Tag Archives: french blog
Recommended for vous Posted by Tim Hildreth on Aug 14, 2018
Back at the end of mai (May) / début juin (start of June) I shared a couple of contes (stories, short tales) that I found online. I shared them both because they had some good vocabulary and because I was fascinated by the morality they (attempted) to share. Both tales reflected both a simpler and a more simplistic…
French Vocabulary – Time to Take Off Posted by Tim Hildreth on Jul 10, 2018
In just under a month, my son and I are going to décoller vers la France (take off for France) for a sort of father-son pilgrimage. We had such a great time last year that we’re going back! Décoller is the French verb for un avion (an airplane) that is taking off. The actual moment of lift off is…
Time to wake up Posted by Tim Hildreth on Jun 26, 2018
Summer has arrived and for most kids getting up early, getting ready for school, and homework are all in the past (for now at least until that oh-so-distant mythical future that is la rentrée de septembre / September’s return to school!) As a result, this week’s song might seem a bit better suited to the fall, but I’ve…
Where and When – useful expressions in French Posted by Tim Hildreth on Jun 20, 2018
Relativity isn’t just a concept in physics. Knowing the relative order of events in time, or the relative location of objects in space, is as useful here on la Terre (Earth) as it is in l’éspace (space). Fortunately French has some handy vocabulary that we can use to differentiate both. Ça se passe où? /…
Not all sugar and spice Posted by Tim Hildreth on Jun 5, 2018
Last week we read an old story designed to remind les jeunes garçons sages (good little boys) how to behave. As promised at the end of that last post, this week, we look at a similar reminder for les gentilles filles (good girls). La Mouche * Listen to how the t at the end of fort ‘runs into’ occupée. View…
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 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…