Archive for January, 2015
A Cup of Coffee: « Un Café S’Il Vous Plaît ! » Posted by John Bauer on Jan 14, 2015
As a coffee lover one of the first things I wanted to do after arriving in France was to, bien sûr (of course), prendre une tasse de café (grab a cup of coffee). I got off the plane, jetlagged and groggy from the flight, but I still had that tasse in my head. After making…
Nous Sommes Charlie Hebdo Posted by Elizabeth Schmermund on Jan 12, 2015
In honor of the courageous men and women who were murdered in cold blood at Charlie Hebdo this past Wednesday, I will not be continuing my regular grammar post this week. Rather, I’d like to pay tribute to the fallen staff and friends of Charlie Hebdo, as well as those who died while trying to…
Studying in France: A Perfect Score Posted by John Bauer on Jan 8, 2015
Les examens… I’m currently in the middle of exams. I have to passer les examens (take exams) and hope I can réussir les examens (pass exams). That leaves me quite busy, but it also made me realize just how different the grading system is here en France. The first thing that will jump out to…
That tricky French U! Posted by Josh Dougherty on Jan 6, 2015
There are many tricky parts to learning a foreign language. There’s new grammar, there are new and sometimes bizarre expressions and idioms, and there are of course new sounds. For native English speakers, there are a few sounds in French that are a little difficult to pronounce. And of course, just because you know the…
Reader Request: French Conjunctions Posted by Elizabeth Schmermund on Jan 5, 2015
Today we’re going to learn about French conjunctions. What are conjunctions? They are words or phrases that link similar words or groups of works together. In French, there are two different kinds of conjunctions: coordinating conjunctions (les conjonctions de coordination) and subordinating conjunctions (les conjonctions de subordination). These also exist in English. Coordinating conjunctions –…
Pronunciation Practice: Tongue Twisters Posted by John Bauer on Jan 1, 2015
A tongue twister, or un virelangue en français, is hard a hard to pronounce sentence, often used as a kind of game among children, but also used to clear up pronunciation problems. They are always specifically designed to be difficile de dire (hard to say), even for des locuteurs natifs (native speakers)! Just think of…