Rating: 
Summary: Indespensible Reference!
Review: 501 French Verbs: Fully Conjugated is an indispensable reference tool for anyone learning French. MEMORIZING conjugations is the most difficult part of learning any romance language and Kendris' book clearly and ALPHABETICALLY (unlike others) makes that job easier. The paperback version makes lugging it to class a little easier (kinda cheapy paper though), not to mention less expensive! As one other reviewer pointed out, the only thing that would make this more helpful would be having the English translations for each conjugation provided. I do however like all the EXTRA information (i.e. idiomatic verb expressions, importantance of AVOIR and ETRE etc.) provided. This book doesn't contain EVERY French verb, but you can worry about that after you master all 4,008 conjugations listed here! Eight tenses for FIVE HUNDRED AND ONE verbs is a mighty fine start!
Rating:
Summary: A good survival tool :)
Review: Are you trying to learn french?. If so, this is one of the books you must have. Why? Simply because it makes your life easier. This book doesn't explain why verbs are conjugated in a certain way, but it helps you to learn merely by showing how 501 french verbs are conjugated. Is that enough? Well, by itself no, because we are not parrots who must repeat whatever they are told without understanding what they say (that, despite the opinion of some, not all, french teachers). However, if you have a good textbook, a terrific dictionary, some listening tapes and "501 French Verbs: Fully Conjugated in All the Tenses in a New Easy-To-Learn Format Alphabetically Arranged" (long title :)!!), you'll probably end up speaking french more or less well. This edition is bilingual (french-english), so if you don't know the meaning of some verbs in french you'll still have the translation in english. Another thing worth pointing out is that each verb has lots of examples (with different tenses). I found out that to be particularly useful... So, what to do?. If you can, buy this book, or ask a friend to lend it to you. It is not overly entertaining (as a matter of fact it is quite boring), but it helps you to deal with some of those awful verbs that sometimes make you wish for the nonexistence of the french language. On the whole, a good survival tool :)
Rating: 
Summary: Indispensable Quick Tool to Further Your French Skills
Review: As an adult studying French, I find this nicely sized trade style paperback indispensable for its sheer simplicity. Verb are listed alphabetically and lookup is easily fascilitated with the appearance of the verb on the left or right upper corners respectively. A page is devoted to each verb, with all of the tenses conviently arranged for reading ease. On the bottom of the page, the author cites some sentence and idiomatic sentence examples as well as a small list of verbs that take on similiar properties. The back of the book is devoted to an English-French and French-English Glossary list as well as idiomatic usage of the verbs and specific situation topics like "talking about the weather" or "buying a train ticket".
My one complaint about this series is the lack of English translation especially for tricky verbs like savoir, pouvoir, vouloir and devoir which when conjugated in the different tenses take on different meanings in English. More explanation should be devoted to these verbs, perhaps in the form of further examples. I think it would suffice if English translations of the all tenses of the verbs were simply listed next to their French counterparts. The author does discuss each of the tenses at length in the front part of the book, but for quick look-up purposes, this does not work well.
Rating:
Summary: Indispensable Quick Tool to Further Your French Skills
Review: As an adult studying French, I find this nicely sized trade style paperback indispensable for its sheer simplicity. Verb are listed alphabetically and lookup is easily fascilitated with the appearance of the verb on the left or right upper corners respectively. A page is devoted to each verb, with all of the tenses conviently arranged for reading ease. On the bottom of the page, the author cites some sentence and idiomatic sentence examples as well as a small list of verbs that take on similiar properties. The back of the book is devoted to an English-French and French-English Glossary list as well as idiomatic usage of the verbs and specific situation topics like "talking about the weather" or "buying a train ticket".
My one complaint about this series is the lack of English translation especially for tricky verbs like savoir, pouvoir, vouloir and devoir which when conjugated in the different tenses take on different meanings in English. More explanation should be devoted to these verbs, perhaps in the form of further examples. I think it would suffice if English translations of the all tenses of the verbs were simply listed next to their French counterparts. The author does discuss each of the tenses at length in the front part of the book, but for quick look-up purposes, this does not work well.
