A Short Course in Reading French

Celia Brickman

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English

Columbia University Press
04 December 2012

Reading skills

This textbook teaches the basics of French grammar, reinforcing its lessons with exercises and key practice translations. A systematic guide, the volume is a critical companion for university-level students learning to read and translate written French into English; for graduate scholars learning to do research in French or prepping for proficiency exams; and for any interested readers who want to improve their facility with the French language. In addition, A Short Course in Reading French exposes readers to a broad range of French texts from the humanities and social sciences, including writings by distinguished francophone authors from around the world.

The book begins with French pronunciation and cognates and moves through nouns, articles, and prepositions; verbs, adjectives, and adverbs; a graduated presentation of all the indicative and subjunctive tenses; object, relative, and other pronouns; the passive voice; common idiomatic constructions; and other fundamental building blocks of the French language. Chapters contain translation passages from such authors as Pascal, Montesquieu, Proust, Sartre, Bourdieu, Senghor, Cesaire, de Certeau, de Beauvoir, Barthes, and Kristeva. Drawn from more than two decades of experience teaching French to students from academic and nonacademic backgrounds, Celia Brickman's clear, accessible, and time-tested format enables even beginners to develop a sophisticated grasp of the language and become adept readers of French.

There is an answer key for translation exercises and for non-copyrighted translation passages available to professors and teachers who have assigned this title in a class. Please provide your name, title, institution, and number of students in the course in an email to coursematerials@columbiauniversitypress.com.

