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…
Que vas-tu faire? * Posted by Tim Hildreth on Jun 7, 2016
After last week’s example of the passé composé, I thought this week we’d take a look ahead . . . to the avenir (“the future”). There are two common ways of forming the future in French: the futur proche which like the passé composé is formed using an auxillary verb (recall that the passé composé…
Irregular French Verbs in the Imperative Mood Posted by Elizabeth Schmermund on Jun 6, 2016
We went over the imperative mood last week. Easy, right? Well, if you’ve studied French for any length of time, you know that there are many exceptions to main grammatical rules. And the imperative mood is no exception (like my calembour?) There are four common verbs that are irregular in the imperative mood. You should…
Après moi, le déluge – Flood Vocabulary in French Posted by Josh Dougherty on Jun 2, 2016
If you’ve been following the news, you’ve probably heard of the torrential downpour in Europe that has caused flooding responsible for the death of at least 10 people. Unfortunately, la météo (the forecast) shows more rain in the coming days. Thousands of people in France have been evacuated as the floods have now been declared…
What’s On The Agenda? – Time Management In French Posted by John Bauer on Jun 1, 2016
I received un mail (an email) the other day with a simple message: La prochaine réunion sera chez moi à 17h. Est-ce que vous êtes disponible ? The next meeting will be at my place at 5 o’clock. Are you available? After making sure that 17h is 5 PM and not 7 PM, I wrote…
Qu’est-ce que j’ai fait?* Posted by Tim Hildreth on May 31, 2016
In 1986, Sabine Paturel had a hit with the song “Les bêtises“. There is just a handful (une poignée) of verbs in French that use the verb être to form the past tense, but most verbs in the passé composé are formed using the verb avoir (to have). Les bêtises gives you lots of chances…