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Sorry to report that there's no magic potion to become a strong writer. It's just a lot of reading.

Read, read, read. Take 15-30 minutes every day to read the news in French. Take note of the way they form their sentences, especially transitions. Keep an eye out for common phrases as well. Write these down, and challenge yourself to use them in your next French composition.

When I was preparing to take a French exam to get C2 status, I did a lot of this. Consume the language and then regurgitate it in your own work.

I must also suggest Linguee. If you're not familiar, this site is a freaking lifesaver. It's a dictionary for full fixed phrases, not just words. Its search algorithm scans the internet for pages in English that use your phrase that have been translated into French. It tends to give super accurate, more colloquial translations than you'd get from a straight dictionary.

Good luck!

My favorite is "sensible" (F) =/= "sensible" (E). Sensible in French means "sensitive" in English, whereas "sensible" in English means "raisonnable" in French, among other translations

Can recommend ‘The Story of French’

Covers all the things you mention (history of French language and how it’s been shaped by political / cultural context)

French for Reading is the exact book you're looking for. It's written for grad students in exactly your position and will teach you in 80-120 hours how to read academic french writing. I've found it to be quite effective.

I see that another user recommended Assimil, which is what I came here to recommend! However I think you should get the physical version! It's not too bad on Amazon, about $50 with the audio. I prefer the book version because I've heard the apps and e-versions of Assimil have some issues. Besides I feel like studying with a book helps me learn better (you might be different though).

Assimil's tidy little book took me from false beginner to reading Harry Potter à l'école des sorciers. That's a pretty good deal for $50. Nine months later and I'm still using the course occasionally, and now my husband is learning French with it too!

I also recommend getting a cheap basic grammar book like Easy French Step by Step -- that's the one I got but there are tons of other good ones like The Ultimate French Review & Practice. Assimil is great for comprehension and reading, but you'll want to have a more clear view of the grammar rules.

Except you wouldn't pronounce the n at the end, so -onne is incorrect. http://www.forvo.com/word/prononciation/#fr

Also, in French it's spelled pron*onciation, so there shouldn't be a *u in there making it difficult.

At least 4-6 hours of active study per day most days. It was intensive study, but it never felt overwhelming because it was focused on content I enjoy. I immersed myself in French during every single part of my day. * Wake up in morning, read French messages and the date/time in French on my Windows lock screen. * Watch a show with deep studying before lunch. While preparing and eating lunch, watch something else with light studying. * Work. Listen passively to French music or radio or FRANCE24 while working. * After work, exercise, listen to a French podcast while I run. * Shower, listen to French music in the shower. (I use this waterproof speaker or these waterproof earbuds). * Afterwards continue watching a show with deep studying. If I ever get exhausted of deep studying I switch for a bit to watching another show with light studying, or play a game with voiced French dialogue. * In bed, watch a show with light studying on my iPad until I'm tired and then sleep.

You didn't find squat? (Best pun in my career so far)

That's because we say it the exact same way "A squat" = "Un squat" and its inhabitants are called "squatteurs".

And btw, wordreference had it in the list, always check it.

https://www.linguee.com/english-french/search?source=auto&query=i%27ll+keep+an+eye+out+for+it

Looks like there are a few different ways of saying it, none particularly idiomatic, but "faire attention" seems to be the most basic and the most common.

As others have said, vocabulary is the biggest hurdle. I taught LPP 2 years ago and made this memrise course by chapter groupings.

https://www.memrise.com/course/1143354/le-petit-prince-vocabulaire/

I also recommend the dialogue and action vocabulary memrise I made to familiarize readers with common usages of the passé simple:

https://www.memrise.com/course/1143380/dialogue-and-action-vocabulary/

When I was in my 2nd year of learning French, I read a short novel called “Fama va en Californie” by Blaine Ray. It’s the story of a Mauritanian teenager who comes to the United States as an exchange student, but is met with some unexpected challenges. I think it’s a totally “easy” and “simple” read - enjoyable too.

"S'en aller" is a different way of saying "partir". Since "to go on a cruise" is partir en croisière, s'en aller en croisière means that as well.

I recently learned the word <em>gaver</em>. The verb itself means to force-feed (as in what they do with ducks to make foie gras), but it can also mean to bore people. Used reflexively, it can mean to binge.

For general French, try WordReference.com. It's a bilingual dictionnary, and each entry includes answers about entry-relevant phrases from a forum.

BTW it took me a while to figure out that you meant the Larousse dictionary (not "La Rousse," "the Ginger-Haired Girl"). Then I had a good laugh.

To be honest, I watch a lot of French Canadian TV, while I learned "French" French, it's just a bit of an accent to get used to and a few different words here and there. It frankly is not worth going out of your way for if you're a beginner. You're really going to learn more if you focus on learning French than learning dialects and accents, especially in the beginning.

