In this somewhat different episode you'll get to hear a real French lesson that I recorded with Lothar, a student from Germany! As you will hear, Lothar has very good comprehension and speaking skills, so listening to our conversation will be a great exercise for you! Lothar wanted to tell me about his trips to French island Corsica (la Corse, where Napoléon was from); the session was a spontaneous conversation. I interrupted Lothar here and there to correct or point out a few grammatical points and give him relevant vocabulary. The notes I took down for him during the session are available in … Read More →

Do you know how to translate expressions such as "to make someone happy / proud / apologise / jump" etc. in French? Can you tell that there are actually two different types of structures in the examples just given? Beware of literal translation, as it may well not work! This episode will help you get this very common structure right! Vocabulary and Spelling of the French Words mentioned in this episode RENDRE quelqu'un (+adj) = to make someone (adj) She flirts to make him jealous = Elle flirte pour le rendre jaloux Your card made me very happy = Ta carte m'a rendu.e très … Read More →

Find out why I couldn’t record an episode for you this week and what you can do in the meantime to brush-up your French! Tips about New Zealand welcome: Contact Me Listen to upcoming episode #100 of French Voices Podcast! Thank You for Tuning In! There are a lot of podcasts you could be tuning into today, but you chose mine, and I’m grateful for that. If you enjoyed today’s show, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the side or bottom of this page. Also, kindly consider taking the 60-seconds it takes to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on … Read More →

The "dictée" (dictation) is the French exercise by excellence. It is very academic and has been the nightmare of generations of students. (I did like them, though!). Put yourself to the test! The text of the dictation is in the show notes - don't cheat and read it before you've tried to do it! ? Why this is an interesting exercise: Check that you hear sounds properly Check that you're trying to make sense of what you're hearing (homonyms, cutting the words/the flow, type of words, etc.) Check that you implement the spelling and grammatical rules you know (agreements in … Read More →

A few episodes ago (episode 188) I talked about the position of adverbs in French sentences. Well, this inspired me to tell you more about French adverbs and in this episode, I'll cover how to adverbs ending in -MENT (a very common type of French adverbs) are formed, spelled and pronounced! Vocabulary and Spelling of the French Words mentioned in this episode Vrai -> vraiment Poli -> poliment Rare -> rarement Dur -> dure -> durement Nerveux -> nerveuse -> nerveusement Frais -> fraiche -> fraichement A few irregularities : brièvement, énormément, … Read More →