"Grammar is not a four-letter word. Learning vocabulary is not a form of punishment. They are the basis of any language, and a student who wants more than a tourist's booklet of useful phrases will need to learn them sooner or later. The second edition of this popular title books takes the sting out of the exercise and even makes it a pleasant experience. By tackling issues not addressed in other texts, or by doing so in a new way, we examine questions you will find novel and intriguing.

In the section on grammar, we propose a new and better way to tell the use of the passé simple or passé composé and the imparfait. There really are differences in causal conjunctions (parce que/car/comme/puisque). The agreement of the past participle of pronominal verbs (Elle s'est coupée au doigt) is also explained clearly. The updated section on vocabulary helps you distinguish between pouvoir and puissance (power), and the section on style deals with such issues as letter-writing and levels of language.

The purpose of this work, like that of second-language teachers, is to inspire students to seek what is unique in both languages and to reflect on the relationship and interplay between them." (Book Cover)

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Preface

PART ONE: GRAMMAR

1. Prepositions
A. For – expressing time
B. To + Infinitive

2. Adverbial Phrases
A. Adverbial phrases of place

3. Pronouns
A. Dont or duquel?
B. On… vous

4. Verbs
A. Agreement of the past participle of pronominal verbs
B. Plus-que-parfait or passé antérieur (passésurcomposé)?
C. Je l’ai vue les voler
D. The passive versus the active voice
E. Imparfait, passé simple, and passé composé : the traditional approach
F. Passé simple (passé composé)/imparfait : a new approach
G. Some basic points about sentence structure
H. Future anterior of conjecture, conditional of unconfirmed information
I. Present participle and gerundive
J. Il ne faut pas

5. Conjunctions
A. Causal Conjuctions

6. Adjectives
A. The position of the adjective (Part 1)
B. The position of the adjective (Part 2)
C. Adjectives that follow the noun
D. Agreement of adjectives of colour

7. Articles
A. Parts of the body
B. Français/le français
C. De/des
D. Omission of the article before the names of provinces, countries, and continents

8. Adverbs
A. Negatives
B. Position of adverbs

9. Syllables

PART TWO: VOCABULARY
1. Test
2. Être en accord or Être d’accord?
3. Relatives
4. Holiday, Vacation
5. Décider
6. Pouvoir and Puissance (Power)
7. To Suggest
8. To Visit
9. Se servir de
10. Scarcely, Hardly
11. Could, Would
12. Oui or Si?
13. D’avance/À l’avance/En avance
14. Mener/Porter
15. Sans doute and Other False Friends
16. S’assurer que
17. Food… for Thought
18. Tranché
19. Each/Every
20. Encore and Toujours
21. When Is a Rue not a Street?
22. Espoir/Espérance
23. Numbers, Figures, and Digits
a. Vingt and Cent
24. There Are Words… and There Are Words: Mots/Paroles
25. So
26. Bouchées, Fournées, Soirées… Chaque jour et Chaque année: Reflections on a Suffix
27. An Employee Isn’t Un Employé
28. À Nouveau/De Nouveau (again)
29. Original/Originel (original)
30. Sensible/Sensitif (sensitive)
31. Valable/Valide
32. Welcome Back, You Asked for It, Cans, I Feel for Him, It’s Not at All Like Them, and Is There Anything Wrong?
33. “The first… to… ”
34. Faire attention/Prêter attention
35. Désintérêt/Désintéressement
36. Possible and Éventuel
37. Why you will always need to memorize some things
38. More
39. D’Afrique/de l’Afrique
40. Plusieurs or Beaucoup?
41. Translation of “Not”
42. To Take
43. Diminutif
44. A cite is not a city and a countrée is not a country
45. Faire/Laisser

PART THREE: STYLE
1. It is, he is (Part 1)
2. It is (Part 2)
3. You Can See
4. Gender
5. Negatives and Positives: Inversion
6. How to Write a Letter with Flair
7. Levels of Language
8. Abbreviations
9. Capitals
10. Hyphens
11. The plural of nouns ending in –ou
12. The plural of nouns ending in –al
13. The plural of nouns ending in –ail
14. S or SS?
15. Guarantee

Conclusion

Text in English and French.