Migrants-Irisih-Defence-Forces, Flickr

The news in French: learn and revise words and expressions to improve your language skills in an interesting and interactive way.

Read and listen to the article from the French version of a chosen news source. Next, come back to this page to test your understanding of that news article, improve your vocabulary, grammar and knowledge of French in general.

1. The Article: Migrants: L’Europe divisée malgré les nombreux appels à l’unité

Below you will find a list of French words and expressions found in the text. However, they are in their infinitive or natural forms, that is as you would look for the in a dictionary. Take1. Key vocabulary and expressions from the article

1. avoir le droit de faire quelque chose: to have the right to sth, to be entitled to do something.
2. se diviser: to split up, to separate
3. le ministre des Affaires Etrangères: Foreign Minister (UK), Minister of Foreign Affaires (UK), Secretary of State (US)
4. une demande d’asile: asylum application, asylum request
5. un réfugié: a refugee, asylum seeker
6. cesser: to stop, to quit, to cease
7. se montrer du doigt: point finger at
8. des Etats membres: the member states
9. hongrois: Hungarian, from Hungary
10. homologue: counterpart, homologe
11. échec de la politique: policy failure
12. politique européenne d’immigration: European Immigration Policy.
13. autrichien: Austrian, from Austria
14. (une) situation de chaos: chaotic situation
15. Le premier ministre: the Prime Minister
16. héberger: to lodge, to shelter
17. (une) maison de campagne: a country house, a villa
18. déclancher: to trigger, to set sth off
19. un mouvement populaire: a popular movement

2. Exercise 1: Translate the following sentences into French.

The sentences are not 100% exactly the same as in the article you have just read or watched. They are only built around the sentences from the article so they are easy for you to understand and remember. The translation will make you actively use the above vocabulary.

3. Exercise 2: Writing

Try to summarise the news article you have read using the words and sentences from the previous exercise. Try to create your own sentences and create a coherent and well written paragraph summing up the whole story. You may post your summary in the “comments” section. You may either do it in a written form or record your speech and paste your YouTube or SoundCloud link.