French Vocabulary On Time, Timing, And Speeds

my favourite soundscapes for sleeping & studying

i finally managed to get my favourite asmr/ambience/soundscape videos into a neat list. i use these while i study, and they also help me get to sleep. since i cannot do anything without some sort of background noise on, they are a lifesaver for me; they’re also great for daydreaming purposes. if you have any that you like, please share! 

Victorian London

Baker Street 221B

Hogwarts Express

Library

Victorian Office

Cottage Kitchen

Library Room with Fireplace

Potion Shop

Hobbit Hole

Autumn Village

Shell Cottage

Seaside Art Room

Italian Cafe

French Cafe

Autumn Coffee Shop with Jazz

Enchanted Forest (with music)

Forest (without music)

Spaceship Library

Pirate Ship

Quelques mots similaires #8

Le monsieur = gentleman

La madame = madam, lady

La mademoiselle = miss

Les mesdemoiselles = ladies

Les messieurs = gentlemen

Les mesdames = ladies

♥French vocabulary : mystery ♥

Le mystère = mystery

mystérieux = mysterious

un secret, une arcane = a secret

cacher, dissimuler = to hide

murmurer, chuchoter = to whisper

un masque = a mask

une mascarade = a masquerade

les ténèbres, l'obscurité = darkness (both nouns are feminine)

un voile = a veil

la poussière = dust

l'éternité = eternity (feminine)

éternel = eternal

un mensonge = a lie

mentir = to lie

le temps = time

une épine = a thorn

un fil = a thread

la magie = magic

un spectre, un fantôme = a ghost

expliquer = to explain

découvrir = to discover

un trésor = a treasure

un conte = a tale

la fumée = smoke

croire = to believe

douter = to doubt

un miroir = a mirror

la vérité = truth

Gucci Campaign (with Ignasi Monreal)

True Crime shows/channels

#1. Hondelatte raconte, on Europe 1

#2. Faites entrer l'accusé, on RMC Story

#3. Murders explained

#4. Canal crime

bon matin! c’est tôt pour moi, hmm? today I’ll be sharing some online resources for learning french ranging from vocab lists to full on courses! i hope you find these useful - the internet really is precious when learning languages! <3

⁎⁺˳✧༚ frenchtoday.com

this website threatens to put me out of business and I couldn’t be more delighted! vocab lists galore, free lessons, tips to work on your pronunciation, articles on french culture and even stories and poetry. i haven’t looked at everything available on there, but from what I’ve seen, it’s pretty useful!

⁎⁺˳✧༚ frenchpod101.com

this is a free course you can take, with options for absolute beginners and those already a little familiar with the language. it looks to be good for conversational french and is an easy, no nonsense starting point for beginners, who i know from experience are often easily overwhelmed.

⁎⁺˳✧༚ coffee break french

this is one I’m not quite as familiar with but has come to me highly recommended. it’s a podcast that covers the basics as well as providing dialogues and example role plays. give it a try and let me know how you find it!

⁎⁺˳✧༚ innerfrench (chaîne de YouTube)

this is a really interesting channel! you get to learn french through a variety of different topical discussions and he speaks slowly enough for you to get most of what he’s saying even if you’re a relative beginner, which can make you feel super smart :)

bien, c’est tout! i hope these recs are alright, and I hope we meet again soon~ a bientôt!

Un coup de

Un coup d’arrêt: end (official)

Un coup de balai: a sweep (donner+)

Un coup de barre: sudden fatigue (2PM type)(avoir+)

Un coup de bol/pot: a lucky strike

Un coup de cafard: fit of blues (avoir+)

Un coup de chaleur: heat exhaustion

Un coup de chance: stroke of luck

Un coup de chiffon: light dusting

Un coup de coeur: infatuation

Un coup de crayon: a pencil line

Un coup d’essai: a first attempt

Un coup d’état: a coup

Un coup d’envoi: a kick-off

Un coup de feu: a gunshot (tirer+)

Un coup de fil/téléphone: a phone call (passer+)

Un coup de foudre: love at first sight

Un coup de frein: sharp braking (donner+)

Un coup de génie: a stroke of genius

Un coup de grâce: coup de grâce

Un coup de gueule: a rant (passer+)

Un coup de main: (giving) a hand (donner+)

Un coup de maître: a master stroke

Un coup de mou: a sluggish period

Un coup d’oeil: a glance (jeter+)

Un coup de pied: a kick (donner+)

Un coup de pinceau: a brush stroke

Un coup de poing: a punch

Un coup de soleil: a sunburn (attraper/prendre+)

Un coup d’un soir: a one-night stand

Un coup de tête: a head-butt

Un coup de théâtre: a dramatic turn of event

Un coup de tonnerre: a clap of thunder

Un coup de vent: a gust of wind

Un coup de vieux: feeling old (ex: when your nephew doesn’t know what a floppy disk is)(prendre+)

Un coup du lapin: whiplash

Learning to read in your target language !

