Great book to learn extra vocabulary when learning French. I studied French a long time ago at school but now I want to improve my vocabulary and become better at it and more fluent, and this book has really helped.

I thought this book was very helpful and useful.

It was easy to understand and learn and I had a great time with it, it definitely is a book I’d recommend giving a try if you’re trying to learn French.

The last time I spoke French was in the Summer of 1986.

I was surprised at how much I remembered. I look forward to diving into this again and again as I’m sure it will continue to be helpful.

I received a complimentary ARC of this book from NetGalley on behalf of the Publisher and was under no obligation to post a favorable review.

This was a good help and addition to my French learning. I took French in high school and college and I’m
Always on Duolingo too, so this was a
Good supplement

I found this a great support for being able to expand my knowledge alongside Duolingo. Not studied French for over 30 years and this is a straightforward easy to read book with good explanations.

Thank you to BooksGoSocial and Netgalley for an ARC in return for an honest review

This is a fantastic reference / aid for the burgeoning French speaker. I took French in high school and college, and play around with Duolingo now, but this is more in depth and offers a wide selections of words to add to your vocabulary.
Pick it up!

Unlocking French is a vocabulary list that includes useful examples of the defined words in context. A few grammar tips are provided, but the focus of the book seems to be helping the reader build vocabulary.

While there is nothing wrong with any of the content on the face, this isn't how I learn a language. In particular, starting the list with "a", "the", "in", and "to" doesn't provide the reader with much helpful information to use in either reading, writing, listening to or speaking the language.

Although I'll keep this book as a reference, I suspect I won't be tempted to dive in to it often.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Okay, I'll start by admitting that I don't like the format. There are a ton of words and I can't really tell what order they're supposed to be in. BUT.
I consider French to be my best language, the one I studied most in school. In this book, there's basically a list of French words and phrases with definitions, and then there are whole French sentences so you can see how they're used. When there's something odd, or if something can be used multiple ways, there is more explanation.
I think this book is intended to be just read through, as a refresher, and it will only work if you have a background in French, because the examples are whole French sentences. But all that being said, the word choices were good and the explanations were great. I enjoyed going through the list, as random as it was.
Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this.

I took for years of French in high school, but since I don't use it often, I can't remember a huge portion of it.
BUT, this little gem helped me realize a lot of it is still in my brain, which is always nice to know I was actually paying attention all those years ago.

Easily navigable, it's a great intro to speaking one of the Romance languages (the others are Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and Romanian) as well as a review for those of us who want to sound impressive in front of our non-speaking French friends. And also be understandable to those who do speak it.

Very much liked the book and will recommend.

I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

4 stars, Helpful

UNLOCKING FRENCH: 1000 Essential Words With Parallel Text Examples And Learning Clues: French Language Learning - Your Key To Fluent In French
by Vox Original

This is a helpful book for learning French. I have had a few online lessons for French, I feel like this book can help you to learn the language, but you'd also need to have the pronunciations, as well.

The book is easy to follow and directs your own learning. Recommended.

I received a complimentary copy of #UnlockingFrench from #BooksGoSocial I was not obligated to post a review.

#French #LearningLanguages #NetGalley #NonFiction

This is a nice little primer, I particularly like the “real life examples” provided. The intro with the bare bones French Grammar section is also a good refresher on the basics.

Thank you for providing advanced access to this book.

I was excited to potentially add this title to our collection but, ultimately, I don't think we will be purchasing it. The premise of the book and its structure is a little too bland and not presented interestingly. For instance, in the first entry for "un", the detailed explanation of what "un" is would have worked better in a bulleted format so readers could quickly understand relevant information. There is just way too much information for the paragraph format it is currently in to work.

Additionally, I found the "tips" thrown in throughout the the book to be elementary. For instance, one entry ends with "It would be a good ideas to make a note of these words, and keep tracking them as you continue reading." This is an obvious statement and undersells the reader's intelligence.

I would recommend this to French learners who just need quick sentence configurations to review. Other than that, I don't see this title being useful to a college-level student.

Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC copy.
As I know some French, this book was a sort of revision. Beginners however will have to supplement it with a course book.
This book references French words that are similar to their English counterparts such as:
défendre - to defend
terminer - to terminate

But it also tries to help learners memorize unfamiliar words through connections.
Some really interesting examples:

perdre (to lose) - perdition, where perd means to destroy, to lose
toux (cough) - tussive
glace (icecream)- glacier
oublier (to forget) - oblivion
couronne (crown) - coronation
tard (late)- tardy
rêve - reverie
Battre (to beat/hit) - battery (the unlawful physical contact).

