Learn French > Grammar
                                                         GRAMMAR 

On this page, you will find:
> Links to Grammar lessons on-line
> Suggestions for targeted grammar work (consolidation outside of lessons)
> Recommended books, Kindle books, apps and websites
> Links to useful websites
> Click here for brief notes on GCSE grammar items
Suggestions for focused grammar work:
- High-frequency verbs and their conjugation
- possessive adjectives (especially son/sa; leur/leurs)
- negatives
- comparatives & superlatives
- When to use infinitive verbs
- adjectives and agreements
- verbs followed by à/de
- expressions of quantity (some, a lot of, etc)
- avoir expressions (avoir confiance, etc)
- demonstratives (ce/cet/cette/ces)
- object pronouns (le/la/les/lui/leur; y/en etc)
- relative pronouns (qui/que)
More advanced level:
- active form with "on" versus Passive form
- impersonal verbs (falloir, s'agir, etc)
- reported speech
- en +-ant (present participle)
- adjectives + prepositions (contrarié par, difficile de, incapable de, etc)
- les traductions de "encore"
High-frequency verbs (advanced)
Connectives
Frequent grammar mistakes:
- consistent use of on/tu/vous and respective agreements, pronouns and possessives.
- present tense 3rd person (sing/plural agreement)
- collective nouns which require singular verbs - eg: la classe, la famille, la police, le personnel, etc
- gender of high-frequency words (le problème, le système, le lycée, la santé, le manque, la nature, la chose, le signe, le monde, la famille, le paysage, la réponse, la mort, le contraste, la façon, la fin, etc). Make your own list of mistakes you have made, learn thoroughy the gender of key topic-specific vocab.
What do you want to use?
> Traditional Grammar books?
> E-books?
> Websites?
> You-tube videos?
> Notes (PDF here)?
> Apps?
Using all of them is the best approach!
Recommended books:
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Some useful books at A-Level:
Recommended Apps:
See more Apps


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Recommended Paper books
Living French: A Grammar-based Course by T. W. Knight & Anna Stevenson 
Grammar-based course with focus on describing environment around us. Good to reactivate GCSE knowledge. Comes with a CD. Simple lay-out, difficulty builds up quite quickly. Texts become longer and eventually more literary. Structure of chapters:
> 1. Grammar rules
> 2. Key vocab
> 3. Reading text & questions (corrections available)
> 4. Fill in gaps
> 5. Translate

Fast French with Elisabeth Smith (Book & CD) 
Based on using set sentences in context: 
NO GRAMMAR EXERCISES at all, just Observe-Transfer-Memorise. Focus on Speaking. Comes with CD. Story line: a couple is spending a week in France and we follow them on the plane to get there, arriving and looking for accomodation, shopping, etc . Challenging at times, beyond GCSE level. Structure of chapters
> 1. Long dialogue (French on one page, English translation on the other). With CD.
> 2. New words and grammar explanations
> 3. Translation exercise (corrections available)
> 4. Questions to answer
> 5. Little text to learn by heart and recite


Recommended Kindle books:
Useful grammar websites: