Vocabulary List

The MyVocabulary feature of Reading French provides you with a way to create such lists.  Basically, you input the information, and the programme creates a web page with your list in alphabetical order.  You can then print out the list and review vocabulary with it.   However, it's up to you to make sure your list is accurate.

In each half-course, you are required to add 200 or more words to your vocabulary list.  The list is evaluated by the instructor at  the mid-point (100 words) and and the end (200 words) of the course.  See Grading, below, for details. 

Mid-term and Final Examinations.  You are tested on a selected number of words from everyone's lists in the Mid-term and Final.  See this sample 235 Mid-term to see how this works.

What to include in an entry

• (1) Headword: Enter the word or expression you are trying to learn. 
• The headword should be entered in a standard, dictionary form: verbs in the infinitive, nouns and adjectives in the masculine singular. 
• If a verb is pronominal (se raser, s'agir), put the se afterwards, otherwise the alphabetization won't work properly. Don't use capitals except for proper nouns. 
• For idioms or expressions, put as the headword the main verb or noun in the expression (in English: "to cut corners", "he set me up", "to have a good time").  Don't use extremely common words like "à, de, pour, il, être", which appear in expressions, as headwords.  If in doubt, see how your dictionary deals with the expression. 
• Here are a few examples of idioms or expressions:
• avis (à mon avis) - opinion (in my opinion) - À son avis, tout était perdu. - In her/his opinion, all was lost.
• fois (à la fois) - time (at the same time) - Ils mangent et parlent à la fois. - They talk and eat at the same time.
• fois (Il était une fois) - time (Once upon a time) - Il était une fois une princesse...
• lieu (au lieu de) - place (instead of) - Elles couraient au lieu de marcher - They ran instead of walking.
• don (faire don à) - gift (to give) - Le roi fait don à l'Hôtel-Dieu de toute la paille... - The king gives the Hôtel Dieu all the straw...
• It's best to include the expression in brackets after the head word, so it is highlighted for you, because, as you can see, the meaning in the expression might be different than the meaning when the word is used alone.

• (2) English: Enter an English translation for the word as used in this context (see the examples below).

• (3) Context: Enter the sentence or phrase the word was used in. 
• Don't include more than ten or twelve words normally. 
• Use a complete sentence if it is short enough. 
• If you use less than a complete sentence be sure to select a complete syntactical unit. 
• For example, in an English sentence such as "I can't imagine why he would have done such a thing.", you could select "I can't imagine" or "why he would have done such a thing" or "such a thing", but not "why he" or "have done such a". 
• If the word is used several times in a text, select the context which best helps to understand the meaning.
• For example, the meaning of écuyer is not obvious in "les écuyers s'y exerçaient", but the connection between the écuyer and the knight is clear in "les chevaliers ... suivis de leurs écuyers".  Even if you don't understand the full meaning from the context, you know that an écuyer is probably a person who accompanies a knight.
• Do not invent the context.

• (4) Translation: Enter an English translation of the sentence or phrase, using your dictionary.

• (5) Tenses: (In French 235, this section is optional.)  If the word is a verb, enter the imperfect, passé composé and future tenses in the third person singular (il portait, il a porté, il portera OR elle portait, elle a porté, elle portera). To find the tenses, you need to use your dictionary, which has a list at the back. This page explains how to use this feature of your dictionary.  If you want to include more tenses, of course you can.

• (6) Notes: Enter any information you feel will be useful for you to better understand or remember the headword.  One of the most useful things you can include here is a list of words in the same family as the headword.  This will increase your vocabulary more quickly.  For example, if your headword is adoucir (to soften), include doux, douce (soft); for écumer (to skim), you'd want to include écume (foam); for agir you might want to add agissement, action. For more on how to dismantle words into parts and find what family they belong to, check the Grammar entry for Derivation.

What words do I include?

Some Examples

aller - to go - Elles vont à l'école - They go to school (235) 

agir (s')  - to be about - il s'agit d'un programme électronique - it's (about) an electronic programme - il s'agissait, il s'est agi, il s'agira - Sometimes il s'agit just means it is.  (335)

agir (s') - to have to - Il s'agit de faire vite. - We have to be quick OR You have to be quick - il s'agissait, il s'est agi, il s'agira  (335)

ailleurs - elsewhere - ailleurs dans le monde - elsewhere in the world  (237)

écuyer - squire - les chevaliers ... suivis de leurs écuyers - the knights ... followed by their squires

éditer - to publish - Ce livre, édité à Montréal... - This book, published in Montreal. (335)

Note that

You can make several separate entries for the same word, corresponding to different meanings. 

