Archive for 'Vocabulary'
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…
Be CaReFuL! Final Consonant Pronunciation in French Posted by Josh Dougherty on Mar 5, 2015
Behind French’s beautiful sounds is a very complicated pronunciation system. Unlike Spanish, for example, the words aren’t always pronounced as they’re spelled; c’est-à-dire que c’est n’est pas une langue phonétique (that is to say that isn’t not a phonetic language). Why are –er, –é, –ay, –ai, –ais, –ait, and –aient all pronounced the same? It’s…
As Easy As RFI: The News in French Posted by John Bauer on Mar 4, 2015
When I first came to France I would spend every day in a café studying. I was trying to convert my entire life into French. I watched la télévision française (French television), watched des films français (French movies), listened to la musique française (French music), and followed l’actualité française (French news). Even though my French…
Vocab for Surviving a French Winter Posted by Elizabeth Schmermund on Feb 23, 2015
En écrivant ce poste à New York pendant un hiver particulièrement brutale, je me suis dit « Allez, je vais faire un poste sur la neige, la froideur, et tout le reste. » Looking out my window today, I see about two feet of snow on the ground and frozen branches on bare trees. My car thermometer…
Get Yourself A Valentine – Pick-up Lines in French Posted by Josh Dougherty on Feb 10, 2015
Well, it’s that time of the year. You either have a Valentine, want one, or completely dislike the holiday. No matter your feelings, love is something that needs to be experienced, so if you’re single and ready to mingle and want to try meeting some new people, why not do it in French? After all…
Pronunciation Practice: Tongue Twisters Posted by John Bauer on Jan 1, 2015
A tongue twister, or un virelangue en français, is hard a hard to pronounce sentence, often used as a kind of game among children, but also used to clear up pronunciation problems. They are always specifically designed to be difficile de dire (hard to say), even for des locuteurs natifs (native speakers)! Just think of…
Learning through Poetry: “Le Message” de Jacques Prévert Posted by Josh Dougherty on Dec 31, 2014
Knowing une langue étrangère (a foreign language) has many aspects to it. Some people define their fluency in a language based on the fact that they grew up speaking it, even if they can’t read or write in it. It’s certainly not fair to take that away from them, but I’m an advocate for knowing…