Posts from October 2009

French Vocabulary in Context IV

Posted by Transparent Language No Comments
Oct 15 2009

Today, I’ll give you another very short vocabulary activity to work on.  French teachers can use this exercise as a quick warm-up activity.  I will provide the answers in a later post (in a few days) so you have plenty of time to get to it.

I thought of this word this afternoon when I had to get after my 3 year-old daughter. (Hint, hint..)

admonester (verb)

Context: Julie a admonesté son petit chien pour avoir jappé quand quelqu’un a frappé à la porte.

Create three synonyms for admonester?
_ e_ m_ _ _ _ _
_r_ _ _ _ _

r_ _ _ _ _ _ _ r

Write a sentence of your own using the word admonester.

Vous pouvez partager vos phrases avec nous dans un commentaire !

French Grammar – Adverbs

Posted by Transparent Language No Comments
Oct 12 2009

C’est quoi un adverbe? Well, according to my Robert Micro (my all-time favorite dictionary…although not completely sure why), c’est un mot invariable ajoutant une détermination à un verbe (ex : marcher lentement), un adjectif (ex : très agréable), un adverbe (ex : trop rapidement), ou à une phrase entière (ex : évidemment, il ne se presse pas).

In English, we often say that an adverb tells how something is done.

Il se bouge facilement. (He moves easily.)
Il s’est finalement décidé. (He has finally decided.)

In French, many adverbs end in -ment.  However, there are some exceptions.  The formation rules are as follows:

1. You take the feminine form of the adjective and add -ment.
fort › forte › fortement
doux › douce › doucement
vif › vive › vivement
fou › folle › follement

2. For adjectives that end in -ent and -ant, the suffix is -emment or -amment.
prudent › prudemment
violent › violemment
courant › couramment
suffisant › suffisamment

3. For adjectives that end in -i, -é and -u, the final -e in the feminine form disappears.
vrai › vraiment
absolu › absolument
aisé › aisément

There are also adverb words or adverb word groups like hier, longtemps, tôt, tard, demain, souvent, loin, près, dehors, trop, là-bas, partout, quelque part, quelquefois, jamais, assez, beaucoup, assez, très, vite, par hasard, à peu près, tout à l’heure, au maximum…

Some adjectives can also be used as adverbs in their masculine singular form like bas, fort, cher, froid…

Finally, there are some often-used adverbs that are completely different from their corresponding adjectives:
bon › bien
mauvais › mal
meilleur › mieux
petit › peu

Who can make a sentence with as many adverbs as possible?  Please share in a comment.

French Slang – Argôt Français Contemporain

Posted by Transparent Language 4 Comments
Oct 9 2009

One of our readers asked if I would write an article on slang that young people use.  Although I’m not going to say I’m any kind of expert as my teenage days are long over,  this article is an attempt to find something for him.
Some young people, especially those in urban neighborhoods speak what is known as langue djeunz (as in langue des jeunes).  Some of this slang is also used among families and friends outside the big cities through the spread of hip hop culture and SMS language.  Much of modern French slang comes from the influence of foreign words (English, Arabic, etc.).  One form of this slang is what is called verlan, which some of my French friends introduced me to when I lived in Paris.  Verlan is all about reversing the syllables of a word, but not usually with words with more than three syllables.  And it has to sound cool, so sometimes the word is then changed a bit to be pleasing to the ear.  The word verlan actually comes from reversing the syllables of l’envers (reverse or back to front).
l’envers → ver
l’envers  → lan (although for phonological reasons, the e was changed to an a to make verlan)

Here are some French words in verlan:
femme – meuf (woman)
énervé – vénère (angry)
arabe – beur (Arab)
cigarette – garette-ci (which was later transformed to garo)
bizarre – zarbi (strange)
père – reup (father)

Finally, here’s a really interesting website in French on French slang.  There are even fables by Jean de La Fontaine in slang.  Le Dictionnaire Argôt Français

Et merci de nouveau Ryan pour ton commentaire!

Let’s Talk About Verbs – Venir

Posted by Transparent Language 6 Comments
Oct 6 2009

Je viens de mettre mes filles au lit. I have just put my girls in bed.

Venir de conjugated in the present tense and followed by the infinitive is the equivalent of to have just + past participle.

Elle vient d’arriver. (She has just arrived.)
Ils viennent de faire leurs devoirs. (They have just done their homework.)

It is an irregular -ir verb and is conjugated in the present tense like this:

je viens
tu viens
il/elle/on vient
nous venons
vous venez
ils/elles viennent

There are other verbs that are conjugated in the present tense in the same way; in other words, with the same suffixes, and they are: devenir (to become), revenir (to come back), se souvenir de (to remember), tenir (to hold) and obtenir (to obtain).

Why don’t you give us an example sentence using one of these verbs in a comment!

Greetings in France

Posted by Transparent Language 1 Comment
Oct 3 2009

When living in a student dorm in Paris, there were a few chairs around a table topped with the day’s newspaper and some magazines in the entrance hall.  I would often hang out there for a couple of reasons.  One – so I could learn more French and stay informed of back-then President Bill Clinton’s political situation by reading the free newspaper that I wasn’t about to pay for on my student budget.  Two- so I could make French friends and see the ones I had already made as they came in after their classes.  At first, I was surprised at what an event greeting everyone would be each time someone came in.  It would go like this: male student number one would come in the door and immediately say “Bonsoir” and then proceed to shake hands with each guy gathered in the area and kiss each girl on both cheeks, saying “Bonsoir” individually to all of them as they each stood up to receive the greeting.  Then, male student number two would come in the door and immediately say “Bonsoir” and then proceed to shake hands with each guy gathered in the area and kiss each girl on both cheeks, saying “Bonsoir” individually to all of them as they each stood up to receive the greeting.  Then, female student number one would come in the door and immediately say “Bonsoir” and then proceed to kiss each person gathered in the area on both cheeks, saying “Bonsoir” individually to all of them as they each stood up to receive the greeting.  And this could go on for an hour or more.  Some people would stay and chat for a bit and others immediately went up to their rooms to get ready for dinner.  I remember that it felt nice to be greeted as in a similar situation in the US, for example, unless it is a good friend walking in, your presence could basically just be ignored.  These greeting sessions made it so much easier to feel included in a foreign country, make French friends and in turn, learn French.

So, this story leads me to a few basic rules of greeting etiquette in France:

1. When greeting someone or saying good-bye, always shake hands quickly with just a little pressure.  Children should shake hands too.

2. When you enter a room, greet everyone in it.

3. If you greet a man, say “Bonjour/Bonsoir Monsieur“, when greeting an older woman say “Bonjour/Bonsoir Madame” and when greeting a single young woman, say “Bonjour/Bonsoir Mademoiselle“.  Don’t use their first or their last names as it’s considered too informal.  If you’re close friends or among all young people, you can use their first names.  Children should not use first names with any adults, except their close relatives.

4. When leaving a group, also shake hands and say “Au revoir Monsieur/Madame/Mademoiselle” to everyone in the group.  If you’re all friends and you’re a female, then do the cheek kissing thing and say “Au revoir/À plus tard/ À tout à l’heure” to everyone.

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