L'école - School

When you talk about your school day in French you need to talk about the time in French. See the post about telling the time in French.
You will need also the following:
School subjects 
Daily routine
For more information you could read through the  pages on GCSE.com about school
There's a revision listening exercise at GCSE bitesize Revision
And then you can Test your knowledge.
For more practice of daily routine you could try the excellent activities on the MYLO website: Daily Routine

Ma maison - My house

Où habites-tu? Where do you live? Comment est ta maison? What's your house like?
Start by describing where you live. You might want to describe the geographic features of the area. Study the phrases and adjectives to build up a description of where you live.
Then study the phrases to describe your house.
For further study you could watch a video and follow a conversation all about My house and home.
Practise what you've learnt using this exercise to test your understanding.
Finally for fun you could try these games and activities which include sound files.

L'heure - Telling the time in French

Quelle heure est-il? - what time is it?
If you've practised learning numbers then it's time to learn how to tell the time!
There's lots of help and practice on the web.
You can listen to the time with this practice lesson.
There's also an exercise so you can check what you've learnt.
For more listening practice you can try these activities and games.
For more writing and reading practice the languages online website is very useful. Try exercises 1 -8.
Finally here's a clear explanation of all you've learnt and practised.

L'école - School

When you talk about your school day in French you need to talk about the time in French. See the post about telling the time in French.
You will need also the following:
School subjects 
Daily routine
For more information you could read through the  pages on GCSE.com about school
There's a revision listening exercise at GCSE bitesize Revision
And then you can Test your knowledge.
For more practice of daily routine you could try the excellent activities on the MYLO website: Daily Routine

Les verbes - present tense

Whether you're learning the present tense for the first time or doing some essential revision then the following websites should help.
Verb busters
Francais interactif

La forme - talking about health and fitness

You can practise your reading and listening skills by watching this video about healthy eating.
For writing practice there is an exam practice question on the GCSE bitesize website.
If you're feeling confident try this listening exercise, module 4 écouter 2: Que fais-tu comme sport et que faisais-tu quand tu étais petit?
5 young people talk about the sports they do now and the sports they used to do when they were younger - Eloise, Karim, Sophie, Thierry, Hadida, MArcel.

J'aime / Je n'aime pas

Talking about what you like and don't like.

You can say that you like something (a noun) or you can say that you like to do something (a verb) - here are some examples.
As an introductory activity you could watch this video clip from the BBC website Talkfrench.
Now for some practice! Try saying which vegetables you like or dislike - Les légumes.
Then try the online exercises to practise saying which animals you like or dislike.
You have just practised talking about some of the things that you like (nouns).
If you want to talk about some of the activities you like to do (verbs) then here is an explanation from GCSE.com.
For easy listening practice you could try these games.
For more advanced listening practice you could try this video clip about TV, sports and Music.

Bonjour! Greetings.

At the start of a new academic year many of you will be either right at the start of your language learning experience or may need a reminder of the basics so here's a topic to get you started. Try these exercises to practise Greetings and Goodbyes. And for more exercises with sound you could test what you've learnt. Here's a video clip from BBC Talk French which also explains how to ask how someone is.

Revision - Jobs

What is your job? 
Practise talking about where people work.
Reading exercise - describing what people do in their job
Listening - Test yourself on what you have just learnt in the reading exercise

Learn the rules about changing the gender of jobs depending on whether the person doing the job is male or female.
Give the feminine for the jobs you have practised.
Then try this writing exercise to  test this knowledge. 
All these pages come from frenchinaclick.com

Mon meilleur ami - My best friend

Describing your best friend - Practising Reading and Writing skills
Read and listen to the conversation about a best friend. You can also click on the transcript to follow the English version.
Complete a revision writing exercise at GCSE Bitesize French. Then Test your knowledge.

Qu'est-ce que tu aimes porter? What do you like wearing?

Les vêtements - Clothes
First study the simple vocabulary list from Targetlanguage.co.uk
For vocabulary with sound files and exercises.
Then for more exercises with sound files and fun images try Les vêtements
You will need to make sure that you learn or revise the correct gender of each item of clothing, this will be important if you want to describe what colour an item is. Try the exercise on Le, la, or les
The first two exercises Buying clothes on the Mylo website also practise clothes and colours and include sound files.
There are lots of extra exercises on the Languages Online website - Les vêtementsTweet

Que regardes-tu à la télé? What do you watch on TV?

