tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12643559128438441832012-01-17T06:42:11.065-06:00Announcement and discussion of new and future features of the French Linguistics web site. Please feel free to comment on the entries. To ask a question about French, see forum.french-linguistics.co.ukNeil Coffeynoreply@blogger.comBlogger1621100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-72336163138325024102012-01-09T13:33:00.002-06:002012-01-09T13:33:56.051-06:00

The 350 French wordsearches may now be downloaded for free, in exchange for a Twitter/Facebook mention.

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-91256892770621176022011-12-19T11:17:00.000-06:002011-12-19T11:17:00.716-06:00

Following various user feedback, some updates have been made to the grammar and phrasebook sections of the site today.

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-28729594651546212892011-11-30T07:48:00.000-06:002011-11-30T07:48:34.483-06:00

The automatic French translation service will be temporarily suspended tomorrow pending a required upgrade. The site's dictionary, professional translation service and other features will remain unaffected. For news of when the automatic service is reinstated, you may wish to follow @BitterCoffey on Twitter.

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-29582142398007015222011-11-11T10:50:00.000-06:002011-11-11T10:50:27.085-06:00

Followers of my Twitter feed will be aware that I am currently undertaking some more work based around the frequency of occurrence of French words in newspaper articles and other contemporary sources. As a spin-off of this work, approximately 1,500 words used in newspaper articles which are currently missing from the dictionary have been identified. As expected, various of these relate to recent

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-46442739525555294502011-10-20T16:55:00.002-05:002011-10-20T16:55:56.480-05:00

Lots of interesting questions (and answers!) on the French forum today and yesterday -- keep it up!

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-89482372944933698252011-10-10T00:29:00.001-05:002011-10-10T00:29:45.966-05:00

Thank you to all those who have registered for a free promo code for the French Vocab Games app for iPhone/iPad. I have had more registrations than available codes and so will be allocating available codes at random of the next couple of days. If you are still interested in a code, then you are just about in time to register!

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-60691025060531363432011-10-10T00:13:00.000-05:002011-10-10T00:13:39.966-05:00

On the home page of the site's translation service, I've added links to various translation-related articles I've written that may be of interest to readers. In particular, you may be interested in my article on What makes a good translation?, where I set out some of the reasons why translation is not in fact the trivial, mechanical process that it is typically thought to constitute.

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-74527588865619380962011-10-05T19:48:00.000-05:002011-10-05T19:48:03.731-05:00

After Monday's performance issues, the site now appears to be functioning normally, with 92% of requests turned round with approx 500ms and 81% of requests within approx 200ms. A very small number of clients appear to be experiencing delays in accessing the site that are likely due to local issues.

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-7321010606966085182011-10-03T23:41:00.001-05:002011-10-04T22:30:24.003-05:00

The French dictionary and various other pages on the site were unavailable from 1:30am GMT due to a database performance problem which is being investigated. Update: I've been informed that there was a general I/O problem on the server running the site and that this problem has now been resolved. I am therefore expecting the site to run normally from now on, but will be monitoring the situation.

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-57055541035732226272011-10-01T12:29:00.000-05:002011-10-01T12:29:30.843-05:00

Some improvements are planned for the automatic French translator provided for free on the French Linguistics site. These changes include: improvements to the translations provided; improvements to the "SMS decoder" function that is built into the translator; improvements to additional information provided alongside translations. If you have used the translator and have any suggestions/

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-25238371875748238312011-09-30T18:41:00.000-05:002011-09-30T18:41:56.498-05:00

I have revised the main page of the French Linguistics translation service, hopefully cutting away much of the clutter and moving some secondary information to other pages. The automatic translation quotation tool is still available but has been moved to its own page. You may still of course address inquiries about translations directly to me at translation@french-linguistics.co.uk

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-22907972617812773462011-09-30T15:51:00.000-05:002011-09-30T15:51:01.500-05:00

As you may be aware, the French Linguistics site's first foray into the world of iPhone/iPad apps began a few days ago with the launch of a new vocabulary learning app. However, perhaps you know of another educational app (either for French or another subject) that you think other teachers/learners should know about? In preparation for a new section of the site dedicated to reviews of

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-85173266442897062732011-09-29T17:34:00.001-05:002011-09-29T17:35:07.190-05:00

