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French Music – Patrick Bruel Posted by Transparent Language on Jun 12, 2009
Another of my favorite French singers is Patrick Bruel and he just released a new album called Seul o presque (Alone or almost) with live acoustic versions of his songs that were recorded while he was on tour. Born Maurice Benguigui on May 14, 1959, in Tlemcen, Algeria, he was slow to find success as…
French Vocabulary – Idioms with Avoir Posted by Transparent Language on Jun 8, 2009
One of the first mistakes I, just like most beginning French learners whose native tongue is English, made is to say ‘Je suis chaud‘ (can be quite vulgar depending on who says it and in which situation) when I mean to say ‘J’ai chaud‘ (I’m hot as in temperature). In English, we usually use the…
French Grammar – Punctuation Marks Posted by Transparent Language on Jun 5, 2009
Punctuation is sometimes different in the French language. I first came across this when reading Albert Camus’ La Chute in my literature class at the Sorbonne back when I was a student in Paris. I found it so bizarre to see the direct speech noted in the sentence « Voulez-vous d’une vie propre? Comme tout…
French Word of the Day – Péniche Posted by Transparent Language on Jun 1, 2009
Some of you may have noticed the Word of the Day to the right of the blog articles. It is a helpful way to learn vocabulary little by little in context. You can even hear the word pronounced by a native speaker or see other forms of the word like the difference between the plural…
French Vocabulary – Going to a Café Posted by Transparent Language on May 26, 2009
I have just read in my international edition of Newsweek that the French government is going to lower its tax rate by 72% on food and drinks at restaurants and cafés this summer hoping that people will start frequenting the country’s beloved cafés again as many are closing due to the financial crisis. I wrote…
Cannes Film Festival Posted by Transparent Language on May 21, 2009
Today is the 9th day of the Festival International du Film (Cannes Film Festival), which has been held annually for 62 years on the Cote d’Azur (French Riviera). Back when it began in 1946, it was the first major post-World War international cultural event. It is not exclusive and not just about the many celebrities…
French Grammar – Answering Questions Posted by Transparent Language on May 18, 2009
Questions in French can be expressed in the negative form, which brings up a few issues when answering correctly. If you want to confirm the negative in the question, then you answer with ‘Non‘, but if you want to respond affirmatively to the question, then you answer with ‘Si‘. Here are some examples: Il n’y…