This 1999 reference grammar, written for advanced students of French, their teachers, and others who want a better understanding of the French language, combines the best of modern and traditional approaches. Its objective is not only practical mastery of the language, but familiarity with its structure. Taking into account modern linguistic research, Advanced French Grammar approaches the French language primarily through the study of syntactic structures, but without excessive emphasis on formalism. It provides a generous number of examples, based on the author's own experience of teaching French to English-speakers, to help the student to understand the different meanings of apparently similar syntactic alternatives. The norms of 'correct expression' are given together with current usage and deviations, and appendixes provide information on the 1990 spelling reforms and on numbers. A substantial index of French and English words and of topics provides easy access to the text itself.

A book that will make you able to understand what you are told and give an appropriate answer in the most frequent situations of daily life.

This is the first ever bilingual thesaurus of its kind. The book is aimed at all English-speaking learners and users of French at an intermediate to advanced level, and is structured in a uniquely helpful way. The book is arranged thematically rather than alphabetically, with fifteen part titles subdivided into a total of 142 subheadings which are further subdivided into topic categories. In each category learners will find synonyms and related French words and phrases of use for writing or speaking about the topic, as well as sayings, metaphors, proverbs, famous quotations or usage notes connected with the topic. Every word, phrase and example has an English translation. Illustrations provide additional help, and there is a special section on conversational gambits. Two alphabetical indexes of more than 8,000 words each, one listing English vocabulary and the other French, help readers find what they're looking for easily.