French 101- Until such time as a more qualified professor vo

[PuzzleProdigy]

The French Department would like to know how to place accents on their letters...

In the mean time, your first lesson of fast-track French:

Phrases:
Bonjour!- Hello!
Salut!- Hello! or Goodbye!
Au revoir- Goodbye!
J'aime...- I like...(n.)
Je suis...- I am...(adj.)

1s.Je- I

2s.Tu- You (informal)

3s.Il- He/It
Elle- She/It
On- General third person singular, or "we"

1p.Nous- We

2p.Vous- You (plural or formal)

3p.Ils- They (masculine)
Elles- They (Feminine)

Conjugating regular -er verbs:
For most verbs ending in -er, use the following process. First, look to find the person and number of the noun (i.e. First singular, third plural, etc.). This can be found with the pronouns above. Then, remove the -er ending and replace with the proper one of the following:

1s. -e
2s. -es
3s. -e
1p. -ons
2p. -ez
3p. -ent

That gives you a verb in present tense.

For example:
I like soccer.

Je (I) aimer (like) soccer (le football).

thus:
J'aime le football.
(The apostrophe shows how you pronounce the phrase- only one vowel sound. These are common in French)

Voila(Dammit, how do I do accents)!

[Hitchhiker]

Steal them, like I do! Voilá!

[monique]

With these language lessons, shouldn't we add some sort of pronunciation guide? Especially with French, what with all the silent letters and all...

[Chuck]

Post some sound files.

[Dragon Phoenix]

Use the numbers on the right hand side of your keyboard:
ALT130 = é
ALT138 = è
ALT133 = à
ALT160 = á
ALT131 = â
ALT141 = ì
ALT140 = î
ALT149 = ò
ALT162 = ó
ALT147 = ô
ALT151 = ù
ALT150 = û
ALT135 = ç

[Dragon Phoenix]

Two easy mistakes to make:

[1]When you want to say in French what your name is, do not use Je suis DP or Mon nom est DP - the right way is Je m'appelle DP which translates literally as "I call myself DP".

[2]When you want to tell your age, don't say Je suis 45, but J'ai 45 ans, which translates literally as "I have 45 years".

[MatthewV]

all the frence i know comes from fencing I must know atleast 20 words too!

[Agamemnon]

Sorry to butt in here, but as Chuck mentioned, here are some sound files for French words and small phrases.

Sorry again, carry on.

[VinnyQ]

wee wee. Bonjour, vieil haricots.

[Dragon Phoenix]

That should be Vieux Haricot...

[ChienFou]

je dis, mes copins. La phrase la plus utile est "veux-tu baiser?"

This is really for IS. It's the most direct approach. I mean one can wax lyrical about "la lune" or "le vent dans les arbres" but it will still come down to the basic question. The professer can translate it for us

[Agamemnon]

"Ah, mange tout! Mange tout!"

As Del Boy would say!

[Duphrates]

How do you say 'Duck' in French?

[Dragon Phoenix]

The animal? Canard
The verb? plonger

[VinnyQ]

How do you say "You have beautiful eyes" in French?

[CrystyB]

Tu à jollie yeux. Or something. ((i can't really remember a good translation for beautiful))

[This message has been edited by CrystyB (edited 01-09-2003 06:27 AM).]

[Quailman]

IIRC, Beautiful = Belle

[CrystyB]

yes, thank you. That's right, jollie is pretty.

[Duphrates]

Rodney you plonger

Sorry I should explain - post 12 was aimed at Aga.
Del Boy is from a sit com here and a joke in the Xmas special was :

Del Boy : What's French for duck?
Rodney : It's canard.
Del Boy : You can say that again.

Ahhhhhh, how we larrfed. Ohhh... ahem ... you had to be there

Plonger just adds to it, but I won't bore you with the details.


[This message has been edited by Duphrates (edited 01-09-2003 04:15 PM).]

[Beartalon]

Mangez mes sous-vétèments! - Bart Simpson

[PuzzleProdigy]

Note to CB: joli/jolie

Vous avez les joli yeux.
Tu as les joli yeux.
(joli is a special case, adjective before described word)

J'ai un examen du français demain matin.
Hmmm.. Je ne sais pas. Perhaps "Je vais prendre un examen du français demain matin?" (I'm going to take... as opposed to I have...)

[PuzzleProdigy]

Actually, I'd use "Tu as les belles yeux..."