Any French teachers around please?

[Prettyprettyplease]

Just wondering if anyone could recommend an app, or something else interactive, to help dad practise her French verbs and tenses? She's covered passé composé and future so far but she doesn't seem to have a good grasp of them yet, and I think she'll get confused once she needs to start learning more tenses (this is for GCSE). I remember making myself tables to memorise but dd isn't very motivated, so it would be good to have something more fun!

[Prettyprettyplease]

Oops, dd, not my dad!

[clary]

Duolingo and Memrise are both good for vocab, don't know about verbs so much.

Quite right tho op, verbs are crucial to GCSE success. Tbh you can get a great GCSE grade with just present, perfect and furture tenses, no need for pluperfect or imperfect really, tho of course it adds complexity. But best to have three time frames secure. How does she like to learn - mind maps, post it notes, podcasts to listen to on the way to school?

[Prettyprettyplease]

Thanks for the reply, @clary. She's tried Duolingo and she enjoys it, but it hasn't helped much with verbs. It's good to know that those three tenses are sufficient for getting a reasonable grade at GCSE. I think she likes the instant feedback and sense of progression you can get from an app.

[Prettyprettyplease]

@clary , in answer to your question, I'm not sure about her preferred way of learning, so that's something for me to think about.

[clary]

I think the trouble is with verbs, it's a case of learning them!

She needs to know:
present tense of regular verbs, esp -er verbs
present tense of a few irregulars - to do, to be, to go, to have
Present tense of to go (as above) plus infinitive for future
present tense of to have and to be (as above) plus past participle for past tense
Irregular past participles - again, have, do, take
J'etais for I wa

That's it really,

[Prettyprettyplease]

Thanks Clary. It sounds as if she'll just have to knuckle down to it then!

[Bidibidiba]

I had downloaded an app called conjugospeed for my daughter to play in the car when she was younger (we're French). It's okish, it's free. I'm sure there must be more of these.

[Prettyprettyplease]

Thanks @Bidibidiba, I'll take a look.

[Meredusoleil]

Does BBC Bitesize not cover verbs needed for GCSE level? Perhaps you could email your dd's French teacher at school or the Head of MFL and ask if they can give you login details to any other websites that the school may subscribe to eg. Linguascope?

[Prettyprettyplease]

Thanks @Meredusoleil. Bitesize is a good idea and one that I'd forgotten about. Dd is home educated but she has a tutor for French so I will ask her. The tutor has suggested a few websites but more linked to specific pieces of homework I think.

[clary]

Linguascope is good for vocab but you have to pay for it. BBC bite size has what you need to know. Quizlet is another good website.

Is she doing AQA op? My comments regarding verbs related to that board, I don't know the iGCSE spec (for example) so well.

[Prettyprettyplease]

Thanks, clary. I'm happy to pay for an app - within reason of course! I can't remember the name of the exam board offhand but I do have a copy of the syllabus, so I will check exactly what is required.

[cingolimama]

The only app that seriously tackles verbs is French Today. They have 3 separate verb drill audiobooks, covering all forms (ir, er, re) and the major irregulars (etre, avoir etc) in all tenses. My DD has used it for about 5-10 minutes a day and it has transformed her speaking, and now verb tenses come easily to her. It's not free, but imo, totally worth it.

www.frenchtoday.com/audiobooks-to-learn-french/

[Prettyprettyplease]

Thanks @cingolimama. That looks great although it's more than I was hoping to spend....It's a shame they don't have être, avoir and regular re, er and ir verbs all in one, though I can understand why they'd rather you bought all three volumes!

[Pineappleunder]

I use verbsquirt. It is free and sounds like exactly what you are looking for.

[NativityDreaming]

We just used Bescherelle L’art du Conjuguer but that was back when we also used times tables! I guess a lot of studying now isn’t just straight memorisation. It was effective though, from maths to French to naming all the bones in the human body, I can still do it after 30 years.

[Prettyprettyplease]

Thank you both. Verb squirt looks as if it might just do the trick!

[BlackeyedSusan]

we sing them... using you tube. works for us, (ireegular present tense especially)

we also use french songs to help memorise verbs, usually a simple kids song, and then use that as a stepping stone to build the rest of the conjugaison around.

[BlackeyedSusan]

ps just downloading the verb squirt now...

Thanks!