Drill This Dans Vos Têtes! Confusing Pairs: Dans vs. En Posted by Josh Dougherty on Sep 24, 2015
Last week, I discussed the confusing pair of c’est and il est; both mean the same thing in English, but their usage in French depends on what words you have around them. Today we’re going to look at another noninterchangeable pair that’s confusing for English speakers – and trust me, I would know. I confused…
Only 24 Hours in a Day – French Time Posted by John Bauer on Sep 23, 2015
Before moving to France I had never said seventeen o’clock. In France, that’s the normal way to say five o’clock PM. France uses a 24 hour clock rather than an AM/PM system. This extends into the spoken language, and while you can say huit heures du soir (eight o’clock in the evening) or huit heures…
French Pronominal Verbs Posted by Elizabeth Schmermund on Sep 21, 2015
Pronominal verbs are verbs that require an extra pronoun and are also known as reflexive verbs. These kind of verbs can be especially tricky for English speaks because they are utilized in many common phrases in French that would not be reflexive in English. Actually, pronominal verbs (or reflexive verbs) aren’t used all that often…
Il est facile? C’est facile? Confusing Pairs: C’est vs. Il Est Posted by Josh Dougherty on Sep 18, 2015
French has many confusing pairs for new learners. This mostly stems from the fact that these pairs only have 1 English equivalent that just doesn’t work in French. For example: Quelle est la différence entre an et année (What’s the difference between an and année)? In English, they both mean year, but the two words…
Have you ever counted to one billion? Posted by John Bauer on Sep 16, 2015
Les grands nombres (large numbers) are hard to understand in any language. The difference between one trillion and one billion seems so abstract that it’s impossible to conceptualize the huge quantities that are being referenced. French numbers are already difficult at 70 and 80 et en plus (and what’s more) the punctuation for numbers is…
Past Participle Agreement with the Verb Avoir Posted by Elizabeth Schmermund on Sep 14, 2015
Today we are going to look at the verbs avoir and être — the most common verbs in French, which are used to form the simple past tense. As you know, different verbs in the past tense take either avoir or être. While most past participles take the verb avoir, there are some very common verbs that take être. You may have learned the…
The Dog Days Are Over – French Expressions with Chien Posted by Josh Dougherty on Sep 11, 2015
Earlier this summer (mais où est donc passé l’été? – where has summer gone?), I wrote a post with expressions and proverbs using the word chat. Whether you’re a cat person or a dog person, it’s not fair to exclude the dogs of their own post 😉 So, for all my fellow dog lovers, let’s…