The 5 Best French Verb Books

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There are plenty of books on French verbs. They all offer explanations and guides to multiple conjugations in the hundreds...or thousands. But some have incorrect information or they simply waste your time with useless repetition. Here are a few top contenders for your French reference library

01
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Bescherelle: La conjugaison pour tous (French Edition)

Subtitled "La conjugaison de 12 000 verbes," this is the best French verb conjugation reference, bar none. Instead of wasting space, and your time, with hundreds of identical conjugations, Bescherelle has pared down the conjugations to the bare minimum: one page each for regular -er, -ir, and -re verbs; a page apiece for passive and reflexive conjugations; and then 77 pages of irregular verbs. Once you memorize these 82 patterns, you can conjugate virtually every French verb that exists. 

02
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Complete Guide to Conjugating 12,000 French Verbs by Bescherelle

This English-language version of the French pedagogical classic is an unbeatable learning tool. Like the original, the book doesn't actually conjugate 12,000 verbs. Instead, it provides model conjugations of about 104 regular and irregular verbs. You begin by looking up a verb in the index and applying the indicated conjugation model. Learn to conjugate these basic verbs and you can do the same with 12,000. 

03
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501 French Verbs: With CD-Rom and MP3 CD, 7th Edition

Part of Barron's Foreign Language Guides series, "501 French Verbs" is a popular French verb book, and it's fine up to a point. But there are two things to keep in mind: (1) There is no need to have hundreds of French verbs conjugated into 14 tenses. There are many patterns, which the Bescherelle books display and explain much more clearly. (2) Some of the supplementary material is unclear or incorrect. If you want lots of conjugations, this book is fine, but it is strongly recommended you NOT use it to learn grammar.

04
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The Blue Pocket Book of French Verbs: 333 Fully Conjugated Verbs, 1st Edition

This easy-to-use pocket-size book is a convenient source of comprehensive, clear information for beginning and intermediate learners. It provides full conjugations of 333 frequently used French verbs and the current idiomatic expressions they're used in. Also included: an English-language index to French regular verbs and a list of more than 2,200 verbs cross-referenced to those verbs, as well as a guide to irregular verbs. 

05
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French Verb Drill Mega Bundle

This Kindle book for the modern age of language learning is an audiobook with 16.5 hours of drills and quizzes in the conjugation of frequently used French verbs. Native French speaker Frederic Bibard takes students through five-to-six-minute drills in the most common tenses used. You'll not only learn conjugations quickly, but you'll learn correct pronunciation, as it's spoken today. 

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Team, ThoughtCo. "The 5 Best French Verb Books." ThoughtCo, Dec. 6, 2021, thoughtco.com/the-best-french-verb-books-1369324. Team, ThoughtCo. (2021, December 6). The 5 Best French Verb Books. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/the-best-french-verb-books-1369324 Team, ThoughtCo. "The 5 Best French Verb Books." ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/the-best-french-verb-books-1369324 (accessed March 19, 2024).