French language learning question

Bonjour,
J'apprends le français pour le GCSE, je vais le faire pour le bac, et puis je veux continuer à l'apprendre pour que je puisse parler courrament.
Je viens d'acheter le dictionnaire frabriqué par Collins (dictionnaire et grammaire).
Donc c'est ma question:
Est-ce que ce serait une idée bête de créer des flashcards sur Quizlet sur TOUT les mots dedans, et mémorise tout le livre (à part des mots qui ne sont jamais utilisés).
Il y a certains en ligne qui disent qué mémoriser un dictionnaire n'est pas de bonne chose à faire en apprendant une langue.
Merci

Reply 1

melancollege

17

Honestly, that's probably not the best way of approaching it. I would, instead, recommend reading books or other written texts (like newspapers etc) that are more at your level, then learning the vocabulary from that, as well as from films, etc. You could learn every word and still not understand the nuances of what is being said. French has different registers, not just tu vs vous, but also compare: les repas, la bouffe, les mets - they all can mean food/dishes but at very different levels of formality (neutral, formal, casual, respectively, if you're interested). Those sorts of nuances aren't understood by rote learning the dictionary but by actually using the language. For some comparison consider the difference between cordial reception and hearty welcome in English. Whilst they both mean the same semantically, they conjure very different images in your head. Try just speaking with French people and engage with French culture and the language to develop these skills naturally, and then learn the vocabulary as it comes.

Also I'm answering in English because my keyboard doesn't have the option for writing diacritics easily.

Reply 2

Ðeggs

22

I would recommend looking at Easy French, a great you tube channel for French leaners that posts authentic street interviews on a wide variety of everyday topics :smile:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoUWq2QawqdC3-nRXKk-JUw

Reply 3

tinygirl96

21

Honestly this is really not enough. I recommend reading some different French books and newspapers etc. Rote learning is not generally recommended for learning about the nuances of French.

Resources and options

DuoLingo (ideal for rote learning)
A French teacher
French workbooks
French questions on a notepad
French literature reviews
Lists of French phrases to learn

Reply 4

SirNoodles

17

I personally don't think memorising a whole dictionary would be a good idea for two reasons:

1. You'll learn a ton of useless words that you may not even ever use and you'll be spending an eternity going through the entire dictionary and doing the flashcards (if you looked into an English dictionary you would probably see loads of words that you'd never use)
2. You won't learn from context - IMO this is the best way to learn as you'll miss out certain nuances and also you'll be memorising them rather than practising them and learning them in context

My personal advice (and what I do - and it's worked for me) is to do courses like Duolingo, consume a lot of French content (then put unfamiliar words into flashcards to learn) and practise with natives.

Mais tu parles déjà super bien, ton français est pratiquement parfait :biggrin:

Reply 5

Rhys_M

OP

11

Original post by SirNoodles

I personally don't think memorising a whole dictionary would be a good idea for two reasons:

1. You'll learn a ton of useless words that you may not even ever use and you'll be spending an eternity going through the entire dictionary and doing the flashcards (if you looked into an English dictionary you would probably see loads of words that you'd never use)
2. You won't learn from context - IMO this is the best way to learn as you'll miss out certain nuances and also you'll be memorising them rather than practising them and learning them in context

My personal advice (and what I do - and it's worked for me) is to do courses like Duolingo, consume a lot of French content (then put unfamiliar words into flashcards to learn) and practise with natives.

Mais tu parles déjà super bien, ton français est pratiquement parfait :biggrin:

D'accord, merci pour ton conseil.
Et merci beaucoup pour le compliment sympa!

Reply 6

ziggy03

15

read through the english part of the dictionary and ask yourself how many of those words you use on a daily basis. probably not many at all. theres your answer. it's probably a waste of time if im totally honest. youd be better off putting the same effort making flashcards for the vocab lists they give you in each topic. ask your teacher if you don't know where find these.

Reply 7

Kerzen

17

Gosh, Rhys, I really wouldn't try to learn all the words in the dictionary! That will take ages.

Something which is important at your level of language learning is to be focussed in your learning ie to learn what you need to learn to do really well in your subject.

If you are currently taking French at GCSE level, have a look at the BBC Bitesize page for GCSE French.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/subjects/z9dqxnb

If you want to go the extra mile, get a magazine designed especially for students of your age.

https://maryglasgowplus.com/subscribe/french

(edited 3 years ago)

Reply 8

tonasoso

10

Bonjour, je suis française et j'étudie en Angleterre.
Je tiens d'abord à dire que ton français est très bon à l'écrit! Comptes-tu passer le bac français?
Comme il a été dit plus haut, je pense qu'apprendre par coeur les mots d'un dictionnaire ne te sera pas très utile.
Lorsque j'ai appris l'anglais, j'ai beaucoup appris de vocabulaire en lisant des livres. Il existe des livres bilingues où une page est en français suivi de la même page en anglais. Je pense que travailler ton français de cette manière te permettra d'apprendre beaucoup de vocabulaire intéressant, et sera bien plus agréable que de travailler sur un dictionnaire.

Reply 9

Rhys_M

OP

11

Original post by tonasoso

Bonjour, je suis française et j'étudie en Angleterre.
Je tiens d'abord à dire que ton français est très bon à l'écrit! Comptes-tu passer le bac français?
Comme il a été dit plus haut, je pense qu'apprendre par coeur les mots d'un dictionnaire ne te sera pas très utile.
Lorsque j'ai appris l'anglais, j'ai beaucoup appris de vocabulaire en lisant des livres. Il existe des livres bilingues où une page est en français suivi de la même page en anglais. Je pense que travailler ton français de cette manière te permettra d'apprendre beaucoup de vocabulaire intéressant, et sera bien plus agréable que de travailler sur un dictionnaire

Merci pour le compliment et tes conseils! Ouais, je vais le faire pour le bac l'année prochaine - je viens d'acheter les manuels: il a l'air très passionant. Ce sera bon d'étudier le film et le roman aussi.

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