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

(NOTE-THIS IS NOT A COMPLETE DICTIONARY PAGE)

WORD IN FRENCH

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

nf = feminine noun

(This means you have to write “un” or “le” with the word)(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” 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 reflAll 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 verb

an adjective

A masculine noun

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!!