Skip to content
Study Hall
Unit 5 · 5 lessons

Langue et société: Registers, Media and Literature

Use French the way French speakers do: shift register on purpose, understand spoken French and slang, read the news for bias, meet francophone writers from four continents, and write formal letters, reviews and reports.

  • 48 practice questions
  • 44 flashcards
Start lesson 1 →Unit 5 test review →

Lessons

  1. 1Registers: Familier, Courant, SoutenuHow French signals the relationship between speaker and listener: vocabulary in three layers (bagnole, voiture, automobile), the grammar markers of each register (dropped ne, on, question forms, ça and cela, the ne explétif), greetings, closings and conversation cues, and how to choose and hold one register for a given audience.9 questions
  2. 2Spoken French, Slang and IdiomsUnderstand French as it is really spoken: elision and the three kinds of liaison, spoken contractions (t'es, chuis, p'tit, y'a, z'êtes), verlan from France, informal vocabulary in Québec and France, anglicisms and calques on both sides of the Atlantic, and idioms you will hear every day.10 questions
  3. 3Media, Bias and Point of ViewRead French-language news critically: the parts of a news page (surtitre, titre, chapeau, légende), fact and opinion markers, loaded words and attribution verbs, the journalistic conditionnel in the present and the past, what a story leaves out, how outlets in different regions frame the same event, and respectful terms for First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples.9 questions
  4. 4Francophone Literatures and CulturesWriters who shaped literature in French outside France: the Négritude poets Aimé Césaire and Léopold Sédar Senghor, Dany Laferrière, Mariama Bâ and Ahmadou Kourouma, Gabrielle Roy, Antonine Maillet, Michel Tremblay and Kim Thúy, Innu writers An Antane Kapesh and Natasha Kanapé Fontaine, the legend of la chasse-galerie, and the vocabulary and tenses for talking about a literary text.10 questions
  5. 5Formal Writing: Applications, Reviews and ReportsThree formal genres for university and work: a formal letter of application with its fixed formulas (Je me permets de…, Je vous saurais gré de…, Veuillez trouver ci-joint…) and the polite impératif, a film review that summarises, analyses and quotes, and a report that presents data, draws conclusions in past tenses and makes recommendations, plus a savings plan and a self-editing checklist.10 questions