Pour utiliser un dictionnaire

Dictionaries are very useful tools for foreign language students. They give us instant access tovocabulary words and the various contexts in which they are used. Using a dictionary, though,is a skill. In order to properly use a dictionary, we must have at least a basic understanding of the symbols they use and the different parts of speech. Once we master these skills, we willend up better readers and writers in French!

Symbols and what they mean:

n. _________noun ___________ : _____________person, place, thing, idea

______________nm. _____masculine noun _____ : __________

any noun which takes “

”

_________________nf. ______feminine noun______ : _________

any noun which takes “la”

_________________v. __________verb ____________ : _action word (what someone/thing is doing in a sentence) vtr. _____transitive verb

________:_can have a direct object (just recognize that this is a verb!) vi. _____intransitive verb

_______:

can’t

have a dir. object (just recognize that this is a verb!)_ adv. ________adverb

__________:____describes a verb or adjective, usually ends in -ly

_____adj. _______adjective

__________:______________describes a noun ____________________prep. _____preposition

_________:______

location words like “in” “of” “from” “under”

______m. _______masculine __________:________nouns and adjectives can be masculine

________f. _________feminine __________:________nouns and adjectives can be feminine

_________pl. ________plural

_____________:_______________more than one ____________________pn. ______pronoun ___________ : _________replaces a noun (he, she, it, etc.) ____________ ~ _________________replaces the word when using it in an expression

_________________

Context

Words have

context

in a sentence. This means that one word may mean many differentthings, but when looking at the sentence, you can figure out which meaning (context) is beingused. Sometimes words are used in

idiomatic expressions

. Idiomatic expressions are phrases

that do not translate literally from one language to the next (for instance, in English we say “tobe hungry,” but in

French

we say “

avoir faim

,” which means

“to have hunger.”) Also, if welook up “medicine” in the dictionary, we have an entry for the actual field of medicine (la

médecine) and one for the type that is given to patients (les médicaments). This is why it isimperative to look at the whole sentence before we go looking up a word.

Making adjectives agree and conjugating verbs



When you look up an adjective in the dictionary, you will find itsmasculine singular form. If the adjective is describing a feminine and/or plural noun, you must change it tomake it agree ingender and number!



When you look up a verb you will find theinfinitiveform (not conjugated, ends in

–

er,-ir, or

–

re in French

and starts with “to” in English). If the verb needs to be conjugated

in the context of the sentence, you must do so!Wordreference.comhas a great verbconjugator!