Les Bons Mots: How to Amaze Tout Le Monde with Everyday French - Softcover

Ehrlich, Eugene

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0805058109 ISBN 13: 9780805058109

Publisher: Henry Holt, 1998

Synopsis

Les Bons Mots will help you add the piece de resistance to any conversation.

Les Bons Mots is an eminently browsable reference that is designed to help English speakers use those witty and wise sayings for which the French are so justly famous. Eugene Ehrlich has created a reference work that defines French phrases and aphorisms both literally and colloquially; employs a unique and foolproof guide to their pronunciation; adds a brief and often amusing explanation that fixes each phrase in the reader's mind; and indexes everything so extensively that each idea is easy to find. An entertaining read as well as an impeccable reference guide by one of America's most cherished wordsmiths.

About this title

Review:

You may have taken French for Tourists, but what do you do when you're positive that guy just said "the mustard went up my nose"? Turn to page 170 of Les Bons Mots and you'll learn that he blew his cool. Written by word maven Eugene Ehrlich (author of The Highly Selective Dictionary for the Extraordinarily Literate), this cleverly written guide to everyday, idiomatic French gives pronunciation, common translations, and brief discussions of over a thousand words and phrases, most of which you'll never see in a pocket phrasebook.

From à bas (down with) to zut alors (darn it!), you'll find oddly used words, figures of speech, and oft-quoted lines from French historical figures. Especially helpful for those of us who haven't spoken French since eighth grade is the pronunciation guide to the more difficult sounds for English speakers. A little study and practice with this fun book and you'll never hear "il écorche le français" again. (Or at least you'll know that it means "he murders the French language"!) --Rob Lightner

About the Author:

Eugene Ehrlich is the author and editor of many reference books on language, including The Highly Selective Thesaurus for the Extraordinarily Literate, and the classic Amo, Amas, Amat, and More. He lives in Mamaroneck, New York.

About this edition

• Publisher: Henry Holt
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0805058109
• ISBN 13: 9780805058109
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 312