French books are a great way for you, students, to improve your French, because they help work on all the different aspects of the language: grammar through writing , phonics through reading out loud , vocabulary which is good for the cultural aspect with the discovery of different authors.
What are the best books for learning French for beginners?
The top-5 best books for learning French are: 1) Practice Makes Perfect Complete French All-In-One, 2) The Ultimate French Review and Practice, 3) Grammaire en Dialogues – Niveau Grand Débutant, 4) Vocabulaire en Dialogues A1-A2 and 5) Exercises in French Phonics. This article will discuss why I’ve selected these titles and recommend them to my students.I also provide an honest opinion about the French All-in-One For Dummies book, Amazon’s No. 1 book for learning French. Keep reading!
French For Dummies All-In-One: Is it worth it?
Before we take a look at the books that are really my favorite for learning French, I want to address the book: French All-in-One For Dummies. With over 1,200 reviews on Amazon, this is the website’s No. 1 book for learning French. But, is it really worth buying?
In short, I’d say YES if you’re looking for a reading companion to your other books. The French For Dummies All-in-One is six books in one.
Books one and two provide a huge introduction to basic vocabulary (all covered here on Frenchlearner by the way), combined with lots of practical dialogues. While I strongly suggest students to master the reading rules, the book provides lots of English phonetics for all the words and dialogues.
This is a huge plus for people who are too lazy to buckle down and learn the reading rules.
Books three, four and five cover both grammar and verbs (this site offers a ton of free material on French grammar and verbs, by the way).
Here’s my opinion: While these chapters offer a nice introduction, I feel strong that the Practice Make Perfect: Complete French All-in-One (NOT to be confused with the For Dummies book!) offers a way better presentation of French grammar and verbs.
In addition, this For Dummies books doesn’t provide any exercises while the other book (see below) offers countless exercises. The For Dummies book does offer some games at the back but that’s no substitute for real exercises.
The French For Dummies All-in-One book does include a CD. I popped it in and had a listen. It does indeed include some audio for dialogues in both French and French-Canadian accents.
That said, there’s not much to the CD and really just offers a quick glimpse into spoken French.
Books For Learning French For Beginner Students
1. Practice Makes Perfect: Complete French All-in-one
This is my copy of the Complete French-All-In-One Book. You can see it’s a bit tattered as I’ve used it to teach hundreds of students over the years.
2. Ultimate French Review and Practice
This second title, The Ultimate French Review and Practice by David Stillman and Ronni Gordon, is an excellent companion to the Complete French All-in-One. Ultimate French is also a publication of McGraw Hill.
While both of these books cover the same areas (grammar, verb conjugations, etc.), Ultimate French’s explanations are slightly more nuanced.
In addition, the book offers many exercises for each chapter which are excellent for self-study between lessons.
While the previously mentioned Complete French All-in-One does not offer audio support, Ultimate French comes with an interactive CD-ROM with audio.
3. Grammaire en Dialogues – Niveau Grand Débutant
Grammaire en Dialogues is an excellent option for those willing to put in the effort!
The third title on my list is: Grammaire en Dialogues – Niveau Grand Débutant by Odile Grand-Clément. I like this book because it does a great job matching pertinent, real-life dialogues to basic French grammar. Each dialogue is followed by brief explanations as well as exercises.
I feel that this is not a good self-study book and is best used with a teacher. This is because the explanations are very brief and are not in French.
While the book does come with a CD for listening to the dialogues, the speed of the speech tends to be quite fast.
I feel that a solid dialogue book very important for any online lesson. It allows the student to practice speaking and repeating after the teacher.
Actually, this title is published by CLE International, which is a leading publisher in books for helping students to prepare for the French DELF & DALF exams. These are the French government’s French competency exams.
CLE International has a very extensive line of French dialogue books. The books cover areas including verb conjugations, grammar and vocabulary.
Two other books which I recommend along with the previously mentioned dialogue books are: Grammaire en Dialogues A1-B2 and Communication Progressive du Français A2-B1, both by Claire Miquel.
Claire Miquel is a leading writer for CLE International and her dialogue books are excellent. I suggest the A1-B2 dialogue book for a beginner student who might already have some French under their belt.
Of all the books I’ve used over the years, I’ve used Communication Progressive A2-B1 with the most students and it’s a great book to use after the initial Debut or A1-B2 Grammaire en Dialogues books.
4. Vocabulaire en Dialogues
The next book on the list is: Vocabulaire en Dialogues by Évelyn Siréjols. This is another dialogue book published by CLE International.
I like the book because it lays out chapter-by-chapter a very useful resource for leaning the most essential and basic French vocabulary.
The chapters are broken down into categories such as food, clothing, sports, shopping, weather, etc. A beginners French course would not be complete without going over these lists of words.
Again, I feel that this book is best used with a teacher because the explanations are in French. It does provide lots of exercises and comes with an CD for audio.
5. Exercises in French Phonics
The last book on my list is called Exercises in French Phonics by Francis W. Nachtmann of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champlaign.
This is a thin 80-page, $8 book that’s truly a hidden gem! One of the single hardest aspects to learning French is mastering the pronunciation and reading rules.
Dr. Nachtmann meticulously breaks down all the French phonetic rules into concise chapters. Each chapter covers a single spelling pattern, such as confusing nasal sound, and provides a long list of the corresponding words along with exercises.