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French bookshops Posted by Bridgette on Sep 24, 2021
Bonjour! La lecture est une amitié. – Marcel Proust Je n’ai jamais eu de chagrin qu’une heure de lecture n’ait dissipé. – Montesquieu ______________________________________________________________ It’s officially fall, and what better way to spend it then cozied up with a book? Today I want to highlight some French bookshops, past and present, and a recommendation for…
À la bibliothèque Posted by Bridgette on Sep 10, 2021
À la bibliothèque – At the library Bonjour! As Tim mentioned earlier this week, it’s Library Card Sign-up Month in the US! In celebration, I wanted to share some vocabulary you could use à la bibliothèque (at the library). (Don’t forget the difference with the faux ami la librairie – book store 😊) Before we jump into…
La francophonie du Canada Posted by Bridgette on Aug 27, 2021
La francophonie du Canada – French‑Speaking Canada Canada is officially a bilingual country (un pays bilangue), with English and French as the two official languages. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom (la Charte des droits et libertés), which was part of the Constitution Act (la loi constitutionnelle) of 1982, strengthened the status of both…
Avoiding repetition: y and en Posted by Bridgette on Aug 13, 2021
Bonjour! Transparent Language Online has recently added 64 French grammar lessons. Each lesson are 20 minutes each, which means we now have over 21 hours of grammar learning! If you’d like to check them out, click here. Let’s look at two of our newest lessons on avoiding repetition by using the pronouns y and en…
Apartment hunting in France: the dreaded ‘dossier’ Posted by Bridgette on Jul 29, 2021
Coucou! 👋 Apartment hunting in France is underway for me and the difficulty is more than I had imagined. I have started to put together the dreaded ‘dossier‘ (file) which many agencies and landlords require before you even look at an apartment. You’ll need to make a lot of les photocopies and they may need…
Saying “Bonjour” and “Bonsoir” Posted by Bridgette on Jul 16, 2021
Saying “Bonjour” and “Bonsoir” Bonjour is one of the first words people learn when learning French, and most even know it if they have never learned French. It is quite universal, but when to say it is not. In the US it isn’t unusual to skip a friendly ‘hello’ and get straight to the point…
Les accents Posted by Bridgette on Jul 2, 2021
Bonjour! Let’s talk about accents. In French they are important, since both the pronunciation and meaning of a word can change with or without an accent. For example: pêcheur vs pécheur = fisherman vs sinner Keep reading to help avoid mistakes like fisherman and sinner. 🙂 ________________________________________________________ Accent aigu (the acute accent, lit. the “high”…