Archive for June, 2009
More Colloquial French Posted by Transparent Language on Jun 29, 2009
I broke my husband’s iPhone yesterday and no, he was not content. And just like many other people in today’s society, I decided to share this event with all of my friends on Facebook. About an hour later, one of my French friends responded with “Tu as des mains à faire des mottes!” and to…
French Regions – Montpellier Posted by Transparent Language on Jun 24, 2009
While I was studying in Paris, I went home with a friend for a weekend to Montpellier and it was really a beautiful city. Montpellier is located in the south of France on the Mediterranean coast and is the capital of Languedoc-Roussillon. Its name refers to the fact that it sits up on hilly ground…
Street French II – Food Posted by Transparent Language on Jun 18, 2009
French argot (slang) can be difficult to understand, but it’s really quite fun. So, today, we’ll talk about some expressions involving food that don’t have so much to do with food really, but might be useful to know. For example, if you want to say that you are a bit down in the dumps, you…
French Literature – Petit Nicolas Posted by Transparent Language on Jun 15, 2009
In my very first French class, the students were required to read Petit Nicolas by Jean-Jacques Sempé and René Goscinny. That was the beginning of my love affair with these French stories about a young schoolboy who gets into all sorts of mischief (un écolier à malice), his friends and family, all told through the…
French Music – Patrick Bruel Posted by Transparent Language on Jun 12, 2009
Another of my favorite French singers is Patrick Bruel and he just released a new album called Seul o presque (Alone or almost) with live acoustic versions of his songs that were recorded while he was on tour. Born Maurice Benguigui on May 14, 1959, in Tlemcen, Algeria, he was slow to find success as…
French Vocabulary – Idioms with Avoir Posted by Transparent Language on Jun 8, 2009
One of the first mistakes I, just like most beginning French learners whose native tongue is English, made is to say ‘Je suis chaud‘ (can be quite vulgar depending on who says it and in which situation) when I mean to say ‘J’ai chaud‘ (I’m hot as in temperature). In English, we usually use the…
French Grammar – Punctuation Marks Posted by Transparent Language on Jun 5, 2009
Punctuation is sometimes different in the French language. I first came across this when reading Albert Camus’ La Chute in my literature class at the Sorbonne back when I was a student in Paris. I found it so bizarre to see the direct speech noted in the sentence « Voulez-vous d’une vie propre? Comme tout…