But if you insist, here's a list of some resources that's been shared on this sub before, but I am not sure about what level it is:

https://www.notion.so/Immersion-Qu-bec-6ca43f3c75fc43e1ac49801ccddae3d2

Find friendly people to speak with! Check meetup.com, depending on where you live, you might be able to find groups of other foreigners or people learning French to speak with. Sometimes it's easier to start speaking with people who are also not native French speakers or who are at a similar level as you. This can help with your confidence. Also, check discord for speaking groups.

For me, I feel more comfortable speaking after a glass of wine or two, so that might also be an option, although not for everyone! Don't be afraid of making mistakes, you're learning another language - it's how we learn.

I am a huge fan. When people ask me how to learn French quickly, I always suggest using Cortina and French in Action.

The show itself is charming, even if a little dated. The lessons are hardcore. It is entirely in French. It teaches culture as well as language.

Seriously, if you watch the same episode every day of the week before going to the next one, you'll have it down in a year.

You can also find the workbook and text online, though it is not necessary to use them.

I don't remember having a hard time reading it back then. It was written in 1862 so it's modern French. Think Charles Dickens but in French. The only difficulty would be the sheer size of the full novel (half a million words). I only read the abridged version.

Here, click on the 'ECOUTER' button up top to hear how it would normally be pronounced.

Depending on the accent in French, the two words (les, discrets) could also be pronounced in the same way, rhyming with 'day'.

je suis pas un locuteur natif mais je dirais "ça arrive (tout de suite)"
Quelques exemples: https://context.reverso.net/translation/french-english/arrive+tout+de+suite

I am the developer of Easy French News. Basic, always free, always ad free.

It is not the same as News in Slow French but I think we serve the same audience.

There’s a whole book about it, with useful rules to memorize. Essentially, there are about thirty rules and a small number of exceptions:

https://www.amazon.com/Rules-Gender-French-Nouns-Revised/dp/1604943068

The grammar and the written form of the French language is the same everywhere French is spoken, including Quebec, so go on studying standard French, it won't be lost at all.

For the accent though, there are many resources. Here are two aggregates of them on the subject : A comment with some resources posted some time ago and a list of resources I compiled in a Duolingo discussion (no need to sign up to see it).

Be aware though, that in real life, if a Quebecer notices you have trouble with their accent, they will articulate more to give you a chance at understanding them.

Edit : also, if you're moving from outside Canada, the gouvernment offers free French classes to immigrants.

Welcome!

As you're brand new to language learning, a small hint I would give it try to avoid direct translations because it will hurt you in the long run. For example, don't memorize that "ça va" is "it's going", memorize that "ça va" is "ça va" and what that means (it can be a greeting, a question of how someone else is, and a statement on how you are, probably more meanings of which I'm not aware!)

A few of the resources I've used off and on: Duolingo - online and app for memorization learning. Memrise - similar to Duolingo, but uses principle of repeating things often enough to memorize. Often has recordings of people saying the words.

[Word Reference](www.wordreference.com) - online dictionary that is pretty good with having lots of examples and forums where people have asked questions for context.

Podcast called "Coffee Break French" - it has multiple seasons (4..?) and starts from completely basic French to decently intermediate levels by the end. Covers vocabulary, grammar, and also some culture. They are all 10-25 min long so you could listen on your coffee break at work (I listen on my commute, often). There is a free version and paid version with much more, but even the free version is good for listening to people and picking up lots of things besides just memorized vocabulary.

Good luck, and don't get discouraged! Bonne chance!

*Edited for clarity and links.

In English, it's pronounced /ˈkeɪdʒən/ - like "agent" with a "k" at the start and without the final "t".

In French, it's /ka.ʒœ̃/ - in other words, it follows the usual pronunciation rules of French.

One link: Dofus. French made MMO (Ankama Games, based in Lille) - I think this is the most played MMO in France.

I dunno how this works for English / French servers though, but I think you should not have any trouble playing in French.

Not 100% what you're looking for. But, this tool does put books translated in multiple languages side by side, so you can follow along the context. You can extract words that you do not know from there

http://readlang.com/

Yes, it's part of Kanye's merch to his album Yeezus.

Yeezus deals with segregation, racism, and being black in modern society.

Some lyrics from the single New slaves to illustrate :

• My mama was raised in a area when / clear water was only served to the fairest skin

• But they wasn't satisfied unless I picked the cotton myself

• All you black want all the same things....

The confederate flag is maily linked to the song BLACK SKINHEAD : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q604eed4ad0. You can see the songs explaination here : http://genius.com/Kanye-west-black-skinhead-lyrics

IMO Kanye is using the confederate flag to show he's extreme, violent and a bit crazy. He reappropriates an old white symbol to show he's ready to fight back against modern racism.

Mais oui, ben sûr!

Look online for the “Easy Readers/Lectures faciles” series, they’re fantastic.

Their innovation is that they explain difficult vocabulary in the bottom margin of every page, so you don’t need to flip through a dictionary or pick up your phone every time you come across a word you haven’t seen before.

I personally have only read « Le père goriot » de Balzac in the series, but it was incredibly useful and made the reading experience infinitely more enjoyable as an intermediate reader.

