This online resource is based on the Make German... Make French Your Business television programmes and can be used as a stand-alone resource or with the TV.
Choose a topic from the main menu. Each topic has the following structure:
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Audio
A selection of audio clips from the tv programmes.
To listen to these, you'll need the RealPlayer 'plug-in'.
Use the control bar to pause, rewind and replay the clips.
More details on 'plug-ins' can be found at BBC Online Help.
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Key language
A selection of key phrases for the topic.
Call them up at any time for reference.
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Key words
Some key vocabulary which will help you understand the online topic. |
Practice activities
These test your understanding of the audio clips and let you practise what you've heard and learnt.
A certain degree of flexibility is allowed. For the most part, only words and phrases covered throughout the online topic will be accepted.
Correct answers not covered online will not be accepted.
| For example... | | French | Q - Comment vous appelez-vous? | German | Q - Wie heißen Sie? | | A - Je suis Mr Smith | | A - Ich bin Herr Smith | | A - Je m'appelle Robert Smith | | A - Ich heiße Robert Smith | | but not * | A - Robert Smith est mon nom | but not * | A - Man nennt mich Smith
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Some minor inaccuracies will be ignored, such as words input without accents but this is incorrect in both French and German. When you are asked to give details about yourself, only the foreign language bit of the answer is assessed. |
Self check
Check your language skill level in the topic. |
Transcripts and translation
These are provided as support to the audio files. Try to listen to the audio before you look at these, to improve your listening skills.
Click on the text to display the English translation. the relevant section will appear at the very top of your screen.
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Reference
There are two main sections in the reference:
- Language notes: grammatical explanations clarifying how the language works and illustrated by examples;
- Cultural notes: cultural information of general and particular interest to business learners.
You can access the Language and Cultural Notes from the Key Language and Key Word pages or directly through the Reference section. |
Typing accented characters: ä, é...
In German there are correct alternative spellings
• ä ae • ö oe • ü ue
• Ä Ae • Ö Oe • Ü Ue
• ß ss
PC users
Hold down the alt key and type the relevant ASCII code:
German
• ä 132 • ö 148 • ü 129
• Ä 142 • Ö 153 • Ü 154
• ß 225
French
• à 133 • â 131 • ç 135 • Ç 128
• é 130 • è 138 • ê 136
• î 140 • ô 147 • û 150 • ù 159
In some systems, holding down the alt + ctrl keys as you type the vowel will produce the vowel with an acute accent.
• It is correct for upper case letters to be written with or without accents
Mac users
For vowels, type the sequence alt + accent key + vowel
where the accent key is
e for an acute accent, ´
` for a grave accent
i for a circumflex accent ˆ
u for an umlaut ¨
For ç, alt + c
For ß, alt + s
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Feedback
We are interested in your comments on this site, in particular, what you think of the number and type of language activities we have created for this part of the Languages site and how you (plan to) use them. |
Dictionaries
University of Geneva's DicoVox Online French-English.
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. |
