Reddit mentions of Practice Makes Perfect: Complete French Grammar, Premium Third Edition

I reached level 24 (French) and I gave up Duolingo (well, not completely, I learned Ukrainian there, just for fun) It is an effective resource for beginners but your time will be better spend on something else. You can of course still practice your language there as it's quite cool (and you can realise how much you learned already so you build up your confidence) but you won't learn that much.

When I bought a French textbook I was quite shocked that they didn't cover even some very basic concepts. You need a good grammar book. It is crucial.

Also, you need to practice listening and speaking a lot if you haven't done it yet. Try language immersion (TV etc.), speaking to native speakers (Skype lessons for start, French usually costs about 10-15 euro per hour). Reading every day for a couple of minutes (with google dictionary installed) helps a lot. At level 20 you should be able to read press like Reuters or BBC in your target language (their articles are really well written and easy to follow)

Also, you need to learn a lot of words to be really proficient. Not 2000 that Duo is teaching. More like 5000-7000 so a lot of serious studying is required. I personally think that learning additional 2000 words would be a lot more rewarding than just regilding Duolingo over and over again.

I just saw that you finished French tree. So...

1. Try lingvist.
   
2. Subscribe to brief.me. It's a French newsletter distributed every weekday and Saturday (Brief Weekend) It could be difficult at first but you will get an amazing brief. They are really good at summarising the most important French and world news. I can read it in about 5 minutes.
   
3. Radio France
   
4. BFM TV
   
5. To watch: Le Bureau des légendes (French Homeland, amazing!), Engrenages (something similar to The Wire)
   
6. Le Monde, Liberation
   
   The grammar book that I have used:
   https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Books/Practice-Perfect-Complete-French-Grammar-Premium-McGraw/1259642372/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1492001774&sr=8-1&keywords=french+grammar
   
   I am not sure if it is your price range, but she helped me a lot https://www.italki.com/teacher/2404952
   
   Bonne chance!

There are a few good grammar review books out there. The Ultimate French Review and Practice is good, as is Practice Makes Perfect: Complete French Grammar.

Depending on how well you read, a quick read of the Bescherelle books (in particular Grammaire would be good). You're reading in French and just getting a solid presentation of the grammar. It might be boring, but what I have done is read one small bit and then focus on that for the next little bit while I read/talk/speak. Then I grab another bit of grammar (doesn't even have to be related to the previous one) and just focus on that for a bit. I've found that you don't have to fully review every little bit to death- once you start using that part of your brain again things kinda just fall back into place on their own.

I like this one. It’s $11 new on Amazon.

Practice Makes Perfect: Complete French Grammar, Premium Third Edition https://www.amazon.com/dp/1259642372/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_GYl5AbPF4VVKX

>There are a few good grammar review books out there. The Ultimate French Review and Practice is good, as is Practice Makes Perfect: Complete French Grammar.

Would you recommend one over the other? Or both?

French the Easy Way (Barron's E-Z) by Christopher Kendris Ph.D. (1996-02-01) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01JXN62X8/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_E6lUCbZ213RYE

Here is the link. I don't know why it's so expensive right now. I remember it being much cheaper, I would search around and look for a cheaper one.

Here is another one I use :Practice Makes Perfect: Complete French Grammar, Premium Third Edition https://www.amazon.com/dp/1259642372/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_b.lUCbDE3KWZH