An interesting comment I had into the site today concerned the final example on the site's page about how to say 'would' in French. This last example deals with the (perhaps least common) case of 'would' in English being used as a historic future: "The king would die in 1457". The equivalent of this usage in French is generally to use the future tense: Le roi mourra.... Rather than being a

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-75666421973198109152011-09-28T14:19:00.000-05:002011-09-28T14:19:42.978-05:00

This is just a quick plea: for those who have already installed the French Vocab Games app on their iPhone or iPad, please don't forget to leave any relevant feedback (via the feedback button on the app's front screen, or indeed via the App Store feedback system if you prefer). More details of planned updates will be announced shortly, but in the near future are likely to include more topics and

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-37150242820261551982011-09-26T08:00:00.004-05:002011-09-26T08:05:36.663-05:00

I have made a small amendment has been made to the Basic French words page of the French phrases section of the web site after receiving some feedback that not all of the audio was working.Indeed, not all of the vocab sections on this page had the audio enabled and I have now made the relevant change. I have taken advantage to order the words a little more intuitively.As with the French phrases

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-71334850092989630982011-09-21T10:58:00.003-05:002011-09-21T10:59:39.680-05:00

I'm making a few updates to the French vocabulary flash cards pages. If anybody has any suggestions for new topics, then feel free to let me know!

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-33923230073830122212011-09-17T13:58:00.002-05:002011-09-17T13:59:55.316-05:00

I have put up some information for reviewers, educationalists etc wishing to review the French Vocab Games app released the other day, including information for receiving a promo code to get a free review copy of the app.

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-68307231089826854202011-09-15T19:12:00.003-05:002011-09-15T19:38:37.245-05:00

The new French Vocab Games app for iPhone/iPad finally goes on sale in app stores today. For more details, I encourage you to check out the App store description as well as the brief announcement that I put up on the French Language Forum a short while ago.The app is designed for students who are beginners through to around GCSE level (i.e. the first few years of a typical school French course).

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-58481467373258386742011-09-02T18:29:00.006-05:002011-09-02T18:51:21.185-05:00

Once upon a time, when the likes of the iPhone was not even a twinkle in Steve Jobs' eye, I wrote some extremely primitive French vocabulary games for Java-enabled phones. Although they had a small vocabulary update and bug fix in 2005, they were basically written around 1999 and well, to put it bluntly... it shows. So, these games will shortly be retired in the wake of a new French vocabulary

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-72338483074514745092011-08-16T12:24:00.002-05:002011-08-16T12:26:18.909-05:00

We're used to seeing machine translation which is so disastrously wrong that the error is obvious to the point of being ridiculous. But what about when machine translation produces apparently fluent translations but with serious errors that are more difficult to detect?

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-9623407746234554582011-08-06T15:24:00.003-05:002011-08-06T15:29:30.609-05:00

A frequently discussed topics among translators, and indeed communities of other professions where many work remotely and are thus susceptible to this kind of crime, is how to spot scams. I quote the following, admittedly slightly easy, example that appeared on a translators' forum today. See how many telltale signs you can spot.

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-85220045861120263042011-07-31T13:43:00.002-05:002011-07-31T13:45:15.987-05:00

I am currently conducting a survey to find out your opinion on introducing prizes for the best questions and answers posted on the French Forum. Over 2,000 people either use or have passed through the forum, and so I would like to try and encourage a bit more participation. Your opinions will be gratefully received!

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-2989871120093206182011-07-23T12:11:00.002-05:002011-07-23T12:20:21.527-05:00

Well, things are pretty much winding down for the summer holidays, so there is a little bit less activity on the French forum. People are naturally thinking more about their sun tan lotion and bathers right now than their French verb conjugations. For that reason, I'm going to cheat slightly in this summary and mention a couple of posts from actually just over a week ago.One interesting question

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-35063860045945494662011-06-30T17:16:00.002-05:002011-06-30T17:16:50.945-05:00

I'm conducting another survey on the site. This one's above user interests if you have a minute!

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-74484889181490608812011-06-21T19:31:00.002-05:002011-06-21T19:35:26.813-05:00

To help those interested in contracting translations via the French Linguistics translation service, a translation price guide has now been added. It should be noted that the prices given are to serve purely as a guide, and that (as mentioned in the document) each text is priced individually, depending on the particular nature of that text, the purpose of the translation etc.I am also currently

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-75794003760728546482011-06-20T13:46:00.003-05:002011-06-20T13:53:18.981-05:00

Readers may have seen from my various tweets that I am currently revising many of the English-French entries in the dictionary, particularly those that are currently in the form of an "index". Look out for improvements over the coming weeks. Suggestions for missing words that you would like to see included are always welcome.

