French Language Resources
This page lists a number of French language resources that I’ve found useful, and some others that I would like to check out later or that may prove useful to others. Most of the resources listed on this page are free. The resources are listed under the following categories.
General
Dictionaries
Vocabulary
Grammar
Speaking Practice
Pronunciation
Reading
Listening
Video
Blogs
Philadelphia and Vacinity
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About.com’s French Language Resources.
The BBC page for learning French – A pretty good resource. The multimedia content requires Real Player, Windows Media Player, and Flash. Similar resources are available for other languages, including Irish and Welsh.
French Pod-Class – A collection of audio lessons, exercises, and French and bilingual books. Some of the books are accompanied by audio as well.
The French Learning Center – A companion site to the French Pod Class. This site also has French books and some accompanying audio.
RFI also has a page of resources for learning French.
Radio Canada International has a course for children.
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Wordreference.com – a dictionary site that lets you go between several languages. I like that it gives you several different synonyms with explanations on how they’re used.
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Anju’s list of computer terms.
ProVoc is a really neat piece of free software for Macs. It allows you to enter words manually or to import them in a tab-delimited format. The program comes with four types of quizzes, and I’ve also used the program to create some grammar drills.
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Tex’s French Grammar – A site from the University of Texas that seems to provide a pretty good review. I also like the stories about Tex, Tammy, et al, although some people might find them kind of corny.
Verb2Verbe – Conjugate any French verb.
There are also two lists of gender endings that I have used to help me figure out common patterns of gender. The first list is from about.com, the other is hosted here. There’s a good bit of overlap between the two, but also enough differences to make it worth noting both sites.
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Shared Talk – A free text and voice chat service run by Rosetta Stone. I’ve had very good luck with this.
italki – Set up like a social networking service, this site offers free text and voice chat. I’ve encountered some creepy people on here, but enough decent ones to make it worthwhile. Check back often though, or you might miss a lot of messages and friend requests.
Conversation Exchange – You post a profile and people contact you through the site. You make your own arrangements about how to conduct your language exchange. Most people seem to use Skype or MSN for voice.
My Language Exchange – Practice any language with a pen pal, in a chatroom, or using voice chat. Registration is free and allows you to respond when people contact you, but you have to pay to actually be able to contact people.
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French Audio Dictionary from About.com – The number of words in this dictionary is limited, but this resource seems worth a listen.
Base Audio Libre De Mots Français – A really comprehensive listing of french words, each linked to an audio file. The files are available in both ogg and mp3 formats.
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Ebooks Libres & Gratuits – Free French books. One of the gems found here is a PDF of Le Petit Prince with full color illustrations.
Le Metro – This is the same free paper that gets handed out on buses and in subway stations. It happens to be international, however, and available in many languages. There are several editions for cities in France and a Montreal edition. They are pretty easy to read and don’t have a lot of complex vocabulary.
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RFI (Radio France International) – The site features a number of listening exercises, and twice a day they broadcast the news in ‘français facile.’ They also let you listen to a recording of the news (World, African, or facile) any time by clicking on the links in the upper right corner. In addition to the news, they also have a wide variety of other programming, much of which can be downloaded in mp3 format. To listen live, use their web stream or enter this URL into RealPlayer:
http://www.tv-radio.com/station/rfi/rfi-20k.ram
Radio France – Several more French non-commercial radio chains. I really like several of their science related podcasts.
Champs-Elysées – A French audiomagazine that comes with a transcript/print version. It’s pricey, and I don’t know of anyone who has actually tested it out.
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TV5 – A TV station in France that does some international broadcasting/syndication and also has some online video content.
French in Action – An educational series presented almost entirely in French. The plot is a little wonky, the male lead character comes across as a little dumb, and there is awful 80s synthesizer music. Despite that, it’s worth watching. The series can be viewed for free, but the accompanying textbook and workbook must be purchased.
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WYBE is a PBS station that broadcasts a French Newscast every weekday at 6pm. The newscast includes English subtitles. To see the newscast without subtitles, check out the TV5 website.
Philadelphia French Language Meetup
Alliance Française de Philadelphie – Offers classes in Center City and Bryn Mawr. Prices range from $100 to $250+.
Tuesday, 19. December 2006 1:25