Le dictionnaire des écoliers offers up a quick and simple way of finding the definition of around 17,000 French words.
It is actually aimed at school children in nursery and primary schools, but the easy on the eye way it is designed, providing a simple search as well as alphabetical listings may well appeal.
YOU have to smile at the French powers-that-be who are forever bringing out new rules and regs, whilst everyone else just gets on with their lives.
The latest is the banning of the promotion of Twitter accounts and Facebook pages run by French radio and television stations, a decision taken by the media regulator Conseil Supérieur de l'Audiovisuel.
More on: The verb 'tweeter', or to tweet, added to French dictionary
DEPENDING upon how you prefer learning languages, you might want to take a look over the courses developed by the US government and made available by the Foreign Service Institute.
Online courses are offered up in a number of languages, including French, and provide .pdf documents alongside MP3 audio files.
You can print off a page or two at a time and listen along to the accompanying audio, which are very matter of fact, but as a free and simple way to learn a language you would be hard pushed to beat it (via @ielanguages)
IF you are struggling with a language question then a new website from translation software company, Babylon, may prove helpful.
Its Babylon Community site lets people post quick language questions and have them answered by other members of the site.
And the quality of answers has the potential to be high due to the fact that many of those answering the questions already offer translation services through Babylon.
IF you have a little extra time on your hands over Christmas then why not listen to a talking book or two.
The SNCF website offers a handful of French talking books that you can listen to online or download.
There is a monthly selection, as well as an archive of titles, with some offered in their entirety and others provided as long extracts.
IF you are quick you can listen in to the launch of French Radio London when it officially launches at noon, UK time.
You can listen now online to get a quick blast of what the station will be offering, and it is the capital's first French language terrestrial broadcast station.
French Radio London will be available on DAB across the capital, reaching 4.5 million households, as well as online and via smartphone apps.
And check out behind the scenes of French Radio London as BBC 6Music discovers some French musicians, old and new.
A LIST of the most frequently used words in French may prove handy when learning the language.
There are a couple of helpful online stops that list common words, the first is Language Daily that lists 700 words, the first collection of which are audio enabled.
So you can listen to the pronunciation of common words such as savoir or aller, while continuing through the list and find mieux at 159, or reconnaître at 546.
Another web page to take a look over is on Wiktionary which lists 2,000 key French words, and if you click on the individual words you can find a simple translation and explanation.
LAST week saw A level results published, and a three per cent fall in the number of sixth formers studying French, this week it's the turn of CGSE students to turn their backs on modern languages.
This year's results show that 11,000 fewer students took French GCSE this year, a drop of 5.9 per cent on 12 months ago, according to figures published by the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ).
Christine Blower, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said: "Yet again, of real concern is the decline in the study of modern foreign languages, particularly French and German.
JUST how important do the British believe studying the French language really is? Not much if a recent survey and a study of A level results is to be believed.
In a survey by YouGov parents in the UK were asked how important different subjects were, with as you'd expect maths and English language topping the charts.
I HAVE often featured online tools that make use of Google Translate to help with French language problems, but now I know how it works.
Google has created a snappy little video that explains the technology behind the service and how it learns from texts that have already been translated by human translators.
More on: So how does Google Translate work?
