Collins Dictionaries - Collins Primary Illustrated French Dictionary

8Which day comes first in a dictionary? Which comes last?

9 Thursdaycomes before Tuesdayin a dictionary. Why?

10Put the seven days of the week into alphabetical order. If the first letters are the same, and the second letters are the same, look at the third letters.

11 June, July, August: which comes last in the dictionary?

Step three:

Pick the right translation

The translations are easy to spot in this dictionary because they are in red on the French- Englishside and blue on the English- Frenchside.

Some French words can be masculine or feminine, or even plural. In the dictionary MASC, FEM, and PL are the abbreviations used for these. The dictionary also shows you the French word for ‘the’ (this can be le, la, l’or les).

dollNOUN

la poupée fem

When you look up dollyou can see that the word for doll in French is poupée.

You can tell that the French word for dollis feminine because it is given with laand the dictionary says that it is fem (feminine).

So the dollis la poupéeand a dollwould be une poupée.

penfriendNOUN

le correspondant masc

la correspondante fem

I’m Emma, your English penfriend.Je suis Emma, ta correspondante anglaise.

Here there are two translations, one masculine, one feminine. If your penfriend is a boy, you need the French word which is masculine ( masc ) – le correspondant. If your penfriend is a girl, you need the French word which is feminine ( fem ) – la correspondante.

12If you were talking about your penfriend, which would go in the gap, correspondantor correspondante?

J’ai un__________ . Il s’appelle Hugo.

animalNOUN

l’ animal masc (pl les animaux)

Here there are two translations. The second one is plural (PL).

13If you want to say that you love animals, which translation would go in the gap?

J’adore les__________ .

Sometimes there is more than one translation, and each one has a number. If there is more than one translation, don’t just pick the first one! Check to see which is the right one.

ballNOUN

1la balle fem (for tennis, golf, cricket) Hit the ball!Frappe la balle!

2le ballon masc (for football, rugby) Pass the ball!Passe le ballon!

14Which is the French word for a ball that you kick – une balleor un ballon? Look for the clue.

Step four:

Parts of speech

Sometimes, to pick the right translation, you need to know the part of speech of a word, for example whether a word is a noun, an adjective, an adverbor a verb. Other parts of speech are conjunction, exclamation, number, prepositionand pronoun.

NOUNS

Nounsare naming words for things or people. You often use the words ‘a’ or ‘the’ with a noun – eg a girl, a boy, the school, the windows.

Nouns can be singular, eg an accident, the canteen, my dad, football– or plural, eg sweets, the children, my friends.

15How many nouns are there in the sentence below? What are they? The car has got a flat tyre and a big dent in the door.

ADJECTIVES

An adjectiveis a describing word which tells you what things are like: flatshoes are shoes that don’t have high heels. A flattyre is a tyre with no air in it.

16How many adjectives are there in the sentence below? What are they? She’s got brown hair and blue eyes.

Some words have a nounmeaning and an adjectivemeaning. In the dictionary there is a box to tell you about this. The different meanings usually have different translations in French.

sweet

sweet can be a noun or an adjective.

ANOUN

1le bonbon masc (candy) a bag of sweetsun paquet de bonbons

2le dessert masc (pudding) Sweets: ice cream or chocolate mousseDesserts: glace ou mousse au chocolat

BADJECTIVE

1 sucré masc sucrée fem (sugary) It’s too sweet.C’est trop sucré.

2 gentil masc gentille fem (kind) She’s a sweet person.Elle est gentille.

3 mignon masc mignonne fem (cute) Isn’t she sweet?Comme elle est mignonne!

17You want to ask someone if they would like a sweet. Fill in the gap. How can you be sure this is the right translation?

Tu veux un__________ ?

ADVERBS

An adverbis a word which describes a verb or an adjective:

She writes neatly. The film was verygood.

18How many adverbs are there in the sentence below? What are they? What do they have in common? The children sat quietly and played happily.

Some words have an adjectivemeaning and an adverbmeaning. The different meanings have different translations in French.

hard

hard can be an adjective or an adverb.

AADJECTIVE

1 difficile (difficult) This question’s too hard for me.Cette question est trop difficile pour moi.

2 dur masc dure fem (not soft) This cheese is very hard.Ce fromage est très dur.

BADVERB dur Colette works hard.Colette travaille dur.

19You want to say you work hard. Fill in the gap in the sentence below:

Je travaille__________ .

VERBS

Verbsare sometimes called ‘doing words’. They often go with words like ‘I’ and ‘you’, and with names, eg I playfootball, What do you want?, Hugo likesmashed potato.

Verbs tell you about the present: eg I’ m listening; the past: I scoreda goal; and the future: eg I’ m going to getan ice cream.