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-31689250404573901082011-06-15T20:42:00.003-05:002011-06-15T20:45:11.244-05:00

You may have seen the report of Acer's slight translation mishap which I have also reported on the French Linguistics site today for all to share in their amusement.But perhaps you have some better examples to share with the world? Perhaps you took a photograph of an amusingly embarrassing sign mistranslation while on your holidays? Let me know at translation@french-linguistics.co.uk -- there may

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-25210232643679954512011-06-11T14:11:00.003-05:002011-06-11T14:15:33.147-05:00

I receive a steady stream of feedback about particular dictionary entries, examples on the grammar pages and indeed the site per se. I don't usually get chance to reply personally to such feedback, but users will have noticed that valid feedback does generally end up incorporated into the site/dictionary.I also want to alert users to the fact that you can also tweet quick feedback to me directly

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-1214514927284178442011-06-11T12:39:00.002-05:002011-06-11T12:40:26.716-05:00

There's been an excellent mix of questions/answers on the French language forum this week -- thanks to all you have contributed!

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-29678282310316933932011-06-08T22:30:00.001-05:002011-06-08T22:32:46.381-05:00

This actually passed me by, but a few days ago we apparently reached 2,000 members on the French forum. Now obviously, I realise that nowhere near all of these are active members (though it's always good to see our growing stock of regular posters). But nontheless, it is some kind of milestone of how many people have "stopped off" at the forum to have their questions answered about French

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-29575112609281684432011-06-06T19:27:00.001-05:002011-06-06T19:37:42.237-05:00

Today's update to the dictionary focuses primarily on the English-French side of the dictionary and improves on various French translations of common English words.

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-4975587468436544222011-05-23T11:12:00.002-05:002011-05-23T11:14:54.216-05:00

Dear all,As those who read the French discussion forum will be aware, I'm opening up the floor for topic suggestions for a new series of French learning podcasts that I intend to put together over the coming weeks and months. If you have a suggestion, I invite you to add an entry to the "French audio podcasts" thread.

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-91209157813261564482011-05-21T08:37:00.006-05:002011-05-21T11:14:29.117-05:00

A few days ago, I invited users of the French Linguistics site to respond to a survey about their perception of translation services. I was interested in finding out how much people generally expected to pay for the translation of documents, and what their perception of translation services was generally. I also conducted a similar survey among professional translators.A common theme among

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-43111548689981244942011-05-15T11:49:00.003-05:002011-05-15T11:57:26.896-05:00

Eagle-eyed views (well actually, you don't need to be that eagle-eyed) will have noticed that I'm running another translation opinion survey on the French dictionary home page. I'm essentially interested in finding out what companies and individuals think of translation services from the point of view of pricing and quality.I've written on the subject of translation processes and budgets in the

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-31234910790501223062011-03-18T18:40:00.001-05:002011-03-18T18:41:35.349-05:00

There will be one or two momentary disruptions this weekend to the French Linguistics site as a few updates are installed (and tested, fixed and reinstalled... :-) Thank you for your patience!

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-68949351013341291142011-03-18T10:56:00.004-05:002011-03-18T10:58:06.251-05:00

Readers are invited to comment on an initial version of a new addition to the French grammar section of the site dealing with prepositions in French.The prepositions are split into various sublists: "basic" prepositions, less common prepositions, rare/archaic and compound prepositions. As with much of the site, this section will be expanded in due course, and suggestions are always welcome.

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-18365972630567940052011-03-10T14:02:00.004-06:002011-03-10T14:04:46.928-06:00

Those who have been using the automatic French translator may recall that some time ago, the translator included a "context-sensitive" feature offering a set of common phrases alongside the translation. For example, if you were asking the translator for what appeared to be the translation of a business letter, a list of common letter openings and closures would be included.This feature had to be

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-65981846531074631242011-03-10T09:46:00.002-06:002011-03-10T09:49:46.337-06:00

I am looking for suggestions for expanding the French vocab and phrases section of the web site. At the bottom of the page, I invite users to enter new topic suggestions.

