DICTIONARY SKILLS

1. Nouns
If you are unsure whether to use un/une or le/la, a dictionary
will tell what gender a word is so you can get it right.
Masculine or feminine? Write the French word with le / la and in
brackets (m or f)
1) finger ____________________ 6) coffee ____________________
2) peach ____________________ 7) apple ____________________
3) stress ____________________ 8) food ____________________
4) test ____________________ 9) picnic ____________________
5) direction ____________________ 10) fly ____________________
Find the plurals of these words.
11) eye ____________________
12) work ____________________
13) knee ____________________
14) cabbage ____________________
15) newspaper ____________________

2. Adjectives.
To make adjectives agree we usually add _e (fem.) _s (m.pl.) and _es (fem.pl).
However not all adjectives change that way.

A dictionary will also tell you if an adjective changes in an unusual way. (If it
gives no extra information, we can assume it changes in a normal way)

Adjectives – masculine and feminine

Masculine Feminine
1) happy ________________ ___________________
2) noisy ________________ ___________________
3) useless ________________ ___________________
4) neat ________________ ___________________
5) new ________________ ___________________
6) little ________________ ___________________
 3. Finding the correct meaning
Many words in English have more than one meaning. You need to be aware
of this using a dictionary. For example, take the word “bat”. It could be a
noun like a cricket bat, or a (flying animal) bat. Imagine how it would sound
if you picked the wrong one!! Equally “bat could be a verb – e.g. “He likes to
bat first”. This would yet again be a different word!
Look at all possibilities before you decide which word to use!
(Think: i) meaning and ii) is it a verb, a noun, an adjective that I’m
looking for.

1) The cave was dark and a bat flew out. ___________

2) We arrived at the station late and missed our connection.
____________________
3) The elephant had a very small trunk. ________________
4) I normally apply only two coats of paint. ____________
5) I went to the shop for a hammer and a nail._____________

Verbs – correct meanings

6) To bother
a) (worry) _____________ b) (disturb) ___________
7) To rest
a) (relax) ______________ b) (lean something) ____________
8) to lie
a) (down) ________________ b) (be untruthful) ____________
 4. Conjugating verbs
Dictionaries contain a lot of useful information regarding verbs. You can even find
out what the different forms of a verb are using the verb tables which are included in
a special section of the dictionary.( They are often in the back of your coursebook as
well, although not quite as many) You usually find one example of regular verbs
_er / -re / ir but the rest of the verb tables are irregular verbs.

Use the verbs tables to find the right conjugations of these verbs.
Step 1: look up the basic meaning in french. This will give you the infinitive
form of the verb.
Step 2: Find the verb in the verb tables section. (If you don’t see it there, that’s
probably because it’s regular)
Step 3: Choose the right conjugation.

1) we give = nous donnons

2) he says _____________
3) you want _________________
3) he takes_________________
4) I go out _________________
5) we do _________________
6) they finish _________________
7) you throw _________________
8) they see _________________
9) I sleep _________________
10) we drink __________________

Extn: Can you use the conjugated verbs above to make sentences by
adding words you already know (or new ones from the dictionary)?
Eg/ I leave at 8.00 – Je sors à huit heures
 DICTIONARY CHALLENGE

Using your new dictionary skills, look up the following words in French.

Put the first letter of each word together and unjumble them to find a French
speaking country

1. 2.

yesterday ____________________ have (vb) ____________________

badge____________________ April ____________________

forbidden ____________________ with ____________________

stop (vb) ____________________ infront ____________________

thirty ____________________ Christmas ____________________

PAYS = ___________________________ understand( vb) ___________________

PAYS = ____________________________

3.
4.
throat ____________________
pupil ____________________
me ____________________
Scotland ____________________
brush (vb) ____________________
follow (vb) ____________________
between ____________________
hazelnut ____________________
a ____________________
greedy ___________________
book ____________________
increase (vb) ___________________
flood ____________________
London ______________________
PAYS = __________________________
PAYS = __________________________