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French Language Resources
French is spoken as a native language by about 65 million people. It's the official language, or one of the official languages, of France, Canada, Belgium, Switzerland, Monaco, Madagascar, Tahiti, Senegal, Haiti, and numerous other countries around the world.
The Living Language team has assembled some useful links and other important information to help you learn French, no matter which course you're using.
Quick Links:
Living Language French Courses and Products
Click here for more French courses and products.
Grammar and Pronunciation Summary
Click here for a comprehensive summary of French Pronunciation and Grammar.
Online Dictionaries and Other Resources
Online Dictionaries:
Portals:
- Voila, a popular French portal with email, news, chat, weather, etc.
- L'Internaute, for French news, weather, classified listings, an encyclopedia, etc.
- quebecweb, a portal for Quebec.
- Paris.fr, a portal for the city of Paris.
News and Media Websites:
- Le Monde, a serious daily French newspaper covering international and national news, as well as culture, sports, science, and more.
- Le Courrier International, a weekly newspaper that collects material from international press sources and translates it into French. A good way to practice French while getting an international perspective.
- TV5 Monde USA, a global French-language network broadcasting in French 24 hours a day.
- France 5 – Vidéos, for educational TV in French with some free videos.
- TF1, France's top television station.
- Le Devoir, a serious daily newspaper from Quebec.
- Cyberpresse, for news from Quebec.
- Tribune de Genève, a daily newspaper in Geneva.
- Jeune Afrique, a weekly French-language news magazine covering Africa.
Culture Websites:
- French Culture, for information about French culture in the USA. Official website of the Cultural Services of the French Embassy.
- Marmiton, for recipes in the French language.
- Fnac, a famous French entertainment retail chain where you can find French books, CDs, and DVDs. Even if you're just window shopping, this is a great site for expanding your vocabulary.
- leboncoin.fr, for classified listings in France. Read through some of them and practice your French!
- Swissworld, an information portal for Switzerland, published by the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs.
- Afrique Francophone, an extensive list of websites related to francophone Africa.
- Madagascar, for conservation efforts in Madagascar and numerous photos of the island.
Travel and Tourism Websites:
- Fodor's Travel Guides, for comprehensive travel information, planners, forums, news, and more.
- France Guide, the official website of the French Government Tourist Office.
- Météo France, to get up-to-date weather for all of France.
- Voyages-SNCF.com, for rail travel in France.
- Bonjour Québec, the official tourism site of the government of Quebec.
- Traveller – Tourism Montreal, to learn all about the city of Montreal.
- My Switzerland, a tourism website for Switzerland.
- FFS, for rail travel in Switzerland.
- Geneva Tourism, to learn more about this francophone Swiss city.
- SNCB, for rail travel in Belgium.
- Au Senegal, a travel guide for Senegal.
Tips on Typing in French
Like English, the French alphabet is based on the Latin alphabet, so it's fairly easy to type in French using an English-language keyboard. Although French also has one character, œ, and several accents not commonly used in English, these symbols can be found on most computers. To type them, you may be able to use these shortcuts on your PC (in Microsoft Word) or Mac computer:
| |
PC Shortcut |
Mac Shortcut |
| é, É |
CTRL and ' (apostrophe) then e or E |
OPTION and e then e or E |
| è, È |
CTRL and ` (accent grave/back quote) then e or E |
OPTION and ` (accent grave/back quote) then e or E |
| ê, Ê |
CTRL and SHIFT and ^ (caret/circumflex) then e or E |
OPTION and i then e or E |
| ï, Ï |
CTRL and SHIFT and : (colon) then i or I |
OPTION and u then i or I |
| ç, Ç |
CTRL and , (comma) then c or C |
OPTION and c or C |
| œ, Œ |
CTRL and SHIFT and & (ampersand) then o or O |
OPTION and q or Q |
Note that accents often aren't used above capital letters in French, but, in general, it is considered better to include the accent. (Click here to read more on the subject, in French, from l'Académie française.)
Some helpful links include:
Tips on Uploading Audio to Flash Forward: French Vocabulary
If you're using Flash Forward: French Vocabulary, click here for some tips to help you create your own flashcards with audio.
Tags: French, French language resources
September 8, 2005
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