Pronounce it Perfectly in French: With Online Audio (Barron's Foreign Language Guides)

For those Francophones/Francophiles (or even those vacationing for a short periods of time) who love the French Language, this book is genuinely the best Lesson Book I have found for taking serious lovers of the language to the next level! Personally, I have not found a French language lesson book that has helped me to improve my ability to speak as well as this book has since I purchased it. Of course, it still takes practicing daily, following the clear, concise lessons along with listening to the way the individuals on the CD's help you to understand the exact pronunciation and structure. It has helped where no other Lesson Book has been able to help. Most who love to speak the language - or have tried to learn it - have had French lessons either from school, or are self-taught through immersion or others have been learning and applying the language by means of other courses/books over the years. All with agree that the REAL challenge has always been PROPER pronunciation of French words and phrases. Of course, lessons and books help with phonetic characters; however, if you are like me, they do not always help when you are trying to speak them, they can often be misread or misunderstood. The phonetics simply do not teach proper pronunciation. Therefore, once a person learns the true pronunciation of words - rid ourselves of some phrases and sentence structuring that are not used in reality, the rest is easier to follow! For French, as with other languages, there is also the factor of dialect that comes into play. At times, dialect throws off understanding the language-even in Paris, there is a certain style of modern French (not necessarily slang) spoken around the Arrondissements that lesson books will not help you to understand. But, this book takes ANY level of understanding of the language and helps you to leap forward in your ability to communicate. This , of course, is own personal opinion. Many people may not have trouble with proper pronunciation of French. However, I have found exactly what I have been searching for in all the other lessons that matches what is being spoken when we are in France. Yes, they have helped me along the way to speak the language with ability; but, I have always needed help ascertaining certain distinctive pronunciation of accents - the accent grave, the letters or combinations of letters that have sounds not within the typical English language, etc. I have received exactly what was needed to fill in those gaps of information! So, I highly recommend this book, it is valuable and I have definitely leapt forward in my linguistic skills remarkably where my understanding is exciting and I love, literally LOVE playing with the words and rolling the letters and difficult accents around my mouth, back of my throat, my tongue, etc....Yes, highly recommended to everyone! (Did I say that I can READ French even better than I did before? No? Well, add that to this review as well! It's VERY important to read the language properly with the proper pronunciations in your head!)

Recognizing finally that my ability to pronounce French correctly and unlikely to improve much, I figured I'd always have to communicate with the French by writing everything out. My French speaking is still pretty much at that level, but this book is helping. After years of trying different methods to pronounce things better, I stumbled on this book and, while it is only helping me a little (the fault is mine mainly), it is helping. The lessons are somewhat boring (all right excessively boring) so I don't recommend trying hours of it at one go. Also for me the use of the book only works if you can constantly reverse the cd so that you can re-hear the sounds. As with most french pronunciation guides, which tell you where to put your tongue, how to spread or contract your lips, and whether to generally grimace (or not) this book does the same things. For me none of this works. I just can't do it. Which might help explain my bad pronunciation. However, as I write above, I find this book very good and helpful. It is clear and well organized. My difficulty with it is that I try to use it when riding the treadmill at the gym. It really is difficult to listen to the lesson on the IPhone, try to back up the dialog frequently, and balance the book on the machine. In fact, it doesn't really work all that well. If anyone has a method for balancing a book with ability to change pages while running of walking on treadmill let me know. This book requires frequent page changes and the treadmill makes the whole process difficult. Somehow I don't actually blame the book for this deficiency.

Have been using as a supplement to my french studies. I took the workbook to class to get help with a couple words and my teacher told me it was an excellent resource. Did not give five stars because I wish there was more work on minimal pairs.

This book is awesome! It groups words by the way they are spelled and tells you how to pronounce them. It also points out the exceptions. I have only been using this book for a few weeks and I can now clearly distinguish the various sounds. I took a dictation self test the other day, and to my amazement I got nearly all the words correct, even proper names that I did not know before. If you want to learn to speak and understand spoken French. buy this. You will be pleased.

I was very excited to have received the book. I saw great reviews and also my sister recommended it. We are competing to learn French in the next 6 months. However, the book is great, purchased this new, but the CDs forget about it, tried the first CD, and only played the intro and the first 2 and 3rd audio, after that it stops- tried to transfer to see if that would work and no go! We have come a long way in technology and as to why are there still CDs! It would useful to have a code and go to the author's or distributor's site and download the audios! I am certain that this does not happen often, as my sister's worked fine but my did not! Not I am not confident that buying another set will work!

Superb pronunciation guide. The written material was both comprehensive in scope and accurate in detail. My book came with CDs (I assume that all is online now), and I did have a problem with the CDs enclosed with the materials. The plastic pockets had transferred material to the CDs, and they were initially unusable. I did a gentle wash of the CDs (the internet will explain how), and they were perfectly operational after that. Very pleased overall.

#1 CD is missing. Incomplete language course. Please send me CD 1 for “Pronounce It Perfectly In French.” Thank you. Best regards. Gabriella Mudrony

For the beginning student of French, or for those who have some experience this book and the accompanying CDs are helpful, but would be better if the pauses after the auditory were longer. As they are now, some students of French (such as the reviewer) may be struggling to finish the practice sentences before the next one begins. Yes, the host does recommend pausing the CD after each auditory, and no doubt judgments had to be made from the publisher as to the space allotted both to the CDs and the main text. In addition, not enough explanation is given on the pronunciation of some of the more difficult sounds in French that have no English equivalents, such as the correct way to pronounce the “r” sound in French. The accents of the verbal tutors are incredible though, and students who use this book will no doubt wish they will eventually sound as beautiful as these individuals. Also, there are some neat literary examples and tongue twisters at the end of the book that are very fun and not terribly difficult. In general then, the book is worth the time, and will set the serious beginning student on the way to learning the world’s most beautiful language.

短い語句が丁寧に繰り返し録音されて、全体として良く構成されていて、選んだ目的に適っており、満足しているが、長い章句になると録音の繰り返しがないのが誠に残念だ。加えておこがましくも、編者にあえて苦言を呈するなら、英語による説明がやたらに長いのは如何なものか。目的の言語の音を繰り返し聴かせ、発音させるという目的を削ぐ結果になっているのではないか。ともあれ、私としては、大いに利用させていただくつもりだ。

In my case; Meet my requirements

This book is easy to follow, a very good book for beginner. Selling service is good, book arrived on time.

Excellent Book. It's a well laid out book that is easy to follow. It explains the sounds in French using both English equivalents and IPA (International Phenetic Alphabet). The books also provides a heads up for exceptions to the rules. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone wanting to demystify French phenetics.

Essencial e indispensável, pra quem quer aprimorar sua pronuncia no inglês. Até agora, foi o melhor livro sobre pronuncia que achei no mercado!