Les manuels pour Fr 001

To buy at the Haverford bookstore (even if you are a BMC student):

  • Jansma and Kassen, Motifs, 4th edition (= Texte). This should be packaged with a personal CD (= CD).
  • the associated Workbook/Lab Manual (= Cahier). The corresponding audio material is on the LLC site.
  • C. Frederick Farrell, Jr., Side by Side French and English Grammar, 2nd ed. (= Grammaire).

You will probably also want to get a bilingual dictionary. The one I usually recommend is the Oxford/Hachette, which exists in three versions: complete, "concise" and "pocket". The "concise" one seems to me to be the best adapted to your needs; the "pocket" version is too limited, the complete too extensive (unless you're intending tocontinue beyond Fr 002). The Robert/Collins dictionary is also a good one, and likewise comes in a "pocket" version.

If you want to use another dictionary, be sure that it's a contextual dictionary, which gives an idea of the usage of the word in several contexts and in idiomatic expressions, so that you can know when to translate "jam" by «confiture« and when by «embouteillage», depending on whether you're talking about toast or traffic.

Si vous utilisez un autre dictionnaire, soyez sûr que c'est un dictionnaire contextuel, qui donne une idée de l'usage du mot dans plusieurs contextes et dans des expressions idiomatiques: quand traduire "jam" par «confiture» et quand par «embouteillage», selon s'il s'agit de pain grillé ou de circulation, et qui vous indiquera comment traduire "neither fish nor fowl" correctement.

Dictionaries are also available in the LLC and in the Haverford and BMC libraries.

Avoid translation engines or online dictionaries, such as Babelfish or Alta Vista; they are not trustworthy (but can, however, be useful if you check what you find in a print dictionary afterwards). Personally, I've found http://www.wordreference.com/enfr/ at times useful.

Clicking on the "French" tab on the LLC site will guide you towards resources useful in Fr 001 - 002 and French study in general, and will indicate how to type accents.