french

New Bien-dire Initial video

Check out our new video that helps to explain the features and benefits of Bien-dire Initial, the audio magazine from France for beginner to intermediate learners of French....

READ MORE | 6 Jun 2018

Medieval French - The Aspirational Language

As a recent article in The Conversation neatly states, In medieval Britain, if you wanted to get ahead, you had to speak French. Post Brexit, the status of English as the dominant language of Europe i...

READ MORE | 18 Apr 2018

Voilà! The end to all your faux amis faux pas

Voilà! The end to all your faux amis faux pas, If you're learning a second language, then you know the frustration of making the same mistakes over and over again. Irregular verbs, silent le...

READ MORE | 3 May 2016

Tour de France: The French terms you need to know

To coincide with the 100th edition of the Tour de France, the BBC Magazine has a nicely-researched feature on the key cycling vocabulary that every self-respecting connoisseur of the sport should know...

READ MORE | 18 Jul 2013

Goettingen: The song that made history

Inspirational and heart-warming story on BBC Radio 4 Today programme on the French singer, Barbara's song, Goettingen. Sung entirely in German, this song came out shortly after a treaty was signed 50...

READ MORE | 22 Jan 2013

French fight franglais with alternatives for English technology terms

Some important lessons can be learnt from an article in this week's Metro on the consequences of the rising tide of franglais in the French language and what to do about it. According to the Offi...

READ MORE | 5 Oct 2012

London, France's sixth biggest city

Insightful article on the BBC web site to a Radio 4 programme on what attracts so many French to live in London. Many of the estimated 400,000 French in London live in the East End which is where the...

READ MORE | 30 May 2012

Interview on RFI with the André Goosse, editor of Le Bon Usage

Fascinating interview on RFI with the André Goosse, editor of Le Bon Usage, the bible of French grammar, to mark the recent publication of the 15th edition. Goosse talks about the differences i...

READ MORE | 15 Feb 2012

Loose Ends and the Etymologicon

Think that 'gene pool', 'car pool' and 'pooling your resources' have something to do with water? Then you'll need to think again, thanks to Mark Forsyth's new book, Etymologicon, a circular tour throu...

READ MORE | 4 Dec 2011

Vous, les femmes !

Surely, this must be a first on British TV, a foreign language comedy show with sub-titles. Women! (Vous, les femmes), a sketch show in French and produced in France is currently screening on Fridays...

READ MORE | 16 Nov 2011