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Publisher's site: FrenchToday.com

French Today's French Verb Drills audiobook series is designed to help French students learn the irregular French verbs forms and their modern pronunciation. 

Disclaimer: Since I am not only the About French Expert but also the founder of French Today my opinion is obviously biased. I will therefore just describe the product, list some customers reviews as they can be found on the site, and base the number of stars on their reviews.

What is different

Most students learn French conjugations from books. They are told about things like elision and liaisons, but don’t necessarily apply them correctly. And they usually don’t know about silent letters or the typical modern French glidings causing the French to say “chui” and no longer “je suis”.

Because these French Verb Drills are entirely recorded, the student learns the pronunciation first. Camille actually encourages them to first memorise the pronunciation, and only look at the transcript after, so that “the written form doesn’t fool you into a wrong pronunciation”.

The Drills and Exercises

Each volume contains 4 verbs broken down into 6 minute drills per tense.  Most tenses are declined in the regular, interrogative and negative form since there are very different pronunciations involved for each form. This makes about 25 different forms for each verb.

After saying clearly the verb conjugations in order - and leaving the time for the student to repeat out loud, Camille tests you.

She says a subject pronoun randomly, leaves time for the student to say the correct verb form, then says the correct answer and leaves time for the student to repeat. The students gets to compare his/her pronunciation to Camille’s, and learning out of sequence helps reinforce the reflexes.

The plus = a convenient format

Each drill is about 6 minute long so it’s easy to find the time to work on a drill each and every day. Since the drills don’t require any reading, they can be done on the go or while doing a secondary activity like driving, exercising or doing the dishes.

The con = students need to know their tenses

French Today’s French Verb Drills are designed to help students memorise the proper verb form and its modern spoken pronunciation. The product in of itself is not made to teach conjugation nor to understand it’s difficulties such as when to use “Passé Composé” versus “Imparfait”. This product is a supplement to a good grammatical method or class. The students should drill on tenses they are familiar with based on their level.

Content

There are currently 3 volumes available containing the most used irregular verbs:

* Volume 1 : Être, Mettre, Faire and Devoir
* Volume 2 - Aller, Vouloir, S’Asseoir and Boire
* Volume 3 - Avoir, Chanter, Prendre and Finir

There are 100 drills in mp3 format totalling about 10 hours of audio for each volume.
Each volume also comes with a complete transcript in PDF format. 

Customer Reviews - 5 out of 5 stars (from verified customer reviews on the website)

Scott Schram – Birmingham, AL USA  
Between learning the rules of conjugation, and seeing them in context, these three volumes of French Verb Drills are perfect addition to increase your confidence and speed in recognizing and using various tenses. It’s not just for intermediate learners… beginners can benefit from these by making a playlist of the tenses and verbs that they are studying. (For example, reviewing verbs in just the present affirmative). Camille and Olivier have put a huge amount of work into this product, and it’s well worth adding it to your studies.

Mike. England  
When I searched on-line for language learning I discovered frenchtoday.com. I had learned some French about thirty years ago from 2 cassette tapes and accompanying book , and after looking around on the website, I ordered Verb Drills volumes 1 & 2 plus Mastering French Adjectives to refresh my memory. 
The way ‘frenchtoday’ is presented is a thousand times better!!! Camille has a very pleasant voice which is a joy to listen to. Together with Olivier, they have produced a wonderful system. If you want to learn ‘le francais’ I urge you to try “frenchtoday”. You will make no better choice.

Mike  
I thought this might be a helpful practice aid while driving in my car, and I purchased all three sets. That said I wasn’t quite expecting how challenging these would be, I mean that in a positive way. Take for example être I thought of course I know this verb inside and out. Yet the truth is, in most of my written and spoken French with my pen pals and the other students in my class, I most frequently use the first person and second person familiar forms. As I started the first drills, I suddenly realized I wasn’t quite as sharp as I thought I was with the other conjugations. These are really helping me to be able speak French and not think about what to say and then speak French. I have even noticed that after two weeks, my listening comprehension has improved significantly. That was unexpected. This is a great learning/practice tool and I highly recommend it!

Char, USA 
I purchased all 3 volumes of the verb drills after using the sample online and I am very pleased. My French is already at the C-1 level, but my speech is still hesitant and filled with errors. I have gone through all of Volume 1 carefully and am now in the midst of Volume 2 and I can see the results, particularly in my pronunciation, but also in the speed of my response. I also bought and used the French Pronunciation volume. I have been able to correct several of my persistent mistakes in pronunciation. I recommend them highly for the motivated learner. I haven’t found this type of drill/practice anywhere else.

Caroline Don – Cape Town  
These verb drills are fun and effective. I play them in my car as I drive. The more one hears the drill, the more their pattern sticks in the mind and it helps with pronunciation! I highly recommend this product, thanks Camille.

Adrian Smith, Sidney, Australia  
I could never pronounce “s’asseoir” correctly, and hesitated too much even with “être”. French Today’s drills were the perfect thing for me… Now the verb forms come to me almost naturally, I can hear Camille’s voice in my head.

More reviews onhttp://www.frenchtoday.com/learn-french/french-verb-drills/verbs-vol-1

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