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-36158933852480545752011-03-10T09:44:00.003-06:002011-03-10T09:46:04.805-06:00

A number of updates and corrections have been made to the French grammar articles as a result of feedback that has been sent to me via the site. I am always grateful for such feedback, so if anyone spots any more typos, please feel free to let me know!

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-30882976899260953222011-03-04T11:26:00.002-06:002011-03-04T11:27:10.058-06:00

Ideas are welcomed for a new guide in progress on understanding and translating French contracts.

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-51632914037815893862011-03-01T22:39:00.004-06:002011-03-01T22:42:49.243-06:00

Users of the French Linguistics site may be interested in the Currency Quoter tool, of which an update was released today. The tool is designed for those who operate with different currencies and need to convert between them frequently, for example in order to quote prices to their clients in other currencies.As well as converting amounts at the current exchange, the program allows you to view

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-83168397079802426272011-01-21T04:58:00.002-06:002011-01-21T05:03:04.369-06:00

Unfortunately there have been a few instances of spam postings appearing on the French Language forum over the last few days. So while I assess the situation, I've taken the decision to moderate all sign-ups to the forum for the next few days. This means that people signing up to the forum will experience a delay-- hopefully of just a couple of hours or so-- between signing up being able to

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-75972077693968379202011-01-19T17:25:00.002-06:002011-01-19T17:33:29.722-06:00

Some improvements have been made to make the French-English dictionary cope a little better with lookups of feminine and plural forms. In most cases, looking up a feminine or plural form will now direct you to the entry for the base form. (In total, around 20,000 extra plural forms and around 6,000 feminine forms are now accepted in this way.)Further work is underway to improve the dictionary's

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-85522504182774685422011-01-16T00:03:00.002-06:002011-01-16T00:11:10.207-06:00

The site's French grammar tutorial section contains some new information about the French spelling reform (rectifications de l'orthographe, 1990).What may be of particular interest to learners and writers is that, as well as explaining the main reforms proposed, this section also reports on some partial results from a survey conducted last year on French speakers' opinions about the reforms. The

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-11670875793014504102011-01-03T17:07:00.003-06:002011-01-03T17:10:29.731-06:00

A change has been made to the gubbinry of the French Language forum that means that the "Follow" option should work in many cases where it didn't before. When you ask a question or get involved in a discussion on the forum, you may wish to click on the "Follow" button at the bottom of the page. You will then receive an e-mail when a new post is made to that thread, be it a response to your

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-87384067831224601792011-01-03T11:25:00.002-06:002011-01-03T11:38:28.720-06:00

As mentioned in a previous post, the French Linguistics site was moved to a new server over the weekend.Following this move:- The French dictionary is being updated to include the latest additions and corrections. This means that some dictionary entries may be temporarily unavailable today while the data is being uploaded.- A few minor corrections have been made for problems caused by

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-36201560999352041762011-01-02T12:02:00.003-06:002011-01-02T12:04:47.043-06:00

Happy New Year to all users of the French Linguistics web site!The French Linguistics web site is currently being moved to a new upgraded server. This will likely cause the site to be periodically unavailable today (Sunday). Your patience is appreciated...!

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-33062769162993743032010-12-17T08:07:00.003-06:002010-12-17T08:11:18.252-06:00

The site's translation services will be available over Christmas. However, please note the following:- you are advised to submit your documents as soon as possible during December;- no non-urgent translations will be delivered between 24-26 December; if you urgently require translations delivered on these dates, please specify this at the outset in your request;- between 24-26 December, it may

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-17658996483059698972010-11-29T18:12:00.002-06:002010-11-29T18:14:56.652-06:00

A change has been made to the French-English dictionary to make it easier to link to dictionary entries from your blog or web site, or to e-mail links to French dictionary entries to yourself or other friends/colleagues.Many entries now have their own URL. After looking a word up in the dictionary, you can copy the URL from the address bar of your browser, and later use that URL to look up the

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-26992278587408795332010-11-26T10:35:00.002-06:002010-11-26T10:37:08.745-06:00

Users of the French linguistics web site, both native and non-native speakers, may be interested in a filling out a new survey on the French spellings, which invites you to indicate which spelling you prefer out of alternatives (non-reformed vs reformed).

