Bonjour chers amis! Welcome to another Frenchtastic dictation. Just as the dictation of last week, here is a great opportunity to test your listening skills in French as well as your writing skills. You will find on this page a short text in French with its English translation. The audio tracks have also been provided along with the PDF version of the dictation that you can certainly download.
My preferred method to doing accurately a foreign language dictation:
| 1. Preparation: | 2. Writing the dictation itself: | 3. (Re)-Verifying your written text. |
|---|---|---|
| First, I always make sure to listen to the “normal-speed” audio track two or three times (You may choose to listen to the slower speed if you wish). The first time, I make sure to avoid taking any notes. I just sit there and listen carefully, especially for words that seem “new” to my ears. The second time, I use my pencil and try to write down these “strange-sounding” new words as best as I can. Sometimes, guessing is a greatly involved in that process. I may listen again to the entire audio track a third time, depending on how well I did the second time. | After listening carefully 2-3 times to the normal-speed track and jotting down difficult words (which I guessed), I now start my dictation. I make sure to keep in mind that most sentences will have subject, a verb, and an object. It doesn’t matter the order in which they are stated in the sentences, but I do know that most sentences will follow this pattern. Important: If it is a French dictation, I want to make sure that every single verb is properly associated to its respective subject. Also, I watch closely for the gender of the articles and nouns (le vs. la or un vs. une) and their numbers (singular vs. plural). After verifying all this in each sentence, I make sure the verb agrees with the subject according to its gender and number. I also look at the adjectives and follow the same rule. French adjectives are very tricky, especially for English speakers. French adjectives will vary unlike their English counterparts, which remain invariable. So take a close look at French adjectives and ask yourself: is this adjective masculine or feminine, singular or plural? | When I’m finished with my dictation, I always make sure to reread at least a couple of times before submitting it for correction. As a language instructor, I have found that so many “easy”errors could be avoided by my students if they simply take their time to read their dictation just one more time. I read my dictation with a critical eye, always asking myself: Is this the correct gender? Does the verb agree with its subject? What the the gender of this noun? Is its adjective therefore affected? Did I place all the accent correctly? I know, all this sounds like a real torture to do all this, but following these rules should become easier as you work on more and more dictations. And eventually, this will make you a better French speller. |
Dictation: Ma nouvelle amie.
Normal speedAudio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser. |
Slower speedAudio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser. |
| Ma nouvelle amie s’appelle Renée. Elle est française et habite
à Paris. Renée a douze ans et elle est très jolie. Elle a les cheveux bruns et les yeux marron. Le père de Renée s’appelle Michel et sa mère s’appelle Rolande. Ils sont très sympas. Renée a un frère qui s’appelle Julien. Il est petit ; il a deux ans. J’aime beaucoup ma nouvelle amie française. On parle au téléphone chaque semaine. Pour mes vacances prochaines, je vais visiter Paris et voir Renée. Ah, je suis si contente ! |
My new friend’s name is Renée. She is French and lives
in Paris. Renée is 12 and she is very pretty. She has brown hair and brown eyes. Her father’s name is Michel and her mother’s name is Rolande. They are very nice. Renée has a brother whose name is Julien. He is small; he is 2 years old. I like my new French friend very much. We speak on the phone each week. For my next holidays, I am going to visit Paris and see Renée. Ah, I am so happy! |
Download the PDF version 
Ma nouvelle amie.
Download the mp3 audio track (Normal Speed) 
Ma nouvelle amie_1.
Download the mp3 audio track (Slower Speed) Ma nouvelle amie_2
WOW!! love your dictations, I hope you download more, keep up the good work.
Thak you:))