Possibility of brief downtime this Sunday 27 January

There is a small chance that the French Linguistics site will be down briefly this Sunday around midday UK time for maintenance. Thank you for your patience!

New article on the pronunciation of French stops

The first of a number of articles I will be writing on various aspects of French pronunciation has just been published. This initial article looks at the pronunciation of French stop consonants, considering the important ways in which they differ from their English counterparts.

French Word Searches added to info on volume discount program

French Word Searches for iPad has been added to the information on the availability of the site's French software at half price.

The software is available to educational institutions at half price under Apple's volume discount program. Please see the aforementioned page for more information.

Suitability of French apps for the Cambridge IGCSE exam

I received a question the other day regarding the suitability of this site's French Vocab app for students taking the IGCSE exam.

Both French Vocab Games and its sister Utter French! (pronunciation) app and French Word Searches for iPad are based on core GCSE vocabulary which is very similar to the core vocabulary specified for the Cambridge IGCSE exam. They are therefore highly suited to students taking the IGCSE French exam.

There is a slight difference in how these apps are intended to be used:

• French Vocab Games for iPhone is designed to help you learn vocabulary from scratch and then continue to revise that vocabulary throughout your course. In other words, it is designed to be a companion to your studies. As is the nature of iPhone apps, it is also designed to allow you to do "bite sized" revision. To see whether it is suitable for you, you make like to know that a free trial version of French Vocab Games app is available  The trial version only includes a couple of the 20+ vocab topics available in the full version.
• French Word Searches for iPad is designed to be more of a revision and reinforcement tool than for learning vocab from scratch. Note that it is designed to focus on the written forms of vocab and, unlike the other two apps, does not feature speech.
• Utter French! focuses specifically on pronunciation. It is designed primarily to help you master the pronunciation of vocabulary that you have already come across. The app will prove to be an invaluable resource for those looking to make themselves clearly understood by French speakers, or get those extra speaking test marks for good pronunciation. Unlike many French pronunciation resources available, it was actually written by a French phonetics specialist and offers a good balance between accuracy and comprehensibility to the "ordinary" student. Although primarily a pronunciation app, since the vocab list is searchable, you can still use its 1,200+ word vocabulary as a mini dictionary/glossary.

Offer: free copy of French Vocab Games for iPhone or French Word Searches for iPad

I am currently running an offer from the French dictionary page whereby people can request a free copy of either French Vocab Games for iPhone or French Word Searches for iPad in exchange for a review of the Utter French! pronunciation app, which will also free for the duration of the offer.

Please note that to qualify for the offer:

• You must leave a review of Utter French! in the App Store. Only when your review is visible will you be entitled to a free copy of one of the other apps.
• You must fill in this page, in particular specifying the e-mail address to which you would like to receive your app promo code.