By: Celia Brickman
Imprint: Columbia University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 254mm, Width: 178mm,
Weight: 610g
ISBN: 9780231156769
ISBN 10: 0231156766
Pages: 264
Publication Date: 04 December 2012
Audience: College/higher education , A / AS level
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Acknowledgments Introduction A. Guide to pronunciation B. Cognates Chapter 1: Nouns 1.1. Gender of Nouns and the Principle of Agreement 1.2. Articles 1.3. Gendered Nouns 1.4. The Plural of Nouns 1.5. Prepositions 1.6. Contractions of Prepositions with Definite Articles 1.7. Partitive and Negative Uses of DE 1.8. The Multiple Meanings of DES Chapter 2: Verbs 2.1. Infinitives and Verb Families 2.2. Subject Pronouns 2.3. Present Tense/Present de L'indicatif of -ER verbs 2.4. Translation of Present Tense/Present de L'indicatif 2.5. The Negative Form of the Present Tense 2.6. Two Important Irregular Verbs: AVOIR 2.7. A Third Irregular Verb: ALLER 2.8. Formation of Simple Questions 2.9. Present Tense / Present de l 'Indicatif of -RE and -IR verbs 2.10. Another Important Irregular Verb: FAIRE 2.11. The Historic Present Chapter 3: Adjectives and Adverbs 3.1. Adjectives 3.2. Adverbs 3.3. Comparative and Superlative Forms of Adjectives and Adverbs 3.4. Translation Passage: Le Corbeau et le renard Chapter 4: Reflexive Verbs 4.1. Reflexive Pronouns and the Formation of Reflexive Verbs 4.2. The Negative Form of Reflexive Verbs 4.3. Various Ways in Which to Translate Reflexive Verbs Chapter 5: The Imperfect / l'Imparfait 5.1. Explanation of the Tense 5.2. Formation of the Imparfait 5.3. Translations of the Imparfait 5.4. AVOIR and ETRE in the Imparfait 5.5. The Negative Form of the Imparfait 5.6. Reflexive Verbs in the Imparfait 5.7. Translation Passage: La Charte de Medecins Sans Frontieres Chapter 6: Past Participles /Les Participes Passes 6.1. Formation of Past Participles 6.2. Past Participles as Adjectives 6.3. Past Participles as Predicate Adjectives Chapter 7: Le Passe Compose / The Compound Past 7.1. Explanation of the Tense 7.2. Rules Governing the Formation and Translation of the Passe Compose 7.3. The Passe Compose in the Negative Form 7.4. AVOIR and ETRE in the Passe Compose 7.5. The Passe Compose Used Together with the Imparfait 7.6. The Passe Compose with Adverbs 7.7. Past Participles Used As Predicate Adjectives in the Present Tense Compared with Past Participles Used in the Passe Compose to Form the Past Tense 7.8. Translation Passage: Le Petit Chaperon rouge Chapter 8: Direct and Indirect Object Pronouns 8.1. Recognizing Objects in Transitive Sentences 8.2. Direct Object Pronouns: Meaning and Placement 8.3. Le 8.4. Direct Object Pronouns in the Passe Compose: Placement and Agreement 8.5. Indirect Object Pronouns: Meaning and Placement 8.6. The Partitive Pronoun EN 8.7. The Pronoun Y 8.8. The Order of Object Pronouns When There Are More Than One of Them 8.9. Translation Passage: La Belle au bois dormant Chapter 9: Additional Forms of the Negative 9.1. General Pattern 9.2. Irregularities in Various Forms of the Negative 9.3. Translation Passage: Declaration des droits de l'homme et du citoyen de 1789 Chapter 10: More Irregular Yet Common Verbs 10.1. VENIR (to come) and TENIR (to hold) 10.2. -OIR Verbs Chapter 11: Impersonal Pronouns 11.1. Demonstrative Pronoun CE 11.2. Demonstrative Pronouns CECI and CELA 11.3. Demonstrative Pronoun CELUI 11.4. The Impersonal Pronoun IL 11.5 Impersonal Verbs 11.6. The Various Uses of QUE 11.7. Translation Passage: Leopold Sedar Senghor Chapter 12: The Future and Conditional Tenses / Le Futur Simple et le Conditionnel 12.1. The Future and the Conditional Stem 12.2. The Future Tense / Le Futur Simple: Endings 12.3. The Near Future / Le Futur Proche 12.4. The Conditional Tense /Le Conditionel 12.5. Translation Passages: Aime Cesaire Chapter 13: Present Participles and Imperatives 13.1. Present Participles 13.2. Imperatives 13.3. Negative Imperatives 13.4. Imperatives with Disjunctive Pronouns and Object Pronouns; and Reflexive Imperatives 13.5. Translation Passage: Louis Riel Chapter 14: The Passive Voice 14.1. The Passive Voice Formed by the Past Participle as a Predicate Adjective 14.2. Use of Reflexive Verbs to Form the Passive Voice 14.3. The Translation of the Subject Pronoun ON and Its Use to Form the Passive Voice 14.4. Translation Passage: Marcel Mauss Chapter 15: Le Passe Simple / The Past Definite 15.1. The Passe Simple of -ER Verbs 15.2. The Passe Simple of -RE and -IR Verbs 15.3. Translation Passage: Louis Hemon Chapter 16: Relative and Interrogative Pronouns and Adjectives 16.1. Relative Pronouns QUI and QUE 16.2. Uses of the Adjective QUEL 16.3. The Relative and Prepositional Pronoun LEQUEL; the Prepositional Pronoun QUI 16.4. The Relative Pronoun DONT 16.5. The Interrogative Pronouns LEQUEL 16.6. Questions Formed with Both Interrogative and Relative Pronouns QUI and QUE 16.7. Translation Exercise: Michel de Certeau Chapter 17: More Compound Tenses 17.1. Le Plus-que-parfait / The Pluperfect 17.2. Le Futur Anterieur / The Future Perfect 17.3. Le Conditionnel Passe / The Conditional Perfect 17.4. Le Passe Anterieur 17.5. Translation Passage: Montesquieu Chapter 18: The Causative FAIRE 18.1. the Causative FAIRE 18.2. Translation Passage: Emile Durkheim 18.3. Translation Passage: Claude Levi-Strauss Chapter 19: Le Subjonctif / The Subjunctive 19.1. When Is the Subjunctive Used in French? 19.2. The Four Tenses of the Subjunctive 19.3. Translation Passage: Moliere 19.4. Translation Passage: Blaise Pascal Chapter 20: Modal Verbs and Other Common Idiomatic Verbal Constructions 20.1. Modal Verbs 20.2. Other Idiomatic Verbal Constructions 20.3. Translation Passage: Alexis de Tocqueville 20.4. Translation Passage: Roland Barthes Chapter 21: Changes of Tense with Idioms of Time 21.1. DEPUIS 21.2. Il Y A...QUE; CA FAIT...QUE; VOILA...QUE 21.3. Translation Passage: Rene Descartes 21.4. Translation Passage: Marcel Proust Chapter 22: Common Idiomatic Expressions 22.1. TOUT-Grammatical Functions and Meanings 22.2. Idioms with TOUT 22.3. AUSSI and AUSSI BIEN QUE 22.4. Combinative Conjunctions ET...ET; OU...OU; SOIT...SOIT; NI...NI 22.5. Idioms with METTRE / MIS 22.6. The Several Meanings of MEME 22.7. The Several Meanings of SI 22.8. The Several Meanings of ENCORE 22.9. Translation Passage: Pierre Bourdieu 22.10. Tranlsation Passage: Simone Weil Chapter 23: Configurations of the Infinitive 23.1. Verbs Followed by the Infinitive 23.2 The Infinitive After Prepositions 23.3. The Infinitive After the Preposition APRES 23.4. The Infinitive After Adjectives 23.5. The Infinitive After Nouns 23.6. Translation Passage: Achille Mbembe Chapter 24: Some Verb Families 24.1. -OIR Verbs 24.2. Families of Verbs Whose Members Are All Conjugated in the Same Way Chapter 25: Further Translation Passages 25.1. Victor Hugo 25.2. Gustave Flaubert 25.3. Gabrielle Roy 25.4. Jean-Paul Sartre 25.5. Simone de Beauvoir 25.6. Albert Camus 25.7. Paul Ricoeur 25.8. Edouard Glissant 25.9. Roger-Pol Droit 25.10. Julia Kristeva 25.11. Nicolas Bourriaud 25.12. Michel Tremblay 25.13. Patrick Chamoiseau 25.14. Abdourahman A.Waberi Appendix Pronoun Chart Indicative Verb Tense Chart I Indicative Irregular Verb Tense Chart I Indicative Verb Tense Chart Ii Indicative Irregular Verb Tense Chart Ii Index

