Tag Archives: french blog
French Culture – Retro Pub 3 Posted by Tim Hildreth on Jul 23, 2019
This week, another commercial from the 80’s. I like commercials because they are short, often have lots of great vocabulary, and can often be like litte stories. This commercial from Volkswagen plays with our expectations with a series of retournements (reversals) and a surprising ending. Français English Il a misé un million sur le noir ……
French Culture – Retro Pubs Posted by Tim Hildreth on Jul 9, 2019
When I lived in France in the 1980’s, I found popular culture, including commercials, to be a powerful way to connect with and to learn French. J’étais donc enchanté (I was therefore charmed) to stumble across this great YouTube clip (video) that features de biens bons (some great ones). Over the next few weeks, I’ll…
French Vocabulary – Internet Policies Posted by Tim Hildreth on Jul 2, 2019
Last week I shared a link to an article about the new gite (guest house) that my stepdaughter and husband opened at their nursery. If you happened to click through to see the details, then you might have encountered un message pop-up (a pop-up message) explaining the sites use of les cookies. When is a…
French vocabulary – Food shopping Posted by Tim Hildreth on Jun 4, 2019
While it is true that there are more and more épiceries (grocery stores) in France and that more people font leurs emplettes dans des grands-surfaces (do their shopping in big stores) or in des supermarchés (super markets), most Français (French people) still do a fair amount of their food shopping in small, often-family-owned shops that…
French Colors and Commercials Posted by Tim Hildreth on May 28, 2019
We’ve talked about colors in the past. And we’ve looked at a pub (French TV commercial) for Haribo as well. But these two that I came across recently do such a good job of combining the two, that I just had to share them. They also provide a nice illustration of the useful French verb préférer. Je…
French Vocabulary – Cars Posted by Tim Hildreth on May 21, 2019
As I’ve shared before, I love to drive in France. The post I shared a few weeks ago and a recent passage in the book I’m reading got me thinking about car-related vocabulary. This week we’ll look at some key words related to cars … and some examples of how to use them in context…
French Commercial – Renault Robbers Posted by Tim Hildreth on May 7, 2019
When I was 14, the French car company, Renault, made their entrée sur le marché américaine (entrance to the American market). My parents even bought two … matching red and blue Renault Alliances. Sadly, they weren’t great … and Renault didn’t last long in the US. Imagine my surprise then, when I got to France…