Everyday Words in French

 Published by Usborne
Models by Jo Litchfield

We've had a lot of fun with this book.  It's been perfect for teaching my daughter some French.  While I did a lot of French in my youth, I have a real hangup about teaching her all of my bad habits.

Having a basic book of vocabulary means that she gets some nouns and adjectives down along with a passable accent and we can work on the finer details -like actually putting together sentences correctly- later on.

The pages contain densely packed messy rooms of things to find and name in French.  There are specific labeled items bordering the scene in case your French isn't up to speed.  There's also a vocabulary list in the back of the book, and some information on how to pronounce the words. There is no English/French dictionary, which is disappointing.

This is an update of a book that was made in the 80's.  I like the art in this newer edition.  It's already dated, however; there are cassettes and CD's everywhere.

As a non-native French speaker, I tend to use France-French and Quebecois terms at random.  Sometimes the term in the book isn't the same as the one I use.  There doesn't seem to be any information in the book about how they chose their words, but I would assume that they stuck to France-French.

Within 4 months of using this book 3-5 times a week at bedtime, my daughter knew all of her colours, most of her bugs, almost everything on the food page (she loves food) and a handfull of household objects.  Within 6 months she was counting to 10, among other things.  And that's without speaking French in the daytime.