Archive for 'Vocabulary'
À la une Posted by Jennie on Nov 11, 2010
À la une means « on the front page, » or at the head of the news stories. Ce soir, examinons ce qui est à la une en France- ou bien, ce qui est enterré dans les pages au milieu ! Je me suis rendue compte (I realized) que je n’ai pas lu de journal en français (that…
L’imparfait… rhymes with DMCV! Posted by Jennie on Nov 6, 2010
Dieu merci, c’est vendredi! “Thank God it’s Friday” Let’s start with l’imparfait, and see what we can do about DMCV. II. L’imparfait L’imparfait is used for an ongoing state of being (e.g., being young: “When I was young…”) or a repeated or incomplete action. It’s used for actions that did not end at a specific point…
Must-Know French Slang: Laisse Béton Posted by Hichem on Oct 29, 2010
Oyez, oyez ! We’re now officiellement about to cover la première moitié (the first half) of the alphabet in our featured “B.A.-BA de l’argot” (“the ABC of French Slang”), and in order to properly celebrate this one happy occasion, we shall concentrate today on one and only expression which, in many funny ways, epitomizes French Slang: “LAISSE BÉTON !“ This is a “concrete” (uhm) example of a “bétonnière…
Le passé composé Posted by Jennie on Oct 28, 2010
I started studying French in middle school, and by 8th grade, I thought had learned everything. All I needed was a little more vocabulary, and I’d be fluent. Then I came into class one day, and my teacher said, Alors la classe, aujourd’hui on va commencer le passé composé, a form of past tense. Past…
Musique voisine du Rock VS. Musique de Roch Voisine! Posted by Hichem on Oct 27, 2010
Sometimes, nothing seems to be easier than feeling nostalgique about your jeune enfance (young childhood.) But then you should try to think again, putting things in a clearer and more objective perspective, until you remember when you were a boy who’s not even ten years old yet, and all you could hear playing all day long in la télévision or la radio were songs that you and your buddies dismissed…
Outdated French Expressions to Avoid Posted by Hichem on Oct 26, 2010
Il y a quelques années (A few years ago), one of my very good old American friends, who by the way will have no hard time recognizing herself when reading this, went to France for the first time of her life, only to discover there that whenever she used the interjections she had painstakingly learned at her French class back in the States -expressions like sacrebleu…
Kitchen Confidential in French! Posted by Jennie on Oct 22, 2010
Ce week-end, j’ai fait (I did) l’un des mes passe-temps (pastimes) préférés : je suis allée à Ikea ! Ikea (pronounced EEE-kay-ah en français), land of Swedish meatballs and starter furniture ! Bien sur, I really go there for the ferry ride (il y a un ferry de Manhattan à Brooklyn). But every time, I find something…