La télévision et les films - TV and films

First you could study the list of television and film vocabulary - scroll down the page on the link to Books, films, music, television and radio  
There's areading exercise at GCSE Bitesize French where you can study the TV pages of a newspaper and answer questions.
 On the MYLO website you can listen to two friends discussing their cinema trip - there's lots of practice of times - but some students think they talk rather fast - what do you think?
Finally for students preparing for their exams and for older learners you could read through and listen to a video clip and transcript all about a student's tv and film preferences.

Les accents en français - Typing French accents

"How do I type accents in French?" This is a commonly asked question and I've put together some links to pages which should help. 

The page I use most and which certainly works on my computer is:

Accents

I've printed out the list of codes and keep it above my computer. I use them so much that I use several without needing to look up the code.

The most common accents I use and have learnt are: 

alt+130 é 

alt+133 à

alt+138 è

alt+135 ç

If you are using a laptop the following stie might be of more help:

Type French accents

French numbers 1-1000

More on how to say or write numbers in French.
Numbers 1 - 29 with sound and an exercise
Numbers 30 and above
Hundreds and thousands

Games and activities using numbers.

 Also see the blog post about numbers with lots more links.

Ma matière préférée - My favourite subject

How many subjects does Pascal study at school? 

Which is his favourite?

Quelles matières est-ce que tu étudies au collège ?

What subjects do you study at school?

Bonjour! Je m'appelle Fifi!

Mon stage en entreprise

My work experience

The following links to online exercises should help you to practise this topic. 

Listening and reading exercise

Gap fill exercise on work experience

Reading exercise: Job advert for work experience placement

Qu'est-ce que tu voudrais faire comme métier?

What job would you like to do?

You may want to talk about your reasons for wanting to do particular jobs (reading exercises with sound)

First exercise
Second exercise
Reading and listening exercise on future plans

Questions and answers about a working day

Fill the gaps - writing exercise about a working day

Quel est ton métier?

What is your job? 
Practise talking about where people work.
Reading exercise - describing what people do in their job
Listening - Test yourself on what you have just learnt in the reading exercise

Learn the rules about changing the gender of jobs depending on whether the person doing the job is male or female.
Give the feminine for the jobs you have practised.
Then try this writing exercise to  test this knowledge. 
All these pages come from frenchinaclick.com

Quel temps fait-il ? What's the weather like?

First study a list of phrases which you could use to describe the weather. 
Then you could click on these online games and activities with listening exercises.
There are more exercises for practice at Languages Online.
Practise your reading and comprehension with a reading exercise.
Now read and listen to this story all about the weather and the seasons.

Les professions et les métiers

Professions and jobs.

GCSE bitesize French has a listening exercise which practises this topic.
If you need some vocabulary then here's a useful list of jobs.
Match the job to the picture in this exercise.
Now, if you've been studying French for a few years then take a look at these two websites:
online activities to help you to talk about future plans;
also, this advanced listening exercise from GCSE Bitesize might interest you.

As-tu travaillé hier? Did you work yesterday?

Click on this activity to practise talking about part-time jobs in the past.

Je travaille dans un supermarché. I work in a supermarket.

As-tu un petit job? Do you have a part-time job?

Listen to Jean's description of himself.

What 2 things did he say about his personality?

Listening practice

Here are some simple listening extracts with exercises:
Greetings
Hobbies
Telephone message
Personal information
Jobs
Cultural quiz

Les négatifs 1 - Negatives 1

Let's start with ne...pas.
There are other negatives but it's a good idea to learn and practise this one first.
The "ne...pas" always goes around the verb in a sentence or phrase.
Here's an explanation and an exercise for practice.
There's plenty more practice here with some online exercises, try exercises 39 - 44. Exercises 46 and 47 are fun Memory Games.

Les verbes reguliers -er

Regular - er verbs
First you need to read about the present tense.
There's also a useful explanation of -er verbs in the present tense on gcse.com  (I also write the French section of gcse.com!)
Here is an explanation of regular -er verbs.
For basic exercises to practise regular -er verbs this website is useful.

L'heure - Telling the time

Quelle heure est-il? - what time is it?
If you've practised learning numbers then it's time to learn how to tell the time!
There's lots of help and practice on the web.
You can listen to the time with this practice lesson.
There's also an exercise so you can check what you've learnt.
For more listening practice you can try these activities and games.
For more writing and reading practice the languages online website is very useful. Try exercises 1 -8.
Finally here's a clear explanation of all you've learnt and practised.

