Archive for 'Vocabulary'
French Music – Mylène Farmer Posted by Tim Hildreth on Apr 24, 2018
Last week’s song from Calogero, evoking as it did Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s history of airmail and his novels Vol de nuit and Le petit prince, led me to another song that captures a similar spirit… and is from one of my favorite French singers. Mylène Farmer was already famous in France when I first went there over…
French Etymology: Gaulish Edition Posted by Elizabeth Schmermund on Apr 23, 2018
Last week, we went over the interesting history of the Battle of Alésia and the downfall of Vercingétorix and the Gauls. (Interesting fact: Did you know that the Gauls kept their birth names secret? They believed that if someone knew their real name, it diminished their power. Vercingétorix is an honoary title that most likely…
Staying In The Juice – Useful French Expressions Posted by John Bauer on Apr 18, 2018
Learning new expressions is a fun but difficult part of learning une langue (a language). It gets even harder when des expressions start building on top of each other by adding in les jeux de mots (puns). There is a very useful expression française (French expression) that is nice and short and doesn’t involve having…
French Grammar – What happened? Posted by Tim Hildreth on Apr 10, 2018
To wrap up this latest series of grammar posts, here is a little story for you to practice your reading comprehension and to test your ability to recognize the different verb tenses. Mon fils vient de partir. Nous avons diné ensemble. On était censé diner chez mon frère, mais il a décommandé au dernier moment…
French Grammar – Past imperfect Posted by Tim Hildreth on Apr 3, 2018
Welcome to lesson 3 in our mini French Grammar series. After le passé récent and le futur proche, it’s time this week to look at the French tense known as l’imparfait. L’Imparfait (The imperfect) Like le passé composé, le passé simple, and the passé récent, l’imparfait is a tense for talking about things that…
French Grammar – Back to the future Posted by Tim Hildreth on Mar 27, 2018
Last week I kicked off a short series of posts on useful French grammar topics that sometimes get ignored. This week we head back to the future* with a look at a way to talk about upcoming actions and events that is as easy as the passé récent that we looked at last week. Le…
Spice up Your Life! Herbs and Spices in French Posted by Josh Dougherty on Mar 25, 2018
It’s amazing how a little salt and pepper can enhance the flavor of a dish, but it’s generally a blend of other épices (spices; feminine) that bring a dish’s full flavor profile to the surface. Ces aromates (seasonings; masculine) can transport you to an exotic land, remind you of home-cooked meals from your childhood, or…