French Jokes: “Where is Brian?” Posted by John Bauer on Feb 18, 2015
Having a good private joke (inside joke) is a great way to open the door to a new culture. For many learners humor isn’t always the easiest thing to understand in a new language, and can be a rather large cultural hurdle. In my personal experiences, I found it rather difficult to capter des blagues…
How to Avoid the French Subjunctive Posted by Elizabeth Schmermund on Feb 16, 2015
This is my fourth and final post in the series on forming and using the subjunctive mood in French. If you haven’t guessed already based, the subjunctive is vital to speaking (and writing) French like a native — that’s why I’ve dedicated so much time to it. However, many students are still quite intimidated by…
Do You Know How To Toast in French? Posted by John Bauer on Feb 11, 2015
You’re out with some friends about to take your first drink and everyone raises their glasses to toast. Qu’est-ce que tu fais ensuite ? (What do you do next?) En France, you have to regarder dans les yeux (look in the eyes) of the person you’re clanking glasses with. Ce qui est important (what’s important)…
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…
Subjunctive: Irregular and Stem-Changing Verbs Posted by Elizabeth Schmermund on Feb 9, 2015
As I mentioned last week, besides evaluating in which circumstances to use the French subjunctive, the most difficult part of this mood is learning how to conjugate irregular and stem-changing verbs into the subjunctive. Luckily, there are only about 10 verbs that are irregular and 10 verbs that are stem-changing in the subjunctive – although…
How to French Kiss — But Not That Way! Posted by Josh Dougherty on Feb 6, 2015
We aren’t talking about THAT French kiss (that’s une pelle – literally, a shovel. The verb for to French kiss is rouler une pelle [to wrap/roll a shovel]- you can put that image together.), no, we’re going to talk about the art of la bise (kiss). When meeting someone in France, faire la bise is…
French Adverbs And Their Minds Posted by John Bauer on Feb 4, 2015
There’s a cool trick to forming adverbes that lies in the history of la langue française. This trick doesn’t apply to all adverbes, only those that end in –ment. Franchement Joyeusement Seulement Artificiellement It’s easy to see how these adverbes are formed with some root and then add –ment to them. What’s less obvious is…