Learn French, Think French
Books to learn real life French
"Tell me and I will forget.
Show me and I may remember.
Involve me and I will understand."
- Confucius
The story behind the books
These book are made to help anyone learn French the way people who speak French, learned French.
I have now been teaching for 10 years across secondary schools in the
United Kingdom a nd tutor ing online for 5 years I have taught all kind of learners : from the age of 5 to 74, whether they are studying for their exams (GCSE and A levels in England; National 4, National 5, Higher, Advanced Higher in Scotland; FIDE in Switzerland, DALF and DELF in Europe ), whether they are young professionals or pensioners, my students have inspired me to write a series of books to share my experience as a teacher and as a learner,
with you.
So many times, so far in my career , I have heard and sympathised with the :
“I wish I had paid more attention in French classes. All I know is how to ask for a beer and the bill“.
"This is boring. The stuff we learn is not useful. When am I going to say how often I do chores to help at home? What I want to learn is what I might need or what will actually help me in real life, if I ever go to France or wherever they speak French."
“I have learnt French for 3 years and I feel like I know nothing."
First I heard, then I listened and started writing this series of books that I hope will help you the way they have helped my students, to get the level of French they wanted.
These books offer no magic, but they will hopefully help you to :
1. get started into learning French ( again), and stick to it
2. make connections between words in different contexts to retain the words more easily and to speak spontaneously
3. know how to pronounce words and sentences
4. learn words that are used in everyday life
5. think French
Books already (and soon to be) released
The basic vocabulary
This book aims at sharing the most common words and expressions so that whoever is keen to understand what a French speaking person is saying, they do, and even better if they can answer .
As such, it is in no way providing an exhaustive list of everything. There is a dictionary or loads of other lovely and useful books that do so very well.
The purpose of this book is to help you getting started with a focus on pronunciation and
words in context, to fit in, in real world more easily.
Your missions are:
1.to understand and be understood by getting the pronunciation right
2.to greet someone and know how to address someone
3.to say when you don’t understand
4.to ask for something
5.to engage in some ch it chat
6.to be able to respond in most common situations
7.to think French
The basic grammar
This book aims at helping you understand why you were once taught what feminine and masculine is, and the importance of understanding what a tense is and which one to use, to you're prepared to embrace any real life situation with confidence.
When you don’t know the grammar, the best you can do is take a guess really. The little basic grammar mistakes won’t bother most people in real life. Some people will find it cute or funny. But it certainly makes a difference when it comes to understand and be understood.
Your missions are to get a grasp of:
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Categories of words
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Articles
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Nouns
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Personal pronouns
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Verbs
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Adjectives and adverbs
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Prepositions
The most asked questions,
finally answered
This book offers no magic, but it will hopefully help you to make peace with the French language and understand: why there is “masculine” and “feminine”, do I say “tu” or “vous”?, how do I say “will” or “would” or “did”?, how do I know which one is the right preposition etc…
Your missions are:
1. to understand most common mistakes made by learners.
2. to know the way French native speakers think.
3. to express yourself with confidence.
