CoPC - French Improvers Summer 2025

Andrew Starr
4 days ago
4 min read

Updated: 2 hours ago

This blog post is for the French Improvers' Evening Class at the City of Portsmouth College, Highbury Campus. RG

A shortened link to this blog page is rebrand.ly/cfri25s

The classes are due to run on Tuesday evenings from 7:30 to 9 pm on:

April 29th, May 6th, 20th June 3rd, 10th, 17th, 24th and July 1st.

There is no class on May 13th as it is Portsmouth City Council's Mayor Making Day, and I have four visitors from Caen and three from Duisburg visiting on that day. Therefore, that class has been postponed until July 1st.

There is no class on May 27th, as that 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?

Facebook Group

Blog Post

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 the French language (not all of it, correct!)

You can find some resources online to help you study French by yourselves here

( rebrand.ly/frres )

Pronunciation Practice ver

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.

To check verb conjugation - particularly while you are learning all those irregular verbs - this tool could be of use to you.

An online timer

Gender of nouns - here is a blog post that may help. EBook EN1

EN1 EN2

During this course, we shall also be looking at grammar, particularly verb formation.

I have a blog here that will take you step by step through verb formation.

If you are serious about mastering French Grammar a good place to start is the verb formation and this book will certainly help. (see here for an older version)

This improvers' class runs from 7:30 to 9 pm again in September on Tuesdays for 10 weeks. Provisional dates are on this link for 2025/26.

You can register your intererst by emailing Jennifer Parr in the Adult Education team

mardi, 1er juillet

mardi, 24 juin

mardi, 17 juin

mardi, 10 juin

mardi, 3 juin

mardi, 27 juin - vacances du mi-trimestre.

mardi, 20 mai

mardi, 13 mai - classe reportée - l'intronisation du Lord Maire de Portsmouth.

mardi, 6 mai

There is one space available on the upcoming exchange to Caen. If you are interested, do let me know. You would need to be a paid-up member of the Friends of Portsmouth Twinning Group (£10 p.a.), and the cost for the trip will be £100 (June 20th 7 am to June 23rd 10:30 pm).

I have visitors from Caen and Duisburg next Tuesday (the Mayor Making Ceremony at the Guildhall), so the class has been moved to July 1st. Notre ville jumelle

Grammar

Some of you have become familiar with the regular verb formation of the Present Tense (le présent) in French, while others will find it all brand new.

Therefore, we will start at the beginning using my blog page, which was written step by step about regular verb formation.

PDF links to Quizlet

A few trickier verbs

A few more tricky verbs

Exercices

Les 4 saisons

Ce soir on va commencer par parler du printemps et de l'été.

Culture

Victor Hugo

un peu d'humour

Musique

Beaucoup d'exemples du présent de l'indiciatif dans cette chanson.

Mots manqués

mardi, 29 avril

Tonight is the first lesson. We will explore what motivates you to improve your French, why you have signed up, and what you hope to achieve in the class (so I can best prepare for the next nine weeks). It is also how we can get to know each other (for any people who were not in this class before).

Voici quelques questions pour vous faire parler aujourd'hui:

Qui êtes vous?

Pourquoi voulez-vous améliorer votre français?

Parlez-nous d'une visite en France ou dans un pays francophone... (see below for information )

Que faites-vous dans la vie?

Parlez nous de votre famille... Vous avez des animaux?

Parlez nous de votre ville...

... et vos passe-temps qu'est-ce que vous aimez faire dans votre temps libre?

So, tonight is for me to gauge where to pitch the level of the class. If you have specific themes you would like to cover, please don't hesitate to mention them. If they fall within my skill set, I can certainly address them.

French Culture

Jeudi sera la fête du travail et la fête du muguet.

For us, we have May Day, which was once celebrated on May 1st, but is now observed on the first Monday of May. However, in France and other European countries that celebrate it, this day remains on May 1st.

This year, it is a Thursday, so what is likely that many French people will do on Friday of this week? What is the term for it? It is rather a common thing.