Archive for 'Vocabulary'
Instrument Names in French Posted by Josh Dougherty on Jun 23, 2016
In my last post, I wrote about one of my biggest passions: l’opéra. I briefly mentioned some orchestra terms but focused more on what happens at an opera house. That being said, an opera can’t happen without an orchestra*, so I’d like to write more on the actual instruments. À mon avis, la voix est…
Is That Covered By Your Insurance In France? Posted by John Bauer on Jun 22, 2016
France is famous for l’amour et le vin (love and wine), and its culture that extends throughout the la francophonie. Cependant (however), France is also known for la bureaucratie et la paperasse (bureaucracy and paperwork). All countries have an element of la bureaucratie that can be extra difficult when you’re un étranger (a foreigner) and…
École le samedi ?!! * Posted by Tim Hildreth on Jun 21, 2016
C’est la fin de l’année scolaire (en France comme aux Etats-Unis). / It’s the end of the school year (in France and in the United States). In many ways school in France isn’t all that different from school in America, but in other ways, it’s quite different. School in France is highly centralized, and as…
Two Front Doors! – Special French Addresses Posted by John Bauer on Jun 15, 2016
Using La Poste and knowing what your adresse is solves most of your mail related problems in France. There is however another aspect of French addresses that I did not understand for a very long time. Sometimes une adresse has a number followed by the word bis. I didn’t know what the bis meant until…
A vous de choisir! * Posted by Tim Hildreth on Jun 14, 2016
Vous: Qu’est-ce que c’est que ça ? Une chanson ? Encore ? Moi : Et oui, encore une chanson ! J’aime la musique, pas vous ? Et je voudrais partager celle-là avec vous.** The verb vouloir means « to want » or « to want to ». It’s very useful for expressing what your wishes and desires are when communicating with your French friends. When…
Not Just Fat Ladies – Opera Terms in French Posted by Josh Dougherty on Jun 9, 2016
One of my favorite things about moving to San Francisco was the opportunity to speak French. I’d invested so much time learning it, and where I formerly lived, it was hard to find native French speakers to talk to. When I moved here, I found a large francophone community and was even able to obtain…
La Poste – Sending Snail Mail In France Posted by John Bauer on Jun 8, 2016
Before I had trouble figuring out how to send un mail, I had trouble figuring out how to send le courrier (the mail). La Poste (the French postal service) isn’t very different from other postal services around the world, but it is somewhat unique in that it is also une banque et un opérateur de…