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I am a graduate student at a University in USA. There is a language requirement to fulfill my grad studies, so I have to take a test that asks to translate a paragraph of a French math book to English. This test lasts for 1 hour and provides a dictionary. Although it provides a dictionary, by considering the limited time of the test, I decided to learn math in French a little bit. I do not have any prior knowledge of French, so I am looking for any recommendations from which I can learn how to read math in French. I prefer if there is an online book/ course or tutoring that you can recommend to me. I expect to take this test in few months. Thanks in advance to anyone who is willing to help me.

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    $\begingroup$ I'm French, do you want writings for example proof in French or like a writing that explains how to write in French ? $\endgroup$
    – Atmos
    Commented Apr 9, 2018 at 20:01
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    $\begingroup$ When I took such a test many, many years ago, the paragraph was from an expository article about probability by Poincare. There were no equations or formulas at all. You should try to learn to read some French. $\endgroup$
    – saulspatz
    Commented Apr 9, 2018 at 20:02
  • $\begingroup$ Atmos, I only need to learn how to translate French to English. Translating a proof written in French is one example. But I don't know whether it will be always a proof. $\endgroup$
    – Extremal
    Commented Apr 9, 2018 at 20:04
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    $\begingroup$ Why don't you read some Wikipedia notices in French. Usually, you can compare with the English version. $\endgroup$
    – Bernard
    Commented Apr 9, 2018 at 20:04
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    $\begingroup$ Euhh well, i've down the reverse exercice since i'm French, so you basically you need to learn basic French with the lexical words for mathematical langage. Like " Let $x$ and $y$ be ... " becomes " Soient $x$ et $y$ " $\endgroup$
    – Atmos
    Commented Apr 9, 2018 at 20:05

2 Answers 2

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Take a book in French that has been translated into English and whose subject matter interests you.
Read a section in French with the translation in English open at the corresponding page and use it if a word or phrase eludes you. Here are a few examples of such translated books:

AUDIN, Géométrie $\iff$ AUDIN, Geometry
DIEUDONNÉ, Fondements de l'analyse moderne $\iff$ Foundations of modern analysis (FREE!) GODEMENT, Analyse mathématique I $\iff$ Analysis I
PERRIN, Géométrie algébrique. Une introduction $\iff$ Algebraic Geometry. An Introduction SAMUEL, Théorie algébrique des nombres $\iff$ Algebraic Theory of Numbers
HERGÉ, Les bijoux de la Castafiore $\iff$The Castafiore Emerald

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    $\begingroup$ Nice last choice :) $\endgroup$
    – Nicolas Hemelsoet
    Commented Apr 12, 2018 at 12:41
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    $\begingroup$ I'm happy we have common tastes, @Nicolas ! $\endgroup$
    – Georges Elencwajg
    Commented Apr 22, 2018 at 21:06
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Most mathematical French is pretty easy for an English-speaker to understand, once you have some very basic vocabulary and grammar: the sentence structure is similar to English, and most of the technical terms are easily recognizable cognates (with a few traps, e.g. French "positif" is $\ge 0$ rather than $> 0$).

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