It is essential to include accents.  The easiest way to do this is to copy and paste the words from the page you found them on.  Otherwise, accents can be inputted from the keyboard.  Here are instructions for the PC and Mac platforms.  Accents are essential in French, as in many other languages.  Without accents, some words may be indistinguishable from others with very different meanings (mange, mangé; côte, côté, cote)

Grading

Criteria for grading your vocabulary list: 

Number of entries (200, of which at least 50 should be verbs)

Completeness (all relevant fields filled in)

Accuracy (translation, syntactic grouping, spelling, tenses, standardization of headword)

Suitability of the words selected

See Kudos and Brickbats below, for more detail on these criteria.

Here are some of the things students did very well, and occasionally not so well, in the first Vocabulary Lists.

Kudos

• You carefully chose the correct meaning for a word that has several, using the context intelligently 
• report - transfer, postponement - un report d'affection - a transferral of affection
• chez - among - Chez les jeunes poètes - Among young poets
• You included the conjugation number for verbs. This was not required, but is useful and shows initiative. 
• harceler (conjug 1)
• You include the part of speech when useful. Again, not required, but good initiative. 
• soit (as a conj) - either - soit par mort ou par démission - either by death or resignation
• You remember to put the pronominal "se" after the verb so the list is alphabetical. 
• rappeler (se) - to remember
• You notice differences in capitalization between French and English. 
• libanaise - Lebanese - une religieuse libanaise - a Lebanese nun
• You include lots of verbs. 
• jaillir - to gush; frémir - to tremble; confectionner - to make, manufacture; chausser - to put shoes on...
• You use the standard dictionary form for the headword: 
• Masculine singular for nouns and adjectives: 
• roux - red-headed - parée d'une crinière rousse - covered in a red mane - Note: roux (m) rousse (f)
• Infinitive for verbs: 
• traverser - crosses - la route des baleines traverse la région - the Whale road crosses the region
• You notice words are sometimes used in the plural in French but the singular in English, or vice-versa 
• prévisions - forecast 
• données - data
• You include enough context to show how the word is used. 
• droits - la convention des droits de l'enfant - the children's rights' convention
• fois - time - Il était une fois un loup gris - Once upon a time there was a grey wolf
• naissance - birth - la naissance des poussins - the birth of the chicks 
• You use idiomatic English in your translation of the context.
• You are sensitive to subtle differences in the way French treats sex and gender. 
• fermière - farmer - Une fermière et son porcelet surdoué - A farmer and her exceptionally gifted piglet [Excellent to notice that son here means her]

Brickbats

• You make spelling mistakes (often typos) in English or French. 
• harceler - to harrase
• morir - to die [should be mourir]
• retour as haut de la page [should be "retour au haut de la page"]
• You forget accents 
• gater - to spoil (should be "gâter") 
• You sometimes use capitals, sometimes lower case 
• Choix - choice; jamais - Never; beaucoup - a lot
• You sometimes mix up nouns and verbs. 
• accueillir - to welcome - Branchez-vous à la nouvelle page d'accueil - Connect to the new welcome page
• croix - cross - A chaque fois qu'il croisait un enfant - Every time he passed a child [croix is a noun, croiser a verb]
• You sometimes include too much context. 
• lancer (se) - to embark on - Découvrir des curiosités sur internet, se lancer dans une partie de mission mystère, créer avec le jeu de construction, ..
• You sometimes include only part of a syntactic group in the context. 
• rousse - reddish brown - rousse savamment brossée [should be "une chevelure rousse savamment brossée"]
• amérindien - American Indian - amérindiennes ont signé le traité de la Grande Paix de Montréal - American indians siged the treaty of Great Peace from (in) Montréal [Should be "Les amérindiennes..."
• trouver - to find - de trouver
• You don't seem to have used the context found on the web pages, but rather have added contexts of your own invention. This results in mistakes of course and is not useful as an aid to learning vocabulary or improving your French.. 
• paille - straw - on sait que paille [ should be: "on sait que la paille..."]
• You have few entries.
• You have few verbs in your entries.
• You have no expressions in your entries.