Bon Français.com

Archive for October, 2010

Always with the goal to help you learn French quickly, we now offer three links that will save you time because they tell you what mistakes you are more likely to commit in French. They also give you all the explanations needed to help you immediately. This week, we examine the major errors associated with beginner, intermediate and upper intermediate levels.

French.about. com : mistakes- beginning. Top ten French mistakes made by beginning-level students.  Find clear explanations and quizzes about : gender, accents marks, to be, contractions, French H, que, auxiliary verbs, tu and vous,  capitalization,  and the famous word cettes… that does not exist. http://french.about.com/od/mistakes/a/beginning.htm

French.about. com : mistakes- intermediate. Top ten French mistakes made by intermediate-level students.  Find clear explanations about : y and en, manquer, le passé (past), agreement, faux amis, relative pronouns, temporal prepositions, depuis and il y a, « ce homme » étrange, and finally pronominal verbs and reflexive pronouns. http://french.about.com/od/mistakes/a/intermediate.htm

French.about. com : mistakes- high intermediate. Common French mistakes made by high-intermediate-level students. Find clear explanations about : se and soi, encore vs toujours, what, ce que, ce qui, ce dont, ce à quoi, si clauses, final letters, subjunctive, negation, and two or more verbs. http://french.about.com/od/mistakes/a/intermediate_3.htm

Continuation and end of the subject next week.

See you soon!

When starting to learn French, it is always a good idea to memorize the most common words first. This will enable you to understand many more situations than if you were leaning your French vocabulary from random sources.  The three sites that we present today, although different from each other, are all aiming to help you build a really useful vocabulary that allows you to quickly reach an operational level in French.

French Language Daily : Most Common Words. Here’s the list of the 1000 most common French words along with their English translations. The first page also includes audio files. You can use the word index at the bottom of the page to jump to any part of the frequency list. http://french.languagedaily.com/wordsandphrases/most-common-words

Fr.wiktionary.org : Liste des 1750 mots français les plus courants (list of the 1750 most common French words). According to the Academy of Amiens, these words are typically known by a 4 year old child. Words are grouped by themes such as class and school, cooking and food, animals, party, time, home and outings. http://fr.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionnaire:Liste_de_1750_mots_français_les_plus_courants

French.About.com : Most Common Words : Here are the 100 most common French words accompanied by their English translation, grammatical notes, examples of the way they are used and quizzes. http://french.about.com/od/vocabulary/ss/mostcommonwords.htm

See you next week.

In the field of language learning, the choice of appropriate material and courses depends largely on the learner’s level of language proficiency. To help you focus your studies and guarantee your success, we offer you today three tests that will help you know where you are on the path to mastery of French.

French Language.ru : Online Test. This page provides a test of 50 questions to evaluate your knowledge of French language. When you have answered all the questions, you will get your level (it is advisable to do this test in less than forty minutes). http://www.french.language.ru/french/onlinetest/index.html

France-Langue.fr : Online placement test. This page offers an online French test that assesses your knowledge of the language. In less than 40 minutes, you can have a clear idea of your writing level. The test includes 6 levels that conform to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. For correct results, do not use a dictionary. http://www.france-langue.fr/online_placement_test/fr/index.php

Campus-électronique.fr : test FLE (French as a foreign language). This is a 45-minute-long test in 14 parts for those for whom French is not their first language. It aims to answer these questions: What is your general level (elementary, intermediate, advanced)? Do you understand the spoken language? Written language? Do you have difficulties with grammar and vocabulary? What path should you take to upgrade? http://www.campus-electronique.fr/testfle/

And if you wish to learn more about the different levels of language proficiency, have a look on the GoFrenchGo blog’s post of today.

Have a good week.

Speaking French demands knowledge of vocabulary words and how to pronounce them correctly. Thanksgiving Day allows us to introduce you to a new group of words, fruits and vegetables. L’Action de Grâce(s) or Thanksgiving is celebrated in Canada on the second Monday of October and in the U.S. on the last Thursday of November. Thanksgiving is associated with thanks to God for the harvest and with the expression of general gratitude. It’s a holiday, most businesses and government are closed at this time.

What more characteristic way to express gratitude in French, than through the names of fruits and vegetables? Here are two short videos that allow you to associate images with the pronunciation and spelling of words:

The first video is devoted to fruits: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dP791CyUUF0

The second, to vegetables: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTj6Nlwurzg

This next site presents a list of 32 words accompanied by audio files. It is possible to slow down the audio  delivery for a better understanding by clicking on the button where there is a turtle. http://www.byki.com/lists/French/Fruits-and-Vegetables.html

Finally, here is a site that offers three possibilities. A vocabulary lesson without audio, a vocabulary lesson with audio files and a game to identify fruits and vegetables that are in a big dish by clicking on their picture when you hear their name. It is possible to hear each word again by clicking on the button “repeat.” http://www.digitaldialects.com/French/Fruit.htm

Today we would like to give you tips, tricks and advice to help you learn French. The three proposed sites are from people sharing their experience as second or foreign language learners with you, or from publishers specialized in the field of language teaching. You will definitely find in these lists of suggestions something to inspire you and make your work easier.

Ask Oxford.com : Language Learning Tips. Oxford dictionaries provide you with a dozen great tips aiming to help you learn a new language effectively and make the most of the whole experience. http://www.askoxford.com/languages/takeoffin/language_tips/

Language Learning Tips.com : Here on David Bolton’s site, you will find lots of free articles with  helpful suggestions as to how you can acquire a foreign language faster and more efficiently, and thus make language learning more pleasurable.  In addition, there are essays on how to get the most out of a trip abroad with the goal of perfecting your language skills. You can even download a free E-book that contains ALL the articles in convenient PDF book format! http://www.language-learning-tips.com/

The Language Learning Blog : 25 Tips for Language Learning. You will find on this page creative tips and tricks easy to incorporate into everyday life to help you effectively learn a new language in a pleasurable way. http://thelanguagelearningblog.com/25-tips-for-language-learning/

Have a nice week.