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-7592122754776934842010-11-26T09:51:00.003-06:002010-11-26T09:54:51.122-06:00

A correction suggester has been added to the site's French dictionary. Whenever you look up a word that is not found in the dictionary, the system will attempt to find words in the dictionary which would sound similar to the word that you entered.This is the first version of the correction suggester, which will be improved over time. At present, it is designed primarily to cope with cases where

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-61902101362398168982010-11-24T06:03:00.002-06:002010-11-24T06:07:37.211-06:00

Thank you to an eagle-eyed reader who has spotted a slight glitch with the imperfect tense of verbs such as peindre and craindre. The imperfect tense of these verbs takes the form peignais, craignais etc (with gn). A spurious extra n has slipped into the spellings produced by the system. This is being looked into, and a correction should be available within the next day or so.Unfortunately the

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-63185021006571136112010-11-21T17:47:00.002-06:002010-11-21T17:52:54.662-06:00

A recurrent theme on the French Linguistics forum this week has been the choice of auxiliary verb (avoir vs être) in the perfect tense (passé composé)-- a question which indeed applies to other so-called compound tenses in French.For more information, you may like to consult:- the French forum, where you are free to ask questions about the French language and French culture in general, and browse

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-58856142850594868182010-08-30T22:34:00.005-05:002010-08-30T22:51:48.687-05:00

I found this interesting. Apparently OUP are considering the not unsurprising possibility of not printing a physical copy of the next "edition" of the OED.Aside from questions about the utility of printing a work that in printed form spans several volumes and still requires a magnifying glass in order to be read, I find two things interesting:- in today's climate, the editors still aoparently see

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-75855939494606670932010-08-30T22:34:00.001-05:002010-08-30T22:34:54.878-05:00

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-73171735868508771182010-08-30T16:10:00.003-05:002010-08-30T16:14:06.827-05:00

I'm pleased to announce that the first audio recordings are now integrated into the French-English dictionary. This means that for the most common French words, a small "loudspeaker" icon will appear next to the headword. Clicking on this icon will allow you to listen to the pronunciation of the French word in question.

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-9460638350573413292010-08-30T09:26:00.005-05:002010-08-30T09:30:31.417-05:00

The translation service quotation tool now understands DOCX files. Whilst many clients still submit their documents in the "traditional" DOC format, an increasing number are moving over to the DOCX file. Hopefully this update to the tool will assist those requesting quick translation quotes before deciding whether or not to go ahead with the translation.If you require a translation of other

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-46086148593858649022010-08-28T13:25:00.003-05:002010-08-28T13:27:22.776-05:00

Enquiries to the site's French translation service (also available in other languages) will generally be available as usual over the bank holiday weekend, including Monday 30th August.

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-2335239521023077872010-08-28T13:16:00.001-05:002010-08-28T13:18:06.919-05:00

Today's minor update adds a few basic "declined" forms of words previously missing from the French dictionary.

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-49402126990188821312010-08-27T21:05:00.002-05:002010-08-27T21:08:12.013-05:00

I'm going to be carrying out some maintenance work this weekend on the French Linguistics web site which will probably mean that the dictionary and some other pages of the site will be unavailable for occasional 30-60 second periods.This work is in preparation for work to be carried out next month to move the site to a new upgraded server. Most of the work will be done over weekends and at times

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-71415755221319483382010-08-25T09:21:00.003-05:002010-08-25T09:24:30.295-05:00

A fix has been made to the interactive present tense exercise available in the French grammar section of the web site. If you're learning the present tense and are not aware of this page, then you may like to check it out and practise forming the present tense on line.A full screen version of this and various of the other on-line grammar exercises is also available for classroom use.

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-43460266819023176632010-08-24T11:44:00.003-05:002010-08-24T11:52:44.193-05:00

The French verb tables given on the site now allow you to listen to the pronunciation of the verb forms.To listen to the forms of a verb, look the verb up in the French dictionary, then look for the list of verb forms that appears-- usually towards the bottom-- in the dictionary entry. Look for the link saying Click here to see the full conjugation. Clicking on that link will take you to the full

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-63419801973328783792010-08-23T20:35:00.004-05:002010-08-23T20:37:08.639-05:00

The French worksheets section of the web site now contains a new PDF with French grammar exercises. The exercises are based on the interactive ones available from the French grammar section of the French Linguistics web site. Further PDFs containing French grammar exercises will be added in the near future. As ever, your feedback on this and any content on the site is appreciated.

