Laura K. Lawless - French Essentials for Dummies

French Essentials For Dummies by Laura K. Lawless and Zoe Erotopoulos, PhD French Essentials For Dummies Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc. 111 River St. Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774 www.wiley.com Copyright 2011 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published simultaneously in Canada No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions . and/or its affiliates in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. and/or its affiliates in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission.

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About the Authors Laura K. Lawless is the author of seven language instruction books (four French and three Spanish). She also teaches French, Spanish, and English on the Internet and has a Web site of vegetarian recipes and information.

Zoe Erotopoulos holds an M.A., M.Phil, and Ph.D. in French and Romance Philology from Columbia University. Her French teaching experience ranges from elementary to advance level courses including literature and theater. Dr. Erotopoulos has taught at a number of institutions including Columbia University, Reid Hall in Paris, and Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. For the past 15 years, she has been teaching in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at Fairfield University in Fairfield, Connecticut.

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Introduction W hether youre taking a French class in high school or college, this handy reference book can help you recall vocabulary, verb conjugation, crucial differences between French and English, and much more. If the idea of snuggling up with your textbook in advance of a big exam makes you queasy, take heart: This book is a focused, straightforward review of the key material covered in introductory French courses. French Essentials For Dummies can help you reach your goals painlessly and effortlessly as you enhance your French language skills. French Essentials For Dummies provides you with all the basic grammar you need to know to understand the language and to communicate it clearly. With the help of this book, youll find it a snap to have a conversation about topics other than your name and the weather. And thats quite an achievement! About This Book We designed this book to be as accessible as possible.

Each self-contained chapter presents a different topic that allows you to master essential French skills. We cover just the basics of each topic so you can get a quick refresher of what youve learned in your coursework. Plus, we include plenty of examples to reinforce the rules so that youre exposed to colloquial, everyday, correct French that native speakers expect to hear from someone using their language. Conventions Used in This Book To make this book as easy to use as possible, we use two important conventions throughout: French words and sentences, as well as endings we want to highlight, are set in boldface to make them stand out. English equivalents, set in italic, follow the French examples. You want to review what youve already learned so you can pass a test for your course or excel on a college placement exam.