Mastering a French Vocabulary: A Thematic Approach

This book is great for beginner and non-beginner alike. Its modular approach not only takes the boredom out of memorization, but aids in retention of vocab and makes it easy for use as a reference guide. It's quite enjoyable. I recommend it to the beginner and someone (like me) who's looking to brush on ages of non-use of francais, ce livre est tres magnifique!

This is wonderful book for reviewing vocabulary. You should also know that German, Spanish, and Italian versions exist as well. The words covered are very helpful, especially for those who like to travel and need to know "easy" words that do not appear frequently in literature but do come up often in offices, stores, etc. Each entry offers a clear example of usage in its proper context. These books are so inexpensive, that it is worth taking one with you on a trip abroad, even if you end up abandoning it at the end to make more room in your suitcase for the books that you want to bring home.

I have studied French for several years now, and I know most of the vocabulary included in this book. Despite that, I found useful the way in which it is divided, that is, in thematic categories, because those categories allow me to search for the specific vocabulary I need when I need it. That feature saves time and it is very practical. The task of learning new vocabulary can be quite tedious, but this book makes it more approachable, by allowing the reader to choose what themes he is going to study, and in what order. I don't regret buying it, because I think it is a thoroughly useful reference book. Due to that, I recommend "Mastering French Vocabulary: A Thematic Approach" to you :)

Sometimes I've wished I could just increase my vocabulary in a huge chunk by reading the dictionary--but of course that isn't very practical or efficient, since on my way to learning useful words I would probably be distracted by hundreds more unuseful ones. This book offers the practical alternative to reading the dictionary! You can start with the chapters that are most interesting to you, and even within those chapters, see at a glance the subset that will be the most useful to start out with (sections of chapters are divided into "learn first" and "learn later" parts). Every time I have looked at this book and gone through a chapter or section, and then have a conversation, watch a movie, or read a book in French, I've recognized words that I just saw in this book. I sometimes prefer it to a dictionary--there is an alphabetical index of French entries--because when I look up one word I might be intrigued by and learn some of the related words near it. The introduction talks about the painstaking and lengthy process the editors went through when trying to decide what words were useful enough to include in these books, and how to categorize them--that is exactly the kind of thing I would hope the creators of a vocabulary book would do. I very much recommend this book for someone (like me) who has a good functional grasp of the language but is short on vocabulary. If you already have a very strong vocabulary, it might be useful for filling in any gaps (or for self-validation of your vocabulary prowess!).

Between the integral organization of the Book and its huge index, the reader will easily find the contextual meanings of all the words a student has had only a vague understanding of through general definitions. The great bonus of this book is the best pronunciation key I have seen in the literature -- rather than describing French Pronunciation with French Words (which, if we knew, we wouldn't need to be studying French) the book gives its examples with English sounds, or, in the case of uniquely French sounds, gives uniquely understandable directions on how to make such sounds oneself. It has a grammer and a section on verb conjugations. It is a nice enough book that I am getting another copy which I can take to work for quick studies or as reference for my other French books. I like it.