| Improve your English |
| L. Bucki, lycée Bachelard, Bar-sur-Aube |
If you want to improve your pronunciation of (American) English, have a look at the website: Readthewords. Write down a word or a sentence in the box and it will be read by a man’s voice or a woman’s voice.
Public houses, better known as pubs, are an important part of British life. People go to the pub to have a drink, enjoy a traditional pub meal, sit down and relax, meet their friends, play games, listen to live music… It is a place where you can meet and talk to the locals.
photo credit: Mike Cattell
There are more than 53,000 pubs in the United Kingdom. A pub in which you can stay and sleep for one or more nights can be called an inn.
Most pubs are open from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. but some can have a license which allows them to be open for a longer time.
photo credit: Mike Cattell
Pub names have different origins. Some have been inspired by royalty, religion or heroes. Some come from old slogans or expressions. Typical pub names are ‘The Rose and Crown’, ‘Black Horse’ or the ‘Marquis of Granby’, named after a Commander-in-chief in the British army who gave money to this soldiers so that they could open pubs after they retire from the army.
photo credit: petemaskreplica
Many pubs are centuries old so pub signs had to be easily recognizable at times when many customers couldn’t read.
Pubs often have two bars, one being usually quieter than the other. Many have a garden where people can sit in the summer. Children can enter a pub with their parents until 9 p.m.
photo credit: Wolfiewolf
In pubs, you can drink alcohol, especially beer in pints (= about 568 ml) or half-pints but they also sell soft ( = non-alcoholic) drinks. A person who orders alcohol must be at least 18 years old. There is no table service. You must go to the bar to order drinks and food and you pay for them immediately. Your food is brought to your table.
photo credit: space.cadet
You can play traditional games in pub, a very popular one being darts:
photo credit: Paul Denton Cocker
In some pubs, you can play a game of skittles:
In nearly all pubs, you can order food for a reasonable price, such as the traditional Sunday Roast with Yorkshire pudding:
photo credit: Sacred Destinations
or the typical Ploughman’s lunch which is a cold lunch:
L’Ambassade de Grande-Bretagne à Paris a créé un site en français sur lequel vous pouvez trouver les réponses à 100 questions que l’on peut se poser sur la Grande-Bretagne, séparées en différentes catégories comme les traditions, la gastronomie, la littérature, les sites et monuments… Allez voir leur site: 100 questions.net.
Vous pouvez retrouver le cours sur l’expression du but en cliquant ICI.
Traduisez: (la correction est sous l’exercice)
1- Elle a fermé la porte pour ne pas avoir froid.
2-Parle plus fort (= speak up) pour que je puisse t’entendre!
3-Elle a ouvert la porte pour qu’il puisse sortir.
4- Je n’ai rien dit pour ne pas leur donner d’indice (= a clue).
5- Il a déménagé pour être plus proche de sa famille.
6- Ils ont envoyé leur fils en Angleterre pour qu’il apprenne l’anglais.
Correction:
1- She closed the door not to/ in order not to/ so as not to be cold.
2- Speak up so that I can hear you! (‘speak up’ est un impératif à la 2ème personne du singulier, il y a donc bien deux sujets différents dans cette phrase.)
3- She opened the door so that he could go out/ for him to be able to go out.
4- I said nothing/ I didn’t say anything not to/in order not to/ so as not to give them a clue.
5- He has moved to/in order to/ so as to be closer to his family.
6- They sent their son to England so that he learns English/ for him to learn English.
Quand vous prenez la parole en continu devant la classe, vous devez faire attention à ce que votre message soit compréhensible par tous:
-Parlez clairement (articulez) et lentement, assez fort pour que tout le monde puisse vous entendre. Préparez suffisamment votre prise de parole pour ne pas lire vos notes. Vous vous adressez à la classe: regardez les autres, ne soyez pas ‘collé’ sur votre feuille ou pire, ne leur tournez pas le dos en lisant votre affiche!
– Faites attention à la façon dont vous prononcez les mots. Si vous ne savez pas comment un mot se prononce, écoutez-le sur internet, par exemple à l’aide d’oddcast ou de Word Reference. L’anglais doit être de bonne qualité, attention aussi à la grammaire! Le vocabulaire que vous allez employer peut parfois poser problème au reste de la classe. Vous pouvez expliquer brièvement certains mots en anglais, les simplifier ou les traduire (vous pouvez, par exemple, écrire la traduction de quelques mots au tableau et les montrer au fur et à mesure que vous allez les utiliser).