At times, some sentences seem a bit dated and formal. I did clarify with my French teachers (both natives and FLE certified)

Also a few sentences in English appear slightly awkward such as:

971. The OPPOSITION between fire and water creates a breathtaking scene.
985. I like to read the PRESS every morning to stay informed of the latest news.

There are few oversights:

462. Nous maintenir la priorite d'etre a l'heure pour chaque reunion (verb "maintenir" not conjugated)

496. Je réussis un milliard d'essais pour obtenir ce résultat. (this needs to be better translated)
I succeeded after a billion tries to get this result

This book could be a great resource if a native French speaker, and a native English speaker worked together to edit it.
Still, it was nice to be able to get back in touch with French :-)

This is an interesting approach to language learning support. It's a list of words that are each put in context within a sentence, with English translation. Some elements of the sentence may then be explained further, or cultural and historical information added.

It's not very effective to learn a language word by word, though, one needs some simple whole sentences at least to begin with, because language needs to express complete ideas. So some other kind of instruction is definitely needed along with this.

Thank you NetGalley and Vox Original for a copy of "Unlocking French" in exchange for my honest review.

I think this book should be on the shelf of every French student. It is clear, concise and very well-written. It is a perfect book for the beginner French learner but also the more advanced student because when learning a language an important piece is building vocabulary. This book offers 1000 of the most frequently used words that you will encounter in a real life situation. It has the word, the English translation, the gender of the word (which is extremely important in the French language), a sample sentence in French of how the word can be used and the English translation. The sentences are ones that you might encounter in a real life conversation with a native speaker.

The book also gives great advice for advancing your knowledge of French, how repetition is the key to reinforcing your memory - memorization of words and their genders, how to conjugate verbs in the present tense, the passé compose and the imperfect.

I recently decided to work on my rusty old French. I’ve been listening to a podcast that I have found to be very helpful, and also found this book to be a very useful adjunct.

Here we have a list of French words. For each, there is a definition and a sentence using the word. In addition, there are some further explanations, as for example about whether a word is feminine or masculine; these are important distinctions in the language

This book offers a good opportunity to practice French. It is recommended to both beginners into those who just want to put a little French into their life each day.

Many thanks to NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for this title. All opinions are my own.

Thank you to Netgalley and BooksGoSocial for the digital galley in exchange for my honest review.

This was a great brush up for me on the very basics of French grammar. Reading the sentences out loud was especially useful.

I would buy myself a copy for further practice, and recommend for other French beginners.

I have been studying French for years. I am not any good at it. This book has helped me with verbs, my biggest failure. I would recommend this book to aid in learning the basics.

When it comes to learning a new language, vocabulary is essential. This book helps provide a resource for learners who are looking to expand their French word bank. However, it's important to note that this book is not designed for beginners. It assumes a basic understanding of French grammar and language structure, making it more suitable for those who are already on their journey to mastering the language.

As a high school student taking AP French, I found this book to be a perfect fit for my needs. It offered a thorough review of many basic French words while also testing my understanding of grammar.

In summary, this book serves its purpose well for its intended audience—intermediate learners seeking to enhance their French vocabulary. The organized word lists and clear translations are undoubtedly beneficial. However, its reliance on prior knowledge of French grammar may limit its accessibility to a broader range of learners. Beginners would be better off starting with a more comprehensive language-learning resource before diving into this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

It's exactly as it says in the title: a thousand French words, the most common, and their usage in everyday conversation, with the English translation right next to them.

The book is targeted towards absolute beginners, or to people coming back to French if they haven't studied it or spoken it in a long time; it's not meant to be used as the sole resource for your learning, but best to accompany an actual coursebook.
Along with the words and the example sentences in which theyre used, there is a particular focus on the shared etymology of French and English words, so that they become easier to memorise (as well as the problem you can incurr in by doing so, pointing out the "false friends" - words that sound similar in both languages but mean different things -).

I did find the formatting a bit clunky, and it gets repetitive after a while - the foreword suggest reading the book from beginning to end without looking at a dictionary to see how much vocabulary can be memorised, but I feel like the same result could have been achieved using all these words in a text with the english translation for every paragraph (and maybe some footnotes to point out interesting grammar rules). I don't believe it to be essential material.

All this said, it's a nice reference to have on hand, but as I said before it's useful only if you have another resource to do your actual learning!