Guide to French Languages Research
Guide pour
Recherche en Langue Français
World Wide Web Links
Liens Internet Etrangers
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A list of World Wide Web sites that are relevant to the French language is provided below. Also provided is a link to a list of Web search engines and directories that may be used to look for other relevant sites on the Web. Caution: The World Wide Web provides access to much useful information. However, users should carefully evaluate the quality of each Web resource consulted. Not all Web pages are objective, authoritative, or accurate.
French Literature Online
Littérature Français en ligne
Newspapers/Magazines
Journaux et Magazines
Journal Français - This magazine is in French but is published in the United States. The web site features a few of the articles from the magazine. Subscriptions to the full journal do cost, but there are good practice articles available for free. The library also has a one year file of the magazine in print. There is a free bilingual newsletter you can sign up for.
Broadcast-Live - This site links to newspapers from France. There are also links to television and radio news broadcasts in French that can be viewed or listed to over the internet.
Books
Livres
Athena - This site links to a large collection of French literature. Much of the literature is relatively old because of copyright limitations but there are a lot of books to choose from.
ABU - This site lists over two hundred texts in French. Some of these texts are actually translations into French such as Charles Darwin's Origin of the Species (L'origine des espèces). The site is in French but is easy to navigate with a fairly elementary knowledge of the language.
Columbia University's list of French Texts on the Web - This list gives the major collections of French Texts available on the web. Not all of the sites are entirely free to the public (e.g. ARTFL has a few texts available to the public but most require a subscription).
Movies
Les Films
IMDB - French - This site offers information on French language movies. You can search for a specific movie or browse by an alphabetical list.
Learn French Online
Pour apprendre le Français en ligne
Below are some sites that help you learn French online. They all have free services but some may charge for parts of their service.
BBC Languages - French - This site has a tutorial that you can work through using various situations you might encounter on a trip to France. There are audio and visual portions of the site.
French Assistant - You have to register for this site, but registration is free. This site allows you to choose a level and walks you through the lesson with good graphics and sound.
Fast and Friendly French for Fun - This site give 9 free lessons in French for beginners. It is a good site for getting a feel of the language.
French - This page gives very brief lessons in grammar and vocabulary. It is one very long page rather than each lesson on a separate page.
Introduction à la linguistique française - This site is for more advanced French students as the whole site is in French. It explains elements of French linguistics.
Centre linguistique pour etrangers - This site is for more advanced French students. It has small quizzes testing vocabulary and grammar. The quizzes and pages are completely in French.
Online French Verb Conjugation Trainer - This site lacks instructions for use but allows the user to choose the tense, mood, and number of verbs they want to practice conjugating. Once those are chosen, a screen with the infinitive (unconjugated form), the pronoun (je, tu, il, etc.) and a box with the infinitive. You then change the infinitive in the box to the correctly conjugated form. When you are finished, you can check them or you can get hints when you are stuck.
Dictionaries
Dictionnaires
Freedict.com - English to French or French to English on one screen.
Your Dictionaries.com - This site offers dictionaries in about 300 languages. You can also improve your English by having their word of the day sent to your e-mail by choosing the Today's Word link toward the top of the page.
Directory of French Dictionaries - This site lists various other French dictionaries available online.
WordReference - This dictionary won an award for best web site from the American Library Association in 2007.
Verbs
Verbes
Français interactif - This site from the University of Texas at Austin lists a lot of French verbs with their translations. This list of verbs goes well beyond most French course lists. Each verb is linked to a page that shows its conjugations in 11 tenses. The conjugation page also lists the English meaning and verb type.
University of Chicago's Verb Conjugation - This site allows entry of an infinitive and the choice of six major tenses.
Irregular French Verbs - This site concentrates on those pesky irregular verbs. It offers nine tenses for irregular verbs.
Translation Services
Services du traduction
Babelfish - This site translates from English to French or French to English. The site will also translate a web page if you type in the URL. WARNING: Machine translations are only approximate translations!
Free Translation.com - This site offers a free translation service either English to French or French to English. WARNING: Machine translations are only approximate translations! This site will also have a human translate for a fee.
Other web sites
Autre pages Web
Gate2Home - This site is a virtual keyboard that allows the user to convert any keyboard to another language. There is a virtual keyboard on the screen that allows the user to type in another language.
French 17 - Bibliography of research on 17th Century France.
Web Search Engines in French
Pour rechercher sur la Web
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This guide is only an
introduction to locating materials on this topic.
For more in-depth
information or for assistance in using these sources, ask a librarian.
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Updated: 6 June 2008 by erf