French Dictionaries

French Dictionaries

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Did you know that there are four French dictionaries? As if French was not hard enough to learn with only one.
Four French spelling dictionaries: “Moderne”, “Classique”, “Réforme 1990”, “Classique & Réforme 1990”
 In 1990, le Conseil supérieur à la langue française (the High Council for the French language) and l’Académie française (the French Academy) made a spelling reform which concern thousands of words. This reform is not mandatory. The new spelling and the old one are both considered as correct.
«Modern» dictionary
This dictionary offers mostly the classical spelling and some of the new spellings which are not controversial and widely used. This is the French language as it is written nowadays. We strongly recommend to use this dictionary, especially if you are not a native French speaker.

«Classic» dictionary
This dictionary is the «Modern» dictionary extended with alternative spellings, some of them still widely used and some others very old-fashioned.

«Reform 1990» dictionary
This dictionary offers only the new spelling, which is not very used. Some spellings are still mostly considered as mistakes by most of native speakers. (Unless you really know and approve the spelling reform, you should not use this dictionary.)

«Classic & Reform 1990» dictionary
With this dictionary, the classical spelling and the new one are considered as correct.