Reddit reviews Schaum's Outline of French Grammar

Duolingo is great. I have used it for the past year as the basis for my own French-learning program, and I've already managed to read two novels in French. It works if you stick with it, but you do need at least a few things in addition.

For books, I really like Schaum's Outline of French Grammar. I find it really helps with Duolingo. Whenever you see something confusing on Duolingo, look it up in Schaum's. Don't try to read Schaum's like a book--use it as a reference.

On Duolingo, make use of the per-question discussions. Whenever you find yourself thinking "why was my answer wrong" or "what is happening in this sentence" if you look at the discussion, you'll probably find people there who have talked about it.

I really, really recommend using flashcards in addition to Duolingo. I like the Anki package (it's free), and I have a strategy for using Anki with Duolingo.

I like Schaum's Outline. Instead of starting with verbs like the Practice Makes Perfect series does, Schaum's starts with the very basic building blocks / concept of gendered nouns, which is very foreign to monolingual English speakers. It actually doesn't even get into verbs til the 5th chapter! So if that's the kind of start your student is looking for, I recommend that. :)

Hope that helps!

http://www.amazon.com/Schaums-Outline-French-Grammar-Crocker/dp/0071828982

I've been using Schaum's via my weekly evening french class. It's got a little bit of lesson like material but it's mostly just grammar exercises that our prof uses to supplement the ones in our primary textbook. It's also WAY cheaper than an actual textbook.