Practice Makes Perfect: French Verb Tenses, Premium Third Edition

I bought this a while ago and have been brushing up on my semi-immersion, self-taught French. Most other "learn French" books start at the very beginning with super simple lessons, which is a great place to start for a true beginner. But, I needed something different, something that helped me pick up all the stuff I missed while learning on my own over the years (no real French classes for me...). Verb use and conjugation was what I needed most and this book was great for me. Lots of lessons, very thorough coverage. One just has to work through it. (I am also using several other Practice Makes Perfect books on other French language topics and they are good too.) I highly recommend this book if you need to learn more about tenses and when to use them. But be warned: this is not a book for true beginners. Practice Makes Perfect books seem to be for those who already have some background in the language because they just zoom into the material assuming you already know stuff and are reviewing.

This book is definitely not for beginners. You need to know some vocabulary and French grammar structure to be able to get through this book and not feel overwhelmed or frustrated. I learned French for 5 years in school but took some years off of learning. I got this book to refresh my memory and that it exactly what it does for me: refresh my memory. It is extremely helpful in explaining concepts and I have learned a lot even after only going through a chapter of the workbook. I strongly recommend this to someone who already has a bit of background in French!

I've been studying French for the past 4 years, and am fortunate to have a great teacher. However, things can get a little confusing with all the tenses, but this book provides AMPLE practice. If I don't know my tenses after this, then there's no hope for me! A few in my class have created our own little sub-set group and we meet outside of class for additional study. This book provides us plenty of practice, the ability to check our work thanks to the answers in the back. We read our sentences aloud for additional pronunciation practice. RECOMMEND

For the most part, this is a pretty good book because it covers a lot and has a lot of good exercises. HOWEVER, I would NOT recommend for beginners. A lot of the explanations or descriptions are not great and there are quite a few exercises that seem unnecessarily tricky. I prefer straightforward exercises initially so I can get comfortable with the verbs and how they should work first, then I'm okay with "tricky" sentences. But an introductory learner will probably get discouraged very quickly. Also, there are quite a few exercises that are open-ended/personal - so you won't have answers for that (the answer key will state "possible answers" which...could be infinite!). Unless you have put in exactly what they have as a possible answer, you may not know you are correct. The 2-4 paragraph writing samples are exactly like this as well. Unless you have someone who could review and correct these for you, they aren't great exercises. Again - probably better for an intermediate learner than an intro book, but overall exercises are good.

French is crazy, but this book should help. The explanations are clear and I think the answer key is always accurate. I'm about halfway through.

Amazing book to learn French

Excellent book. Just what I was looking for. Good practice exercises and clear instructions.

Using to review and relearn french Good book Easy to understand and use

This is an excellent book! Like a lot of people, I've struggled to grasp French, but I've found this book to be a huge help. It's quite an expansive text, so it allows plenty of room to explore and explain fully the (rather complicated) subject of French verbs. I've found the numerous exercises and practical examples the most beneficial aspect as it really helps to commit the details to memory. So far, everything has been laid out very clearly and logically, so it's been very easy to follow.

El libro llegó bastante rápido a pesar de que es un libro importado. Es más grueso de lo que esperaba (alrededor de 400 páginas) y tiene una excelente relación calidad precio, yo lo tuve que forrar con contact porque sentí que la pasta se doblaría fácilmente por el uso y la cantidad de hojas. El papel es bueno y permite borrar fácilmente sin que queden marcas, sin embargo no recomiendo el uso de marcadores o resaltador ya que la hoja es delgada y se traspasa fácilmente. Actualmente soy nivel B1 en francés y este libro lo utilizo para seguir practicando la conjugación de los verbos en diferentes tiempos. Es un libro que puede ser útil tanto para principiantes que quieran aprender francés, como para niveles intermedios/avanzados que deseen seguir practicando y repasando.

I love the Practice Makes Perfect series. Sufficient English to understand the lessons and great exercises. Written at the adult level but easy to comprehend. No smiley faces and rainbows. Good for adult learners

Highly recommend this book to anyone that is wanting to improve their grammar with an emphasis on verbs. I was at an A2/B1 level and took a 2-year pause from learning the language. This text is an excellent refresher and I learned nuance in grammar that further improved my comprehension. Includes exercises + answers key. No listening exercises.

I am trying to learn French, and found this book very useful. Simon J Bass MAAT