I’ll include an amazon link to the actual book I read myself.

Le Pere Goriot https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0884360431/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_c_api_qGQDBbTDP837C

I’ve checked online and they’ve done a bunch of books in this way, for all levels.

Courage!

((FR)) Bonjour à tous! Je te presente une archive sur Dropbox, qui a contribué à ma compréhension orale. Les dossiers sont organisés par mois. Tu pourrais télécharger les fichiers (format zip) en appuyant sur le bouton "Download-> Download as .zip". J'espère que cela pourrait t'aider. L'archive de l'annee 2014 sera bientôt disponible.

((EN))) Hello everyone! I am sharing you a Dropbox archive which has helped my oral comprehension. The folders are organised by month. You could download the files (zip format) by pressing the button "Download->Download as .zip". I hope this would be helpful to you. 2014 archive coming soon.

Added Google drive link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5CBQNfnhS3ObTluakc2SG9DV0U/edit?usp=sharing

You might want to check out Forvo. It basically a site where people record words from their native language, to let others hear how they're pronounced. I took a French class online this past summer, and it really helped me out a lot. It's free, and easy to search (or contribute).

I'm not a profesional translator, but I just did the whole thing on the site. link

http://www.wordreference.com/enfr/long%20time%20no%20see

ça fait des lustres
ça fait une plombe
ça fait (vachement) longtemps
ça remonte à une plombe
ça remonte à loin

in phrases beggining with (ça fait) you can add at the end : (qu'on s'est pas vu)
you can add in all phrases (dis donc) at the end just for the rythm

In French, there are two types of il: there's the regular il (as in he), then there's the impersonal il, which can be translated as it. In English, we use it even though it doesn't necessarily refer to anything, like the weather. For example:

Il part ce soir. He is leaving tonight. (He has to have been identified before though)

Il pleut ce soir. It is raining tonight.

In the second sentence, it was used but it the pronoun doesn't seem to replace anything. (The weather is raining tonight?)

If you look up certain verbs like pleuvoir and falloir, you'll notice that there's only one entry: the impersonal il. By nature of the verb, it is impossible for me to rain or for them to be necessary.

Some other examples:

• Il vaut mieux (It would be better)

• Il est impossible (It's impossible)

• Il fait beau (It's sunny)

In your example, I'd say "et toi, qu'aimes-tu faire ?".
When used as "moving on", i'd say "enfin bref" ou "passons". You'll find a lot of translations with Wordreference.

https://www.amazon.ca/Victor-Hugo-habite-chez-livre/dp/2278087967

The whole collection is great: http://www.mondesenvf.fr/la-collection/ simple language, but for mature readers. No need to read children’s books.

There are pronunciation rules in French. Of course there are many exceptions, but most of the time you can tell how to pronounce a word from the way it's spelled.

Here's a good website to start: http://ielanguages.com/frenchphonetics.html

And if you want to look up individual words and hear them pronounced by native speakers, use this: http://www.forvo.com/ (use the search bar)

WordReference is a great resource for that kind of things.

As for mal/mauvais, as no one answered, the main difference is that mal is mostly a noun or an adverb, and mauvais an adjective.
However, there are a few occurences when mal will be an adjective (very rare, only in a few phrases; typically : Bon gré mal gré) or mauvais will be a noun (un(e) mauvais(e) means a bad person; not used much) or an adverb (Il fait mauvais = The weather is bad, sentir mauvais = To smell bad; These are really common)

grammaire progressive du francais books I see recommended a lot. I really like them. Each grammar point is accompanied by a lot of exercises in the book.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Grammaire-progressive-francais-Nouvelle-perfectionnemen/dp/2090382090/ref=sr_1_3?crid=9JYGFVR6KVRK&amp;dchild=1&amp;keywords=grammaire+progressive+du+francais&amp;qid=1610379875&amp;sprefix=grammaire+%2Caps%2C272&amp;sr=8-3

Others already answered it.
Btw, Google translate is trash, even if some translations are actually accurate. Try DeepL instead. I've learned a lot from it, both in terms of grammar and vocabulary (click on each of the words, it'll give you alternatives/synonyms).

Journal en Français Facile: world news and other podcasts/reports.
Really helps with listening. Some of the casts have transcripts so they're easier to follow.
Despite the name it's not as "facile" as it says but it's still very helpful

Surprised it's not been mentioned seeing as I found it in this subreddit

Word Reference is a good online dictionary. They also have an app and a Google Chrome plugin

Michel Thomas language course is the best audio course I've used. It's good for getting to an intermediate level, it's just low on vocabulary so you have to build that up yourself. Reading the news or books helps here.
It also doesn't help with training your ears to listen to natural French, so you have to do that yourself too (which is where Journal en Français Facile comes in).

ce pourrait être impopulaire, mais je vais vous le dire. Duolingo est trop minime. cela ne vous aidera pas à conserver votre niveau, encore moins à l'améliorer. Je suggérerais newsinfrench.org pour la la compréhension écrite, et regarder youtube pour la compréhension orale, et télécharger des livres audio comme linguaphone ou hugo. en attendant, essayez aussi de lire des romans français, la traduction française pour "13 reasons why" est assez facile à comprendre. Deux ans, c'est long, je ne voudrais pas perdre cela. il y a aussi le cours audio gratuit en ligne Cortina French. essayez ça aussi.

bonne chance!

