ADVANCED FRENCH GRAMMAR

This 1999 reference grammar, written for advanced students of French, their teachers, and others who want a better understanding of the French language, combines the best of modern and traditional approaches. Its objective is not only practical mastery of the language, but familiarity with its structure. Taking into account modern linguistic research, Advanced French Grammar approaches the French language primarily through the study of syntactic structures, but without excessive emphasis on formalism. It provides a generous number of examples, based on the author's own experience of teaching French to English-speakers, to help the student to understand the different meanings of apparently similar syntactic alternatives. The norms of 'correct expression' are given together with current usage and deviations, and appendixes provide information on the 1990 spelling reforms and on numbers. A substantial index of French and English words and of topics provides easy access to the text itself.

Part I. Framework: 1. Parts of speech; 2. Syntax and grammatical functions; 3. Pronunciation, spelling, registers, punctuation; Part II. Verbs: 4. Introduction to verbs; 5. Present; 6. Depuis and other tense markers; 7. Future; 8. Imperfect; 9. Perfect; 10. Past historic; 11. Other past tenses; 12. Subjunctive; 13. Conditional and the expression of hypothesis; 14. Imperative; 15. Infinitive; 16. Present participles; 17. Past participles; 18. Active and passive voices; 19. Impersonal verbs and the impersonal voice; 20. Pronominal verbs; 21. Modals: devoir, pouvoir, vouloir; 22. Savoir/connaître; Part III. Determiners and Prepositions: 23. Articles; 24. Possessive adjectives, possession, attribution; 25. Demonstrative adjectives; 26. Prepositions; Part IV. Nouns, Pronouns and Modifiers: 27. Nouns; 28. Qualifying adjectives; 29. Adverbs; 30. Comparatives and superlatives; 31. Personal pronouns; 32. Relative pronouns; 33. Possessive pronouns; 34. Demonstrative pronouns; 35. C'est/il est; 36. Indefinite words: adjectives, pronouns, adverbs; 37. Numbers; Part V. Sentences and Text: 38. Negative structures; 39. Interrogative and exclamative structures; 40. Coordination and juxtaposition; 41. Reported speech; Appendixes; Bibliography; Index.

This 1999 reference grammar combines the best of modern and traditional approaches. It takes full account of modern linguistic research, and provides numerous examples based on the author's own experience of teaching French to English-speakers. The norms of 'correct expression' are given together with current usage and deviations.