2008-02-12 Must have for the serious student: too intense for the casual

I bought this book whilst living in a French speaking country and working at a European Union institution, for both of which knowledge of French was essential. I was instantly impressed with its quality, and its no nonsense approach to French. Far from more "all round" courses which aim to make learning pleasant, this book presupposes a level of interest and commitment that means there are no pictures or cultural notes. Just the language itself.

The book has a common format. A brief and direct introduction to the verb tense being explored, followed by LOTS of example exercises, where our knowledge of the verb tense just taught is tested to destruction point. All of the major tenses are covered, including rarer tenses that only tend to crop up in historical and technical usage of French. The book is a must have for anyone who is truly serious about improving their French for professional and personal purposes. The price is also extremely good in terms of "price-paid-to-skills-gained" ratio, so I cannot recommend this highly enough to the serious student. Students with a more casual interest in French may find it is not for them.