French Step-by-Step

by Charles Berlitz

Patterned phrases and dialogues are used to teach the basic skills of French usage including grammar, syntax, idiom, and vocabulary

Genres: Reference, France, Language, Nonfiction

Paperback

First published January 1, 1979

About the author

Born in NYC, Berlitz was the grandson of Maximilien Berlitz, who founded the Berlitz Language Schools. As a child, Charles was raised in a household in which (by father's orders) every relative & servant spoke to Charles in a different language. He reached adolescence speaking eight languages fluently. In adulthood, he recalled having had the delusion that every human spoke a different language, & wondering why he didn't have his own like everyone else. His father spoke to him in German, his grandfather in Russian, his nanny in Spanish.
He began working for the family's Berlitz School of Languages, during college breaks. The publishing house, of which he was vice president, sold, among other things, tourist phrase books & pocket dictionaries, several of which he authored. He also played a key role in developing record & tape language courses. He left the company in the late 1960s, not long after he sold the company to publishing firm Crowell, Collier & Macmillan. He graduated magna cum laude from Yale Univ.
Berlitz was a writer on anomalous phenomena. He wrote a number of books on Atlantis. In his book The Mystery of Atlantis, he used evidence from geophysics, psychic studies, classical literature, tribal lore, archeology & mysteries & concluded that Atlantis was real. Berlitz also attempted to link the Bermuda Triangle to Atlantis. He claimed to have located Atlantis undersea in the area of the Bermuda Triangle. He was also an ancient astronaut proponent who believed that extraterrestrials had visited earth.
Berlitz spent 13 years on active duty in the US Army, mostly in intelligence. In 1950, he married Valerie Seary, with whom he had a daughter, Lynn. He died in 2003 at the age of 89 at University Hospital in Tamarac, FL.

Reviews

[Victor Henrique · Rating 3 out of 5]

Je ne sais pas si c'est un bon livre, pas à pas pour que vous écriviez des petits commentaires en français. La chose la plus compliquée dans n'importe quelle langue est de former des phrases et de relier des paragraphes. À cet égard... this work is helpful for someone who is starting in the language... i mean really starting. It is not a bad book, we just have to think if this work is really the best one to start in French... in my view, non! For sure if you are a book type of person, you must check this one. You willl find an amalgamation of a classic language (heavy ) book and an easy step-by-step approach... its worth reading! Alors c'est parti!

[Vik Venkatraman]

Teaches syntax and grammar nicely in sentence/conversation format. Not a standalone dictionary, and does not have a POV on vocabulary.