Useful Websites and Resources

I would like you all to draw from your worksheets, packets, and handouts for the Descriptions project, but I wanted to help get you started! Here are some resources, both websites new and old, and lists of materials that you all have on paper that will be helpful in creating sentences and looking up words:

Generally useful French words:

• http://www.vistawide.com/french/top_100_french_words.htm - You may have passed through this website via Mrs. W's Delicious page at some point (#words). This is a list of 100 common French words such as: 'the', 'some', & 'and'. A great resource!

Sports phrases:

• Video on sports vocabulary: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbySLfxeH4c 
• Sports phrases (and some movie related!): http://www.smartphrase.com/French/fr_going_out_phr.shtml

Hobbies and general leisure activities:

• http://www.french-linguistics.co.uk/phrase_book/en/hobbies_games.html    - This site has a nice variety of leisure activities to refer to.
  

Animals:

• Your 'Les Animaux' lists from the lesson when we worked at different, creative stations (drawing, writing, sculpting, etc)
• http://french.lovetoknow.com/Names_of_Animals_in_French

Likes and dislikes (as related to hobbies and things):

•  You have practiced likes and dislikes in your interviews! Maybe your character likes a certain food, or hates an animal - you have access to a lot of ideas from this year, be creative.
• http://frenchtasticpeople.com/expressing-likes-and-dislikes-in-french/ - short but sweet link. Here you will find the verb 'aimer' conjugated.
• http://quizlet.com/186710/french-likes-dislikes-flash-cards/ - This quizlet link has pronunciation and several useful links for activities and preference!

Describing frequency/how often with hobbies and activities:

• http://njfraser.typepad.com/files/hobbiestrananwers.pdf - This site puts frequency in context with some great activity ideas, and you can see various conjugations here.
• http://www.cliffsnotes.com/study_guide/Common-Negative-Words-and-Phrases.topicArticleId-25559,articleId-25503.html - Here you can explore ways to add to your sentences, by negating. Say things like 'never', 'no longer', and 'no one'.

Word lookup (English to French):

• www.wordreference.com/fr - A fantastic reference! Type a word into the search bar in English, and it will give you several options in French and tell you what the difference is (noun, verb, different uses). It will help you make sure you are finding the right words, unlike some online translators!!

Subject/adjective agreement and conjugating verbs:

• Your 'Phrase du Jour' lists have some useful verbs used in different ways
• You know how to use the verb 'être' and conjugate it - for an online resource, this site is great: http://www.laits.utexas.edu/tex/gr/virr1.html

• For this project, everyone will be using Je, Il/Elle. You have some examples of saying 'he/she is', 'he/she has', etc on your 'Describing Celebrities' worksheet, and how to make adjectives masculine or feminine
• A good web resource for masculine vs. feminine adjectives is this one: http://www.cliffsnotes.com/study_guide/Changing-Masculine-to-Singular-Feminine.topicArticleId-25559,articleId-25510.html

Fun phrases for 'beyond the basic 5!':

• http://www.smartphrase.com/French/fr_problems_phr.shtml (try to add some intrigue to your story once you have hit the 5 required, 'prior knowledge' sentences with emergencies, more activities, and more description!)

Setting the scene:

• Maybe you'd like to describe the weather, to give your character's life some context! Here is a link on the weather: http://www.cliffsnotes.com/study_guide/Weather.topicArticleId-25559,articleId-25473.html 

Comic strip generator:

• Note - if you use this, it will print out very small! When you give your draft to Miss G for review, you'll have to type it in, and she will print it out on bigger paper before you start drawing: http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/interactives/comic/index.html