| Benefit or feature | French Vocab Games LITE | French Vocab Games | Utter French! |
| Learn all 1,200 key vocab items |  |
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| Learn vocab required for French GCSE exam | |
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| Learn specific vocab themes |  |
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| Learn correct French pronunciation | |
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| Learn new vocab | |
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| Learn with different activities: remove the chore of vocab learning! | |
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| Either bite-sized or focussed learning: learn with an activity that fits how much time you have available | |
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| Revise vocab you have already learnt | |
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| Find vocab based on English word | |
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| Find vocab based on French word | |
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The French Linguistics site is now proud to bring you a suite of vocabulary learning games for your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch!
If you are a beginner to intermediate learner of French (e.g. coming up to GCSE or equivalent), then French Vocab Games, French Word Searches for iPad will be great for you.
If you are an intermediate to advanced learner, then you should also check out Utter French!, designed for intermediate to advanced speakers to perfect their pronunciation, as well as the LetterMeister multilingual word game for iPhone, which allows you to set your desired level of vocabulary.
French Vocab Games, Utter French! and French Word Searches for iPad all include 1,200 items of essential vocabulary split into 20 topics such as Greetings, People, Jobs, Education, Food & Drink, Holidays, Shopping, Sport & Games, Society etc. Based on this vocabulary, French Vocab Games offers a number of games and activities to help you get to grips with French vocab, while Utter French! focuses specifically on showing you how to improve and perfect your pronunciation of these words. Vocabulary has been chosen with the UK GCSE French exam in mind, but also includes translations tailored to US, Canadian and Australian learners.
In all cases, you can choose which combination of topics you would like to play with and you will be offered a random selection of vocab from those topics. As you play, the app automatically takes note of which topics you appear to be strongest in, and can therefore automatically weight the selection of vocabulary to test you more on those topics that require more attention.
Mimics a set of "flash cards" commonly used to learn vocabulary. In random order, you are presented with each English word in turn and must recall the corresponding French word or translation. (Or vice versa, you can choose to be presented with French words in order to recall the English.) The next time round, you will be presented specifically with those words that you were unable to recall the first time. Thus, the activity helps you focus on those words you are having trouble remembering.
N.B. This activity exists in two versions: short and long. Use the 'short' version when you just have a few minutes to practise a few words. Use the long version if you are sitting down for 15-30 minutes to actively practise your vocabulary.
A selection of French words from your chosen topics is arranged into a crossword. Tap on the start of a word to see the corresponding English then tap out the French word that matches that English and which fits the number of letters in the grid. If you get stuck, tap the '?' to reveal one letter from the word as a clue. While in the middle of typing a word, shake the device to cancel your current input.
Similar to the traditional game of hangman, but with a twist. On each turn, guess a letter from the randomly selected French word. You start with a number of "lives", and lose a given number of lives for each wrong guess. How many lives you lose depends on how common the letter is: 'E' loses 4 lives, 'R' and 'T' lose 3 lives, down to uncommon letters such as 'J' and 'Z' which only lose 1 life. The colour of the keys on the keyboard indicates the number of lives you lose for a wrong guess. If you press the wrong key by accident, you have a few seconds to shake the device to cancel.
N.B. This game exists in two versions: normal and hard. The hard version is unlocked once you have played the easy version 10 times. In the hard version, you start with fewer lives.
A selection of French words is hidden in a grid of letters. Tap the left and right arrows at the bottom of the screen to cycle through the corresponding English. When you find a word, touch the first letter of the word and drag your finger to the last letter. You can do so for any of the hidden words at any time, not just the one currently shown at the bottom of the screen. If you get stuck, tap '?' for a clue (a star will flash around the middle of the word whose English is currently displayed at the bottom of the screen).
This game is designed more for beginners. On each turn, you will be presented with a series of randomly ordered 8 'cards' corresponding to four French words and their four English translations from a particular topic. Dragging with your finger, pair up each French word with its corresponding translation. While connecting up the cards, if you realise you made a mistake, shake the device to start that turn again.
This game is designed for more advanced learners or those with a flair for word puzzles. The game reinforces your familiarity with patterns of letter combinations in French. On each turn, a 5-letter word is chosen at random. You must guess this word by entering a series of 5-letter words. For each word you enter, a colour will be assigned to each letter depending on whether that letter is present in the chosen word, and whether it is in the correct place. Green indicates a letter that is correct and in the correct place; orange indicates a letter that is correct but wrongly placed. It is up to you whether guesses can be any series of letters on each turn or whether, for a more challenging game, each guess must itself be a French word. After entering a guess, if you made a mistake, you have a couple of seconds to shake the device to cancel.
N.B. This game exists in two versions: normal and hard. In the normal version, each letter of your guess is itself coloured, so that you know which letter each colour refers to. In the 'hard' version, unlocked once you have played the normal version 10 times, each guess is scored with a serious of randomly ordered coloured 'pegs'. Thus, you do not know which colour refers to which letter, making for a more challenging game.
Each game or activity generally has a number of 'turns'. The status bar at the top or bottom of the screen indicates which turns you got correct (green = completely correct; yellow = partially correct, e.g. because you had to ask for a clue, or because you had to have several goes at getting the answer).
You can quit a game at any time by tapping the red cross and confirming that you wish to exit. Note, however, that in order to unlock the 'hard' versions of Letterman and Wordmeister, you must play 10 *complete* games of the corresponding 'normal' version.
The app includes a feedback button on the home screen from which you may leave any comments/feedback or bug reports.
If you require any other assistance in relation to the app, then please e-mail Neil Coffey at neil.coffey@french-linguistics.co.uk
Information for reviewers, including how to obtain a promo code to download a free review copy of the app, can be found here.
