Archive for 'Vocabulary'
COP21: The 2015 Paris Climate Conference Posted by Elizabeth Schmermund on Nov 2, 2015
A very important climate conference is taking place in Paris from November 30 to December 11th. The Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (or COP21) seeks to work on a new international agreement to keep the level of global warming below 2 degrees Celsius. Why? Because environmental scientists have…
An Eye for French Vocab – Words with “Eye” Posted by Josh Dougherty on Oct 23, 2015
Ah, October is here (but Josh, October is almost over! I know, shhh…)! Tis the season for piles of leaves, scary costumes, sweaters, and pumpkin spice everything. For me, October has always been a sad time of year. Everything in nature is going from green to beautiful shades of red and orange, all before turning brown…
Editor’s Note: Understanding Acronyms and Abbreviations Posted by John Bauer on Oct 21, 2015
French uses many sigles (acronyms) and abréviations (abbreviations) in everyday writing beyond textspeak. There are many in English aussi (as well) that people don’t think about very often: etc, eg, ie, PS, and many more. I was reading an article en français (in French) and I came across un sigle that I couldn’t understand: Ndlr…
French Hard? Hakuna Matata! Learn French Through Disney Songs! Posted by Josh Dougherty on Oct 15, 2015
Have you ever been speaking a foreign language and you suddenly forget a simple word? It’s happened more times than I’d like to admit, but that’s part of foreign language experience. (Who am I kidding? Happens to me in English sometimes, too :-p ). Maybe I should start taking ginkgo biloba? Anyway, I’ll be speaking…
Have you ever counted to one billion? Posted by John Bauer on Sep 16, 2015
Les grands nombres (large numbers) are hard to understand in any language. The difference between one trillion and one billion seems so abstract that it’s impossible to conceptualize the huge quantities that are being referenced. French numbers are already difficult at 70 and 80 et en plus (and what’s more) the punctuation for numbers is…
The Dog Days Are Over – French Expressions with Chien Posted by Josh Dougherty on Sep 11, 2015
Earlier this summer (mais où est donc passé l’été? – where has summer gone?), I wrote a post with expressions and proverbs using the word chat. Whether you’re a cat person or a dog person, it’s not fair to exclude the dogs of their own post 😉 So, for all my fellow dog lovers, let’s…
Aéroports And Avions – Taking A Plane in French Posted by John Bauer on Sep 9, 2015
Je viens d’arriver aux USA (I just arrived in the USA) and after le long vol (the long flight) from France, with une escale courte (a short layover) in Spain, all I wanted to do was sleep. I’m back to my home state for the first time in a very long time. Before I got…