HOW TO USE A FRENCH DICTIONARY. ALL LEARNERS OF FRENCH WILL FIND KNOWING HOW TO USE A DICTIONARY A...
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Transcript of HOW TO USE A FRENCH DICTIONARY. ALL LEARNERS OF FRENCH WILL FIND KNOWING HOW TO USE A DICTIONARY A...
HOW TO USE A FRENCH
DICTIONARY
ALL LEARNERS OF FRENCH WILL FIND KNOWING HOW TO USE A DICTIONARY A REALLY
USEFUL AND IMPORTANT SKILL. IT WILL ALLOW YOU
TO ADD TO WHAT YOU LEARN IN CLASS AND IMPROVE
YOUR LEVELS AND GRADES.
THERE ARE 2 MAIN SECTIONS IN THE DICTIONARY.
THE FIRST HALF HAS FRENCH WORDS LISTED IN
ALPHABETICAL ORDER.
THE SECOND HALF HAS ENGLISH WORDS LISTED IN
ALPHABETICAL ORDER.
YOU USE THE FIRST SECTION WHEN YOU
NEED TO KNOW WHAT A FRENCH WORD MEANS
IN ENGLISH.
YOU USE THE SECOND SECTION WHEN YOU
NEED TO KNOW WHAT AN ENGLISH WORD MEANS IN FRENCH.
AS WELL AS TELLING US THE MEANINGS OF WORDS, THE
DICTIONARY WILL ALSO TELL US SOME INFORMATION ABOUT THE
WORD. TO DO THIS IT USES ABBREVIATIONS.
HOWEVER, THEY ARE ONLY HELPFUL IF YOU KNOW WHAT THEY MEAN. IT IS
IMPORTANT THAT YOU CAN RECOGNISE THE ABBREVIATIONS AND
NOT CONFUSE THEM WITH THE ACTUAL WORDS.
THE DICTIONARY WILL HAVE A KEY TO THE ABBREVIATIONS.
FRENCH DICTIONARIES ARE MOSTLY VERY SIMILAR. THERE MIGHT BE LITTLE DIFFERENCES WITH ABBREVIATIONS OR LAYOUTS.
LET’S LOOK AT SOME TYPICAL PAGES OF A DICTIONARY TO SEE WHAT INFORMATION WE CAN SEE……
THIS PAGE IS TAKEN FROM THE FIRST SECTION 0F
A DICTIONARY. THE WORDS ARE IN ALPHABETICAL
ORDER IN FRENCH.
THIS IS THE FIRST WORD ON THE PAGE
THIS IS THE LAST WORD ON THE PAGE
TIP!!! WHEN YOU ARE SEARCHING FOR A WORD, LOOKING AT THE WORDS AT THE TOP OF THE PAGES WILL SPEED THINGS UP
(NOTE-THIS IS NOT A COMPLETE DICTIONARY PAGE)
WORD IN FRENCH
ABBREVIATION OF INFORMATION ABOUT THE WORD
MEANING OF THE FRENCH WORD IN ENGLISH
THE FIRST SECTION OF THE DICTIONARY WILL SHOW THE WORD FIRST, THEN THE ABBREVIATION IN ITALICS GIVING INFORMATION ABOUT THE WORD, THEN THE MEANING OF THE WORD.
(NOTE-THIS IS NOT A COMPLETE DICTIONARY PAGE)
WORD IN ENGLISH
MEANING OF THE ENGLISH WORD IN FRENCH
ABBREVIATION OF INFORMATION ABOUT THE WORD THE SECOND SECTION OF THE DICTIONARY
WILL SHOW THE WORD FIRST, THEN THE MEANING OF THE WORD, THEN THE ABBREVIATION IN ITALICS GIVING INFORMATION ABOUT THE WORD
HERE ARE SOME IMPORTANT ABBREVIATIONS
nm = masculine noun
nf = feminine noun
(This means you have to write “un” or “le” with the word)(This means you have to write “une” or “la” with the word)
nmpl = masculine noun which is also plural
nfpl = feminine noun which is also plural
(This means you have to write “les” with the word)
TIP!!! REMEMBER A NOUN IS A “PERSON, PLACE OR THING”.
adj = adjective (a describing word)
adv = adverb (saying how something is done)conj = conjunction (a joining word)
neg = negative (a word like “not”)
prep = preposition (a position word such as “in”.)pron = pronoun (words like “her” or “it”)sing = singular (one of something)
pl = plural (more than one of something)
v/vt/vi/v reg/v irreg/v reflAll of these abbreviations are for verbs (a doing word). There are different types of verbs which is why there is more than one abbreviation. If it has a “v” at the start you will know it stands for “verb”.
a feminine noun
This noun can be masculine or feminine
A verb
an adjective
A masculine noun
AS WELL AS ABBREVIATIONS TELLING US INFORMATION
ABOUT A WORD, THE DICTIONARY WILL ALSO GIVE
US ALL THE POSSIBLE DIFFERENT MEANINGS TOO. IT IS IMPORTANT THAT YOU LOOK AT ALL THE OPTIONS
BEFORE YOU CHOOSE WHICH WORD YOU NEED. LET’S
LOOK AT AN EXAMPLE……
Note that the word “square” is written
more than once
There are different types of “square” in English. There is a
“town square” or the square shape. Make sure you read all the possibilities before you choose which word you need.
Say, for example, you come across the word “livre” in a text and
you don’t know what it means. When you look it up you’ll find more
than one possible meaning. So which one is it? You need to look at the other words in
your sentence. It doesn’t make sense to say “The boy is reading
a pound”!!!
TIP!! Also be careful that you look at the spelling carefully. There are other words that
are very similar but may not be what you want!!
SOME DICTIONARIES WILL SHOW EXTRA
INFORMATION AND USE SOME SYMBOLS TO
REPRESENT “KEY WORDS”.
LET’S SEE SOME EXAMPLES……
This information is something
called the “phonetic
alphabet”. It shows you how to pronounce a
word
Note the information here like we’ve already seen.
This tells us the word is a feminine noun
Here we will see how the ~ symbol is used
The “key word” here is “pied”. It then shows the “phonetic spelling” which
tells us how to pronounce the word. Next we are told it is a “masculine noun” and lastly
that it means “foot” in English.
There are then a lot of phrases
which have the ~ symbol in them. This means you simply replace the
~ with the keyword, which in this
case is “pied”. So the phrase “c’est le
pied!” means “it’s great!”.
Here we see how the “key word” is slightly different
Notice that in the keyword
there is a thin line.
This means that you only replace the ~ symbol with the letters BEFORE the line.
So this word becomes “négociateur”
EVERY TIME YOU USE A DICTIONARY MAKE SURE YOU READ ALL THE INFORMATION CAREFULLY. THE MORE YOU
BECOME FAMILIAR WITH IT ALL THE EASIER IT WILL BECOME
AND YOUR FRENCH CAN ONLY IMPROVE!!