No matter how old (and I use this word very lightly!) I get, the fall for me will always bring a sense of new beginnings and a renewed excitement about learning. And one area of learning that always interests me is language, whether English (my dominant language) or French (my third language)!
If you’re reading this blog post, you probably also have an interest in language and learning. You might be a student needing help with your writing assignments, a parent looking for resources to help your children with their homework, a teacher looking for classroom inspiration or even someone on the job struggling with the wording of letters or emails. But whatever your purpose this fall, there is an excellent resource out there for you!
The Language Portal of Canada offers a wide range of online tools for people who want to learn or teach French and English language skills. The site is full of informative articles and fun quizzes in both official languages.
Here are my 5 favourite Language Portal tools.
Writing Tips Plus
The Writing Tips Plus look at common problems in English grammar, spelling, capitalization, punctuation, usage and style. Do you need to know how to capitalize titles, how to write the date, when to put a comma before “and,” or how to use “i.e.” and “e.g.”? You’ll find all that and more in the Writing Tips Plus!
Le Rouleau des prépositions
Need to write something in French? Head for this tool when you’re looking for the right preposition to use with a French verb, adverb or adjective. Can you say “parler avec mes amis,” or does it have to be “à mes amis”? Is French “facile pour toi” or “à toi”? You’ll find the answers in Le Rouleau des prépositions (in French only)!
ConjugArt
Don’t be defeated by French verb conjugations! ConjugArt (in French only) shows you how to conjugate thousands of French verbs. You won’t have to leaf through a reference book to find the information you need: just enter the verb you want in the search field, and voilà!
Quizzes
The Language Portal has hundreds of quizzes on the English language and quizzes on the French language (in French only) on a host of topics related to language. Test your skills with quizzes on verb agreement, commas, borrowed words, idiomatic expressions and literature, just to name a few!
Links to language resources
The Collection of Canadian language resources contains links to an impressive array of online resources developed in Canada. For example, you’ll find links to writing resources, glossaries and dictionaries, as well as to resources for learning French and English. Check them out!
I hope that your fall will be filled with new learning opportunities, with the Resources of the Language Portal of Canada high on the list of your go-to sites. And if your adventures with learning lead you to other helpful resources for us language lovers, I would love to hear about them. Leave a comment if you’d like to share!
