CoPC French for Beginners - Autumn 2026
This is the blog page for the French beginners' evening class at the City of Portsmouth College - Highbury Campus. Tuesday evenings, 6:00 to 7:30 pm.
A shortened link to this page is: ajstarr.short.gy/cpcfrb QR Code
Classes are timetabled from 6 to 7:30 pm on:
Tuesday, September 22nd & 29th; October 6th, 13th and 20th; November 3rd, 10th, 17th and 24th; and December 1st is the final class. October 27th is during half-term.
Outside of class
To improve your listening and speaking skills in a social setting, why not come to the evening or afternoon events I organise in the city?
We have a twin city in Caen. I am the Chair of the Twinning Association for France and Germany. To find out more about our twin cities, visit this website.
Tips for tuning your ear to French
Listen to French music.
Watch French TV series and films (or at least videos/news in French).
There is a lot of stuff online for learning French (not all of it, correct!).
You can find some resources online to help you study French by yourself on a Padlet here.
Find some Francophone music you like – there's an extraordinary amount out there, and all can be seen on YouTube whenever you like. I have written much more about French music here.
I will use some materials from the course book Entre Nous 1, aimed at the European Language Standards A1 (beginners). You may find it helpful to get a copy for home use and self-study.
This blog page will help you learn how to get all those accents on your various devices.
We will likely have a visit from Caen in December.
En1Ch1ppt VO Livre pp25-31
On this link are beginners' videos from the 1990s BBC—Quinze Minutes Plus First 4—covering much of what we have and will cover in this 10-week course.
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mardi, 13 octobre
Tonight, we will first look at family in French. Then a bit more about where we live, such as homes, rooms and furniture. I imagine that we will not get much further today...
Next week we will begin to prepare a spoken presentation about our lives...
Here is a model document We have completed the vocabulary now up to paragraph (section) 5 – if we have completed the house & home bit, then that is paragraph 6.
Extra:
Personality: This link lists the most commonly used positive and negative personality trait adjectives and the noun associated with the adjective (often in English, this is ~ness).
Following today's class, you should be able to understand much of what is contained in these rather old videos, from BBC Schools and Colleges Collection.
mardi, 6 octobre
Building on the last couple of weeks, including the introduction to the city of Caen and what there is to see in a town (housing and locations), we will look at what the course book Entre Nous 1 wants to introduce us to this week along with some tasks for reinforcement and revision.
They are using the city of Nantes in the west of France, south of Brittany, which was once in Brittany before France annexed it.
You can see the course book here online.
We may then examine why people are learning French, some personal details and how to form the present tense of regular '-er' verbs... (the joy, the bliss!) and mention the reflexives (more joy!!).
Lille is also used in the course book.
Pour rire
mardi, 29 septembre
Today, by the end of this lesson, you should be ready to introduce yourself in French, giving your name and saying where you're from and when your birthday is (including the year).
You may be able to name some places in an average town.
(Ls FdT - La ville et les magasins)
For this lesson you might like to be ready to introduce yourself in French, giving your name, spelling it, saying where you're from and when your birthday is...
Quelle est la date de ton anniversaire? Quelle est la date de votre anniversaire?
We will look at the days of the week and the months of the year, along with some basic places found in the majority of towns and villages in France and the UK.
Revisions l'alphabet et épeler vos noms, les noms de vos villes et lieux de naissance.
Revisons les chiffres entre 1 et 20. Rajoutons comment fonctionne les autres chiffres. (Voir les clips vidéos ci-dessous).
Travel to France from Portsmouth; we are twinned with Caen, so we will look at what can be seen in Caen (basic vocabulary initially based on the course book Voilà).
Caen is linked by ferry to Portsmouth, and it is our twin city, for which I am the committee chair...
La Gastronomie de Caen
Revision
This very young French teacher made these vlogs for his French beginners during the coronavirus lockdown. However, he covers many of the things we covered in class today and last week, which can serve as a reminder!
In teacher training, they say if you do something at least 6 times, you might remember them!
He certainly seems to use that method... Here is his video for the places you might find in a town - if you need it...
Un peu d'humour français... Une réponse à la question brûlante...
mardi, 22 septembre
Today, we will begin learning to speak, read, and write in French and to listen to French being spoken.
In the first class, we will introduce ourselves and find our reasons for learning French, as we do not all know each other yet.
- Comment vous appelez-vous?
- Quel âge avez-vous?
- Où habitez-vous? / Vous êtes d'où?
Je m'appelle... (Je suis...)
J'ai ... ans
J'habite à ... en Angleterre/ en Grande-Bretagne/ au Royaume-Uni
Je suis de...
Tonight, we will answer the French questions for:
Who are you? Why are you learning French? What does France mean for you?
Qui êtes-vous? Pourquoi apprenez-vous le français? Que signifie la France pour vous?
By the end of this session, you should be able to:
Introduce yourselves and spell your name (possibly the name of your street, city, or place of birth).
Can you give me your age? Your nationality? What about your occupation (i.e., student)?
What else?
What can you tell someone a little about French grammar?
Gender, adjectives...?
Feuilles à télécharger
An earworm which will teach you the alphabet.
Another earworm for the months of the year... Quelle est la date de ton anniversaire?
This guy does a lot of beginner's videos... Now there's enthusiasm, and then there's ~Thomas!
He can, at least, serve as a reminder of the correct pronunciation, should you need one...
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