Archive for 'Grammar'
Problematic Prepositions: De (Part Trois) Posted by Elizabeth Schmermund on May 8, 2017
Last week on the blog, we went over the rules regarding de when used as an expression of quantity. This is typically very confusing for French learners, as it can be difficult to pick out what exactly an expression of quantity is. We’ll delve a bit more into the grammatical nitty-gritty of what constitutes an expression of…
Problematic Prepositions: De (Part Deux) Posted by Elizabeth Schmermund on May 1, 2017
Last week we explored some of the most common usages of the French preposition de. In addition to a preposition that can express possession, relation, and direction, or to link verbs, de can be used to express quantity, either alone or as part of an expression of quantity. Once again, the rules governing how de changes depends on its usage—and this can…
What would you do? Posted by Tim Hildreth on Apr 25, 2017
Last summer I asked ‘what I did‘ and ‘what you are going to do‘ (looking at the past and future tenses in song). This week, a look at another French tense – and a new song – to learn about le conditionelle (the conditional). Le conditionelle is not actually a tense, but a mood…
Problematic Prepositions: De Posted by Elizabeth Schmermund on Apr 24, 2017
The French preposition de is notorious for giving French learners difficulty at all levels. Why? Because this simple preposition, which generally means “of, from, or about,” can change greatly depending on the word it precedes. De can also be used in many different ways, which also changes the rules regarding its use. Let’s take a look. De is the…
A shopping and a geography lesson about France Posted by Tim Hildreth on Apr 4, 2017
One of my favorite adventures of Asterix and Obelix is Le Tour de Gaule (Around France)* In an attempt to show up the local Roman soldiers, our intrepid heroes attempt to complete a trip around France bringing back the regional specialties from the different cities they visit. If they were to undertake the task today…
A real star Posted by Tim Hildreth on Mar 28, 2017
Céline Dion is surely one of the world’s most successful and well-known French-language singers. Born in the Canadian province of Québec and singing originally exclusively in French, Céline has gone on to international stardom in English and in French, selling over 200 million albums worldwide (making her the best-selling Canadian artist of all time). Céline’s…
French pronunciation basics part 2 Posted by Tim Hildreth on Mar 21, 2017
A few weeks ago, I shared a fun song that highlights proper pronunciation for the common ‘oo’ sound in French, based on requests for more help with pronunciation. This week in our continuing journey of sound, I thought it would be a good time to talk about final consonants. As many of you probably know…