No, it doesn't.

feuille is pronounced /fœj/. You can listen to the pronounciation here, for instance.
boy is pronounced /bɔɪ/ in English. In French, "un boy" is a houseboy and the word is pronounced /bɔj/.

Some of the vowels are pronounced the same, some are pronounced differently. However, this varies wildly and is dependent on where the speaker hails from.

Most people who are learning French will learn "Standard French" pronunciations, which are the pronunciations you will find in Metropolitan French. Standard French contains thirteen unique vowel sounds. As you move around the world, you'll find that some French dialects have fewer vowel sounds than this.

For our purposes, we'll stick with Metropolitan French (the dialect spoken in Paris) and the thirteen vowel sounds found in this dialect.

1. Pendant: /pɑ̃dɑ̃/

2. Un: /œ̃/

3. An: /ɑ̃/

4. Quand: /kɑ̃/

5. On: /ɔ̃/

The vowel sounds in "pendant," "an," and "quand" are pronounced the same. They are different in the words "on" and "un."

Unless you've studied linguistics, I'm sure these symbols mean nothing to you. Word Reference has an IPA chart that lists what the word should sound like in French. I also found this PDF that lists the vowel sound in French and and English equivalent (on pages four and five).

Anglophones tend to have difficulty distinguishing similar vowel sounds (such as [ɑ] and [a], as well as [y] et [u]) for a variety of reasons, but with a little practice, you should be able to learn the difference between [ɑ], [œ̃], and [ɔ̃] - once you realise how they're supposed to be pronounced, they're very easily distinguishable.

I just want to reiterate that these pronunciations will vary depending on where the speaker hails, but if you're learning French as a second language in an English-speaking country, these are how the words are likely to be pronounced.

I hope this helps! Please let me know if you have any questions.

Edit: Thanks /u/lingo-guru for pointing out some silly mistakes I made!

I'm not fluent in French, but I can still give my opinion. It's not half bad, really. Though, it does a terrible job with reflexive verbs and doesn't always pick up on the context. Like in your example with glasses. You wear les lunettes while you put des verres in the cupboard. I would only use it for French to English translations. WordReference is not a translator but still an indispensable resource.

And it isn't aware of all the nuances involved in expressing ideas. Like with "les lunettes sont sur mon visage." That is in accordance with English syntax, but it might not be the same in French (I don't know). It could be "I wear the glasses to my face." Je porte des lunettes à mon visage. Again, I'm not sure with this particular example, but that's something to be wary of.

The right expression would be "Double sens" or "Double interprétation", which means you can understand "Jeu d'échec" in two ways :
- Chess game
- "Failure" game (since Napoléon lost in Russia).
relevant

Deepl suggests "des adieux en bonne et due forme" which sounds about right.

Two things come to mind (well...three):
* This is what happens with two exceedingly similar languages at the same time and simply can't be 100% unavoided'
* Take French Slower so your mind is clear about what is French and What is Spanish
* Try learning French through Spanish (i.e. No English) so that way your Brain will constantly see French Words against Spanish Words (i.e. easier to differentiate).

Many apps will let you do that: ClozeMaster and Duolingo support it. I'm sure there are Anki Decks for French/Spanish, and Memrise likely has user created courses for French <---> Spanish.

Quick googling shows similar ideas...good luck! https://www.duolingo.com/comment/3302898

If you are looking for more adult themed books, the book depository has tons of francais facile series. They are real stories basically trimmed down to different reading levels. Excellent practice. I would say that if you thought Le Petit Prince was difficult, you are probably right at level 2 or 3 in that series (2 is good, 3 would probably push you).

They also do free shipping anywhere in the world, which is pretty nice.

There are a lot of rules to consider, but thankfully, once you know them, you'll be able to pronounce words accurately maybe ~80% of the time based on their spelling.

You need to associate written combinations of letters with the sounds they make. Here's a website that might help: http://ielanguages.com/frenchphonetics.html

You can also look up words on Forvo to hear how they are pronounced, and practice by yourself. Like, look at a new word, guess its pronunciation, then listen to it on Forvo to see whether you guessed right.

http://www.forvo.com/ (search bar in the top right corner)

I am not sure if I am listening to the right one. https://player.fm/series/la-semaine-prochaine I picked the one posted yesterday (Nov 26th).

Here is what they say:

• "Mais admettez quand même qu'il s'en passe des choses dans la métropole."

• "C'est vrai, c'est vrai. Comme vos cols bleus qui mettent de la tourbe quand il neige. Ça doit être quelque chose passer le Weed-Eater à moins 40, m'a te dire."