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-23304634180963727762010-08-16T09:08:00.002-05:002010-08-16T09:13:39.814-05:00

The site's French-English and English-French dictionaries have been updated today. As usual, the updates come in various forms:- various corrections to minor spelling mistakes which users have pointed out over the last few months;- new vocabulary has been added, particular in the field of computing and new technological developments (words such as biclef, jailbreaké, smartphone);- expansion of

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-49800308001947224392010-08-03T00:22:00.006-05:002010-08-03T00:56:40.216-05:00

There has been predictably negative reaction among the linguistic community in response to an article published in the Atlanta Journal Constitution reporting on how some councils in the US are apparently bemoaning the cost of court interpreters. One councilman is quoted to have reacted to interpreters' pay by saying: "I need to get a Rosetta Stone [CD]. That's not a bad gig." Nobody on the other

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-25592153964702303492010-08-03T00:12:00.004-05:002010-08-03T00:21:33.200-05:00

Many thanks to all of those users who have filled in the three surveys currently running on the site:- the French learner's survey is gathering some interesting, and in some cases surprising, trends on what aspects of language learning users find difficult, and will point the way for new material added to the French Linguistics site over the coming months;- the iPad survey is also gathering

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-84194737083016792352010-07-09T18:17:00.002-05:002010-07-09T18:22:12.755-05:00

I'm currently conducting a survey of people who have or are thinking of getting an iPad to see what kind of language-learning activities you would use it for. The plan is to use the results of the survey in considering the possibility of providing new iPad and iPhone applications for users of the French Lingusitics site.The survey is extremely quick to fill out and is your chance to vote for the

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-35648707808713634152010-07-09T15:14:00.002-05:002010-07-09T15:17:09.892-05:00

In addition to the French learners' survey mentioned earlier this week in another blog posting, the French Linguistics is currently runnin a translation survey to find out more about the needs of those who contract translation services (or are looking to do so but have doubts about how such services work). The aim is to improve the French translation service offered by the French Lingusitics web

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-42365496080322495242010-07-09T15:09:00.003-05:002010-07-09T15:13:27.524-05:00

In the French grammar section of the web site, a new exercise has been added to the page on using du, de la and des: see the new exercises on saying some in French.The exercises follow a similar pattern to others in the grammar section: you must complete a number of boxes in which you are asked to provide the French for a particular phrase or sentence. As with other exercises, full screen

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-54061295806413720472010-07-05T05:08:00.003-05:002010-07-05T05:09:55.652-05:00

Users of the French Linguistics site are invited to take part in a quick French learners' survey. The survey asks you about which aspects of learning French you find easy and difficult and will only take you a minute or two. The results of the survey will be used to improve the web site.

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-44329921203307209672010-07-04T18:06:00.002-05:002010-07-04T18:10:28.638-05:00

A number of small updates will be applied to the site over the coming week (5th-9th July), including updates to some of the dictionary data plus modifications to the software that works "behind the scenes" to bring you the dictionary plus other parts of the site.This means that if you're one of those fortunate to be spending their time this week using the web site rather than basking on a

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-12358019850894383102010-05-04T16:56:00.002-05:002010-05-04T17:02:31.210-05:00

If you or your company has ongoing translation needs, you are encouraged to subscribe to this site's translation mailing list. To make things easier, the subscription tool is currently being displayed on the main dictionary page.Those subscribed to the mailing list will receive periodic announcements about reductions and offers available from the site's translation service, along with other

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-27685812552952266372010-03-08T05:29:00.002-06:002010-03-08T05:36:33.007-06:00

The automatic French translation system can be extremely useful in giving you the gist of a particular text. However, the system often does not give as good a result as it could because of missing accents on the text that uesrs enter into the system. When you are inputting a French text to be translated into English, it is important to try and enter the accents that appear on letters as

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-88914416008610031242010-02-25T09:56:00.003-06:002010-02-25T10:07:58.858-06:00

Many people working with French do so in a business environment. Perhaps you have to liaise with the French head office of the company you work for. Or perhaps your UK business is in the process of negociating a deal with another French company. Or maybe your Canadian business wishes to address both English-speaking and French-speaking customers. Finally, if you are a professional translator like

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-24371459473345762682010-01-24T05:01:00.003-06:002010-01-24T05:07:27.997-06:00

The site's French dictionary has been updated today. As usual, the update includes various corrections and expansions to entries, plus various new words. Many of the corrections have been made on the basis of users' feedback, and you are reminded that feedback on individual entries is always available via the feedback link that appears next to each one.Users of the dictionary may also wish to

