French Resources

Contents

Pronouncing Letters

Sometimes you may find yourself having to spell things out where you can't just write them down. For example, over the 'phone!
Here are some things to help:-

An interactive web page to help you in spelling-out words in French.
You can click on letters to hear them spoken in French. Choice of m/f  voice.
This does not work on ancient (!) devices!

A native female French speaker saying the letters of the alphabet

A native male French speaker saying the letters of the alphabet and a corresponding French word

Grammar and Punctuation

Être as an auxiliary verb - A single page summary, perfect tense
Some exceptional cases are also noted where avoir is used instead

French punctuation - some observations in a PDF file from a real publication

Vocabulary

The word coup - some uses of this versatile word taken from our French class.
Includes some potentially interesting examples

Shortened words The French have a habit of shortening words in conversation;
here are some examples I've come across in real life! Work in progress! (text file)

Initialisms, Abbreviations, and Acronyms - these can often differ quite a lot.

Borrowed words - "borrowed" from English - work in progress! (text file)

Tu  or Vous? - the amusing but accurate flow-chart from a US journal.

Accents and Symbols

Using Accents as Clues - my notes

The History of French Accents - book excerpt

Symbols and Punctuation Marks - a list

Food & Drink-related

Mogettes - a quick recipe for a haricot bean dish from the Vendée

Drink recipes - French or France-related

Photos of a portable pot still, l'alambic which travels from village to village
This distils whatever is the local home-made tipple, in this case cider, to produce the regional eau-de-vie, "water of life", the Gaelic of which gives us our word "whisky".

A page showing some interesting (?) idiomatic expressions in the two languages
This is an ongoing endeavour where expressions will be added as they are discovered, and I have added a link to a page listing French proverbs

A Glossary of Computer-related Terms

Another Glossary of Computer-related Terms

Some Calendar Files

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