It is a reference to this: http://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/montreal/201611/21/01-5043620-montreal-plante-du-gazon-malgre-la-neige.php

Hey. As a native, I've put together few french radio hits from the 80's to today to show to my international peers what pop rock in France is like.

It's definitely not exhaustive but that'll already give you a good 4 hour in our musical pop culture

By the way, it's on deezer, a french spotify !

here it is !

Also a little on the old side, but the US government has developed language courses that are in the public domain. They can be found here, and there are a bunch of languages.

For those interested in subbing the whole thing, you can checkout http://amara.org/ which allows you to do just that.

Basically, they had a discussion with the hostage-takers and they claim to have been sent by Al-Quaida. They got their orders from some American dude who went to Yemen (Sherif went there and met him, he says) and became one of the whacko-leaders.

Sherif insists that no innocents were killed. The reporter infers that the people from Charlie Hebdo don't count to them as innocents.

Can't remember all the rest, but they say he seemed prepared for the interview, which was done during the hostage situation. One of the reporters called and Sherif picked up.
Sherif says he and his brother picked that store because it was Jewish.

That's what I got....

Clozemaster might be useful for reading practice and vocab acquisition, https://www.clozemaster.com/languages/learn-french-from-english.

There's the Fast Track which has the sentences/vocab in order of difficulty, one sentence per unique word on Clozemaster. There's also sentences grouped by word frequency, so you could practice words/sentences around the B2 level, though I'm not exactly sure what the level would be in terms of word frequency. I imagine if you're comfortable with sentences through the 20,000 most common words range that might be around B2.

¹ Le q final se prononce toujours /k/, sauf dans les locutions suivantes : cinq minutes /sɛ̃minyt/, et ses composés 25 mn, 35 mn, 45 mn, 55 mn, cinq cents /sɛ̃sɑ̃/ et ses composés, et parfois cinq mille /sɛ̃mil/ et ses composés, sauf lorsque l’on veut appuyer sur le cinq, auquel cas on le prononce /sɛ̃k.mil/). [Edited]

1. When in doubt about how a French word should be pronounced, go to WordReference.com, where you'll have both the IPA and and audio file for the word.
   
2. The /kat/ pronunciation for 4 is substandard but commonly used in everyday spooken French.
3. For 100, the liaison is optional in the singular. It should be done for the plural (cents) but is is not always done, e.g. /døsɑ̃øʀo/ vs. /døsɑ̃zøʀo/ (preferred) for "deux cents euros" but /døsɑ̃zɔm/ (only) for "deux cents hommes."

"Prendre" has a number of meanings (see http://www.wordreference.com/fren/prendre), so does "faire", which is also used in a number of idioms ("Il fait peur" does not mean "he makes fear" but "he causes fear", "he is frightening"; "Il fait chaud" does not mean "it makes hot" but "it is hot"). The idiom meaning to "have a shower" is "prendre une douche".

Based on your username, I'm going to assume you're a German speaker, think about "es gibt" which does not literally means "it gives" or "ça donne". Different languages express ideas in different ways, and not always logically.

Yeh. Here it has nothing to do with political correctness or journalism, and all to do with it being the technical term in that context. As to how to properly translate it, a English speaking cyclist/cycling fan would be a better source than a dictionary.

&nbsp;

From WordReference:

> attardé (nm) soutenu, vieilli (retardataire)

> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;latecomer (n)

> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;late arrival (n)

> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;person who is late (n)

> Les attardés courent sur le quai.

> The latecomers are running along the platform.

http://www.wordreference.com/fren/boueux

http://www.wordreference.com/fren/vaseux

"boueux" is literally "muddy", as in "like mud" or "covered in mud". It's a physical description.

"Vaseux" has the same meaning, but it also has additional idiomatic meanings as well, as you can see in the wordreference page.

EDIT: in addition, I agree with u/jul_the_flame.

I'm in the same boat. Not sure what level you're at, or what resources you have, but I've decided to work through L'etranger (and keep a vocab list of what I don't know), while also using Duolingo and the second half of my old French textbook. Basically, I'm trying to keep myself immersed, maintain and gain.

Here's Duolingo's version of L'etranger: https://www.duolingo.com/translation/a68eebd8067da99c74bbbdf803e7e1a9

> Not available in my country

If you are watching videos in other countries (for example, when learning a language), Hola is a necessity. "Not available in your country" is a speed-bump instead of a road block.

When I go off-grid camping, I take my "seau à marde"

(I still get a chuckle when I think back to when I said to Alexa "Play my notification", and she curtly answered... &quot;Toilet bucket has arrived!&quot;)

I use this one https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ichi2.anki&amp;hl=en

The app iteself is a bit shite but it's the process really that is the killer. I followed this video to understand what to do: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7g8SCrLw6U

I used the desktop app to set up the cards, then created an account and synced my profile, then downloaded the Android app

Bienvenue chez les chtis. Such a great film. I like Dany Boon in general though.

