Posts in March 2009

French Food - What do the French Actually Eat?

Posted by Chanda
Mar
31
2009

When I studied in Paris, I lived in a student dorm.  We were given breakfast and supper on weekdays.  For breakfast, we had our choice of hot chocolate or coffee and milk and could eat as much bread with butter as we wanted.  Most of us ate at least a whole baguette so we wouldn’t be too hungry at lunchtime (we wanted to save our meager student finances).  Many of the French students that also lived in the dorm would bring their own cereal and eat it in a big bowl of milk or they would bring Nutella (a chocolately-hazelnut spread) to have with their baguette bread and some of them were even so very kind enough to share their Nutella with us.  Those days were real treats!  For lunch, we would usually have a crêpe filled with ham and cheese, just ham or Nutella again!  Sometimes, we would splurge and get a döner kebab with fries or even eat at one of the Parisian university student dining halls where we would get a three-course meal for a small fee (around 3 Euros).  Then, for supper, the bell would ring in the dorm and all the students would go downstairs to the dining room, where you were served a catered-in family-style meal.  It usually included some kind of meat dish with plenty of sauce and some vegetables, bread and afterwards, a petit suisse (a type of fromage frais made from cow’s milk and cream), yogurt or cheese and water.  When I made a weekend visit to a French friend’s house, the family meals were delicious and again included some kind of meat or fish dish with sauce and some vegetables, some kind of salad, bread and cheese.  When I was an aupair and stayed with a French family, the meals usually were very similar…some kind of meat dish with lots of sauce and some vegetables, some kind of salad, bread and cheese.  In that case, wine was often served along with bottled mineral water.  Some people say the French diet is similar to the American one, but tastier!

 
Posted under Culture
Tagged with 		7 Comments | Post a Comment

French Language - Faux Amis

Posted by Chanda
Mar
30
2009

When you’re learning French and especially, when you’re trying to speak French, you can get easily confused or confuse others with these deceitful false friends or false cognates.  Faux amis, as they are called in French, are pairs of words that seem to be similar in two different languages, but in fact, are not.  I’ll list some common French-English false cognates in this article.

French word Meaning For… in English Use…in French
actuel present, up-to-date actual réel
adepte follower, enthusiast adept compétent, expert
affluence crowd affluence richesse
agenda datebook agenda ordre du jour
aire area air air
attendre wait for attend assister
avertissement warning advertisement publicité
blesser injure bless bénir
bride bridle bride mariée
caméra movie camera camera appareil photo
car coach, bus car voiture
caution financial guarantee caution prudence
compréhensif understanding comprehensive complet
contrôler check, monitor control maîtriser
course trip, journey, race course cours
crayon pencil crayon crayon de couleur
crier shout cry pleurer
demander ask demand exiger
éventuellement possibly eventually finalement
informations news information renseignement
location rent, lease location endroit
noise quarrel noise bruit
pays country to pay payer (conjugated)
raisin grape raisin raisin sec
râpe grater, grinder rape violer
recette recipe receipt reçu, ticket de caisse
résumé summary résumé CV

 

Ne vous trompez pas!

 
Posted under Vocabulary
Tagged with , , , , 		2 Comments | Post a Comment

French Language - Negation

Posted by Chanda
Mar
28
2009

In the French language, there are different ways to be negative…to express negativity.  Perhaps the most common is when you want the sentence to be negative.  In that case, you place ne before the main verb and pas after it.  Or, if you want to say that you never do something, you place ne before the main verb and jamais after it.  Here are some examples:

Je ne sais pas.  (I don’t know.)
Elle ne mange pas de pain. (She doesn’t eat bread.)
Vous ne voulez pas de vin ?  (You don’t want any wine?)
Je ne fais jamais de vélo.  (I never ride a bike.)
Il ne boit jamais de lait.  (He never drinks milk.)
Ils ne sortent jamais la nuit.  (They never go out at night.)

To express negation towards a noun or noun group (as opposed to the verb in the above cases), you do the following:
Tu veux de l’eau?  Non, pas de l’eau, du vin.  (No, not water, wine.)
Tu viens en train?  Non, pas en train, en voiture.  (No, not by train, by car.)
Tu veux manger quelque chose ?  Non, je ne veux rien.  (No, I don’t want anything.)
Tu entends quelqu’un ?  No, je n‘entends personne.  (No, I don’t hear anyone.)

To express negation towards an adverb, you do as follows:
Elle le voit toujours.  Non, elle ne le voit plus.  (No, she doesn’t see him anymore.)
Tu as déjà essayé ce vin?  Non, pas encore.  (No, not yet.)

Finally, you can use the negative form to express some kind of restriction:
Je ne travaille que le matin.  (I only work mornings.)

