French
Follow this section of our blog for anything to do with learning French or learning about France.
Who are Dr & Mrs Vandertramp, and why are they having Adventures in a Draper’s Van?
Most French verbs use avoir as their auxiliary verb when forming the perfect and other compound tenses, but there are a tricky few that use être instead. So, how do we remember which ones take être? Here are 3 popular methods: Continue reading
Adventures in French Canada
Here are three delicious Québécois foods I discovered on my travels!
Firstly, poutine. This is basically chips topped with cooked cheese curds and light brown gravy. Sounds disgusting? Well, it might look like “chips with a cold”, but it is actually one of the best things I have ever tasted! Its origins are unclear but the story goes that a restaurant customer back in the 50s asked for cheese curds on his French fries, to which the owner replied Ça va faire une maudite poutine! – That will make a damn mess! hence the name. The gravy was added at a later date, apparently to keep the chips warm. I would love to make poutine at home, but the cheese curds are pretty hard to obtain in the UK. They are produced during the beginning stages of making cheese and they come out salty and “squeaky”, so using our grated cheese would not quite be the same. Continue reading
French in France vs French in Canada
Adventures in French Canada
Québécois French differs considerably from Metropolitan French in terms of pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar. This I found out the hard way when I arrived in Mont-Joli, a remote little town in the Bas-Saint Laurent region of Québec, Canada, near the south shore of the Saint Lawrence river. I had been posted there in the third year of my degree in French and Linguistics to be an English teaching assistant in a secondary school. Continue reading
The problem of “his” and “her” in French
The words for “his” and “her” (and “its”) in French are son, sa, ses. However, the choice of whether we use son, sa or ses depends on whether the noun (the thing possessed) is masculine, feminine or plural:
Son frère = his/her/its brother (noun frère is masculine)
Sa mère = his/her/its mother (noun mère is feminine)
Ses yeux = his/her/its eyes (noun yeux is plural) Continue reading
Beginners French
A warning – do not translate literally!
When first beginning to learn French, many people fall into the trap of thinking in English and trying to translate word-for-word from English to French. Unfortunately, they soon find that this approach will not work because the French say things in a different way to us, often using a different word order or expression, so that a literal translation may well be incorrect in French.
Here are some examples: Continue reading
Beginners French – When to use “tu” or “vous”
One of the difficulties you will face when you’re learning French is the two different ways of saying “you”.
In modern, standard English, there is only one form. Whether you’re talking to one person or a group of people, to a VIP or a child, the word is “you”. In French, it is different: there are two words for “you”, tu or vous.
Here is an explanation of when to use each: Continue reading
Beginners French – The Idea of Gender
One of the first challenges facing English-speaking learners of French is the concept that all French nouns, whether referring to living beings or not, are either “masculine” or “feminine” in gender. These terms are grammatical ones and are not equivalent to the terms “male” and “female”, although the ideas may overlap in certain cases, such as un homme – a man, is masculine and une femme – a woman, is feminine. With the vast majority of nouns the masculine or feminine gender either has no connection with sex, or, in the case of inanimate objects, it is applied to nouns which cannot be considered as male or female, such as un stylo – a pen and une chaise – a chair.
How, therefore, do we tackle the problem of learning and remembering which gender a noun happens to be? Here are a few tips: Continue reading
Christmas and Happy New Year card greetings in French
Joyeux Noël! Merry Christmas!
Je te souhaite un joyeux Noël!
I wish you a merry Christmas !
Nous vous souhaitons un joyeux Noël!
We wish you a merry Christmas! Continue reading
Beautiful French words!
French students, did you know you’re learning the language of love? Even if you’re not learning French to speak to your loved ones, you can still appreciate the beautiful language as you study the vocabulary. Many French words in particular roll off your tongue in a way that no other language does.
Ready to learn a few? How about 50? Below, TakeLessons.com shares 50 of the most beautiful French words you’ll ever hear. Continue reading
False Friends in French
There are many words in French that look like the same word in English, however they have a very different meaning! Continue reading
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