Pay 40 dollars a year for a VPN such as "Private Internet Access" and you can access all of the free French channels.

Trotro is a nice cartoon

Appropriate book:

https://www.amazon.com/Your-Eats-This-Everything-Still/dp/0446508802

This book was helpful when our kids were small.

I keep saying it to new learners: use Cortina Method French and French in Action. It'll cost you nothing and you'll be highly conversant in a year.

Yup. I would agree the pronunciation is similar to long fair. A couple things to note would be that you wouldn't pronounce the N, and the L is not velarized, meaning you don't make such a bowl shape with the back of your tongue with Ls in French. But the only difference between the two pronunciations is that one includes the L sound.

WordReference has the IPA and an audio pronunciation of the word here.

"Freiner" actually means "to brake", while "to slow down" is "ralentir" in French.

In a car-moving-related context, the action of "braking" will automatically means the car will "slow down", but outside of this context you wouldn't use "braking". Well that's the same in French actually : you wouldn't use "freiner" if it doesn't refer to "braking".

Yep, a pretty distinctive one.

Try this : Go to : http://translate.google.com/

Select French as First language and French as second language, type these two and then click on the speaker !

I'm a European, but I found a great bookstore that has free shipping to all over the world, and very reasonable prices - http://bookdepository.com .

And they do have sizeable French selection; these are what you want:

http://www.bookdepository.com/search?searchTerm=Lectures+Cle+En+Francais+Facile&amp;search=Find+book

There are 4 difficulty levels, I suggest you buy Niveau 1 and move on from there. :)

A good way to explore podcasts is look at the iTunes chart for France http://www.itunescharts.net/fra/charts/podcasts/2014/10/28

This looks like a running podcast https://player.fm/series/le-podcast-de-la-course-pied-et-du-trail-by-greg-runner

Well, I am going to go against the grain here. My favourite is a book called Cortina Method Conversational French in Twenty Lessons. The book has a great phonetic alphabet. I like the books (I have used them for multiple languages, because it includes a great section on grammar, which cracks the code for me.

The Foreign Service Institute has lots of instruction strictly on the sounds for French.

I am self-taught in French. My accent is good. I credit Cortina.

Oh, and when you are learning, practice like you are doing an impression of a French person. Really exaggerate the sounds. It is the only way to get used to the phonemes. You will literally feel your facial muscles strain after speaking French for 20 minutes. You are using everything differently.

Good luck.

Here you go, easy to compare pronunciations especially those with more than one recording, participants have marked their location, presumably living there but nothing can be said native from the same area or not.

As some other commenters have suggested, it means, among other things, "in fact", "moreover" and "by the way". Some examples from context.reverso.net:

> On retrouvait d'ailleurs cette déclaration dans la plateforme conservatrice. This statement may be found, moreover, in the Conservative platform.

> Mes mains sont d'ailleurs assurées. My hands are fully insured, in fact.

And one example from Wordreference:

> J'ai trouvé des clefs par terre, d'ailleurs je ne sais plus ce que j'ai fait des miennes. I found some keys on the ground; by the bye, I don't know what I've done with mine.

Well, hâte is a noun, it can't be the verb "to hurry". The word "hâte" can indeed mean "haste", but the sentence "J'ai hâte" means "I'm looking forward to it". If you analyze it literally, it means "I have haste", which makes sense because you are so excited for something that you can't wait for it to happen.

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Dictionaries can be great, but I definitely recommend using Context.Reverso. (https://context.reverso.net/translation/french-english/h%C3%A2te)

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As you can see, when you write "hâte", it puts it in the most common context.

From what I understand, "Ben" should work in most situations when you want to use "Well" in that way. And you draw it out more than when you would say "well". Someone correct me if I'm wrong.
"Ben, il est très gentil."
Word Reference Source

Learning the phonetic alphabet and when each sound is used can be helpful. For example, [œ] is only ever used when followed by a consonant in the same syllable, such as seul [sœl]. Then you have a word like heureux [ø . rø], where the 'eu' could form either the [œ] or the [ø], but it forms the latter in both cases as neither syllable ends with a consonant. As a general rule, French pronunciation tries to end syllables with vowels, but of course, this isn't always the case.

You might also be aware of liaison and enchainement. Liaison is more obvious (like pronouncing the 's' as [z] to form [le zob ʒe] from « les objets ». We actually do have enchainement in English. Consider this sentence:

"Put it on top of the shelf, if you please." But when you consider enchainement, the way we actually pronounce the syllables in English is "Pu ti ton to poff the shelf, i fyou please." A French equivalent would be « Paul et moi allons en France » which would actually be pronounced « Pau le moi allons en France », or [pɔ le mwa a lɔ̃ ɑ̃ frɑ̃s].

Otherwise, it's just practice.

Do note that [œ̃] and [ɑ] have been replaced by [ɛ̃] and [a] by many francophones.

Word Reference and this Introduction to French Pronunciation PDF should totally help you out.

