Legal Vocabulary

This unique series of vocabulary acquisition and practice tools is designed for anyone with some prior knowledge of French and whose work requires the use of legal terminology.  The tools – each dealing with a different branch of law – enable you to gain, use and understand much of the important French language vocabulary needed when working on legal topics.

Using a tried and tested methodology, the tools develop both your comprehension of legal terminology and your spoken use of it. Each tool can be used without a teacher being present and familiarizes you with the French language, legal terms most commonly used in that branch of law. It does so progressively, in three stages, as you:

• Acquire the vocabulary by listening to and writing down the translations of each legal term, both from French to English and vice versa, and then re-checking that you have correctly learned the genders and the spelling of the French nouns
• Anchor the terminology in your memory by placing it in context – an exercise that also develops your knowledge of vocabulary related to that term
• Develop your understanding of the use of each term by listening to short scenarios in which the term is used and then answering questions relating to that scenario

After each question and each stage, it is vital that you speak aloud that which you have just written. Repeating it several times will improve your delivery and fluency. Whenever possible, please record your voice for analysis and coaching when you are with a teacher.

The combination of listening, writing and speaking aloud will improve not only your work-related, legal lexicon, but also your sentence structures and your communication strategies.