Reading French news without a dictionary
How much of a French news text about fusion can you understand after a few weeks of French?
Newspapers, websites and signs in Provence often write about ITER and fusion. In this lesson you read a short French news text, written for this course in the style of a regional newspaper, with real and checked facts. You read it without a dictionary and without a translation app.
Prior knowledge
- The CEA, Cadarache and ITERchapter At a research centre in Provence
- Numbers to 100chapter Numbers and prices
Core path: follow the steps in order. Tasks marked Optional give extra practice. Optional tasks: 1.
Think about it
On the last morning of your (imagined) visit, you have breakfast in a café in Manosque. Someone has left the regional newspaper on the table. On the science page you see the words tokamak, Cadarache and ITER. You have studied French for a few weeks, and you have no dictionary with you.
Can you find out what the article says, and how?
Sentence starters
- When I read a text in a language I do not know well, I first …
- A French word I understood because of English or Swedish is …
- I think I will understand …, but not …
Think about it: reading in a language you hardly know
Have you ever understood something in a language you have not studied: a sign abroad, a menu, a German or Spanish product label? What helped you? Then look at these French words and say what they mean: la température, un réacteur, international, la physique, un kilomètre.
Discuss with a partner for three minutes, then write your answer together.
Model answer
On a trip we understood signs and menus because many words looked like English or Swedish words, because of pictures and numbers, and because we knew what kind of text it was (a timetable, a menu). The French words mean temperature, a reactor, international, physics and a kilometre: they look almost the same in English, and Swedish and Finnish have similar words (temperatur, reaktor, fysiikka, kilometri).
Assess your own answer
Tick the points your own answer already contains.
Review the theory summary.
Predict
Make your predictions before investigating 2 questions
Prediction 1: how much will you understand?
Prediction 2: a look-alike
Investigate
Step 1: a first look (two minutes)
Read only the title, the place, the names and every number. Do not read the sentences yet. Then answer the question below.
Fusion nucléaire : record de durée à Cadarache
Saint-Paul-lez-Durance (Bouches-du-Rhône). Le 12 février 2025, dans leur tokamak WEST, installé au centre de Cadarache, les physiciens du CEA ont maintenu un plasma pendant 1 337 secondes, soit plus de 22 minutes. Selon le CEA, ils ont battu un record mondial de durée : c'est 25 % de plus que le record du tokamak chinois EAST, établi quelques semaines plus tôt.
Un plasma est un gaz très chaud, à plusieurs dizaines de millions de degrés. Aucun matériau ne résiste à cette température : la machine utilise donc des aimants très puissants pour garder le plasma loin des parois.
Selon les chercheurs, ce résultat est important pour ITER, le grand projet international construit juste à côté. Sept membres participent au projet : la Chine, l'Union européenne, l'Inde, le Japon, la Corée, la Russie et les États-Unis. Leur objectif : produire 500 mégawatts de puissance de fusion avec seulement 50 mégawatts de chauffage. Attention : ITER ne produira pas d'électricité. C'est une expérience scientifique.
Le chantier avance. En juillet 2026, les équipes ont installé le sixième des neuf modules qui forment le cœur de la machine, avec presque six mois d'avance sur le calendrier. Selon le calendrier actuel, les premières expériences scientifiques commenceront en 2034.
The text was written for this course in the style of a newspaper; the facts were checked against the CEA, EUROfusion and ITER in November 2026.
What is the text about?
Step 2: hunt for look-alikes
Now read the sentences. Underline in your head (or on paper) every word that looks like a word you know in English, Swedish or Finnish. Then work out the words below.
Step 3: read for detail
Theory summary
Why you understand more than you think
You already know thousands of French words without having studied them. English took a very large number of words from French and Latin, Swedish took many from French too (trottoar from trottoir, paraply from parapluie, byrå from bureau), and Finnish took international words through Swedish (insinööri from Swedish ingenjör, which comes from French ingénieur). Science uses the same international words everywhere: plasma, tokamak, physiciens, projet.
Good readers of a foreign language use five strategies:
- Start with what is easy: the title, the place, the names, the dates and the numbers. They tell you the topic before you read a single sentence.
- Use look-alike words in English, Swedish or Finnish. Read them aloud if the spelling hides them.
- Use word endings. Many French endings have a regular English partner: ‑ité = ‑ity (électricité), ‑ique = ‑ic (scientifique), ‑eur = ‑or (réacteur), ‑ment = ‑ly (seulement, only).
- Guess from the context. What does the sentence need? In la machine utilise des aimants très puissants pour garder le plasma loin des parois, the aimants hold a hot gas, so they must be magnets.
- Skip what you do not need. You rarely need every word to get the message.
