Archive for April, 2018
French Grammar – What happened? Posted by Tim Hildreth on Apr 10, 2018
To wrap up this latest series of grammar posts, here is a little story for you to practice your reading comprehension and to test your ability to recognize the different verb tenses. Mon fils vient de partir. Nous avons diné ensemble. On était censé diner chez mon frère, mais il a décommandé au dernier moment…
La Couronne: The Oldest Restaurant in France? Posted by Elizabeth Schmermund on Apr 9, 2018
France is known for having many of the oldest restaurants in the world. Why is this? Because the first modern restaurant was established in Paris in 1765. Run by Monsieur Boulanger (which literally translates to Mr. Baker), this restaurant served just one dish: sheep’s feet in a white wine sauce. On the eve of the…
Strange French Sites: Who Was Nicholas Flamel? Posted by Elizabeth Schmermund on Apr 5, 2018
If you happen to be in Paris, you might want to check out the oldest stone home in the city. Located at 51, rue de Montmerencey, it dates to 1407. But that’s not the only special thing about this house: it was built by Nicholas Flamel, the most famous French alchemist of all time. For…
Using Delicious Spaghetti To Remember The Gender Of French Words Posted by John Bauer on Apr 4, 2018
Remembering le genre d’un mot (the gender of a word) is one of the hardest parts of learning French. Getting a feel for how un chaise sounds wrong is very hard for non-native speakers. While there are countless examples les anglophones (English speakers) like myself making mistakes with French words, looking at words that les…
French Grammar – Past imperfect Posted by Tim Hildreth on Apr 3, 2018
Welcome to lesson 3 in our mini French Grammar series. After le passé récent and le futur proche, it’s time this week to look at the French tense known as l’imparfait. L’Imparfait (The imperfect) Like le passé composé, le passé simple, and the passé récent, l’imparfait is a tense for talking about things that…