Posts by Chanda

French Grammar - Possessive Adjectives

Posted by Chanda
Nov
3
2009

First of all, here are the answers to the family relationships vocabulary exercise I gave you a few days ago.

1. La mère de ma mère c’est ma grand-mère.

2. Les enfants de mon oncle ce sont mes cousins.

3. La fille de ma mère c’est ma sœur.

4. Le frère de mon père c’est mon oncle.

5. Le père de mon père c’est mon grand-père.

6. Le frère de mon oncle c’est mon père.

7. La sœur de ma mère c’est ma tante.

8. La sœur de ma tante c’est ma mère.

You may have noticed the use of ma, mon, mes in the above sentences.  These are called adjectifs possessifs in French and possessive adjectives in English.  In all of these examples, I have used the first person possessive adjectives; in other words, the French versions of “my”.  Below are some more examples with third person possessive adjectives; in other words, the French versions of “her”, “his” and “their”.

Singulier

C’est

 le mari de Amélie.

la sœur de Jean.

le cousin de Marie et de Jean.

la fille de Amélie et d’Antoine.

 son mari

sa sœur

leur cousin

leur fille
Plural

Ce sont

 les parents de Sophie.

les enfants de Amélie et d’Antoine.

 ses parents

leurs enfants

You must make the possessive adjective agree in gender and number with the noun the object belongs to; in other words, depending on whether the noun is singular or plural / masculine or feminine.

Singular

Plural

masculine

feminine

masculine and feminine

1 “owner”

mon

ton

son

ma

ta

sa

mes

tes

ses

Singular

Plural

masculine and feminine

masculine and feminine

More than 1 “owner”

notre

votre

leur

nos

vos

leurs

Just to be sure you get it, compare these two sentences:

Il avait invité tous ses amis à sa fête. (He invited all of his friends to his party.)
(just one “owner”)
Ils avaient invité tous leurs amis à leur fête. (They invited all of their friends to their party.)
(more than one “owners”)

Careful though as the possessive adjectives ma, ta and sa before words that begin with vowels or a silent h all end in “n” regardless of whether they are masculine or feminine.  Examples: mon adresse, ton amie, son identité.

 
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French Vocabulary in Context IV Answers

Posted by Chanda
Oct
31
2009

Here are the answers to the vocabulary activity I posted a few days ago:

admonester : réprimander vivement (to admonish)

sermonner (to lecture)
gronder (to scold)
réprouver (to reprove)

Comment avez-vous fait?

 
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French Relationships

Posted by Chanda
Oct
27
2009

While the title of this French vocabulary article may seem a bit misleading, this exercise on family words may prove to be fun and helpful to your learning process.  Fill in the blanks with the appropriate French word, or even better yet, let us know what your answers are in a comment!

1. La mère de ma mère c’est ma _______________.

2. Les enfants de mon oncle ce sont mes ________.

3. La fille de ma mère c’est ma ________________.

4. Le frère de mon père c’est mon ______________.

5. Le père de mon père c’est mon ______________.

6. Le frère de mon oncle c’est mon _____________.

7. La sœur de ma mère c’est ma _______________.

8. La sœur de ma tante c’est ma _______________.

 
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How to Pronounce French Vowels

Posted by Chanda
Oct
24
2009

Perhaps most if not all of our readers will agree that one of the hardest things about learning and dominating the French language is pronunciation!!  So, today, I’m going to try to help you out a little bit on this one with some technique talk.  This is what you should do to correctly pronounce the vowels:

VOWEL WHERE IS YOUR TONGUE? WHAT IS YOUR MOUTH DOING?
[i]
as in joli		 very far in front smiley, almost closed
[y]
as in salut		 very far back almost closed and rounded
[e]
as in étude		 in front a little open
[ε ]
as in faire		 in front open
[a]
as in la		 in front very open
[ə]
as in le		 in front a little open
[œ]
as in neuf		 in front open and rounded
[Ø]
as in bleu		 very far back a little open and rounded

as in pomme		 a little back open and rounded
[o]
as in mot		 in back open and very rounded
[u]
as in jour		 a little back a little open and very rounded

as in vin		 in front
*remember this one is nasal as if you have a cold		 open and smiley

as in dans		 a little back
*remember this one is nasal as if you have a cold		 very open and rounded

as in pont		 in back
*remember this one is nasal as if you have a cold		 a little open and really rounded

Practice them in front of a mirror…I know, I know…it’s not that easy!  But, the important thing is to have fun when you’re learning and believe me this makes for some laughs!

 
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French Games - Scattegories II

Posted by Chanda
Oct
21
2009

Some time ago, I began a French Scattegories game with this blog and it’s time for another round!!  So, put your French vocabulary to the test!

I’ll remind you of the rules:

Règles
Je vous donne dix catégories et une lettre.  Vous devez répondre avec un mot qui commence avec cette lettre.  Évidement, vous ne devez pas répondre le même que les autres et il faut être créatif.  Bonne chance!

Also, please remember that you can’t enter more than one word for each category.  Have fun!
Lettre: M

Catégories:
1. l’architecture
2. la nature
3. les voyages
4. les villes
5. la fête
6. le mariage
7. le sport
8. les nombres
9. les langues
10. la musique

I believe emmanuel was the winner of the last round.  Let’s see who wins this one…write a comment with your answers.

 
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