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French Holidays – Still Looking for Ideas for Your Christmas Menu? Posted by Transparent Language on Dec 24, 2008
Why not add some French flair to your holiday dinner? Some very traditional French Christmas choices include dinde de Noël (Christmas turkey) which is prepared in a variety of interesting ways, chapon (capon) and any dish with foie gras including tatin pommes foie gras. Here is a recipe for Tatin Pommes Foie Gras from the Marmiton website. Preparation Time: 30 minutes Cooking Time: 15 minutes Ingredients: 3…
French Christmas Carols and their English Equivalents Posted by Transparent Language on Dec 15, 2008
As promised, here are the French Christmas carols again and their English equivalents or translations… Vive le vent Jingle Bells Douce nuit Silent Night Le divin enfant He is Born, the Holy Child Noël blanc White Christmas Rodolphe Rudolph, the Red Nosed Reindeer Venez divin Messie O Come, Devine…
French Christmas Carols Posted by Transparent Language on Dec 12, 2008
Well, the holiday season is here in many parts of the world. Although France is home to many different world religions, it is predominantly Roman Catholic (85% according to WikiAnswers). So, everything to do with the Christmas season can be found in France as well as Québec. Thus, this month I will write a few…
French Language – Animate Nouns and Gender Posted by Transparent Language on Dec 11, 2008
We could say that there are six different types of nouns: animate nouns (people, animals), inanimate nouns (things, ideas), proper nouns (such as cities and names), common nouns (such as avenue, liberté), simple nouns (such as fourchette, papier, ami) and compound nouns (such as croque-monsieur, boîte aux lettres). Today, we’re going to talk about animate…
French Music – The Biggest Rock Star You’ve Never Heard Of Posted by Transparent Language on Dec 10, 2008
Quite possibly the highest-paid French singer (8.75 million euros in 2006 according to Figaro), Johnny Hallyday was born Jean Philippe Léo Smet in Paris on June 15, 1943, to Hugette and Léon Smet. As a small child, he lived for four years in Great Britain with his paternal aunt, a dancer and silent film actress. …
Quebec Elections Posted by Transparent Language on Dec 9, 2008
Yesterday, the people of Quebec headed to the voting booths for their provincial elections. Due to the extremely cold weather, voter turnout was not great, but a majority liberal government was elected. Besidesthe independent candidates, candidates from 9 different political parties could be found on the ballot. These parties are Action démocratique du Québec, Parti…
Impersonal Verbs Posted by Transparent Language on Dec 3, 2008
Impersonal verbs can often get people confused when learning French, but the fact is that these verbs are used in all languages including English. Il pleut means ‘It is raining’. These verbs are called impersonal because they can not take a real personal subject as they do not represent any action, occurence or state-of-being that…