A native of Montreal, Celia Brickman earned her Ph.D. at the University of Chicago and is the director of the Hyde Park Language Program, where she has been teaching French to graduate students and others for more than twenty years.

Reviews for A Short Course in Reading French

There are a number of other options for students looking for a reading knowledge of French, but none are as user-friendly and intelligent as A Short Course in Reading French . . . [S]tudents and teachers alike will find much to like in this fresh and affordable textbook. * The French Review * A simple but scholarly introduction to French, this book fosters learning basic structures necessary to understand written French in no time. What is more, it offers an excellent foundation for those who wish to go beyond the basics and develop skills in oral understanding and speaking French. The ideal resource for those seeking access to written French. -- Jean-Michel Robert, Maitre de conferences en linguistique, Universite d'Amiens This is a refreshing and intelligent book for learning to read and translate French. Although meant for academics, it is really for anyone who wants to experience great French texts in the original. All along the way, Celia Brickman provides a sensible and extremely helpful presentation and explication of French grammar. Then she rewards the reader with excerpts from a wide variety of French writers, helping to understand them. Before you know it, you're reading the likes of Sartre, Camus, and Kristeva-in French! -- Francoise Meltzer, Edward Carson Waller Distinguished Service Professor Chair in the Department of Comparative Literature, University of Chicago The perfect companion for the student or scholar wishing to develop reading skills in French. Not only does this book provide clear, concise explanations but it also offers a wide range of carefully designed and relevant tasks based on short phrases, more complex sentences, and authentic reading passages. These carefully selected texts also cover a breadth of subjects, eras, and styles of interest. For teachers, this book represents a considerable time saver, since it presents a collection of activities and texts that can be fully exploited in class or assigned as homework. -- David Tual, Durham University