French with Flo

During last class, we celebrated (a bit late) International Women's Day. Here is the exercise sheet accompanying the video, with a fill-in-the-blank exercise and comprehension questions. On the last page of this document, you'll find the video transcript with English translation . You might also like these web-based exercises, proposed by TV5Monde: - Women in the workplace (a series of 4 exercices, beginner to intermediate level) - Droits des Femmes: à quand l'égalité?  (other series of 4 exercices, intermediate to advanced level) - Quiz: la Journée de la Femme (also advanced level, but no listening involved so it seems easier 😉)

Here we are with two (hopefully) fun classes dedicated to food in France (a topic of national importance), and more specifically to the different meals of the day. "Un  repas de noces à Yport" (détail), Albert Fourié, 1886 Our first link is a text with audio version from Podcast Français Facile: Les repas . The class handout  (created by  BEZOYA15  at  ISLcollective ) includes an exercise based on the audio document above, as well as the transcript and questions that can be found on the Podcast Français Facile page. The next handout  (created by mariaf at ISLcollective ) is a series of crosswords and exercises aimed at practicing vocabulary around food and learning how to describe what you eat as well as your likes and dislikes. It's also a good opportunity to review the use of the definite/indefinite/partitive articles when talking about food. (Document created by arliette at  ISLcollective .) And finally, here's a video ab...

NOTE: This post was originally published on 12/12/18. Since I have new material to add, I'm re-posting it today with the latest updates.  —————— The grammar lesson today was about the liaison, which is not an easy topic. It is an important one to master, though, because it occurs in virtually every sentence. I've compiled several sources I've found into this class handout: liaison.pdf . (*NEWLY UPDATED*) Writing this document was very useful for me, too. It definitely helped clarify things in my mind! The problem I ran into is that the list of necessary and forbidden liaisons is a bit different in all sources I consulted. I tried to summarize what I've learned. I hope the result is more useful than confusing. The third page of this document compiles exercises I've found on several web pages, including those linked below. 3/6/19 UPDATE: The link above is a new version of the class handout. I've taken into account the feedback I received in class (t...

French Made Simple - Chapter 3 Meet Mr. Brown!  I recorded the dialogue twice: a first time at normal speed, and a second time a little slower, with space for students to repeat. Dialogue pp.15-16: Qui est Monsieur Brown ? 🔊FMS 03-01 Pronunciation and Spelling Aids p.16: 🔊FMS 03-02 Note: in #1, the book recommends to pron ounce the liaison between " affaires " and " américain " in the phrase " un homme d'affaire s a méricain ". However, in this case the liaison is optional and, actually, it is very often omitted. I demonstrated both possibilities in the recording. Vocabulary p.17-18: 🔊FMS 03-03 Exercise 1 p.18: Completion of Text 🔊FMS 03-04 Say the right answer after I call the question number, then listen to the answer. Exercise 2 p.21: 🔊FMS 03-05 Exercise 3 pp.21-22: 🔊FMS 03-06 Some Common Verb Constructions p.22: 🔊FMS 03-07 Exercise 4 p.22: 🔊FMS 03-08 Exercise 5 p.23: Questionnaire 🔊FMS 03-09 You can ei...

French Made Simple - Chapter 2, Part 3 The third part of chapter 2 starts with a few grammar / pronunciation notes. ©Amberly Maxwell at https://slideplayer.com/slide/10293639/ The liaison : 🔊 FMS 02-10 (For more information on the liaison, see this blogpost .) The élision : 🔊 FMS 02-11 The stress in words and sentences: 🔊 FMS 02-12 Chapter 2 then concludes with three short dialogues. Dialogue 1: 🔊 FMS 02-13 Dialogue 2: 🔊 FMS 02-14 Dialogue 3: 🔊 FMS 02-15 Congratulations, you've finished the introductory chapters! 🙌 You're now ready to start with the book's main story in the next chapter.

On February 2nd, the French celebrate  la Chandeleur (Candlemas in English). For Catholics, this Holiday commemorates Jesus' presentation at the temple, but it also corresponds to very old folk rites celebrating the beginning of Winter sowing and the lengthening of daylight. But first of all, for everyone in France, la Chandeleur is Crepes Day ! This video, produced by FrenchPod101.com , explains what you need to know about this Holiday, with both French and English subtitles. We also practiced listening with the next video, aimed at young French speakers. The class handout  that goes with this second video includes Chandeleur-related vocabulary, as well as a fill-in-the-blank exercise and comprehension questions. Finally, after talking about crepes so much, you may feel a bit hungry.  If that's the case, here's the Crepes Recipe ! With pictures and in French, of course... (document created by crisbarto at ISLCollective .)

French Made Simple - Chapter 2, part 2  And now we can start speaking French! In this section, you will learn some simple, useful phrases. Here is the vocabulary: 🔊  FMS 02.05 Exercise p.10-11: Combien coûte...? 🔊  FMS 02-06 Exercise p.11: Pardon Monsieur. Où est...? 🔊  FMS 02-07 (Note: in France, the word "toilette" - restroom - is usually used in plural form: les toilettes. The verb "être" needs to be plural, too: Où sont les toilettes?) Exercise p.11: Je voudrais... 🔊  FMS 02-08 Image: Eulalie Lopez at slideplayer.fr/slide/173343/ Numbers from 1 to 21: 🔊  FMS 02-09 (Note: as an example, I also added the words "dollar" and "euro" after the numbers. Note the liaison before the word "euro".) In class, I also handed out this sheet that expands on the vocabulary and exercises of this section, as well as the Color Adjective List (document created by  Nathalie74160 on ISLCollective.com .)

The grammar point for FMS chapter 10 is the demonstrative adjectives. To make things more complicated , err, more comprehensive, I've also added some explanation about the demonstrative pronouns in the class handout. Hopefully, the explanations make sense. Here is my  Demonstrative Adjectives and Pronouns handout, as well as the Exercise Sheet (adapted from a document created by Silac on ISLCollective .) To practice the demonstratives in a fun way, we can also make up little skits using the Bureau des Object Trouvés drawing, created by Tkdana on ISLCollective . Have a look at the Vocabulary/Example sheet for inspiration, and have fun!

Using properly the casual address "tu" or the formal address "vous" is very important when you speak French. Use "vous" at the wrong time and you'll sound strange and overly formal ; use "tu" wrongly and you might very well offend the person you're talking to... which is what happened to Boris, a young French learner, in the video above. Poor Boris, he learned the hard way! This text comes from the book "Je vis en France : vingt lectures faciles pour découvrir la civilisation française" by Marie Barthe and Bernadette Chovelon. Here is the class handout (slightly reformatted from the original.) There are many, many resources on the Internet about this topic. Here is one I like:

To my knowledge, our classroom textbook " French Made Simple " doesn't come with an audio version, which makes things difficult for beginners who try to study on their own. To help them, I intend to record the French examples, texts and (possibly) exercises as we progress in our study of the book. Tall order! Wish me luck... And now, let's start at the beginning. French Made Simple - Chapter 1 This is a general presentation of the French language, including many words that are very similar between French and English. Page 1: Words with same spelling, same meaning, different pronunciation 🔊 FMS 01-01.mp3 Page 1-2: Words with same meaning but slightly different spelling 🔊 FMS 01-02.mp3 Page 2: Words directly borrowed from French, with similar pronunciation 🔊 FMS 01-03.mp3 French Made Simple - Chapter 2, Part 1 : Pronunciation Pages 4-6 - Introductory section: some basic French vowel sounds 🔊 FMS 02-01.mp3 Pages 6-7: French Vowe...