Rating: 
Summary: Still excellent although check the alternatives too
Review: French is a great language, but it would be an even greater language if it weren't spoken by the French. (Sorry about that, I couldn't resist, being a nascent and aspiring Gallophobe as a result of recent events). On a more serious note, this is one of the venerable 501 Verbs books that have become a staple of many students of foreign language. These are great books, and the layout of the tables is the easiest on the eye of all the verb books out there that I've seen. That having been said, I have a preference for the 2000 Essential French Verbs volume over this one, although I don't like the layout and the design as much. The font is a little too small, for one thing, and the tables just aren't as aesthetic-looking as the 501 book. However, one major advantage the 2000 Verbs book has is the long section after the verb tables discussing the grammar and usage for dozens of French verbs in much more detail than can be done on the verb table pages. Many more example sentences and of usage are included, along with practice exercises that are helpful too. The 501 Verbs books also contain several example sentences at the bottom of each page, but the 2000 Essential French Verbs book has many more. The way the book works is that there are only tables for about 250 French verbs, but in the back is an index of 2000 French verbs keyed to the correct page for that verb pattern, and you just turn to that. That also saves paper and makes the book less thick and unwieldy than the 501 book although it actually is useful for many more verbs. One thing the 501 book has, however, is a pretty good section on idiomatic uses of French verbs, and dozens of examples of sample conversations similar to the Berlitz models of using simulated conversations in practical situations. So the 501 French Verbs book is still a great volume, however, although I could possibly do without the use of color over the earlier edition since I'm not sure it's not more of a distraction than a help, but it's okay. But I recommend checking out the 2000 Essential French Verbs book also because of its features, in case you find you prefer that.
Rating:
Summary: Still excellent although check the alternatives too
Review: French is one of the world's great languages, but it would be even greater if it weren't spoken by the French. :-) (Sorry about that, but I couldn't resist).
On a more serious note, this is one of the venerable 501 Verbs books that have become a staple of many students of foreign language. These are great books, and the layout of the tables is the easiest on the eye of all the verb books out there that I've seen.
That having been said, I have a preference for the 2000 Essential French Verbs volume over this one, although I don't like the layout and the design as much. The font is a little too small, for one thing, and the tables just aren't as aesthetic-looking as the 501 book.
However, one major advantage the 2000 Verbs book has is the long section after the verb tables discussing the grammar and usage for dozens of French verbs in much more detail than can be done on the verb table pages. Many more example sentences and of usage are included, along with practice exercises that are helpful too. The 501 Verbs books also contain several example sentences at the bottom of each page, but the 2000 Essential French Verbs book has many more.
The way the book works is that there are only tables for about 250 French verbs, but in the back is an index of 2000 French verbs keyed to the correct page for that verb pattern, and you just turn to that. That also saves paper and makes the book less thick and unwieldy than the 501 book although it actually is useful for many more verbs.
One thing the 501 book has, however, is a pretty good section on idiomatic uses of French verbs, and dozens of examples of sample conversations similar to the Berlitz models of using simulated conversations in practical situations.
So the 501 French Verbs book is still a great volume, however, although I could possibly do without the use of color over the earlier edition since I'm not sure it's not more of a distraction than a help, but it's okay. But I recommend checking out the 2000 Essential French Verbs book also because of its features, in case you find you prefer that.
Rating:
Summary: the best french book i've used
Review: i got this book b/c it said on amazon that other people bought it who bought the book i was looking at. I'm so glad i got it b/c it is more helpful than the textbook we use in class. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn french. Please believe me, you'll be doing yourself a favor.
Rating:
Summary: Great French Verb Learning Tool
Review: I have used this book since high school, as well as the Spanish version by the same author. It is very handy. However, I think that a learner of a romance language would be much better off mastering the rules of verb conjugation instead of looking up the answers in this book. Because there are 501 entries, the majority of the verbs in this book are regular. As a result, this book has a lot of redundant, unnecessary information. The equivalent content of this entire book (the verb section) can be summarized in two pages, and is included in the very beginning of every Harper Collins dictionary. I also do not see the significance of there being 501 verbs, it seems to be a gimmick. The author just ends up putting in more redundant entries until that number is reached. That all being said, it is very handy at times, however it is most definitely not concise nor indispensible. I think the author has realized this, and has beefed up the recent editions with additional grammar references.
Rating:
Summary: Great French Verb Learning Tool
Review: I was being tutored by a girl who had this book. It is amazing for people who are in a french class, becuase you simply look up the verb, and all the conjugations are there! I love this book, and would recomend it to anyone!
Rating:
Summary: An essential for french learning!
Review: I would actually buy this book before I would buy a dictionary. This is the best reference book I've ever used for french! This book is completely indisposable. I've spoken french for years and there are verbs in there that I've never heard of!! It's absolutely great. I can't rave enough about it.
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