Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Word Match

Use the vocabulary you learned yesterday!


Bonus! Flash cards! Click here to download the PDF

Monday, December 5, 2011

Fruits et Légumes

Now for something slightly different! First in a series of visual vocabulary pictures:

Fruits and vegetables: a random selection.

Friday, December 2, 2011

Noël!

With christmas music playing in every mall, grocery store and office building, it's hard not to get in the mood!

Here is a christmas themed crossword puzzle! It's a little bit more difficult, so feel free to use the dictionary, google and whatever else you please, and help each other in the comments :)

Answers tomorrow.

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Wednesday Mad-Libs

...in which I take a bunch of completely random* words from the dictionary for your vocabulary learning entertainment.

 Our words today are:


aiguille
nom féminin
couloir
nom masculin
modeler
verbe
nerveux
adjectif
séance
nom feminin
table
nom feminin


What do they mean?


aiguille
needle, for sewing, or for injecting things into other things
couloir
hallway
modeler
to sculpt or to shape something
nerveux/se
nervous
séance
session, meeting
table
table


Let’s see these new words in action!

 Aujourd’hui je pars pour une séance d’information avec ma couturière. La dernière fois que je l’ai vu elle était debout sur une table et modelait une reproduction de mon corps en argile à l’aide de ses aiguilles. Ça me rend très nerveuse surtout parce qu’elle vient de déménager au bout du couloir.


Today's challenge:
 

1.      Read up on voodoo.

2.      Continue the story.


*Actually chosen by l'internaute.

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Going somewhere?

 How are you getting there? Well, I guess you could walk, but that might take a while depending on the distance.

une bicyclette (qc), un vélo (fr)
bicycle, (bike)
une automobile, une auto, un char (qc)
car
un camion
truck
un autobus
bus
un train
train
un traversier (qc), un transbordeur (fr)
ferry
un avion
plane
une fusée
rocket

And some verbs you might find useful:

marcher
to walk
courir
to run
nager
to swim
conduire
to drive
voyager
to travel
piloter
to pilot
prendre
to take
faire
to do

Now let’s put it together!

faire de la bicyclette (qc), faire du vélo(fr)
to ride a bike
conduire une auto[mobile]
to drive a car
conduire un camion
to drive a truck
prendre l’autobus
to take the bus
prendre le train
to take the train
prendre le traversier/transbordeur
to take the ferry
piloter un avion
to pilot a plane
prendre l’avion
to take the plane
piloter une fusée
to pilot a rocket
voyager en train, auto, autobus, avion
to travel by train, car, bus, plane


Just be glad you aren't travelling on this highway ;)


Monday, November 28, 2011

Verb of the day / A bit of pronounciation

Your verb for today is Manger: to eat

Manger is a verb of the ER type. Its conjugation is fairly simple and follows the ER verb pattern, but with a slight exception! Due to the fact that it contains the letter g before the ER, it sometimes requires an extra e (which is not pronounced) when it lands in front of hard vowels such as a, u and o. 
 
But why??

The letter G can be pronounced two ways in French. It can be hard (like in gust!) or soft (like in gin, but without the d sound.) The way it goes depends on the letter following it. 

Soft Vowels
e
mir, le, mangeais, neige
i
gite, giraffe , girouette, gigantesque
y
gynécologue, gyroscope
Hard Vowels
a
gamme, gamin, gant, gallop
o
gomme, Congo, bingo,
u
guérir, longue. guide *
*The u in those words is ONLY used to make the g hard, and is not pronounced. I think there must be a few words where the u is pronounced after a g, but I couldn’t come up with any…

Anyway, here is the verb Manger, conjugated for you, with the extra e’s highlighted.

Présent
Imparfait
Future simple
Today, I eat
Yesterday, I was eating
Tomorrow, I will eat
je mange
tu manges
il mange
nous mangeons
vous mangez
ils mangent
je mangeais
tu mangeais
il mangeait
nous mangions
vous mangiez
ils mangeaient
je mangerai
tu mangeras
il mangera
nous mangerons
vous mangerez
ils mangeront

Your challenge:
1.      Think of a word with a g in it where it’s pronounced softly and a word where it is pronounced hard. Bonus points for having both g’s in the same word!
2.      Make a sentence describing what you are eating for lunch.