Collins Dictionaries - Collins Primary Illustrated French Dictionary

20How many verbs are there in the sentence below? What are they? School starts at 9.00 and finishes at 3.30.

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

clean

clean can be an adjective or a verb.

AADJECTIVE

propre a clean shirtune chemise propre

BVERB

nettoyer Clean the board please!Nettoie le tableau s’il te plaît!

21If you want to ask for ‘a clean glass’, how do you know that propreis the translation, not nettoyer?

Some words have a nounmeaning and a verbmeaning.

rain

rain can be a noun or a verb.

ANOUN

la pluie fem in the rainsous la pluie

BVERB

pleuvoir It’s going to rain.Il va pleuvoir. It rains a lot here.Il pleut beaucoup par ici.

It’s raining.Il pleut.

22Is la pluiea noun or a verb?

23Why is It rains a lot here.in part B?

Learn useful phrases

In the dictionary you’ll see phrases that are especially important in orange boxes. Try to learn these when you come across them, and you’ll soon know lots of useful things to say in French.

What time is it?Quelle heure est-il? It’s lunch time.C’est l’heure du déjeuner. How many times?Combien de fois?

Find out interesting things about life in France

There are also boxes which tell you about French customs, and about differences between life in France and Britain.

Did you know…?

In France, Easter eggs are said to be brought by the Easter bells or cloches de Pâques which fly from Rome and drop them in people’s gardens.

Even more words

At school you will learn to talk about subjects such as the time and the weather, your family, your pets, and your clothes. The most important words for talking about these subjects are shown in the dictionary itself, and even more words are given in Language Plus, the supplement in the middle part of the dictionary. Have a look!

Answer key

1demain and bonbon

2the French side; French words on it; French-English written at the side of the page.

3fire → fish

4It’s the last word on page 411.

5first

6Chantal, Hélène, Jean-Marie, Luc, Pierre, Sophie

7Harry – because ‘a’ comes before ‘e’

8Friday comes first and Wednesday comes last.

9because the second letter of Thursday is ‘h’, which comes before ‘u’, the second letter of Tuesday

10Friday, Monday, Thursday, Tuesday, Saturday, Sunday, Wednesday

11June

12correspondant

13animaux

14un ballon – the clue is in the example: un ballon de football

154 – car, tyre, dent, door

162 – brown, blue

17bonbon – a sweet is a noun, it means candy; the example helps too

182 – quietly, happily; they both end in -ly

19dur

202 – starts, finishes

21because clean has an adjective meaning in this sentence; the example helps too

22a noun

23because it’s a verb

aVERB see avoir

Language tip

Don’t confuse a with the preposition à.

1 has

Elle a beaucoup d’amis.

She has lots of friends.

Language tip

Sometimes a is used to show that something has happened in the past.

Il a joué au football.He played football.

2 is

Il a neuf ans.

He is nine years old.

il y athere is/there are

Language tip

il y a has two translations. Look at the examples.

Il y a un bon film à la télé.There’s a good film on TV. Il y a beaucoup de monde.There are lots of people.

Language tip

il y a can also mean ago.

Elle est partie il y a dix minutes.She left ten minutes ago.

Qu’est-ce qu’il y a?What’s the matter?

àPREPOSITION

Language tip

Don’t confuse à with the verb form a. See also au (= à + le) and aux (= à + les).

1 at

Je suis à la maison.

I am at home.

Je finis à quatre heures.

I finish at 4 o’clock.

2 in

Il est à Paris.

He is in Paris.

Elle habite au Portugal.

She lives in Portugal.

Mes grands-parents habitent à la campagne.

My grandparents live in the country.

au printemps

in the spring

au mois de juin

in June

3 to

Je vais à Paris.

I’m going to Paris.

Elle va au Portugal.

She’s going to Portugal.

Cet été je vais à la campagne.

I’m going to the country this summer.

Il l’a donné à son frère.He gave it to his brother. Je n’ai rien à faire.I’ve got nothing to do. Ce livre est à Paul.This book is Paul’s.

4 by

Il est arrivé à bicyclette.He arrived by bicycle. à piedon foot Je vais à l’école à pied.I walk to school. à … d’ici… from here C’est à dix kilomètres d’ici.It’s 10 kilometres from here. … à l’heure… an hour cent kilomètres à l’heure100 kilometres an hour À samedi!See you on Saturday! À tout à l’heure!See you later!

À bientôt!See you soon! À demain!See you tomorrow!

abandonnerVERB

1 to abandon

2 to give up

Je veux abandonner la natation.

I want to give up swimming.

l’ abeilleFEM NOUN