Perfect little book to dip in and out of; great aid for language learning. Might not be the best for complete beginners.

This was so helpful, easy to use and written in such a way you want to practice every day.

All the stars!

Great book for anyone who wants to start learning French but keeps postponing because the person is too busy.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⁠⁠/5

Un petit peu de French for those short on time

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher, John Murray Press, for a digital ARC of this book. I have chosen to write this honest review voluntarily.

I have a full-time job and plenty of other things going on, so I only have a little time to study. Since watching a few French-language tv shows on Netflix, I've wanted to improve my high school French so that I don't have to rely on the subtitles and can focus on the action! '50 French Coffee Breaks', subtitled, 'short activities to improve your French one cup at a time, seemed like an excellent option.

The book contains activities, including: reading, grammar, writing, idiom explanations and vocabulary practice. These activities are grouped by the amount of time they take, either 5, 10 or 15 minutes, so you can pick an exercise based on how much time you have spare.

The book targets those whose French is lower intermediate level/A2-B1 on the CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages) scale. I obtained an 'A' in French in my GCSEs a long time ago but I took a free online test before using this book to see what my ability is these days. The result was that I am below B2 but capable of working up to that quickly, so I am in the target market for this book.

However, I did find it hard going. I was using this book in isolation. I think you need to use it as part of a more comprehensive self-learning programme to get a real benefit. The text alone can only give you some answers, even to the exercises in the book. Some of the activities in the book require you to 'free write in French' using prompts from the book. This is good for stretching your abilities, but it does mean the answers aren't in the book; you can't check that what you wrote was grammatically correct or that it means what you think it means. You have to check those answers yourself, perhaps using a translation programme. I was pleasantly surprised that I could free-write sentences that made sense when I translated them, so that stretch was good. Still, it added extra time to the task and meant I needed access to the internet to check my writing. So that is a real drawback for those who want a one-stop 5-minute exercise and full answer in a book.

For the purposes of this review, I was given an electronic copy of the book. I think this book's format lends itself to a physical copy instead. All the exercises are presented first, then you have to flick to the end to locate the answer for the activity you have just completed. E-books do not lend themselves well to flicking backwards and forwards between different exercises and between an exercise and its solution. I found that frustrating and unhelpful, but if I were to purchase a language learning book, I would always buy a physical copy anyway, so my criticism of the book in this capacity reflects my preference to read non-fiction in physical format.

Overall I recommend this book for someone who has a broader French self-study programme and not for someone who purely has 5 minutes a day.

Very useful, the perfect coffee table book to dip into when you have some spare time, especially with a language which share so much vocabulary with English.

From the people who bring you Coffee Break website and podcasts etc, this first venture into the written word is a superb additional resource for the language learner. 5, 10 or 15 minute lessons/exercises are perfect for your coffee break. Love this book.
(Thanks to Net Galley for this Book).

Great stuff! I've been learning French for the past year via duolingo but wanted to also just give it a whirl on paper as I do mine over a screen, I've always found that I couldn't learn french from books etc so wanted to give this a whirl now I've started to nail down the pronunciation.

There is a good variety of exercises to get your teeth into, it's not going to teach you French however it will aid your own teaching and of course refreshen your mind if you have studied it in the past.

Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with a free ARC in return for an honest review.

I got 50 Italian Coffee breaks in addition to this one. Based on a quick skim through of the French book, it seems like the level of difficulty and the content organisation in both books are quite similar, so I’ll paste my review of the Italian book here:

"I got my Italian B2 years ago. It would have been very useful if I had this activity book when I was preparing for the exam, even if this is meant for A2-B1 level learners. It’s great for consolidating vocabulary and starting spontaneous conversations. The content is useful and colloquial. It’s well organised and divided into bite-sized (coffee-break-sized) chunks, with a diverse range of activities that allow you to work on vocab, grammar, speaking, reading comprehension and translation. Over all, I think this is a fun and practical way to learn language."

I am looking forward to studying the French activity book in more detail!

I was disappointed with this book. The premise was great but unfortunately the write up led me to believe that this was a beginner book. The first exercise was great but after that I was lost as I did not know French to understand the activity.

An excellent aid for learning French. I have been trying to improve my basic French for years, and these small exercises will be useful. I think I’m more likely to continue with them as they are ‘bite size’. I soon bought the paper version though, as you need to be able to flick through and choose different ones, and refer back to those you have completed. So for once I have abandoned my Kindle!

As I said for the German release this an excellent way to refresh a language you already know. Well done and easy to follow.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

This is a short but useful book for anyone who wants to keep their eye in and keep up some French study, but haven't the time or inclination for a full course or textbook. There's a good range of exercises, from straightforward quick questions to longer prompts encouraging you to form longer descriptions with greater vocabulary. These latter questions are I think the most useful for people who aren't sure how to keep up their language skills as it ptovides the opportunity to think more in that language and construct in greater depth. The downside of course is that you can't correct these yourself in the way of the simple question & answer prompts so it wiuld be trickier to know you're not getting stuck in the same errors unless you gave access to a teacher.

Conversely the prompts could be very useful for French teachers of GCSE level students to give as homework.

I would rank this as good for anyone at around the A2 level.

*I received a free ARC from NetGalley and I have chosen to leave a review*

I've recently taken up studying French again after doing it for A-level about 500 years ago. It's going quite well, and I'm always looking for new ways to improve. This series is a great idea, with bite-size exercises - divided into 5 minute, 10 minute and 15 minute sections - which can be done in a coffee break.

It's not a French course (I suggest Duolingo for that) but a tool which can be used alongside other studies, and is aimed at improvers rather than complete beginners - people who know zero French won't get anything out of it. This is stated in the synopsis which makes it clear it's aimed at high beginners/low intermediate level learners (A2/B1 on the CEFR scale).

The activities are varied, innovative and fun, and a great way of getting in some extra practice without a significant time commitment. Kindle probably isn't the ideal format, though - this is the kind of book where you really want a physical copy to flick back and forth, write notes, etc.

Many thanks for the advance copy which is much appreciated.

These books that offer various exercises, constructed in different ways and aimed at making us remember the words of the foreign language and its grammatical construction, are designed for those who already know the language and want to improve or brush up on it, but are not suitable for those who want to learn it from scratch.

I received from the Publisher a complimentary digital advanced review copy of the book in exchange for a honest review.

Thank you for the opportunity to read 50 French Coffee Breaks by Coffe Break Language's. Unfortunately it was not quite what I expected, it is more of a refresher of knowledge than a starter learner tool

I’m not sure how useful this is without the podcast. Was not quite what I expected and not sure how helpful if have no previous knowledge of the language.