French Language Blog

* Les petits animaux (the young animals)! *

Oui, ils sont tous mignons (Yes, they’re all cute)!
 Today’s post is officially approved by la SPA: “La Société protectrice des animaux”

• When l’abeille (the bee) was young, it was une larve    
• When l’aigle (the eagle) was young, it was un aiglon   
• When l’âne (the donkey) was young, it was un ânon
• When l’antilope was young, it was an antilopin
• When l’autruche (the ostrich) was young, it was an autruchon
• When la baleine (the whale) was young, it was a baleineau
• When le bison was young, it was un veau (a calf) 
• When une caille (a quail) was young, it was a cailleteau
• When un canard (a duck) was young, it was a caneton (or a canette!)
• When un chameau (a camel) was young, it was a chamelon
• When un chat (a cat) was young, it was un chaton
• When un cheval (a horse) was young, it was a poulain
• When la chèvre (goat) was young, it was a chevreau  
• When un chien (a dog) was young, it was a chiot
• When la cigogne (stork) was young, it was a cigogneau
• When le cochon (pig) was young, it was a porcelet
• When le corbeau (crow) was young, it was un corbillat
• When un crapaud (toad) was young, it was a têtard
• When le cygne (swan) was young, it was a cygneau  
• When le dauphin (dolphin) was young, it was a delphineau
• When le dindon (turkey) was young, it was a dindonneau
• When l’éléphant was young, it was un éléphanteau
• When le faucon (falcon) was young, it was a fauconneau
• When la fourmi (ant) was young, it was a nymphe !
• When la girafe was young, it was a girafon  
• When le gorille was young, it was un gorillon
• When la grenouille (frog) was young, it was also un têtard
• When l’hirondelle (swallow) was young, it was a hirondeau
• When le lapin (rabbit) was young, it was a lapereau
• When le lièvre (hare) was young, it was a levreau
• When le lion was young, it was a lionceau  
• When le loup (wolf) was young, it was a louveteau
• When le moineau (sparrow) was young, it was a moinet
• When la mouche (fly) was young, it was un asticot
• When le mouton (sheep) was young, it was un agneau
• When l’oiseau (bird) was young, it was a oiselet
• When l’ours (bear) was young, it was un ourson  
• When le papillon (butterfly) was young, it was une chenille
• When le phoque (seal) was young, it was a blanchon !
• When le poisson (fish) was young, it was a fretin
• When la poule (chicken) was young, it was a poussin
• When le rat was young, it was a raton
  
• When le renard (fox) was young, it was a renardeau
  
• When le rhinocéros was young, it was a rhinocéron
• When le sanglier (boar) was young, it was a marcassin
• When le saumon (salmon) was young, it was a smolt
• When the female singe (monkey) was young, it was a guenuche ! 
  
• When la souris (mouse) was young, it was a souriceau
  
• When le tigre (tiger) was young, it was a tigreau
• When le zèbre (zebra) was young, it was a zébreau

Some of you may have noticed that there is a box to the right of the blog articles on the blog website showing all of our fans on Facebook and inviting you to join, if you haven’t done so already.  Currently, there are 5,080 fans and if you join, you will see that the French fans on Facebook are quite active.  They interact, give their opinions about the articles and words of the day, practice their French skills, help each other out, get into debates about France and the French language and make jokes.  There are even native French speaking fans who are willing to give advice and correct non-natives.  It’s all quite a bit of fun and an easy and free way to improve your French, if you ask me.

One fan (Suzie) recently came up with and shared a very funny sentence (Le ver vert va vers le verre vert) which reminded me of my challenge to all of you in an article I wrote a few months ago.

I encourage all readers to become fans of French on Facebook and join in on the fun…and learning!  And for all of you who are already fans of French on Facebook, MERCI MILLE FOIS et ALLEZ-Y AVEC TOUS VOS COMMENTAIRES!

I would like to start this blog off with my tips on how to become proficient in French. Now, these are all based on my own personal language-learning experiences so you may or may not agree with all of them, but I can assure you they have all worked for me.

1. Read a lot in French and not just your textbook or the books/novels your teachers assign, but also newspapers, song lyrics, menus, billboards, notices on the metro and other places when you are in a French-speaking country (in short, everything your eyes can possibly find at any time) and my personal favorites…celebrity gossip magazines. And to get you started off…click here to take a look at Voici magazine.

2. Get a French-speaking boyfriend or girlfriend. Native French-speaking friends are great and help you out a lot, so be sure to find some of those too. But, a boyfriend or girlfriend really has an interest in what you have to say and will help you out even more. And most likely, you will spend a lot of one-on-one time with him/her which is a lot of time to absorb language.

3. Learn grammar…but in context. I am a certified teacher, so I love grammar and believe it is extremely important, but if you want it to stick…don’t just memorize your textbook rules, but rather look those rules up when you come across a new grammar point that you haven’t seen before or are curious about when you are reading one of those sources (or any others) I was talking about in tip #1.

4. Vocabulary, vocabulary, vocabulary. Enrich your vocabulary and not necessarily by studying dictionaries page by page…when you come across a word that you don’t remember having heard or seen before and you think it is important to understanding whatever you are reading or listening to…look it up in a dictionary. But, don’t get obsessed with all the words you don’t know when you are reading or listening or bogged down by looking up all the new words you come across as that will usually lead you to becoming bored with whatever you are reading or listening to and then you will probably starting getting blocked in your learning process. Also, pick up all the slang words you can, especially when listening to native speakers…that will open up a whole new vocabulary world that you probably have never been exposed to and that world will unlock many doors to becoming proficient. You’ll understand more when you listen and feel more confident when speaking.

5. Most importantly, experience the language. Languages are to be lived. Participate in activities where French is spoken, travel to a French-speaking country, join a French club, live in a French house if possible where you study, use French products, eat French food, read about French-speaking people and their customs, and if you have the opportunity, live in a French-speaking country.

I will write more about all of these tips and give you more details on my experiences in later posts, but for now… à la prochaine!