When you want to learn practical French, it helps if you focus your efforts on words and expressions you’re likely to use on a daily basis. It’s not just that this is the vocabulary that’ll be most useful to you. It’s also that frequent encounters with the same words help make the knowledge stick. A […]
The perfect vocabulary notebook?
Richard Good You must surely recognise this situation. You’re at a party, you’ve been introduced to three people at once and already the names have flown out of your head. It’s both too soon and too late to ask again. What you need is an instant notebook. The brain is supposed to be that. But […]
Parfois, il peut y avoir des cas où…
When learning a language, our first problem is not the learning, it’s where to begin. Should I listen and repeat? Should I study the rules of grammar? Should I be learning verb conjugations off by heart?
Deepl speaks better French than I do
It was a couple of decades ago when the world’s greatest grandmasters had to admit defeat: computers could play chess better than they could. Now for many of us language learners, that moment has arrived too.
Ça, c’est la meilleure de l’année !
Richard Good Good, better, best… never let it rest. Heaping out praise is a satisfyingly easy thing to do in English. In French, it’s disappointingly complicated. There are too many words that are similar yet different, too many twists and turns. But with a bit of clear thinking, we can sort it out. Adjectives versus […]
Getting your ear in tune
If you started learning French via the written word, it can take time to adjust to the spoken language. The articles at La Guinguette, which come with native-speaking audio, transcript and translation, are intended to help you with the transition. Here are some tips to help you get started. Try listening first without the text […]
Entre Chien et Loup
By getting acquainted with how your memory works, you’ll develop confidence in your ability to learn a language. Instead of adopting a “vocabulary list” mentality, focus on direct experience and removing the obstacles that come between thought and speech.
La bouilloire est dans la cuisine
How do you pronounce the French word for kitchen? It’s quiz-een, isn’t it? Well, not exactly, take a listen
P’têt ben qu’oui, p’têt ben qu’non
Fossilisation is a well-known peril when learning a foreign language. It’s what happens when we get into a bad habit that we can’t get rid of. You’ll recognise that you’ve caught the bug if, when someone corrects your French, five minutes later you’re making exactly the same mistake again. What’s amusing, in an unfunny kind […]