L'Essentiel de La Grammaire Francaise

By Léon-François Hoffmann

A clear and concise review of the essentials of french grammar, the workbook compliments the main text.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 013087891X
• ISBN13: 9780130878915
• Release Date: January 1993
• Publisher: Prentice Hall
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Possibly the best French Grammar book ever

This is one of the best French grammar book at least in terms of being correct and thorough, but also for being user-friendly. Too bad the Travaux Pratiques don't have answer keys for the wonderful exercises they feature. When the publisher is going to publish them? How about promoting real books like this one instead of grammar books full of images (more or less amusing) but also full of errors?

Pedantic but thorough

Okay, this is not the most creative French book ever written. However, it is clear and concise and gives some good practice to those who are out of practice--like me.

C'est superbe!

This is the best reference grammar I have seen for people who want to truly master the French language. "L'essentiel" discusses all the main topics that seem to plague foreign learners - use of the subjunctive, when to suppress articles, subordinate clauses - and the chapters on a given topic are divided into "Form" and "Use" sections showing you, for example, how to form the conditional tense and then explaining its use in French. Much mention is made of verbs that are followed by prepositions (eg: commencer a faire qqch, etc), but a more expanded discussion of phrasal verbs would be very useful, as only the most common ones are discussed (eg: en vouloir a, etc). One area where improvement could be made is in the usage of le passe simple tense. Explanation on this topic is sparse, and the reader does not get an idea of the true difference between the passe simple and the use of the passe compose to express the same idea. Little explanation is also given on how the imperfect subjunctive must be used in cases requiring the subjunctive mood once the passe simple is employed. But overall, an excellent book for someone who already knows French and wants to move towards a magnus level.

Wonderful Summary of French Grammar

This book, though expensive, is a great summary with a wonderful explination of the most important french grammar points and the explinations are in french which makes the book even better. I have had to use this book for two differant classes, "French Grammar and Composition" and "Advanced French Grammar and Stylistics" I recommend this to anyone who is undertaking a serious study of french, but definately not for a beginner. I say bite the bullet and buy this book