Letters with accents

Some people have asked me for help on adding accents to letters.

Remember that lots of words need accented letters .

You can use these accent shortcuts if you have a full sized keboard (i.e. with a separate number pad)

You need to press the ALT key, then the number shortcut, e.g. ALT 133 = à, ALT 130 = é

FRENCH

GERMAN

SPANISH

à

133

ä

132

á

160

â

131

Ä

142

é

130

ç

135

ö

148

í

161

Ç

128

Ö

153

ñ

164

é

130

ü

129

Ñ

165

è

138

Ü

154

ó

162

ê

136

ß

225

ú

163

ë

137

¿

168

î

140

¡

173

ï

139

ô

147

ù

151

û

150

 

Of course, there are other ways of adding accents to letters.

If you use an ipad or android tablet you can download a keyboard with lots of language (and emoji ) options.

Modal Verbs

Year 8  have been looking at the present tense of these verbs.

They are modal verbs and are generally followed by an infinitive.

  • Vouloir = to want to
  • Pouvoir = to be able to (“can”)
  • Devoir = to have to (“must”)

We have used these basic translations, although devoir is a verb with various meanings – it can refer to debt (Elle me doit mille euros – she owes me 1000 euros), obligation (Vous devez attendre le bus – you must wait for the bus) or probability (Le bus doit arriver à 10h – the bus is supposed to arrive at 10 o’clock). Tone of voice and gestures when speaking, or other text when reading will give you clues to the meaning of the verb each time.

  • Je peux jouer au golf – I can play golf
  • Il veux jouer au golf – He wants to play golf
  • Vous devez jouer au golf – You have to play golf

Spelling Bee

Keep an eye on the MFL FROG pages for information about the Spelling Bee. It’s a great competition for Year 7 and they can take part in both languages – French and Spanish!

spelling beeClick on the bee to get to the Vocab Express log in page. You will need your user name and password to access the spelling lists. See Mr Cottiss if you’ve not got yours.

Y8 French – perfect tense with avoir

You have started learning about the perfect tense in French. This is a past tense which has 3 parts to it.

1. Person – who are you talking about? Have you used the correct pronoun?

2. Avoir – you need to use the present tense of avoir.

3. Past participle – for regular -er verbs this is simple. Take off the –er and add –é, e.g. jouer –> joué

He watched – il a regardé

I played – j’ai joué

we listened – nous avons écouté

 

Try to use this in your own writing!

The State of Languages

There are roughly 7,000 languages currently spoken around the planet today. As the world continues to become more interconnected, due in large part to the ever-increasing use of the internet, language use will undoubtedly evolve, as well. Check out the “Speaking of Languages…” infographic below to learn more about the possible future of the world’s many languages. What do you think?

You can click on the picture to go to the original site.

Speaking of Languages - Infographic
From: www.transparent.com

¿ Cuántos años tienes ?

Spanish lessons have started again for Year 7 pupils.

Our first topic this half term is birthdays. We will be learning how to ask and answer the questions  “how old are you?” and “when is your birthday?”

Make sure that you know numbers (los números) up to 31 and the months (los meses) of the year for this topic!

For a quick reminder of these, try this website

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primarylanguages/spanish/my_calendar/months/

 

 

New term, New languages!

Now that we’re getting close to half term it’s time for you to let me know what you think about your new language. Year 7 have been introduced to Spanish wth Mr Cottiss, and Year 8 have had German with Mrs Brown.

Post a comment here or follow @NewminsterMFL on Twitter (or do both!) to let us know what you think.

As always, take care online & read the advice on posting a comment at the right of the blog.

Merci! ¡Gracias! Danke!