A Helpful and Free Book
So like a lot of people here I can read a book and newspapers but my oral skills leave a lot to be desired. Until now.
Back in 1908 a gentleman by the name of Raphael D'Amour wrote a booked called "Practical French Course in Fifty Lessons". Due to its age it is out of copyright and Google has rather kindly scanned in and it's available for free download. Simply search for it and voila!
I have also found it to be an indispensable reference guide (You can only imagine how long I struggled with "J'en ai")
Anyway to the oral skills. There are some very helpful chapters on when to drop sounds, when to carry and when to slur (yes it's technically called slurring - a few Gin and Tonic's may assist the slurring technique).
I hope that someone else will find it helpful.
58 Comments
http://books.google.com/books/about/Practical_French_Course_in_Fifty_Lessons.html?id=OX0SAAAAIAAJ
This is the link to the downloadable version. Thanks BastouXII for posting the link. I didn't know how to make it short like you have.
I'm pleased to hear that you folks like the book.
To make it short:
[text](link)
[Here (or whatever text you would like)](http://books.google.com/books/about/Practical_French_Course_in_Fifty_Lessons.html?id=OX0SAAAAIAAJ)
which becomes...
Thank you Coby ... I can't believe that I'm thaaaat academically challenge but don't seem to find where on the page to download ... halp?!?!
Update: got it!
I couldn't get it from his link either (that's why I posted the Archive.org one). It's mostly out of curiosity, but how did you do it?
Hi Bastou ... I didn't! I re-read your post and downloaded from your second link :) kind regards, le cap, afrique du sud
Add to my library button. It downloads as a pdf. I'm guessing you need a Google account?
Strangely enough, I thought it might be something like that, so I signed in, added it to my library and still nothing... It redirects me to the Canadian google site though (seems I can't force it to use the american (.com) one), I don't know if it has anything to do with my inability to download it though.
Maybe thanks to my efforts of raising the profile of an out of print book the servers have been overwhelmed? Joking of course. Have you tried using a proxy server? I use the free Hola plugin on Chrome. It also enables me to read French only content on a load of other sites. Pretty helpful.
Well, as I said, it's mostly out of curiosity as I can get it from that other link I posted, and I don't really need it as French is my first language. I already heard about "Hola" and planned to try it out soon, but I haven't got to it yet. When I finally install it I'll try to use it to download the book and keep you updated, if you're also curious about it.
Hi Coby I tried all kinds of variations incl signing in with google, adding to library etc. Eventually Bastou's 2nd link prevailed supreme! Its a big file 15Mb :)
It's so lovely that I can understand most of these conversations now.. :) And I concur, merci for the new word!
And here you can find various versions such as .pdf on the left. Priceless =) Thank you so much for sharing this book!
I'm sure you have plenty of lingots, so let me just say thanks for the link. I'm reading the PDF version and it is very helpful.
Old books for free? This is one happy Moomin.
Thank you so much for posting. :)
The only thing I worry about is that because it's an old book, it might end up teaching you archaic language. I know people in the 1900s in English definitely didn't talk the same way we do today.
Yes that is true [up to a point] but it is also wonderfully sweet to read some of the old style English eg. page 102 where 'C'est toi' = 'It is thou'. A great demonstration of how language changes with time, and still a great resource for learning French.
I had the same worry but I just now read a few chapters and it's amazing. It makes French suddenly seem easy! It gives you tons of shortcuts and guidelines that let you learn huge chunks of French at once. I've read a few French textbooks but none of them compare to this one. It's excellent.
Great I'm glad you liked it. I found it immediately readable and understandable. It really helped me. I tried a whole load of the new books (mostly as samples) and none worked as well as this.
so right ... anyway the changes wouldn't be that much so it's more useful than u think ... :)
Here is a link to it to save you the search.
Thanks!
Edit : since my comment is much higher than MultiLinguAlex's, here's the link to the main page for the book, with links to downloadable versions in various e-reader formats, including PDF (to read on a PC, Mac or regular tablet or smartphone that doesn't support e-book formats).
Great book. Gets right to the point in each of the lessons I've read so far.
Thank you; I love this book. Some of the vocabulary is obviously outdated but the explanations for grammar rules are short, clear and memorable. I have bookmarked many pages and look forward to using the book going forward with my Duolingo tree.
Merci for sharing! I've basically just started learning french but to me it's so hard that i just keep finding myself staring at the screen wondering what the heck it's supposed to mean. Maybe this will help! :)
2037
I like the usage of "thou" for "tu"! Interesting book...thank you for posting this!
Merci beaucoup! I've read just a few pages of it, and it is a great resource that you've found! I've already downloaded it!
BiaPLC, I just gave you a Lingot because yours is the first link to this book that I could actually download! I don't have an e-Reader so all I could do was read in on-line, your link allowed me to D/L a PDF. Thanks.
I'm only a few pages in and I already love the way it's written. Merci!
I have different issue, my speech sounds great but my french spelling is shoddy. Merci, la livre est une tres bon aide.
Thanks for your info. I have downloaded this buch and fount it very helpfull. Your post after 3 years could be also helpfull!
