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French vocabulary in context: let the actions reveal the meaning

Edited by Chris Lee · Updated · About the library

Read a short art-studio scene and use actions to interpret toile, dossier and pièce. Picture cards and four questions help you test each meaning in context.

In short

Read what people do with an object before choosing its meaning. A pièce placed in a puzzle is a piece; a dossier you lean against on a chair is a backrest. Keep the noun beside its action so the whole scene makes sense.

Yellow the idea to rememberBlue French to learn

A woman paints a simple blue sky on an unlettered landscape canvas on an easel in a French artist’s studio, a brush and plain paint pots nearby.
Adding blue with a brush identifies la toile. Illustration: Atelier

A2 reading · objects and actions

Un après-midi dans l’atelier

Nora entre dans l’atelier de son oncle. Elle prend un pinceau, le trempe dans la peinture et ajoute du bleu sur une toile1 posée sur un chevalet. Elle veut finir de peindre le ciel avant la pause.

Son oncle lui propose une chaise. Nora s’assoit et s’appuie contre le dossier2. Un pied de la chaise bouge. Elle se relève et choisit une autre chaise.

Sur la table, son cousin termine un puzzle. Il cherche une pièce3 bleue. Nora la trouve sous la boîte et la place dans le ciel, juste au-dessus du bateau. Avant de partir, elle recopie4 la liste du matériel dans son carnet pour préparer la prochaine séance.

Read it in English

Nora enters her uncle’s studio. She takes a paintbrush, dips it in the paint and adds blue to a canvas on an easel. She wants to finish painting the sky before the break.

Her uncle offers her a chair. Nora sits down and rests her back against the backrest. One chair leg wobbles. She gets up and chooses another chair.

On the table, her cousin is finishing a jigsaw. He is looking for a blue piece. Nora finds it under the box and places it in the sky, just above the boat. Before leaving, she copies the materials list into her notebook to prepare for the next session.

How do you guess a French word’s meaning from context?

The surrounding actions select a meaning
WordClue 1Clue 2Meaning here
toiletrempe le pinceauajoute du bleucanvas
dossiers’assoits’appuie contrechair backrest
piècetermine un puzzlela place dans le cieljigsaw piece

The same noun can name something else in another scene. Elle ouvre le dossier et lit les documents points to a file. Cette pièce a deux fenêtres points to a room. Read the object and action together each time.

Four objects from the scene

Question 1No account needed
Which action makes toile mean canvas here?

Choose one answer.

Answer and explanation

Nora paints blue onto it.. The paintbrush, easel and added colour all support the meaning canvas.

Question 2No account needed
Why is dossier a backrest in this scene?

Choose one answer.

Answer and explanation

Nora rests her back against it while seated.. Nora has just sat on a chair and rests her back against its support.

Question 3No account needed
What does Nora do with the pièce?

Choose one answer.

Answer and explanation

Elle la place dans le puzzle.. The blue item fills part of the puzzle’s sky. That action selects the meaning jigsaw piece.

Question 4No account needed
Choose the best meaning of recopie in the last sentence.

Choose one answer.

Answer and explanation

Copies the list out.. The list goes into Nora’s notebook. Copying it is a separate action from buying the materials.

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