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-12350599954768051882010-01-05T08:18:00.004-06:002010-01-05T08:25:27.792-06:00

The French language discussion forum has been re-instated today after being temporarily disabled yesterday. The forum was disabled following various spam posts that were posted on this forum plus other forums by a bogus pharmaceuticals company. The situation is being monitored and I apologise to users for the inconvenience.Users are reminded to be vigilent when using this and other forums. The

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-50402800018560396492009-12-19T05:21:00.003-06:002009-12-19T05:47:40.891-06:00

Readers may be interested in a new article I posted a few days on web site localisation. The article explores some of the issues involved the actual translation process, but also some of the technical points that are worth considering.A broad issue that I repeatedly see in localisation is that developers often don't get the translator involved in the early stages of the project, either because

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-65579514566528810392009-11-30T13:54:00.002-06:002009-11-30T13:55:43.415-06:00

In yesterday's update to the French dictionary, a few basic words were temporarily missed out. The error has now been fixed. Apologies to those who were told that some basic words such as habiter could not be found...!

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-37113278012938395442009-11-29T21:30:00.001-06:002009-11-29T21:33:10.570-06:00

The URL for signing up for the translation mailing list has changed. For those interested in signing up, please go to the following address: http://www.french-linguistics.co.uk/translation-service/translation_offers.htmlThose signing up will receive e-mail notifications of free and reduced-price translation offers in the future. Providing accurate details will help to make sure that you are

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-39314226327902860562009-11-29T19:29:00.001-06:002009-11-29T19:31:35.794-06:00

For beta testers of the French pronunciation section: a few corrections have been made to the pronunciations of words with accents (to correct character encoding problem).

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-84954763465693649112009-11-29T11:30:00.002-06:002009-11-29T11:40:21.802-06:00

As you have probably noticed, entries for verbs in the French dictionary contain a "mini verb table" listing some of the most common verb forms for that verb. A minor change has been made so that these tables now display the present subjunctive form of the verb.As explained in more detail in the French grammar section, the subjunctive forms are special forms used to mark a non-assertion. In other

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-44597171809405127432009-11-27T12:34:00.003-06:002009-11-27T12:39:02.010-06:00

On the automatic French translation page, the "Decode SMS speak" function has been reinstanted. This function replaces some common SMS abbreviations used in French text messages so that the machine translator can understand them.For example, c will be expanded to c'est; chuis to je suis; koi to quoi etc.Certain more complex forms are also expanded: for example, jmappel will be expanded to je

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-11925432452229071562009-11-25T17:03:00.001-06:002009-11-25T17:05:02.947-06:00

A number of new entries and improvements in both the English-French and French-English sides of the dictionaries have been uploaded today.

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-36249610825532539662009-11-02T23:07:00.003-06:002009-11-02T23:12:47.353-06:00

As usual, today's update to the French dictionary adds various new entries and improvements to various English-French entries.A question I've been asked a couple of times is whether I would like to be notified of missing entries. So I'd like to take this opportunity to ensure users that the dictionary system automatically notifies me of this and various other issues (including, for example,

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-31815249170808556322009-11-01T15:08:00.004-06:002009-11-01T15:18:28.212-06:00

A problem has now been fixed that was causing certain verb conjugations not to appear. French verb conjugations may now be displayed by any of the following means:from the French grammar page, by clicking on one of the verbs in the list in the Verb Conjugations section (the green boxed section);from entries in the French dictionary: as you are probably aware, in entries for verbs, forms for four

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-9142869940748032102009-11-01T12:19:00.004-06:002009-11-01T12:26:38.970-06:00

Those who may be requiring the site's translation services are encouraged to sign up to the translation newsletter. This newsletter will be sent out on a regular basis to inform subscribers about translation offers and other news relating to the translation service.Anybody may sign up. However, the newsletter is particularly aimed at companies and individuals who have regular translation needs (

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-32704532906854862462009-11-01T12:13:00.002-06:002009-11-01T12:15:40.988-06:00

Eagle-eyed users of the French Linguistics web site will have noticed that the French wordsearches were not working over this weekend. The problem appears to have been caused by an update performed on Friday evening and has now been fixed. Apologies for the inconvenience caused to our wordsearch addicts.

