Archive for 'Grammar'
French Verbs – Conjugation I Posted by Transparent Language on Mar 16, 2010
French verb conjugation can be tricky. But it’s all about groups. All you have to do is know what group the verb belongs to and conjugate it accordingly using the root of the verb and the correct conjugation suffix. In today’s article, we’ll talk about the first group known as -er verbs. And here is…
French Prepositions Posted by Transparent Language on Dec 9, 2009
One of the challenging things about learning a new language is getting the prepositions right because as much as you may want to directly translate them, you will almost always get into trouble doing this. So, today, I’ll give you some examples of preposition use that you just have to know by heart (à connaître…
To Agree or Not Agree in French Posted by Transparent Language on Dec 3, 2009
“Je ne suis pas d’accord avec ce que vous dites, mais je me battrai jusqu’à la mort pour que vous ayez le droit de le dire.” (“I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to death your right to say it.”) – Voltaire Just as this famous French philosopher promised, the…
French Grammar – Definite Articles Posted by Transparent Language on Nov 27, 2009
L’argent ne fait pas le bonheur. (Money doesn’t bring happiness) I came across this saying today and it led me to thinking about how articles and more specifically in this case, definite articles, can be tricky as they are not always used in the same ways in French and English. Just by comparing the French…
French Grammar – How to Be Negative Posted by Transparent Language on Nov 6, 2009
I was once an aupair for some French-speaking kids and so, in homage to them, I will give some examples of what kids might say in French: Je n’aime pas le brocoli. Je ne veux plus jouer avec toi. Ma maman ne me laisse jamais faire ce que je veux. Ma maman ne m’achète rien…
French Grammar – Possessive Adjectives Posted by Transparent Language on Nov 3, 2009
First of all, here are the answers to the family relationships vocabulary exercise I gave you a few days ago. 1. La mère de ma mère c’est ma grand-mère. 2. Les enfants de mon oncle ce sont mes cousins. 3. La fille de ma mère c’est ma sœur. 4. Le frère de mon père c’est…
French Grammar – Adverbs Posted by Transparent Language on Oct 12, 2009
C’est quoi un adverbe? Well, according to my Robert Micro (my all-time favorite dictionary…although not completely sure why), c’est un mot invariable ajoutant une détermination à un verbe (ex : marcher lentement), un adjectif (ex : très agréable), un adverbe (ex : trop rapidement), ou à une phrase entière (ex : évidemment, il ne se presse pas). In English…