Book excerpt: A witty, fast-paced guide to eliminating those annoying and frustrating French bloopers Mixing genders, inverting subjects and objects, and trusting false cognates are just a few of the blunders English-speaking French-language learners commonly make. In Correct Your French Blunders, veteran French teacher Véronique Mazet identifies these and other common trouble spots and clearly explains the reasons behind them. You will discover how grammar patterns of French differ from those of English and why trying to translate word for word, structure for structure, from English, can lead to big trouble. You will learn to break bad habits and correct your mistakes while developing a much more natural feel for French language patterns with the help of: More than 1,000 highlighted examples of common blunders to avoid A free app available on iTunes for interactive practice for obliterating those blunders Numerous examples and practical exercises Quick-reference panels for checking correct tense forms A "Hall of Shame" compendium of bad errors to recognize and correct