Archive for 'Grammar'
Describing people in French, Part 2 Posted by Tim Hildreth on Aug 8, 2017
A few weeks ago we looked at some common expressions for describing people. This week, I’ll expand a bit on that lesson and share another of my favorite French songs that – while maybe it doesn’t perfectly illustrate the concepts – is definitely related to the topic! First, the lesson! Earlier we looked at how…
Describing people in French Posted by Tim Hildreth on Jul 25, 2017
In a previous post, I talked about the irregular French adjectives beau, vieux, and nouveau, useful for describing the relative age and attractiveness of people and things*. This week we’ll talk about ways to describe some of the physical characteristics of people. Voilà Sophie / This is Sophie. Sophie est blonde. Elle a les cheveux…
In the eye of the beholder Posted by Tim Hildreth on Jun 20, 2017
Belle isn’t just the name of the main character in Disney’s latest film. Belle is also a French adjective that means beautiful, lovely, pleasant, or agreable (unlike joli/jolie – pretty, belle doesn’t only pertain to appearances). Ok, so that’s not entirely true. In another oddity of the French language, belle is technically not its own…
Back to the Basics: French Definite Articles Posted by Elizabeth Schmermund on May 22, 2017
Last week, we went over the basics of French articles. This week, we are going to dive more into French definite articles and the ways in which they can change when they are combined with prepositions such as à and de. In French, the preposition à means “to” and the preposition de means “from.” When they are combined with definite articles…
French pronunciation basics part 3 Posted by Tim Hildreth on May 16, 2017
Many words in French end in ‘e’. And while the final ‘e’ can make us pronounce other letters (think ‘petit‘ vs. ‘petite‘ or ‘français‘ vs. ‘française‘), it is, in itself, usually silent. Usually, but not always! In poetry, and often in songs (which are, after all, just poems set to music), a final silent ‘e’…
Back to the Basics: French Articles Posted by Elizabeth Schmermund on May 15, 2017
Today we will be going back to the basics of French grammar. The very building blocks of the French language require articles. What are they? Well, in English, they would be words like the or a. In any language, articles are used to show whether a noun is specific or unspecific. For example, in English, you could say “After the…
A question of size Posted by Tim Hildreth on May 9, 2017
The results are in! I’m sure you all have heard, but as discussed last week, France held the second tour of the presidential elections dimanche (Sunday). And dimanche prochain (next Sunday) Emmanuel Macron will be sworn in as the youngest French president. There has been so much coverage of the topic, I didn’t think it worth…