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

Ehrlich, Eugene

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0805047115 ISBN 13: 9780805047110

Publisher: Henry Holt and Co., 1997

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.

"[A] useful as well as highly

About this title

Review:

Just because memories of conjugating French verbs make you cringe doesn't mean you can't enjoy (and employ) the glorious richness of the French idiom, thanks to Ehrlich's fine oeuvre. The author of Amo, Amas, Amat and More, Ehrlich has compiled 1,500 or so French phrases (each with definition, pronunciation, and literal translation) that include handy definitions of the familiar (such as roman a clef) as well as introductions to less common French phrases such as se sucer la poire (kiss passionately, literally "suck the pear") and se tritrer la cervelle (think as hard as one can, literally "grind up one's brains").

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 and Co.
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0805047115
• ISBN 13: 9780805047110
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 336