French Dictionary for Expressions? Recommendations?

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issemiyaki
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French Dictionary for Expressions? Recommendations?

Postby issemiyaki » Mon Apr 17, 2017 5:18 pm

Often times I have trouble deciphering expressions in French, such as the following:

mis à l'écart
prendre tous leurs sens
à contre-pied
fait d'armes
point d'orgue
pour mémoire ... and my FAVORITE
des suites des (this one I haven't found in any dictionary, not even Le Petit Robert)
n'est guère surprenant

This is just a small list, of course. But this illustrates the type of two and three-word expressions that give me a hard time.

Any recommendations on dictionaries that would be good for this type of thing?
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Ani
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Re: French Dictionary for Expressions? Recommendations?

Postby Ani » Mon Apr 17, 2017 10:11 pm

I just use wordreference for these. I find that to be the strength of the site. You can almost always find them as a discussion topic.
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tastyonions
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Re: French Dictionary for Expressions? Recommendations?

Postby tastyonions » Mon Apr 17, 2017 10:15 pm

WordReference is very good.

This site has more detailed history and explanation for some expressions: http://www.expressio.fr/
"Bob" has many expressions and also some interesting compilations: http://www.languefrancaise.net/Bob/
For example, an enormous list of words and expressions dealing with drinking and drunkenness, and another huge list for money expressions.
Wiktionary will occasionally have things that the other places miss: https://fr.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionn ... %99accueil
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Tillumadoguenirurm
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Re: French Dictionary for Expressions? Recommendations?

Postby Tillumadoguenirurm » Mon Apr 17, 2017 11:09 pm

Another vote for wordereference. You can choose between dictionaries to use on the site itself, so you can get examples from more than just one.
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issemiyaki
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Re: French Dictionary for Expressions? Recommendations?

Postby issemiyaki » Tue Apr 18, 2017 12:17 am

I already use wordreference sometimes, and it's not that bad.

But sometimes, you have to go hunting through the forums for the meaning of certain expressions. And in those forums you have people arguing over what the phrase really means. While I'm sure they all mean well, who's to say whether they are right or wrong? So, in the end you walk away not really sure if you understood the expression.

So, that's where I'm at right now.
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Re: French Dictionary for Expressions? Recommendations?

Postby Ani » Tue Apr 18, 2017 2:54 am

Just cross reference on linguee if you are not sure.
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Re: French Dictionary for Expressions? Recommendations?

Postby Doitsujin » Tue Apr 18, 2017 7:34 am

Also check out ReversoDictionary, which provides definitions and example sentences.
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Re: French Dictionary for Expressions? Recommendations?

Postby garyb » Wed Apr 19, 2017 5:43 pm

Reverso Context and Linguee are both great tools. I've found the former better for informal language, the latter better for higher-level written language.
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