Archive for 'Vocabulary'
Vacation has arrived Posted by Tim Hildreth on Aug 1, 2017
August 1 (le premier août) is the traditional start of France’s grandes vacances (big vacation). For decades, the month of August has seen literally millions of French take to the roads to escape the office, city, and home to find un peu de repos (a little rest) à la campagnes, dans les montagnes (in the…
À La Pharmacie Posted by Elizabeth Schmermund on Jul 31, 2017
Going to the pharmacy in France is a very different experience from visiting a pharmacy in the United States or elsewhere. Here is all you need to know about picking up medication in France, as well as vocabulary to help you get everything you need while there! In France, unlike where I live currently in…
Grab Your Kitchen Torch & Let’s Celebrate National Crème Brûlée Day! Posted by Josh Dougherty on Jul 27, 2017
July has a lot of important holidays – we have Canada’s Canada Day on the 1st, the USA’s Independence Day on the 4th, and Bastille Day in France on the 14th. These holidays are all meaningful for a number of reasons, but it would be an absolute tragedy if I didn’t mention July’s most sinfully…
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…
Almost Août! Posted by Elizabeth Schmermund on Jul 24, 2017
Today, as I was standing à la caisse (at the checkout/cashier) to pay for my groceries, la cassière (the cashier) mentioned that she couldn’t believe all the back-to-school ads she saw all over the place. “Summer isn’t over!” she opined. I agreed heartily with her…but then I realized that next week will already be August. How…
A Revolutionary Calendar Posted by Tim Hildreth on Jul 18, 2017
Before we leave juillet (July) and our observances of the French Revolution* behind for another year, I thought it might be fun to explore briefly one of the odder ‘inventions’ of the First French Republic. The French Revolution and France’s First Republic which it led to gave us many enduring ideals including the Déclaration…
Athletic Vocabulary – Olympic Sports In French Posted by John Bauer on Jul 12, 2017
The Summer weather has les Jeux olympiques (the Olympic Games) on my mind. Like many people, I don’t follow les sports olympiques (the Olympic sports) outside of les Jeux olympiques, and it’s not a topic that usually comes up in conversations. While thinking about the possibility of les Jeux olympiques à Paris, I realized I…