French Sentences Vol.1

Book excerpt: FRENCH SENTENCES Vol.1: English & French THIS EDITION: The dual-language text has been arranged into sentences for quick and easy cross-referencing. The text can be used on its own. However, the content is ideal for reinforcing grammar, and as a precursor to more advanced bilingual editions. This digital edition contains the content in ‘English to French’ and ‘French to English’ formats. Once a student has studied the basics, a suitable book about basic grammar is helpful. The suggestion is that it be studied more with the intent of recognition and understanding, rather than memorising and obsessive rote learning. Go through as much of the book you feel you can digest — maybe even the whole book — skipping over what is not easily understood. Then, read through a portion of text in this book, looking for examples of what you have picked up (or gleaned) in your hopefully not so arduous study of grammar. Even repeatedly seeing a word that you remember seeing listed as a ‘subject pronoun’ or a ‘third person plural’ verb of some sort is a great help. Then, depending on your inclination, return to the grammar book (or your basic French book), or move on to lengthier bilingual text — like in 2Language Books texts containing news or stories, for example —, or find some suitable French text: a simple novel, a French news website, etc. Grammar books will likely have some verb charts. However, there are currently good on-line resources that go further — dictionaries with a verb conjugation ‘search’ option. Many basic language books offer some form of audio support. Internet services — primarily news based radio stations — offer podcasts. Audio from television is an additional resource, and can be formatted for use on various digital platforms. However, if audio is an important component of your interest in languages, electronic devices that support quality text-to-speech (TTS) will likely be appealing. With a library card, TTS technology (in a device that supports the relevant content), and the above mentioned resources, an entire language learning system is available for not much more than a cup of coffee! There is no substantial financial outlay to get you started. Furthermore, there are no additional ongoing fees (and updates), and there are no expiry dates on ‘premium’ content and resources. (A Dual-Language Book Project) 2Language Books