Archive for November, 2014
French Vocabulary: Dansequâ Posted by John Bauer on Nov 26, 2014
Dansequâ is a French word you will never find in any dictionnaire. The story behind this mot bizarre (strange word) goes back to when I first started learning French. I remember hearing my teacher say “dansequâ” and understanding it dans son contexte (in context) as meaning something like “because” or “taking that into consideration”, but…
Compound Nouns en français Posted by Josh Dougherty on Nov 26, 2014
verb + noun Dans ma région, on attend beaucoup de neige demain. Le lendemain, c’est Thanksgiving, et le surlendemain, c’est Black Friday. Pour vous aider dans cette période stressante de l’année, je vous présente un blog qui porte sur un sujet super intéressant: la grammaire! (In my neck of the woods, we’re expecting a lot…
Les Fables de La Fontaine: Le Soleil et les Grenouilles Posted by mtaulier on Nov 25, 2014
Our last fable from Jean de La Fontaine is taken from Livre VI (Book VI) of the Fables de La Fontaine. Le Soleil et les Grenouilles (The Sun and the Frogs) is unique in that it is told by Aesop, the famous Greek fabulist of the 7th century B.C. who no doubt served as La…
Joyeux Thanksgiving: Celebrating Thanksgiving in France Posted by Elizabeth Schmermund on Nov 24, 2014
When I was living in Paris, Thanksgiving (literally, l’action de grâce, although most French people will just say Thanksgiving) was the one day of the year when the American expatriate community would come together as one and reclaim their American-ness. I’ll be honest: For part of the two years I spent living in France, I…
France’s Contributions to the World (Part 2) Posted by mtaulier on Nov 21, 2014
In part 1 of this mini-series, we looked at six of the greatest French contributions to the world. Today, let’s look at few more you might find interesting. This series is meant not only to be informative but also to help you cultivate a deeper appreciation of French culture and its impact on world history…
Texting in French: Le Langage SMS Posted by John Bauer on Nov 19, 2014
Slt sava ? (Hey sup?) There’s a lot of English that goes beyond the scope of the common textbook, or even the common work of fiction. Many of us millennials grew up learning it, chatting and playing des jeux vidéos (video games) with friends. We would have contests of sorts to see just who could…
Je blogue, donc je suis: New Blogger at Transparent! Posted by Josh Dougherty on Nov 19, 2014
“Il faut remonter le score, eh, Josh?” (You need to raise your score, eh, Josh?) I can still remember my French teacher, Annick, making this remark to me during a game of Scrabble against a fellow classmate. I’m not sure what made this little sentence of seven words such an impetus, but something inside me…