French with Flo

Last week, we did two unrelated exercises. To begin, we practiced again our food, color and clothing vocabulary with this image description exercise : Un bon petit déjeuner (created by s ilvialefevre on ISLCollective ). We then studied how to say the date in French with this handout (adapted from a document by osfr on ISLCollective ). [BEGINNER] You can also visit this page on Podcast Français Facile for another overview of the date and seasons in French.

In chapter 12 of French Made Simple , we are continuing our study of numbers and we're having a look at two other verbs in the present tense.           1. Faire and croire Both verbs belong to the 3rd group, so they are irregular and their conjugations need to be memorized. Generally speaking, the verb faire corresponds to the English verbs to do or to make , but there are some idiomatic uses. For example: faire faire quelque chose : to have somebody do something, to have something done. ex.: Je fais réparer ma voiture = I'm having my car repaired faire de... (+ sport or leisure activity): to do / practice an activity, to play a sport... I handed out in class this exercise (created by Paugaliza on ISLCollective ) to practice using the verb faire with names of sports or activities. You can also practice conjugating the verb faire with the following exercises: http://www.didieraccord.com/exercices/index.php?ex=2.2.10 https://fog.ccsf.e...

Since last week's class fell on May 1st, I had of course to talk about the premier mai  Holiday in France. We studied the French Labor Day last year in this post (with a text and a video - check it out if you missed it last time), so this year I thought I'd focus on another May 1st custom : the sprigs of lily of the valley French people gift each-other to bring good luck. Here is my class handout  about the muguet du premier mai , adapted from the website momes.net . I slightly modified their text and quiz and I added a vocabulary list.

Tentez votre chance ! ( Try your luck! ) Today we are talking about the loto . When people in France talk about jouer au loto , they can mean two things : either the National Lottery , which is drawn every night or so on TV ( here's a random example ), or a more traditional game that resemble the American bingo. The latter is also called loto traditionnel , quine or loto bingo , depending on your region. (I'm from the South-East and I've always called it "loto".)  Organizing loto evenings is a great way for associations, towns and villages to raise money. They can take place year-round, but they are particularly frequent around Christmas. The prizes are usually donated by local businesses. Here is a TV news report about one of those events in the town of Saint-Sauveur, in the South-West of France: I handed out in class a transcript of the video , with accompanying vocabulary. Each one of the cards used to play loto is called un carton . Y...