Le Petit Larousse
French Listening Comprehension
Study Guide
Take a look at the following for help with any vocabulary and grammar that you might not
have understood in Le Petit Larousse, then take
the test.
| Vocabulary | |
| un ajout | addition |
| un centenaire | centennial, one hundredth anniversary |
| consacré | dedicated, devoted to |
| une devise | motto |
| un foyer | household, home |
| une lettrine | dictionary headline |
| un millésime | date, year |
| le patrimoine | heritage |
| un pissenlit | dandelion |
| un reflet | reflection |
| un souci | worry, care |
| Grammar - Click the links for detailed lessons | |
| où l'on retrouve | l'on vs on |
| qui naîtra en 1904 | the future is often used when talking about the past |
| Notes | |
| 1905 | Recently published is Jean Pruvost's biography of the Petit Larousse (La Dent-de-lion, la Semeuse et le Petit Larousse) Among the interesting items—in the 1905 edition, "le français se parle partout." |
| Pages roses |
The grammar rules (subject and verb agreement, agreement of the past participle, agreement of adjectives of color, plurals of nouns and adjectives, etc.) appear in the first pages of the Petit Larousse, right after the verb conjugation tables. The "pink pages" contain Latin, Greek, and foreign-language quotations; proverbs; and historic statements, "often controversial, apocryphal or mutilated, 'including Abraham Lincoln's "Mieux vaut ne pas changer d'attelage au milieu du gué' (It's best not to swap horses in midstream).'" |
| Christian Lacroix | The fashion designer Christian Lacroix is accustomed to unusual commissions, having created the latest uniforms for Air France flight attendants, as well as the interiors of the new TGV bullet trains. Of the Petit Larousse job he said, "C'est le genre de chose qu'on ne peut pas refuser. C'est comme la Légion d'honneur. C'est à travers le Petit Larousse que j'ai approché l'histoire de costume. J'étais fasciné par ses planches. Je pense que le Petit Larousse est pour beaucoup dans ma vocation." |
| La Semeuse | La Semeuse ("she who sows") is the figure that has appeared on French stamps and coins for the last century. It is a representation of a long-haired woman in flowing garments, seen from the side in the act of casting seed. Reminiscent of classical depictions of the goddess Demeter, the image was designed by Oscar Roty in 1897 and is now an unofficial symbol of France. The Semeuse of the Petit Larousse is also scattering seed, but by blowing it from her palm. Eugène Grasset, who designed the early edition of the logo, was a well-known figure in Art Nouveau, acclaimed in particular as a poster artist. Jean Picart Le Doux worked mainly in textiles. Since 1993 there has been a third version on the front of the dictionary, drawn in very simple lines by the graphic designer Jean Pham Van My. Christian Lacroix's Semeuse is far more exuberant and colorful, dressed in the costume of a woman from his native Arles. |
| Arlésienne |
Incidentally, in addition to connoting a woman from Arles, Arlésienne can also mean "something that is much talked about but never materializes." Jouer l'Arlésienne means "to keep out of sight." It stems from George Bizet's 1872 opera of the same name, in which the main character never appears. |
| Nouveaux mots | The French press has a wonderful time every year examining the new entries into the Petit Larousse and its rival, the Petit Robert, and there are invariably expressions of outrage at the neologisms and Anglicisms that have slipped into the mainstream. This year's crop includes bobo, a bourgeois bohemian of the type said to be taking over Paris, and trash. Two slang words that made it in for the first time are kiffer—which means to "turn on" as in ça me kiffe—and la niaque, which connotes a mixture of nerve and style, as in Nicolas Sarkozy a la niaque. Purists also object to the growing number of feminized proper nouns that are made official by appearing in the Petit Larousse, such as this year's entries auteure, écrivaine, and colonelle. |
| Le Petit Larousse French Listening Comprehension Exercise |
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| Listen | Study | Test | ||
| Transcript Translation | ||||
| Sound files and transcript
were
originally published in Champs-Élysées audiomagazine (read my review) and are used with the permission of Champs-Élysées, Inc. |
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| Listening Index French Dictionaries | ||||
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