Tag Archives: French grammar
Problematic Prepositions: De Posted by Elizabeth Schmermund on Apr 24, 2017
The French preposition de is notorious for giving French learners difficulty at all levels. Why? Because this simple preposition, which generally means “of, from, or about,” can change greatly depending on the word it precedes. De can also be used in many different ways, which also changes the rules regarding its use. Let’s take a look. De is the…
A shopping and a geography lesson about France Posted by Tim Hildreth on Apr 4, 2017
One of my favorite adventures of Asterix and Obelix is Le Tour de Gaule (Around France)* In an attempt to show up the local Roman soldiers, our intrepid heroes attempt to complete a trip around France bringing back the regional specialties from the different cities they visit. If they were to undertake the task today…
A real star Posted by Tim Hildreth on Mar 28, 2017
Céline Dion is surely one of the world’s most successful and well-known French-language singers. Born in the Canadian province of Québec and singing originally exclusively in French, Céline has gone on to international stardom in English and in French, selling over 200 million albums worldwide (making her the best-selling Canadian artist of all time). Céline’s…
What Are the French Parts of Speech? Posted by Elizabeth Schmermund on Feb 27, 2017
Most native English speakers are familiar with the eight or nine English parts of speech (nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, interjections, and articles). All English words fall into one of these general parts of speech. Luckily, French follows the same basic organization of parts of speech that English does. Called les classes de mots, French parts…
Love and animals? Posted by Tim Hildreth on Feb 14, 2017
Happy Valentine’s Day! C’est le 14 février*. Le jour des amoureux ! (It’s the 14th of February. The day of lovers!) In honor of the day, I thought a little song about love was in order. Malheureusement (Sadly), l’amour n’est pas toujours facile ! (love isn’t always easy!) So while today’s song is about love…
It’s all about you Posted by Tim Hildreth on Feb 7, 2017
Whereas English only has one from of the word ‘you’ (serving as both the singular and plural*) French, like many languages, has two (tu and vous). But do you know why? And do you know when to use them? ‘Tu‘ and ‘vous‘ are personal pronouns that replace (or refer to) the subject of a…
Third time is charming Posted by Tim Hildreth on Jan 24, 2017
Over the last few weeks I’ve been sharing some of my favorite French songs with you to help build vocabulary and pronunciation. While the 80’s where the heyday of rich story songs, all the great story songs aren’t from then. This week, a song that goes back a little bit further which many will recognize…