French Demystified

French Demystified

[...]... mystery With French Demystified you’ll be able to make your study of French an enlightening and fun experience Have fun! PART ONE BASICS OF FRENCH UNDERSTANDING 1 Copyright © 2007 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc Click here for terms of use This page intentionally left blank CHAPTER 1 French Pronunciation In this chapter you will learn: The French You Already Know: Borrowed Words and Cognates The French. .. Francophone World The French You Already Know: Borrowed Words and Cognates Starting a new language can be intimidating But even though French is a complex language, you may already know more vocabulary words than you realize This means that you also have a basic idea of French pronunciation 3 Copyright © 2007 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc Click here for terms of use 4 French Demystified French culture... English -French Glossary 367 French- English Glossary 377 Answer Key 387 Index 407 INTRODUCTION You might be taking your first steps in French You may be someone who has already climbed partway up the ladder but wants to refresh your memory of the language Or perhaps you are studying on your own, or need a companion book for your French classes in college in order to review the subtleties of the French. .. language, such as what verbs require which prepositions Whatever the reason you’re studying French, French Demystified will set you on the fast track to learning the language and developing your skills By demystifying French, we mean taking the mystery out of the language so that it becomes clear and easy to learn French has a lot in common with other languages, especially English, and, as you will soon... réorganisation de l’entreprise 5 Sandrine travaille à la librairie The French Alphabet French pronunciation follows specific rules Just as in English, not everything is spelled as it sounds or sounds the way it is spelled English and French share many sounds, but French can have several spellings for the same sound You will find the French alphabet in a table below The list includes the letters, their... and the French West Indies, and several countries in Africa and Asia that were former French colonies These countries are members of the International Organization of Francophonie (francophonie.org), an intergovernmental organization of French- speaking nations that promotes the education and culture of French speakers as well as peace, democracy, human rights, and economic development in the French- speaking... use 4 French Demystified French culture has a worldwide reputation, and French cinema, in particular, is a good way for you to get your ear accustomed to the sounds of French Moreover, the Internet gives you access to French- language media, music, sports, and arts to a greater degree than ever before So take advantage of the spoken French language environment around you, and you will quickly improve your... example, the right French spelling for rendezvous is rendez-vous, for qui vive is qui-vive, for apropos is à propos In addition, English has a variety of words that have their roots in French, but which have been slightly changed as they have become anglicized Many of those words are related to food: for instance, the English word veal comes from the French veau; pork comes from porc COGNATES French and English... study.) Also, most French words ending with the letters tion or isme are very similar in English; some examples are abstraction, adaptation, collection, évolution, libéralisme, modernisme, paternalisme FALSE COGNATES False cognates are words that are written similarly in English and French but do not share a similar meaning There are many false cognates in French and English Here are some French words that... soon discover, the two languages share many words in common In fact, one of the advantages of studying French is that not only do many English words have a recognizable French origin, but a number of English words have also been incorporated into the French language Here are a few examples of words in French that are identical in spelling with English téléphone différent révolution rare télévision telephone . more? v CONTENTS Introduction xi PART ONE BASICS OF FRENCH UNDERSTANDING CHAPTER 1 French Pronunciation 3 The French You Already Know: Borrowed Words and Cognates 3 The French Alphabet 6 Pronouncing Vowels. your French classes in college in order to review the subtleties of the French lan- guage, such as what verbs require which prepositions. Whatever the reason you’re studying French, French. basic idea of French pronunciation. Copyright © 2007 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Click here for terms of use. 4 French Demystifi ed French culture has a worldwide reputation, and French cinema,