The subject of your home is very likely to come up in everyday conversation. So you’re prepared, here’s our list of the essential vocabulary you’ll need to talk about your house and furniture in French. We’ve covered rooms of the house, common items of furniture and things on the outside of the house, meaning you’ll be well-equipped for a trip to IKEA in France. Rooms … Continue reading French Vocabulary: Home and Furniture
Whether you’re a fan of astrology or think it’s just plain pseudoscience, learning the zodiac signs in French is well worth your while. You’ll be able to chat about them and read your horoscope in French, which is a useful tool for improving your comprehension and vocabulary. The Zodiac Signs Here’s a list of the zodiac signs in English in French. In brackets I’ve included … Continue reading The Signs of the Zodiac in French
Tongue twisters, known as les virelangues in French, are useful tools in perfecting your pronunciation skills. Repeating them enables you to master certain French sounds, such as the dreaded “r”, and speak more clearly. It’s important though to remember that tongue twisters are nonsense phrases, and so shouldn’t be treated as grammar exercises. I’ve given each virelangue with its English translation, and the most popular … Continue reading Ten French Tongue Twisters to Improve Your Pronunciation
For those learning French, “false friends” are word pairs that seem the same when spelt or said out loud in French and English, but have different meanings. These faux amis can cause confusion if you read or hear them in context, because you naturally assume that they translate into the English word that they resemble. You may also see “false friends” called “false cognates” or … Continue reading 15 French False Friends that You Should Know
Here’s our list of all the essential vocabulary you’ll need to discuss nature, the environment, landscapes and flowers in French. Natural Features une montagne = a mountainune colline = a hillune falaise = a cliffla terre = soil, earthune vallée = a valleyun vallon = a small valleyune dune, une dune de sable = sand duneun volcan = volcanoun glacier = glacierun plateau = a … Continue reading French Vocabulary: The Environment and Nature
In France, you’ll find the same sorts of jokes that you’ve heard before: blond jokes, “your mum…” jokes, black humoured jokes, and dad jokes. However, this short list of five French jokes is made up of types of jokes that are well-known in France, but that but we don’t really have in English, that aren’t as popular in English, or that we have in English … Continue reading French Humour: 5 French Jokes that are Popular among Native Speakers
Familiaising yourself with a few well-known French proverbs and sayings is a great way of improving your knowledge of the lanaguage, and will allow you to better fit in with native speakers. So to help you out, I’ve made a list of ten French proverbs that you’re likely to come across in an everday conversation. You’ll find that some of these proverbs are almost direct … Continue reading Ten Popular French Proverbs and Sayings
France is the land that brought the world Louis Vuitton, Coco Chanel, Christian Dior, and Yves Saint Laurent. It’s a cliché to say that the French spend their days parading up and down the Champs-Elysées in these designer brands, but France’s reputation as one of the most fashionable countries on the planet has been long established, and can be traced back to the reign of … Continue reading French Vocabulary: Jewellery and Fashion Accessories
The people of France are a fashionable bunch, so knowing how to talk about clothes and accessories in French will serve you well. This list contains the essential clothing vocabulary for any beginner or intermediate, and is broken down into various sections to make memorising easier. Once you’ve finished with this list, you may also find it useful to look at a French clothes website, … Continue reading French Vocabulary: Clothes