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-80835878235205285192009-11-01T09:14:00.002-06:002009-11-01T09:16:19.750-06:00

The French Linguistics site will undergo some occasional short disruptions today as some updates and bug fixes are applied to the site. Apologies for the inconvenience. If you find that a particular feature isn't working, you are advised to try again in 5 minutes.

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-90474577459533193872009-10-25T12:55:00.003-05:002009-10-25T12:57:25.802-05:00

Today's update adds various new entries to the French dictionary and follows in the wake of other recent updates by including various improvements to commonly consulted entries in the English-French side of the dictionary.

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-28902622502642261832009-10-11T22:35:00.001-05:002009-10-11T22:36:15.109-05:00

Today saw another action-packed update of the French-English and English-French sides of the dictionary. Hurray!

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-38783692947339195432009-10-11T08:50:00.002-05:002009-10-11T08:54:05.277-05:00

Readers interested in translation are invited to read a new article I have written on the translation of advertising material. The article examines some of the issues involved in translating on-line advertising material and how this differs from the translation of ordinary material.As explored in the article, one of the challenges with translating on-line adverts comes in translating the

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-62305382603680292212009-10-07T10:04:00.003-05:002009-10-07T10:10:55.167-05:00

Some readers of this blog and users of the French Linguistics site will be interested in languages more generally, so this is just a little note to point out that Amazon US are currently offering a fairly substantial discount on Instant Immersion German Deluxe. In case you're not familiar with the series, the Instant Immersion software offers a range of audio and video-based material aimed at

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-44763832581542986902009-10-05T22:44:00.002-05:002009-10-05T22:49:23.824-05:00

Good news, everybody.The French language forum has reached its 500th member! Many thanks to all those who participate in the forum, be it to ask questions about French or to help learners. If you haven't discovered it yet, the forum is a great community for expanding your knowledge of French, even if you're just beginning, or simply for chatting to other French speakers and learners.I'd like to

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-75581855529564786052009-10-03T16:51:00.002-05:002009-10-03T16:54:09.536-05:00

Today's update to the dictionary focuses on various new entries and improvements to existing entries in the English-French dictionary. New and/or improved entries have been included for various frequently looked up words, including special entries for various conjugated forms of verbs.

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-34105014611529413082009-09-14T23:19:00.002-05:002009-09-14T23:25:17.912-05:00

Today's update to the French dictionary includes a variety of new words and improvements to existing entries. Specific updates include:various new terms added in the fields of computing;various new terms of French and English legalese;improvements to various entries in the English-French side of the dictionary.As usual, your feedback is always welcome on how useful you found the dictionary for a

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-38359436517789601922009-09-08T18:00:00.002-05:002009-09-08T18:02:45.436-05:00

A big thank-you to everyone who's been contributing to various interseting discussions recently on the French language forum. We've now reached over 400 members. Whilst it's surely true that not all of these members continue to be active, it's nonetheless a great milestone and it's good to see that so many people have passed through at one time or another with their questions. Keep them coming!

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-12961385653299220292009-08-20T17:17:00.003-05:002009-08-20T17:23:19.053-05:00

The automatic translation tool is currently undergoing maintance and will be off line for a few days. Meanwhile, you may use:the site's French dictionary for looking up individual French words;the French language forum, where you may ask questions about the French language or get help with your French homework; for small, informal sentences for non-commercial use, people will often be happy to

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-16652482398903469672009-08-02T23:57:00.002-05:002009-08-03T00:02:50.745-05:00

Today's update focusses primarily on improvements to various entries in the English-French side of the dictionary. The entries to various commonly lookuped up words have been expanded and clarified.

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-57958389982498501732009-07-04T16:15:00.002-05:002009-07-04T16:36:43.531-05:00

As usual, we've seen various interesting discussions this week on the French language forum. It's interesting to see how on various occasions, a simple, innocent query about the meaning of a word or phrase can spiral into a discussion of various grammar and vocabulary points.Some threads not to miss:a discussion around expressing obligation in French, which ends up touching on the somewhat quirky

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264355912843844183.post-51782861702106715242009-06-27T13:09:00.002-05:002009-06-27T13:11:39.581-05:00

The French forum now counts over 200 members, with discussions ranging from simple homework help to details of French grammar to cultural issues. Thank you to everyone who participating in what are some very interesting and helpful discussions.

Neil Coffeynoreply@blogger.com0