Foreign Language Study : French

This is a comprehensive and accessible guide to the structure of French, covering all aspects of its history, structure, and regional/social variation. It will be welcomed by learners of French wishing to improve their competence, as well as linguistics students beginning to study the structure of this important language. more...

Price: $32.00

Voilá! Learning French just got a whole lot easier. Interested in learning or refreshing your French but feel your language skills are less than extraordinaire ? No need to worry! With French Demystified you'll quickly build up your repertoire and be able to understand the language and communicate effectively. Beginning with familiar French cognates and a review of basic French pronunciation, this book covers key grammar fundamentals such as common verb tenses, nouns, pronouns, and gender. You'll build your French vocabulary with essential words and phrases and quickly master this challenging yet lyrical language. Test yourself at the end of every chapter for reinforcement that you're fast on your way to speaking, writing, and understanding French. This fast and easy guide features: Clear and straightforward explanations of French grammar fundamentals; Numerous examples that place new words in practical context; Helpful writing and speaking exercises that bring the French language to life; Coverage of everyday topics as well as conversational expressions; Quizzes at the end of each chapter to reinforce new material. Simple enough for a beginner but challenging enough for a more advanced student, French Demystified is your shortcut to mastering this engaging language. more...

Price: $19.95

If you want to be proficient in French, you eventually have to clear the bothersome hurdle of grammar. Covering various facets of French grammar - from prepositions and pronouns to verbal forms and tenses - this title helps you to sharpen your French grammar with skill-building exercises. more...

Price: $12.95

The culmination of a lifetime's fascination with humour, Walter Redfern's book treats major French writers from the 18th to the 20th centuries as humorists, including Diderot, Rousseau, Sade, Huysmans, Flaubert, Beckett, and Tournier. He considers irony, hyperbole, wordplay, jokes, dialogue, humour as philosophical speculation, and plagiarism. - ;The culmination of a lifetime's fascination with humour in all its forms, this book is the first in any language to embrace such an impressive span of authors and such a broad range of topics in French literary humour. In nine wide-ranging chapters Walter Redfern considers diverse writers and topics, including: Diderot, viewed as a laughing philosopher, mainly through his fiction (Les Bijoux indiscrets, Le Neeu de Rameau, and Jacques le fataliste); humourlessness, corraling Rousseau, Sade, the Christian God, and Jean-Pierre Brisset; the aesthete Huysmans, in both his avatars, Symbolist and Naturalist (A Rebours, Sac au dos, and other texts); the dramatic use of. parrots by Flaubert, Queneau, and Beckett; Vall--egrave--;s and la blague; exaggeration in Vall--egrave--;s and C--eacute--;line (Mort --agrave--; credit and L'Enfant); the fiction, plays, and autobiography of Sartre; bad jokes in Beckett; wordplay in Tournier's fiction (especially Roi des aulnes and Les M--eacute--;t--eacute--;ores). Five interleaved 'riffs' on laughter, dreams, black humour, politics, and taste, carry the enquiry into questions of humour outside of the purely French context, enhancing a book that impresses as much with its vivacity of style as with the breadth and depth of its scholarship. - ;Some excellent insights. - David Coward, TLS;Redfern's book yomps joyously through many kinds of comedy...Un Drole de livre, in all the best senses. - Steven Poole. The Guardian;some excellent insights - David Coward, Times Liteary Supplement;[an] insightful analysis of the use of humour by various luminaries of the French lite more...

Price: $49.95

Hands-on exercises help you boost your verb proficiency Get the hang of French verbs and get over verb hang-ups! French verbs can drive anyone crazy who's trying to keep track of all the regular and irregular types. Fortunately, this book is here to help you make sense of confusing rules and drill you on the exceptions. more...

Price: $16.99