Look up the word on Word Reference, check out the IPA spelling, and then cross-reference with the PDF. The PDF will give you the IPA symbol, the corresponding written form in French, a word that uses the sound in French, and a word that uses the sound in English.

So, for instance, you don't know how to pronounce the word "heure." You take a look at Word Reference and find that it's pronounced as /œʀ/. What the hell does that mean? Off to the PDF you go and take a look for [œ] and [ʀ] - the two sounds that make up the word "heure"!

We find [œ] and notice that the written form of this sound is "eu" or "œu." Take a gander at the words in French with that sound ("heure" being one of them!), but that doesn't help. Move on over to the English words with that sound. Oh, hey! [œ] sounds kind of like the "u" in t*u*rn.

Since "ʀ" is, well, "r", we should be able to figure out that "uuur" is a pretty good pronunciation of "heure"!

It's a little work, but it's a great way to learn how to properly pronounce the words.

Use WordReference in place of a physical dictionary. It's much more comprehensive and if a word isn't in the dictionary, it searches their forums, where someone will have undoubtedly posted asking what the word means. They have iPhone and Android applications as well.

I am a grade twelve student and my French teacher told us about this.

https://www.linguee.com/english-french/search?source=auto&amp;query=step-over

Sometimes, you can enter a word or phrase in and get real life examples that they pull from everywhere.

Sorry its late. Just wanted to share a good resource.

(En avance) Excusez-moi pour la mauvaise grammaire. J'essaie (j'apprends)...

J'ai ecouté l'App MindSnacks est amusement, mais il peut-être facile.

J'aime bien Duolingo le plus. Je pense que c'est un jeu (comment dit-on «I think of it as a game».)

Anki has some great decks, pre-built. I've been slowly going through a deck I found of the 5,000 most common french words. It's an incredibly powerful tool.

https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/893324022

Also, here's a link to Anki, because it seems like you don't know it yet:

https://apps.ankiweb.net/

Medicine Et Soins Medicaux: Lectures Et Vocabulaire En Francais

I drove through Quebec before I ever learned any french and my experience was that nothing was printed in both English and French. Everything was in French. I was expecting it to be a situation like in Ontario where all the signs had English in large print and French in smaller print below it. Nope. Everything was in French. Also, it seemed like the vast majority of people spoke no English at all. It was only through great coaxing that I could get help with directions. I learned to be persistant with people. They would start to speak some English once they knew that I wasn't easy to dismiss. This happened everywhere I went from the most remote gas station to walking around in Quebec City.

You see, this was years ago before it was common for people to have smart phones with gps built in. I was buying maps at gas stations along the way and planning my route as I took it. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is one of my favorite books and I was motivated by the authors sense of adventure when travelling. I knew that I was going to have to stop and talk to people about how to get where I was going. I didn't expect it to be so difficult to get help with my route.

If you were wondering, I was headed to Les Escoumins to camp and go kayaking in the St. Lawrence during whale migration times. It was amazing.

This and this.

I started learning Québécois French when I was around A2 and the first thing I tried to get was the accent. Don't stress too much over it though. I sounded like a Parisian/Québécois mix for about 3 months and then like a Québécois wanna-be for another 3 months until I got to the point in which I am now, where I still mispronounce things when I get nervous but if I'm relaxed I can pass for a Québécois.

By the way, don't trust any pronunciation guide you may find for Québécois French. Accents vary a lot and I've come to the conclusion that people just aren't able to properly describe how people actually sound. Use pronunciation guides/videos to begin but with time you'll realise that your accent will shift naturally towards something similar to that of the people that you talk to and the content that you listen to.

Also, during those six months, the two pages I used the most were OffQC and Du français au français.

You can PM me if you want and I can talk to you more extensively if you're interested.

You just have to practice speaking, that's all. It's not complicated.

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Are there any French language groups where you are, for instance on meetup.com? That's an easy and cheap way to get speaking practice.

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You could also investigate language exchanges where you speak half the time in French and half the time in English.

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If you have money, you could get a private tutor on Skype or in real life.

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Finally, a good tip for speaking is to just talk around things when you get stuck. "Circumlocution", to use the fancy term. If you can't recall the right word at the moment, don't panic. Just talk around it. Keep your forward momentum up.

This subject comes up a lot and I'm pretty sure I've posted this before but the français facile series is perfect if you are learning french and there are different levels to move up through as you obtain better fluency. They are basically simplified versions of classic stories.

I linked the book depository above, which is already pretty cheap and will ship anywhere for free. I've bought a number of these books from them.

Look at the easy french reader books on bookdepository. They are adult stories translated at different reading levels.

My favourite french artists are Videoclub and Arcadian, I really recommend them. I discovered them by using every noise which basically allows you to search for artists in obscure genres like ‘french indie’ or ‘french punk’ and music map which finds artists that are similar but you have to input an artist first

http://www.forvo.com/word/parce_que/#fr

The first recording here has both pronunciations, both are correct but the first one (par-suh-kuh) is more proper and enunciated. The second pronunciation (pars-kuh) is the one you are most likely to hear in everyday conversations.

