Transcript dictionary skills

HOW TO USE A
FRENCH
DICTIONARY
ALL LEARNERS OF FRENCH
WILL FIND KNOWING HOW TO
USE A DICTIONARY A REALLY
USEFUL AND IMPORTANT
SKILL. IT WILL ALLOW YOU TO
ADD TO WHAT YOU LEARN IN
CLASS AND IMPROVE YOUR
LEVELS AND GRADES.
THERE ARE 2 MAIN SECTIONS IN
THE DICTIONARY.
THE FIRST HALF HAS FRENCH
WORDS LISTED IN ALPHABETICAL
ORDER.
THE SECOND HALF HAS ENGLISH
WORDS LISTED IN ALPHABETICAL
ORDER.
YOU USE THE FIRST
SECTION WHEN YOU
NEED TO KNOW WHAT A
FRENCH WORD MEANS IN
ENGLISH.
YOU USE THE SECOND
SECTION WHEN YOU
NEED TO KNOW WHAT AN
ENGLISH WORD MEANS
IN FRENCH.
AS WELL AS TELLING US THE
MEANINGS OF WORDS, THE
DICTIONARY WILL ALSO TELL US SOME
INFORMATION ABOUT THE WORD. TO
DO THIS IT USES ABBREVIATIONS.
HOWEVER, THEY ARE ONLY HELPFUL IF
YOU KNOW WHAT THEY MEAN. IT IS
IMPORTANT THAT YOU CAN RECOGNISE
THE ABBREVIATIONS AND NOT
CONFUSE THEM WITH THE ACTUAL
WORDS.
THE DICTIONARY WILL HAVE A KEY TO
THE ABBREVIATIONS.
FRENCH DICTIONARIES ARE
MOSTLY VERY SIMILAR. THERE
MIGHT BE LITTLE DIFFERENCES
WITH ABBREVIATIONS OR
LAYOUTS.
LET’S LOOK AT SOME TYPICAL
PAGES OF A DICTIONARY TO
SEE WHAT INFORMATION WE
CAN SEE……
THIS PAGE IS
TAKEN FROM THE
FIRST SECTION 0F
A DICTIONARY.
THE WORDS ARE
IN ALPHABETICAL
ORDER IN FRENCH.
THIS IS THE FIRST WORD
ON THE PAGE
THIS IS THE LAST
WORD ON THE PAGE
TIP!!! WHEN YOU ARE
SEARCHING FOR A WORD,
LOOKING AT THE WORDS
AT THE TOP OF THE PAGES
WILL SPEED THINGS UP
WORD IN FRENCH
(NOTE-THIS IS NOT A
COMPLETE DICTIONARY PAGE)
ABBREVIATION OF
INFORMATION
ABOUT THE WORD
MEANING OF THE
FRENCH WORD IN
ENGLISH
THE FIRST SECTION OF THE DICTIONARY WILL SHOW THE
WORD FIRST, THEN THE ABBREVIATION IN ITALICS GIVING
INFORMATION ABOUT THE WORD, THEN THE MEANING OF
THE WORD.
(NOTE-THIS IS NOT A
COMPLETE DICTIONARY PAGE)
WORD IN ENGLISH
MEANING OF THE
ENGLISH WORD IN
FRENCH
ABBREVIATION OF
INFORMATION
ABOUT THE WORD
THE SECOND SECTION OF THE DICTIONARY
WILL SHOW THE WORD FIRST, THEN THE
MEANING OF THE WORD, THEN THE
ABBREVIATION IN ITALICS GIVING
INFORMATION ABOUT THE WORD
HERE ARE SOME IMPORTANT ABBREVIATIONS
nm
= masculine noun
(This means you have to write
“un” or “le” with the word)
nf
= feminine noun
(This means you have to write
“une” or “la” with the word)
nmpl = masculine noun
which is also plural
nfpl = feminine noun
which is also plural
(This means you have to
write “les” or “des” with
the word)
TIP!!! REMEMBER A NOUN IS A
“PERSON, PLACE OR THING”.
adj = adjective (a describing word)
adv = adverb (saying how something is done)
conj = conjunction (a joining word)
neg = negative (a word like “not”)
prep = preposition (a position word such as “in”.)
pron = pronoun (words like “her” or “it”)
sing = singular (one of something)
pl = plural (more than one of something)
v/vt/vi/v reg/v irreg/v refl
All of these abbreviations are for verbs (a doing
word). There are different types of verbs which is
why there is more than one abbreviation. If it has a
“v” at the start you will know it stands for “verb”.
a feminine
noun
This noun can
be masculine
or feminine
A masculine noun
an adjective
A verb
AS WELL AS ABBREVIATIONS
TELLING US INFORMATION
ABOUT A WORD, THE
DICTIONARY WILL ALSO GIVE
US ALL THE POSSIBLE
DIFFERENT MEANINGS TOO.
IT IS IMPORTANT THAT YOU
LOOK AT ALL THE OPTIONS
BEFORE YOU CHOOSE WHICH
WORD YOU NEED. LET’S LOOK
AT AN EXAMPLE……
Note that the word
“square” is written more
than once
There are different
types of “square” in
English. There is a “town
square” or the square
shape. Make sure you
read all the possibilities
before you choose which
word you need.
Say, for example, you
come across the word
“livre” in a text and you
don’t know what it means.
When you look it up you’ll
find more than one possible
meaning. So which one is
it? You need to look at the
other words in your
sentence. It doesn’t make
sense to say “The boy is
reading a pound”!!!
TIP!! Also be careful that you
look at the spelling carefully.
There are other words that are
very similar but may not be what
you want!!
SOME DICTIONARIES WILL
SHOW EXTRA INFORMATION
AND USE SOME SYMBOLS TO
REPRESENT “KEY WORDS”.
LET’S SEE SOME EXAMPLES……
This information is
something called
the “phonetic
alphabet”. It shows
you how to
pronounce a word
Note the information here like
we’ve already seen. This tells
us the word is a feminine noun
Here we will see how the
~
symbol is used
The “key word” here is “pied”. It
then shows the “phonetic spelling”
which tells us how to pronounce
the word. Next we are told it is a
“masculine noun” and lastly that it
means “foot” in English.
There are then a lot of phrases which
have the
~
symbol in them. This means
you simply replace the
~
with the
keyword, which in this case is “pied”.
So the phrase “c’est le
pied!” means “it’s great!”.
Here we see how the “key word” is slightly different
Notice that in
the keyword
there is a thin
line.
~
This means that you only replace the
symbol
with the letters BEFORE the line.
So this word becomes “négociateur”
EVERY TIME YOU USE A
DICTIONARY MAKE SURE YOU
READ ALL THE INFORMATION
CAREFULLY. THE MORE YOU
BECOME FAMILIAR WITH IT ALL
THE EASIER IT WILL BECOME
AND YOUR FRENCH CAN ONLY
IMPROVE!!