Tune Up Your French: Top 10 Ways to Improve Your Spoken French

Very useful book for the student of intermediate level French. But firstly, I'd like to recommend Amazon's deal at near the top of the page for this plus the Stillman French grammar book as a twofer. I have studied both cover to cover and they are thorough, interesting, and they complement each other.

This doesn't cover much grammar per se, and the Stillman doesn't go deeply into the many, many ways you can express yourself in French. Both of these are really for someone who has a decent grasp of elementary French. If you have to struggle to read each sentence in Tune Up, you'll never get through it because there is, despite its mildly flip title, a lot of meat dans cette torte française.


This isn't simply a book of phrases - I have a few of them and they bore me sick. This keeps up your interest with highly focused one or two page coverage on limited topics, e.g. How To Describe Jerks In French. Sounds useful to me.

Very useful, too, is the many times Ms. Schorr points out the cultural differences enshrined in language which an intermediate student should begin to understand, or else. Using a Faux Amis word can get you in big trouble, e.g. baiser(the verb) and un baiser(the noun).

These, most of them anyhow, aren't lines you want to try to memorize - although there are a few gems worth the trouble. Ne t'en fais pas. Débrouille-toi! Ecrasons l'infâme. And let's not forget the inimical French irony as in Mes Complements! (it doesn't mean what you think).


Let's face it, French is tricky. They've had around two thousand years, ever since meeting up with people who had an even trickier language, the Romans, to conjure up countless ways of twisting phrases around so as to be incomprehensible to the speaker of American - we say we speak English, but they say nous parlons l'américain. I suspect they wish to distinguish us from those wonderful, properly educated, well-behaved English tourists who nip over to Paris on that handy train that goes under the English Channel. Hmmmm.


Now that American money isn't worth much vis-a-vis the Euro, they will fortunately see fewer of us. Ça alors! Quelle chance.


So, I highly recommend Tune Up Your French for the intermediate learner.

This book is perfect for anyone trying to improve his/her French. It explains French (from France) cultural habits and how they apply to language. There is a whole chapter on "yes," such as how to say "I guess so" and other shades of "yes." I have studied and worked in French for years, and I found this book very insightful. It pointed out many things about the French language (from France) that I have overlooked or simply not realized.

This book is full of practical, useful information for the would-be traveler to France, both with cultural tips and insights and language phrases to ease the "cultural shock". Very informative for both the beginner and one wishing to review French!

Anyone who is surprised to find that this book isn't a collection of tips for those who want a little French for an up-coming trip hasn't bothered to read the title or the preface, and the same is true for anyone who expects some kind of treatise. The book is exactly what it claims to be, and I think that everyone who has studied French for a few years should read it.

Those who want a tailored list of idiomatic expressions that they can readily get under their belts might start with "Au Courant" by Robert Johnson (which is tailored for students), but this book is much more. It is an introduction to the French way of thinking that is focused on short lists of expressions. There are many such lists, and they will be read over and over again by those who love the language. The glue holding these lists together is a series of mini-essays that are deeply knowledgeable, insightful, and very useful. And with all of this, the book is also wonderfully written and fun to read.


This isn't fast-food for the ignorant, but it is a superb book for those who want to start "tuning up" the French that they have. It will certainly make its readers more attentive to what they see and hear whenever they are in a French-speaking country.

I don't know how this book got such high ratings. I found it to be nothing more than a list of vocabulary/ expressions, with a paragraph or two in between. It certainly is not practical for a person who is planning a trip to France, as I doubt you would be able to recall such a long list.