False friends
Some French words look like English words but mean something else. They are called false friends:
| French | Means (and not) |
|---|---|
| actuel, actuellement | current, currently (not actual, actually) |
| une expérience | an experiment, or an experience |
| un milliard | a billion, $10^{9}$ (not a million) |
| un billion | $10^{12}$, a trillion (not a billion) |
| éventuellement | possibly (not eventually) |
| une librairie | a bookshop (not a library) |
| le calendrier | a calendar, but also a schedule |
When a look-alike gives a sentence a strange meaning, check it against the context.
Summary
| Strategy | Example from the news text |
|---|---|
| title, names, numbers first | Cadarache, WEST, 12 février 2025, 1 337 secondes |
| look-alikes (English, Swedish, Finnish) | record, physiciens, matériau, projet |
| word endings | électricité (‑ity), scientifique (‑ic), seulement (‑ly) |
| context | aimants = magnets, chantier = construction site |
| watch for false friends | actuel = current, expérience = experiment |
Partial comprehension is real comprehension: the topic, the facts and the numbers are already most of a news text.
Back to your predictions
Compare your two predictions with what happened when you read, and with the theory. Then answer the opening question in English in one or two sentences: how much of a French news text about fusion can you understand after a few weeks of French, and why?
Would you change your prediction?
Apply
Look-alike, false friend or context?
Tell a friend what the text says
Word bank
a record, a plasma, a tokamak, the CEA, Cadarache, ITER, next door, the members, fusion power, heating power, no electricity, a scientific experiment, the worksite, ahead of schedule, research operation
Sentence starters
- The text is about …
- On 12 February 2025, …
- The record matters for ITER because …
- The text also says that ITER …
- I understood … because the word looks like …
Write: the text in English
A friend who does not read French asks what the article says. Write a summary in English in four or five sentences: what happened, where and when, why it matters for ITER, and what the text says about ITER's progress.
Tell your partner first, in English, without looking at the text; then write the summary together.
Model answer
On 12 February 2025, physicists of the French CEA kept a plasma in their tokamak WEST at Cadarache for 1,337 seconds, more than 22 minutes. The CEA called it a world record: 25 % longer than China's EAST a few weeks before. The machine uses strong magnets to keep the very hot plasma away from the walls. The researchers say the result matters for ITER, the international project next door, which aims to produce 500 MW of fusion power from 50 MW of heating but will not produce electricity. In July 2026 six of the nine core modules of ITER were installed, almost six months ahead of schedule, and research operation is planned to start in 2034.
Assess your own answer
Tick the points your own answer already contains.
Review the theory summary.
Read aloud: four sentences from the text
Reading aloud helps you hear that many look-alike words sound different in French. Listen to each sentence, slowly first, then read it aloud with your partner. Which look-alike word sounds least like English?
A second text: your turn
Use the five strategies on a second, shorter text, also written for this course. Read it once for the topic, then once for detail.
Manosque : une école internationale pour les familles d'ITER
À Manosque, à une quinzaine de kilomètres d'ITER, une école internationale accueille les enfants des familles qui travaillent sur le projet. Elle a ouvert en 2007 avec 130 élèves de 3 à 18 ans. L'enseignement est bilingue : l'école a six sections linguistiques et une section européenne. La France s'était engagée à offrir une scolarité bilingue à ces enfants quand ITER a choisi la Provence.
What does the second text say?
Write in English, in two or three sentences, what the second text says. Then list four French words you understood because of a look-alike, and one you worked out from the context.
Model answer
In Manosque, about fifteen kilometres from ITER, an international school teaches the children of families who work on the project. It opened in 2007 with 130 pupils aged 3 to 18, teaches in two languages and has six language sections and a European section. France promised bilingual schooling for these children when ITER chose Provence. Look-alikes: internationale, familles, bilingue, sections linguistiques, européenne. From the context: élèves (pupils), because the school has 130 of them, aged 3 to 18.
Assess your own answer
Tick the points your own answer already contains.
Review the theory summary.
Optional Extension: real French news
Find a real French text about fusion or ITER: the French pages of iter.org, the CEA's news, or a French newspaper. Choose a short article or the first paragraph of a longer one. Use the five strategies, write its topic and three facts in English, and note where and when it was published. Tell another pair what you found.
Check your understanding
1. A false friend
2. A big number
3. An unknown word
4. Write: how I read French
Explain to a classmate who starts French next year how to read a short French text without a dictionary. Name three strategies and give one example of each from today's texts (four to six sentences, in English).
Model answer
First read the title, the names and the numbers: Cadarache, WEST, 12 février 2025 and 1 337 secondes already tell you that the text is about a record. Then look for words that look like English, Swedish or Finnish words, such as physiciens (physicists, fysiker) or projet (project, projekti). When a word looks like nothing you know, read on and use the context: aimants keep a very hot plasma away from the walls, so they must be magnets. Be careful with false friends: actuel means current, not actual.
Assess your own answer
Tick the points your own answer already contains.
Review the theory summary.