Reading Comprehension: Understanding Written French

Making sense of written French

Reading a French text can feel hard at first, but you already have more help than you think. Many French words look like their English meanings, the topic and the words around a gap tell you a great deal, and you never need to understand every word to answer a question. Good reading is about strategy, not about knowing everything. You skim a text for its general idea, scan it for the details a question asks about, lean on the words you recognise, and read past the words you do not. For example, Je suis content parce que je comprends le texte means I am happy because I understand the text, and you can unlock much of that from the words that look familiar. This module covers cognates, skimming and scanning, question words, false friends, and how to handle a text with unknown words in it.

Reading strategy words

Learn these terms before the strategies are compared. They name the tools of a confident reader.

Pair each French word with its meaning

Skimming against scanning

Two reading habits do different jobs, and a good reader chooses the right one for the question.

False friend or true meaning?

The French word la librairie looks like the English word library, but it is a false friend. What does it actually mean?

• A bookshop
• A library
• A bar
• A bank

Guess well before you give up

When you meet a French word you do not know, do not stop reading. First, does it look like an English word? Many do, and these cognates hand you the meaning for free. Second, what would make sense here, given the topic and the words around it? Context fills a great many gaps. Third, stay alert for false friends, the few words that look English but mean something else, so always check that the meaning fits the sentence. You will never know every word in a reading text, and you do not need to. A confident reader reads past the gaps, holds on to the overall sense, and comes back to puzzle out only the words that really matter for the question being asked.

Pick the reading strategies

Select every habit that helps you read a French text well.

• Use cognates to guess meaning
• Read the question first
• Use context to work out unknown words
• Translate every single word before you start
• Give up at the first hard word

Order how to tackle a reading text

Put the steps of tackling a French reading text in a sensible order.

• Read the question first to know what to look for
• Skim the whole text for the general idea
• Scan for the key words the question needs
• Use cognates and context for unknown words
• Choose your answer and check it against the text

Complete the reading facts

A French word that looks like its English meaning is a _____. Reading quickly for the general idea is _____. Looking for specific information is _____. A word that looks English but means something else is a false _____.

Tap the words you can guess

Tap the TWO French words that are cognates you can guess from English.

• le telephone
• la musique
• le chien
• la grenouille

A road sign in another country

Picture yourself travelling in a country whose language you barely speak. A sign flashes past with a word you have never seen, and yet you slow down, because the picture on it, the shape of the sign and the situation together tell you what it means. You did not translate it; you read the whole situation. Understanding written French works in the same way. You use the words you recognise, the topic of the text and the shape of the sentence to carry you over the words you do not know. Reading is not decoding one word at a time. It is holding the whole meaning in view and letting the parts you know light up the parts you do not.

The French reading run

Answer each one correctly to keep your lives. Choose the best answer.

Work out each written text

Read each situation and choose the best strategy.

• You need to find one specific price in a French advert. Which strategy fits best?
• You meet the French word important in a text. What is the smart first guess?
• A reading text has several words you do not know. What should you do?

Build a French sentence from the text

Choose the word for each gap to build a French sentence, then use its familiar words to read it.

Explain how to read French well

A friend panics when they see a French reading text full of words they do not know. Using what you have learned, explain how to read written French well.

• Explain what cognates are and how they help
• Explain the difference between skimming and scanning
• Explain how to use context for unknown words
• Explain what a false friend is
• Explain why you do not need to understand every word