If you're looking for specific words rather than generic rules, you can look here or use Google Translate: type in any French word (target language doesn't matter since you're disregarding the translation), and click on the speaker icon. From what I've seen, the pronunciations are very accurate.

Very good accent that is easy to understand.

Now here's me being a picky asshole:

• The vowel you used in "comme" is wrong, and it's too nasal. http://www.forvo.com/word/comme/#fr

• "constructif" sounded like "constr*ou*ctif"

• "sur mon accent" sounded like "sous mon accent"

• "mais je voudrais savoir" sounded like "mais je drais savoir"

• "compréhensible" sounded like "compréh*in*sible"

• the end of the word "entendre" sounded like you skipped the "d" and said "enten*re*"

• in general, the way you pronounce "et" sounds a little bit too close to a french "i" sound.

• "le R français" - letters are masculine (are you a native Spanish speaker?).

• "d'autres points sur lesquels" sounded like "d'autres points sous lesquels"

• I didn't understand what you said at 00:40: "mais je ne sais pas ....... lesquels". It sounded like "je ne sais pas tsiiige lesquels".

• "ça serait" sounded like "ça s*é*rait"

• "j'en serais très reconnaissante" sounded like "j'en serais très connaissante"

• "vous puissiez" sounded a bit like "vous p*w*issiez"

• the "o" in "comment" was not open enough

• in "je parle", I didn't hear any "r", so it sounded like "je pal"

• throughout your recording, you used "c'est ça" to mean "that's all / that's it" as a filler, but that's not the correct usage of "c'est ça". You can say "voilà" in that situation instead.

• your R in "merci" is too strong

It depends on how you define "ways of saying 'surrender'". In English we can say surrender, give oneself up, turn oneself in, hand oneself over, raise the white flag, and plenty of others

French, being just as expressive as English, has more than one way of describing the same thing, a number that grows depending on your definition of surrender.

Much like the "100 Inuit words for snow", I'm guessing whoever started this rumor was trying to make a (bad) joke rather than state a fact.

Oh okay I think I understand now, I just looked it up here http://www.wordreference.com/fren/%C3%AAtre#fren:61487

So it's "advancement" as "reach up to a point"

I had another question pertaining to it though, if you don't mind me asking. How does that work in conjunction with "arriver" in the sentence? Doesn't "arriver à" convey the same thing?

"Tu n'es pas arrivée à ce passage"

Or is it different some how? I'm confused because it seems like it uses both "en être à" and "arriver à".

It is certainly possible to acquire new vocab at the same rate as native children or even much faster.

Usually a baby (or infant) is considered to be of age 1 or younger. Babies acquire new words very slowly. Even if you're looking at toddlers (1-3yrs) or preschool children (3-5) you don't see an unattainable vocabulary acquisition rate.

Consider this:

> At age one, children recognize about 50 words; by age three, they recognize about 1,000 words; and by age five, they recognize at least 10,000 words

Source: Vocabulary size and auditory word recognition in preschool children

So on average young children (2-3yrs) have an acquisition rate of ~1.3 words/day (950 words in two years). This is very slow.

Then acquisition rates go up (3-5yrs), they would learn ~12.4 words/day (9050 words in two years).

By utilizing SRS (spaced repitition software) like Anki you can hit that rate very easily. You can also double or even triple it, depending on how much time you can invest.

For reference, I'm aiming for 10-20 words/day which translates to about 30-45 minutes of work per day. For the last month I averaged out at about 13 acquired words per day (counting the "matured" words, using Anki terminology, that means I remembered them for at least one month without any reviews)

Additionally, the paper talks about vocab recognition whereas Anki is usually set up so you're being able to produce the word as well (which is considered to be the harder thing to do).

Now of course there is a difference between knowing a single word and being able to construct sentences around it, so there is more to it of course, but speaking about the rate of acquisition it is not a stretch to say you can learn words faster than children.

moi, j'habite en australie et j'utilise http://www.bookdepository.com pour acheter des livres en français. voilà une édition qui a 1502 pages : http://www.bookdepository.com/Le-Comte-De-Monte-Cristo-Alexandre-Dumas/9782221064573

there are technical French-English dictionaries, that you could probably buy from book depository or amazon. Perhaps something like this http://www.bookdepository.com/Dictionnaire-Malgorn-des-Sciences-et-Techniques/9782100526055. This website may also be useful: http://www.techdico.com/

I use wincompose

I set AltGr as my compose key, and the workflow is easy to adapt to: altgr+',e = é

It also handles the various currency signs, Celsius degrees, etc

You can find more Jules Verne audiobooks on Librivox. Each one has a link to the text being read. It would not be synced as on VBook but you can make it work.

Listen to French music while reading the lyrics. Like this.

Watch French movies and TV shows that you can find French subtitles for.

And audiobooks.