Learning to read in any language is difficult!  There’s nothing more frustrating than picking up a book you’ve read in your mother tongue and not understanding a word in your target language. Luckily, it’s a matter of vocabulary ! 

You won’t understand everything

 Even in your native language, you still don’t understand EVERY WORD, you use context to try to figure out something you don’t know. But you’ll find that if you keep at it, you will get visibly better.

I read Harry Potter as my first long text in French and I high lighted every single word that I didn’t know. Looking back, about 35% of the words on the first page are high lighted vs. about 5% on the last page.

To get the most our of language learning, you should start trying to read as soon as possible !

You get so much passive input out of reading comprehension. It’s easy to subconsciously pick up commonly used phrases and putting grammar points and vocabulary into application.

So, what methods can I use to get the most out my reading?

A.) Read a paragraph through and look up the words and their definitions, then read it again and really try to find the meaning of each sentence. This might be the most taxing method and easy to lose focus or motivation, but honestly it’s the best for learning. 

B.) Stop at every word you don’t know and look up the meaning. I personally don’t like this method. I find myself looking more for words I don’t know than the meaning behind the whole sentence. I also don’t like stopping and starting and stopping and starting. 

C.) Skim the paragraph or page for words you don’t know, highlight them, define them first, THEN read the whole piece of text. This is my favorite method. I like looking back at the beginning of the book and seeing all the words I didn’t know then but I know now.

D.) Try to gather context of sentence without looking up any words. This is what native speakers do, and it is, of course, the best method but it requires a deeper meaning of the context that most A1/A2 learners have yet to understand.

You might be struggling learning through textbooks because the vocab lists prioritize subjects like “body parts” and “animals” over giving you basic tools to describe things. It’s great to know words like “knee” and “candle” but how often do those really come up in conversation? Instead of finding random lists that might be useful one day, I suggest creating a list of vocab based on your reading content! When you see a word that has come up a few times and you still can’t gather from context what it means, look it up, then every time you see it in the text from now on, it’ll enforce that knowledge in your brain.

If you aren’t sure what kind of texts you should be reading or want more information and tips, check out my other post.

Masterpost of ADHD Coping Things I Learned to Do In College

Both as a resource for other people and a reminder to myself of habits to pick back up as I’m going into a Ph.D. program this fall.  

 This can all help cheat the executive function and focus challenges that trip up ADHD people in school and at work.

Here’s the short list of tips. They’re all explained and elaborated on after the cut!

Manage energy, not time

Treat motivation like inertia

Diversify productivity time

Use baby stimuli while studying

Learn the brain’s quirks

Maintain yourself and your environment

Keep tasks small

Exploit impulsivity

Don’t memorize, use

Keep reading

STUDYING in French

WHAT PEOPLE REALLY DO WHEN THEY STUDY

procrastiner - to procrastinate

TO STUDY

étudier - to study

bosser à fond - to work (hard)

bosser comme un fou/un malade - to work like mad

bosser dur - to buckle down

faire des recherches (sur) - to research/do research (on)

la lecture générale - background reading

travailler - to work

se mettre au travail - to get to work/buckle down

s’y mettre (sérieusement) - to buckle down

IN THE EXAM

avoir un trou (de mémoire) - to draw a blank

se creuser le cerveau/les cervelles/le ciboulot - to rack your brains

deviner - to guess

réussir haut la main - to breeze through (the exam)

TO PASS

réussir - to pass (an exam)

y aller au talent - when you pass a test without having studied e.g. j’y vais au talent

***NOTE: passer un examen ONLY means to do an exam, not to ‘pass it’

TO FAIL

échouer à (un examen) - to fail an exam

ne pas avoir son examen - to fail an exam

rater ses études - to fail your exams

ACADEMIC SUCCESS/FAILURE/ACHIEVEMENTS

être en échec scolaire - to underperform at school/be a dropout

rater ses études - to fail your course

Resources masterpost

Being exposed to French:

Websites, social media

IG accounts with lots of stories

Online courses about French

Online courses in French

French subreddits

Fanfictions

Buzzfeed

Improving your:

Pronunciation

Speaking

Stutter

Things to listen:

Music

Podcasts

Radio stations

TED talks

Things to read:

Graphic novels/comics

News

Ebooks + quizzes (by me)

Short stories

Vikidia - kids Wikipedia

Things to watch:

Cartoons

Kids shows

The Simpsons the movie

True crime

TV programs - sci-fi shows, travelling, etc.

Youtubers

Extra:

Antidote 10 + BonPatron - Grammarly equivalents

Conjugation by le Nouvel Obs

Deepl - very good at translating sentences/expressions

Forbo - natives pronouncing things

Lexicity - about Ancien/Moyen Français

Lingolden - Chrome extension that teaches vocabulary

Linguo.tv (french videos + subtitles)

Reverso - very good alternative to Google translation