This textbook provides a comprehensive and structured vocabulary for all levels of undergraduate French courses, including relevant higher and further education courses. It offers a broad coverage of concrete and abstract vocabulary relating to the physical, cultural, social, commercial and political environment, as well as exposure to commonly encountered technical terminology. Within each section, words and phrases have been grouped into manageable, assimilable units and broadly ‘graded’ according to likely usefulness and difficulty. The accompanying exercises for private study and classroom use are designed to reinforce the work done on lists, to develop good dictionary use, to encourage independent and collaborative learning, to promote precision and awareness of nuance and register, and to offer the opportunity for the development of cognate transferable skills, such as communicative competence, teamwork and problem-solving. The division of the book into twenty thematic sections allows it to be easily integrated into a modular course structure.

• Can be used throughout an undergraduate degree course, including modular programmes • Provides a practical topic-based vocabulary, graded according to usefulness and difficulty, to promote a sound basis for communication in a wide range of circumstances • Exercises for private study and classroom use consolidate work done on word lists

Contents

Introduction; 1. Towns and buildings; household; gardens; 2. The physical world; the animal world; weather; 3. The human body and health; the Health Service and medicine; 4. Physical appearance; gesture and movement; 5. Personality; human behaviour; 6. Clothes and footwear; food and drink; 7. Perception; colour and light; materials and texture; 8. Shapes and patterns; size and quality; containers; 9. Visual and performing arts; media and popular culture; 10. Literature and literary criticism; speaking, reading and writing; 11. Leisure and sport; 12. Tourism, travel and transport; 13. Family, birth, death and marriage; religion; 14. Education and science; 15. Agriculture and industry; 16. Business, commerce and employment; 17. The office and computing; post and telecommunications; 18. Geography, history and war; 19. Politics and international relations; public services; social and environmental issues; Key to exercises.