Les chiffres - Numbers 1 - 1000

You need to be able to use numbers in French for speaking: saying your age and phone number, and you will also need to understand numbers when people talk about prices, times, phone numbers and quantities.
Depending on your level you could study:
Numbers 1-20
Numbers 21 - 31
Numbers 32 - 1000.
Now you can listen to the pronunciation of the numbers.
To practise what you've learnt you could try some online exercises but if you want to have fun with numbers then try this game where you have to zap some numbers to gain a high score.
Use numbers in context with this listening exercise where you have to fill in ages, house numbers and telephone numbers.

Le transport

Talking about how you travel.

Study the Travel and Transport vocabulary for this topic.
Practise with these online exercises.
Then, for fun try these games.

En ville - In town

Talking about the town where you live.

Study the list of places in town.
Practise words and phrases for places in town by completing these exercises.
To practise the names of shops try Les magasins en ville.
You might want to say how far you live from different places, here's a fun online exercise to help you practise talking about distances "C'est loin?" "Is it far?"
For a more advanced listening exercise you can watch this video clip and read the transcript of a description of a town and region.

J'aime / Je n'aime pas

Talking about what you like and don't like.

You can say that you like something (a noun) or you can say that you like to do something (a verb) - here are some examples.
As an introductory activity you could watch this video clip from the BBC website Talkfrench.
Now for some practice! Try saying which vegetables you like or dislike - Les légumes.
Then try the online exercises to practise saying which animals you like or dislike.
You have just practised talking about some of the things that you like (nouns).
If you want to talk about some of the activities you like to do (verbs) then here is an explanation from GCSE.com.
For easy listening practice you could try these games.
For more advanced listening practice you could try this video clip about TV, sports and Music.
The teacher asks Luc what he likes to do in his free time.

What does Luc like and dislike doing?

L'alphabet - the Alphabet

You may need to spell your name, your address or the name of the place you are staying or want to travel to in France. Some letters sound similar in French and English like F, L, M, N, S, Z. However, some are very different! You can listen to the sounds of the French alphabet simply by scrolling over each letter. Try it now, start by practising your first name and surname. Then move on to practise spelling your town.
For a listening exercise you could try this French language learning website.

Ma maison - My house

Où habites-tu? Where do you live? Comment est ta maison? What's your house like?
Start by describing where you live. You might want to describe the geographic features of the area. Study the phrases and adjectives to build up a description of where you live.
Then study the phrases to describe your house.
For further study you could watch a video and follow a conversation all about My house and home.
Practise what you've learnt using this exercise to test your understanding.
Finally for fun you could try these games and activities which include sound files.

Aider à la maison - Talking about household chores

Qu'est-ce que tu fais pour aider à la maison?
What do you do to help at home?

Study the list of household chores and also learn how to say how often you do the jobs around the house.
It's useful to revise the verb "faire".
Then test yourself using this online exercise.
For further practice you could study the conversation and watch the video clip all about helping around the home.

Les pays et nationalités - Countries and nationalities

Où habites-tu? Tu es de quelle nationalité?
Where do you live? What nationality are you?

Study the list of countries and nationalities.
Try to learn which countries are masculine and which are feminine.
Practise what you've learnt with these exercises about countries and nationalities.
Remember in French when you talk about your own or someone else's nationality you use a lower case letter not a capital letter. "Il est français", "He is French".

Ma chambre - Describing your room

Comment est ta chambre?
What is your room like?

A great starting point is to learn about the different furniture and items in your room. You will also need some prepositions which will help you to talk about the position of things in your room.
You could try these exercises to practise what you've studied.
If you want to describe the items in your room then you might need to know more about adjectives.
Finally here are some fun activities and games, including sound files, which should really help to fix the phrases in your mind.

Video link for listening practice

If you want to improve your understanding, listening skills and pronunciation then here's a great website from Ashcombe School French department. The videos cover many topics and are great practice for students at different levels.

Language learning blog!

This is the first day of a new lease of life for French4u.com - Language learning blog.
I will share my ideas and experiences from the chalkface (well, online classroom).
I'll include website reviews and language learning tips as well as building up French language learning resources on the site.
Each post will include a question which is relevant for language learners. Study the suggested websites and see whether you can answer the question.