French Grammar and Absurdity

As I said in the "Read Me" page, I try to post links to native French-language sites. I think that this is one of the best ways to practice French, but occasionally there is an English site that's just too good to pass up.

Tex's French Grammar is an American site with Grammar explanations and exercises and I love this site. It's free and it's full of useful information.

Here you'll find many great grammar explanations (written in English and using proper grammar terminology). (If proper grammar terminology intimidates you, don't let it turn you away from this great resource. Read past the first paragraph or two of any grammar point and you'll see loads of useful examples and less frightening information.) You'll find exercises that you can do online (complete with answers). You'll find downloadable PDF's and you'll even find downloadable MP3's. I confess, I haven't used the MP3's much, so I can't comment on their quality, but if they're like the rest of the site, they should be pretty good.

Two caveats:
-I have found one or two mistakes on this site – there aren't many, but they're there. Think you've found one? Post it in a comment!
-This is a university site and it is aimed at university students. While it is never explicit, some of the themes are more adult than what you will find in most high school texts. High school or middle school teachers and tutors may want to review any specific grammar sheet before handing it out to students.

One of the fun things about this website? All of the grammar rules and exercises tell the complicated story of some very odd characters:

(Click on the cast of characters to visit the website.)

French Vocabulary Online – Crochet

Crochet is not, perhaps, the most popular hobby, but I have a certain fondness for crochet. My grandmother taught me to crochet when I was a child and anytime I crochet anything new (or discover some old unfinished crochet project) I think of her.

Yesterday we talked about turning our hobbies into excuses to practice French. Today I'm going to demonstrate with crochet.

From simple dictionary searches we learn that:
to crochet = faire du crochet
a crochet-hook = un crochet
to crochet (something) = faire (qqc) au crochet

Now we have our basic search terms.

The Wikipedia article is pretty basic: Crochet

Nonetheless, from it we learn the names of a few different kinds of crochet as well as:
une aiguille = a needle
le fil = thread, yarn
crocheter = to crochet
le tricot = knitting
la dentelle = lace, lacework

And here's one I didn't know, but was happy to learn:
un carré de grand-mère – a granny square

Unfortunately, the "lien externe" on this article takes us to an English-language page, so now it is time to tearn to Google and when we do we find all sorts of websites with patterns, history, and commentary:

Passion Crochet
Crochodile – Blog
Crochet Forum (Practice reading and writing! – Please note though that this is not a language forum; don't bombard the forum with a lot of language questions. If you have a lot of language questions go somewhere like: www.wordreference.com.)

Want to practice your listening comprehension? Why not try YouTube?

YouTube videos vary greatly, the quality and content can be poor, but it's worth a look. The great thing about How To videos is that there is almost always a LOT of repetition, so if you didn't catch a word or phrase the first time around, just wait. It's sure to be repeated. For example:

 

 

 

http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/NlVgrv7tQk0?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0&hd=1

So? What did you learn? What do you have to add?

The Vocabulary of Emoticons

On Friday I told you that the official French Astérix website is a fun resource and I wasn't kidding. Check out the Astérix version of smileys, les smailix:

This is only one of the "smailix" sets available at the Astérix website. There's also a set based off of Idéfix, the dog. Check them out! And, if you go to the Astérix website, you can download each "smailix" individually.

I think this is a pretty fun way of reviewing vocabulary for some commonly expressed emotions.  (Okay, so "ils sont fous, ces Romans !" isn't particularly common, but the others are!) What do you think?