Amercian Stereotypes and Traditional Cuisine – Hamburger Vocabulary in French Posted by John Bauer on Mar 21, 2018
Living in France as un américain (an American) sometimes means hearing the same jokes over and over again. Most of the time it’s all meant in good fun so it never bothers me and sometimes I even learn about les stéréotypes américains (American stereotypes) that I never knew existed! The most common stéréotype américain that…
French Grammar – The Recent Past Posted by Tim Hildreth on Mar 20, 2018
This week I’m starting a mini-series to address some useful ways for talking about actions and events in time that don’t always gets as much attention as other tenses. First up, an easy way to talk about things that happened in the past without resorting to the passé composé or the more literary passé simple…
French Pronunciation and…Squirrels? Posted by Elizabeth Schmermund on Mar 19, 2018
We all know that French pronunciation can be difficult (but not impossible!) for English speakers to master. The French “r” is particularly difficult, for example. But, according to legend, there is one word that the French themselves used during World War II to discover non-French spies…écureuil, which means “squirrel.” The word écureuil (nm) rhymes with the…
French Nursery Rhymes: Au Clair de la lune Posted by Elizabeth Schmermund on Mar 16, 2018
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a nursery rhyme with an interesting origin. That comptine, as nursery rhymes are known in French, might not have been as familiar to English speakers as the one I’m writing about today. The melody of “Au Clair de la lune” is probably familiar to most people around the world…
Running In Circles In Every Nook And Cranny – Two French Idioms Posted by John Bauer on Mar 14, 2018
Singing along to a song makes repeating the same few words over and over again much more fun and feels a lot less like les devoirs (homework). However, sometimes it can be hard to sing along, especially if the singer has a strong accent or there are a lot of expressions françaises! La semaine dernière…
French Grammar – Sometimes even être needs a vacation Posted by Tim Hildreth on Mar 13, 2018
Back in décembre (December) I shared a post about how sometimes the famous “House of être” needs to make room for guests. This week we’re going to look at some examples of the opposite… when verbs that usually take the verb être to from the passé composé switch teams and take the verb avoir…
French Music For Your Petite Sœur – Ben l’Oncle Soul Posted by John Bauer on Mar 7, 2018
When I hear a catchy song from an artist, I like to look them up and see if I like their other songs. Parfois (sometimes) all their other musique isn’t for me, but parfois I find un musicien that keeps on giving me new songs to listen to! The French Soulman, Ben l’Oncle Soul, is…