OK.  No more being negative.  Il faut être positif!

 
Posted under Grammar
Tagged with , , , 		0 Comments | Post a Comment

French Language - Semi Auxiliaries

Posted by Chanda
Mar
27
2009

In the French language, semi-auxiliaries are the same as in the English language.  They are multi-word verbs that occur before main verbs.  In English, these semi-auxiliaries include: have to, get to, be about to, used to, mean to, be going to, etc.

In French, many of the semi-auxiliaries are the same as the English ones.

To express the future:
ALLER + infinitive (near future)
Mon bébé va s’endormir.  (My baby is going to go to sleep).
J’allais partir quand mon copain est arrivé.  (I was going to leave when my boyfriend arrived.)

***Be careful though as aller + infinitive can be used to express movement and in that case, it is not considered a semi-auxiliary.  Ex: El bébé va marcher.

ÊTRE SUR LE POINT DE + infinitive (immediate future)
Nous sommes à table ; nous sommes sur le point de manger.  (We are at the table.  We are about to eat.)

DEVOIR + infinitive
Mes amis doivent arriver à la gare ce soir à 8 heures. (My friends should be arriving at the station this evening at 8 o’clock.)

To express the past:
VENIR DE + infinitive (recent past)
Mon mari n’est pas là ; il vient de sortir. (My husband is not here; he just left.)

To express duration:
ÊTRE EN TRAIN DE + infinitive
J’étais en train de faire le linge quand le lave-linge s’est brisé. (I was doing the laundry when the washer broke down.)

To express the beginning of an action:
COMMENCER À / SE METTRE À + infinitive
Les gens commencent à arriver.  (The people are starting to arrive.)
Tout le monde s’est mis à rire.  (Everybody started to laugh.)

To express the end of an action:
FINIR DE / CESSER DE / S’ARRÊTER DE + infinitive
J’ai fini d‘écrire le livre.  (I’ve finished writing the book.)
La neige a cessé de tomber.  (The snow has stopped falling.)
Je lui ai demandé de s’arrêter de fumer ; donc, il a éteint sa cigarette.  (I asked him to stop smoking so he put out his cigarette.)

**Be careful, cesser de and arrêter de in the negative form express duration.
Ex: La neige ne cesse de tomber.  (The snow keeps falling.)
Il n’arrête pas de fumer.  (He smokes all the time.)

To express probability:
DEVOIR + infinitive
J’ai faim; il doit être environ midi. (I’m hungry.  It must be around noon.)
POUVOIR + infinitive
La salle est pleine; il peut y avoir 500 personnes. (The hall is full; there could be 500 people here.)

To express obligation:
DEVOIR + infinitive
On doit éteindre les portables. (Cell phones must be turned off.)

But, be careful, some of these multi-word verbs may occur in other contexts in which they are not considered to be semi-auxiliaries.  You will know this when there is no other main verb.  For example:

DEVOIR: Je dois beaucoup à mes parents. (I owe a lot to my parents.)

 
Posted under Grammar
Tagged with , , , 		0 Comments | Post a Comment

French Culture - Musée du Louvre

Posted by Chanda
Mar
23
2009

One of my favorite places to immerse myself in French culture when I visit Paris is the Louvre.  Every time I walk up to the former royal fortress, I am filled with awe, despite the long lines of tourists around me.  At the same time, I feel proud that an American’s work of art is on display right in the front courtyard entrance (Ieoh Ming Pei’s glass pyramid) and yet, inspired by the French and world history I am about to discover.  For this reason, I was pleased to read that the Pennsylvania-based Annenberg Foundation has just donated approximately a million euros to the museum in order to make it more user and especially kid-friendly.

Since 1793, the Louvre has housed one of the most important museums in Paris and in fact, in the world.  And this is not just because da Vinci’s Mona Lisa is showcased there along with the Venus de Milo and the Victory of Samothrace.  In all, it features over 35,000 works of art.  There are exceptional examples of Oriental, Egyptian, Etruscan, Greek and Roman antiquities and you can find sculptures from the Middle Ages to our times, paintings representing all the European schools, Islamic art, sculptures, prints and drawings, French crown jewels and even furniture.
One of the goals of the museum when it opened was to be a learning place for future artists and you can still find students and copyists sitting down in front of a piece hunched over a half-finished sketch, pencil in hand.  The museum also offers concerts, films, lectures and symposiums, readings and performances, music on film, thematic programs and workshops for both adults and children.
The Louvre sees over 6 million visitors from every country in the world every year.  Each time you visit the museum, you see something you haven’t seen before, feel something different and experience a sense of international belonging with all the languages, people and cultures surrounding you.

You can take online virtual tours at the museum’s official site.

 
Posted under Culture
Tagged with , , , , 		1 Comment | Post a Comment