Tag Archives: free French lesson
French Grammar – Putting an addition on the “the house of être” Posted by Tim Hildreth on Dec 5, 2017
êFrench uses helping verbs to form the past tense form known as the passé compose (the composed past)*. Most verbs use avoir as their helping verb while a select group though use être. While this rule is generally true, there is a special case when even verbs that usually take avoir use être to form…
French Musician: Vianney Posted by Elizabeth Schmermund on Dec 4, 2017
Over the past few years, a new musical sensation has emerged in France. His name is Vianney and, at the age of twenty-four, he was one of the youngest French artists to ever be awarded artiste interprète of the year at the 2016 Victoires de la Musique. Vianney’s first single was “Je te déteste,” which…
Buying a House (in French) Posted by Elizabeth Schmermund on Nov 27, 2017
My husband and I recently bought our first house. It has been a welcome distraction, especially since we lost someone very important to us this year and we were getting lost in our grief. But it has also been chaotic, time-consuming, and a little scary, too! There are lots of things that I wasn’t familiar…
The World Series…in French? Posted by Elizabeth Schmermund on Oct 30, 2017
Believe it or not, baseball actually has a long history sur le sol français (on French soil). The first game played in France, occurred on March 8, 1889. Le premier championnat (the first tournament) took place during World War I. Today, baseball is known as a primarily American sport in France and is not given much media…
Paris vs. Marseilles (Read in French) Posted by Elizabeth Schmermund on Oct 24, 2017
In the post below, you will find a paragraph in French about the rivalry between Paris Saint Germain and the Olympique de Marseille, two soccer clubs. Read in French first and try to pick out words that are familiar to you. Then, try to guess the meaning of unfamiliar words based on the context of…
5 French Translations of Movies and Books (That You Would Never Guess!) Posted by Elizabeth Schmermund on Oct 16, 2017
It can be quite fun to look for English language movies and books that have been translated into French to see how their titles have changed in translation. Often, these translations show us quite a bit about the culture in question—and, perhaps, how marketing executives target releases to different audiences. Many times, you would never…
Hurricane Season, ou La Saison Cyclonique Posted by Elizabeth Schmermund on Sep 8, 2017
Every year, hurricane season, or la saison cyclonique, begins in the Atlantic Ocean region in late summer, usually peaking around late August and September. Unfortunately, some years—like this one—large and frequent hurricanes—in French, les ouragans—can bring great damage and destruction to any place that falls within their path. So far, Texas and areas of the Caribbean…