (or something like that) will hopefully help me get to level B in the French thing. I'm level C in reading but need to get from A2 to B1 in listening. There are a lot of words here (13,000), and I really like the way the people pronounce it. When I put the whole thing on my only 4GB sony walkman it doesn't take too much space and the order of the things is perfectly in there (unlike the pronounce it perfectly thing with which I had some trouble. I also really like that the main words have how to pronounce it in type. There are a lot of words I already know but I figure at least 1/3 (maybe) I don't know. In any case it'll really help hearing all the words a lot in helping me learn how to recognize the words when I listen and not mix them up so much (hopefully). Really a great book for the price the best thing going.

Great book for those learning French. I listen to the CD that comes with it in the car. It helped me through my first year of French classes and retains its usefulness as a reference tool.

I decided to learn French from scratch so I bought this and two other Barron’s books and they’re really good. More than enough content for you to learn. Once you learn the pronunciation guide, you will accelerate your learning process. I do like the thematic approach because it may help speed up the learning process. While I haven’t tried the Audi yet, I’m sure the mp3 files will help out a lot when trying to learn in the car or when you won’t be able to read.

I borrowed this book from the library some time ago. After I returned it, I wanted to have my own copy. I added it to my wish list, and after a few months, I bought a copy through Amazon. Not only did I pay half-price (including shipping), it showed up at my house well ahead of schedule. What a deal! I look forward to spending more time with this book, improving my French as I go along.

Three stars because no English on CD so you can't use in car. You have to sit with the book, which is extremely boring. But it's a good set of vocab with, nicely arranged.

Per cultura personale sto studiando un po' di lingue, una alla volta. Adesso è il turno del francese ed utilizzo sempre una combinazione di diversi metodi di apprendimento: video, libri, grammatica, app per cellulari, flash card e sempre un dizionario tematico come questo. Questa volta ho scelto il Barron's (che è sempre una garanzia) e devo dire che è davvero molto completo. I vari argomenti da approfondire, uno alla volta o semplicemente spulciando di tanto in tanto, coprono davvero tutta la vita e le conversazioni possibili. Anche il prezzo, per le nozioni contenute, è davvero competitivo. Non do le 5 stelle perchè non ci sono immagini e penso (per le precedenti esperienze di apprendimento avute) che qualche immagine andrebbe sempre aggiunta, aiuta a rafforzare i ricordi. Allego anche un'immagine di una pagina a caso per dare un'idea di come è organizzato all'interno. Spero di essere stato utile con questa recensione. Buona giornata.

While there are a few errors in this book (as pointed out by another reviewer), I think it's a great resource. I live and work in Quebec and was struggling to communicate efficiently; I was frequently having to think of what I wanted to say and then figure out if I had the vocab for it and if not, I had to think of another way to say what I wanted that was limited by my vocab. I've bought a few other vocab books, including the previous version of this book, but always struggled with the pronunciation of the words and it made me quite hesitant to use what I had learnt because I had no idea if my pronunciation was wrong. When I found out this was getting released with an audio CD, I pre-ordered it and so far it's been invaluable to me. I'm going through the book chapter-by-chapter trying to memorise everything at about 20-80 words per day. Now when I communicate with friends and colleagues, I find everything much simpler because I don't have to question my vocabulary before I speak. The book, like the previous version, is arranged thematically. I find it easier to remember words that are associated with each other in some way so this book works better than other vocab books that give seemingly random words in no logical order. The book also has little information boxes that explain things like false friends or how the meaning of a word can vary depending on the context or its position in a sentence, both of which I find helpful. The book also gives the phonetic spelling of each word, like the previous version did, which allows the book to be used without the audio CD. Also included are occasional little idioms or short phrases. As mentioned by a previous reviewer, a digital version of the book would have been really useful. In short, if you're looking to enrich your vocabulary then I recommend this book!

めちゃいいです。 英語とフランス語を全部勉強しようとする人にピッタリです。

Content of the book is amazing but the CD is broken.

El libro es una gran guía. Me parece excelente que venga por temas y además la traducción francés-inglés de las palabras. Muy feliz con la compra. Lo recomiendo a aquellas personas que iniciamos con el idioma y aquellas que quieran perfeccionar su pronunciación.