Archive for 'Uncategorized'
Top French Baby Names! Posted by Josh Dougherty on May 7, 2015
How many typical French names can you list off the top of your head? I’m sure there are some Jean-Pauls, Michels, Brigittes, and, of course, some Pierres in your lists, but I can assure that these names aren’t all that common anymore. Have you ever met a French Kévin? Jessica? I remember the first time I…
Prends garde à toi! “Carmen” by Stromae Posted by Josh Dougherty on Apr 2, 2015
Yesterday, Belgian singer/songwriter Stromae released le clip (the music video) to his new single “Carmen.” Stromae (verlan for maestro) came to major popularity with his song “Alors on danse,” which topped the charts in France and Belgium and peaked at 19 in the USA. A remix of this song with self-proclaimed music god Kanye West…
50 Shades of Green in French Posted by Josh Dougherty on Mar 26, 2015
Le printemps (spring) has officially sprung — even if parts of the east coast in the USA still have a white blanket of snow. La nature et vos allergies sont revenues à la vie (Nature and your allergies have come back to life). Flowers are blooming, bees are hard at work, and all that was…
French Phonetics (Part II) Posted by Elizabeth Schmermund on Mar 16, 2015
Last week, we talked about how stressing syllables in French is different from the stresses you put on certain syllables in English. This week, we will continue our discussion of la phonétique with l’intonation. Intonation is not very complicated in French because it follows French accentuation. Intonation refers to the “melody” of a language…
Today’s Post is Brought to You by the Letter….H! Posted by Josh Dougherty on Mar 12, 2015
The letter H in French is, of course, only one letter, but it can cause a problem in speaking and spelling if you’re not familiar with the concepts of h aspiré (aspirated H) and h muet (silent H). Despite the name ‘silent H,’ both Hs are silent: you never pronounce an H in French*. Hurray…
15 Interesting Facts about the Pope’s Palace Posted by Josh Dougherty on Feb 26, 2015
No, we’re not talking about the Vatican. For about 70 years, 7 successive popes ruled from Provence in the south of France. The history is very long and interesting, and si vous voulez connaitre l’histoire à fond (if you want to learn about it in depth), I’ve included 2 YouTube documentaries at the bottom. This post is…
Delving into the French Subjunctive Posted by Elizabeth Schmermund on Feb 2, 2015
Last week, I spent some time introducing what the subjunctive mood expresses and how it is used in other languages, such as English. You can visit that post here. This week, I would like to go into more concrete examples of how to form the present subjunctive and, just as importantly, how you can recognize when…