– Faites une introduction et une conclusion. Soignez le contenu, organisez vos idées.
-Lors d’exposés par groupes, veillez à vous répartir le temps de parole de façon égale.
– Vous pouvez rendre votre exposé plus vivant en posant des questions à la classe (par exemple au début de l’exposé ou à la fin en posant quelques questions pour voir si ce que vous avez dit a été compris), en apportant des photos, cartes ou objets qui illustrent ce que vous dites.
a vine = une plante grimpante (signifie aussi: la vigne)
A Vine on a House is a short story written in 1905 by Ambrose Bierce, an American journalist, satirist and short story writer. He was born on June 24, 1842. Nobody knows when he died because he disappeared without a trace while he was in Mexico at the end of the year 1913, witnessing the battles of the Mexican revolution.
Read the short story on Classic Reader. It is short and shouldn’t be too difficult to understand for English learners.You can use an online dictionary, for example Word Reference and you can right click (= faire un clic droit) to open the link in a new tab (= pour ouvrir le lien dans un nouvel onglet) so as to have easy access to the translations you need.
photo credit: erjkprunczyk
The Giant’s Causeway,en français, la Chaussée des Géants (traduit usuellement par un pluriel alors que ‘Giant’ est au singulier en anglais) is an area of about 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, the result of an ancient volcanic eruption. It is located in County Antrim, on the northeast coast of Northern Ireland, about two miles (3 km) north of the town of Bushmills (and Portrush on the above map). It was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1986, and a National Nature Reserve in 1987. The tops of the columns form stepping stones that lead from the cliff (= la falaise) foot and disappear under the sea. Most of the columns are hexagonal, although there are also some with four, five, seven and eight sides. The tallest are about 12 metres (36 ft) high, and the solidified lava in the cliffs is 28 metres thick in places.
The Giant’s Causeway is the most popular tourist attraction in Northern Ireland.
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Legend has it that the Irish warrior Fionn mac Cumhaill (Finn McCool) built the causeway to walk to Scotland to fight his Scottish counterpart Benandonner. One version of the legend tells that Fionn fell asleep before he got to Scotland. When he did not arrive, the much larger Benandonner crossed the bridge looking for him. To protect Fionn, his wife Oonagh laid a blanket over him so he could pretend that he was actually their baby son. In a variation, Fionn fled after seeing Benandonner’s great bulk (= la masse, le volume), and asked his wife to disguise him as the baby. In both versions, when Benandonner saw the size of the ‘infant’, he assumed the alleged father, Fionn, must be gigantic indeed. Therefore, Benandonner fled home in terror, ripping up the Causeway in case he was followed by Fionn.
photo credit: nicksarebi
photo credit: pablocanateam
On December 25, 1066, William the Conqueror (also Duke of Normandy) became King of England. As a result, French became the language of the court, administration and culture and English continued to be used by ordinary people. More than 10,000 French words found their way into English – words associated with government, law, art, literature, food, and many other aspects of life. About three quarters of these words are still used, and words derived directly or indirectly from French now account for more than a third of English vocabulary. In fact English speakers know around 15,000 French words, even before they start learning the language.
You can find some French words and expressions used in the English language on the website About.com.
Watch out for (= attention à) false cognates (= faux amis)! 
photo credit: dontcallmeikke
On the website, you can also find English expressions with the word French. Here is a little selection:
French door – la porte-fenêtre
literally, window-door
photo credit: trekkyandy
French dressing – la vinaigrette
Only in England does French dressing mean vinaigrette. In the US, French dressing refers to a sweet, tomato-based salad dressing that does not, as far as I know, exist in France.
photo credit: spike55151
French fry – la (pomme de terre) frite
literally, fried potato. Note that French fries are actually Belgian
to take French leave – filer à l’anglaise (informal)
literally, to split/take off the English way
photo credit: pacomexico
French poodle – un caniche
literally, poodle
French toast – le pain perdu
literally, lost bread
Pardon my French. – Passez-moi l’expression.
Allow me the expression.
Thanks to the website BBC Learning English, you can improve your English vocabulary, grammar and listening skills. In the part which is called ‘Grammar, Vocabulary and Pronunciation’, you will find a list of words and expressions which have recently appeared in the English language (they are especially used by young people) like the word peeps for example.
