Tag Archives: French vocabulary
Potpourri * Posted by Tim Hildreth on Jun 28, 2016
La semaine dernière (last week)**, we talked about changes in the French school week. Most notably about the change in the status of le mercredi. Once upone a time, Wednesday’s for younger children were filled with organized activities outside of school. For many older kids, Wednesday afternoons were filled with a trip to the movies…
École le samedi ?!! * Posted by Tim Hildreth on Jun 21, 2016
C’est la fin de l’année scolaire (en France comme aux Etats-Unis). / It’s the end of the school year (in France and in the United States). In many ways school in France isn’t all that different from school in America, but in other ways, it’s quite different. School in France is highly centralized, and as…
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…
Silence, on tourne!* Posted by Tim Hildreth on May 24, 2016
« A mes yeux Paris restera le décor d’un roman que personne n’écrira jamais.»** Paris, Julien Green, 1984 Before we get to this week’s post, I wanted to revisit last week. While I included examples like Bonjour / Bonne journée, I forgot to include Bonsoir et Bonne soirée (good evening) . . . and bonne matinée…
‘Zapping’ for beginners Posted by Tim Hildreth on May 3, 2016
« Le zapping est, dans le langage familier, une manière de regarder la télévision consistant à changer régulièrement de chaîne, et le plus souvent à une fréquence élevée, dans le but de trouver un programme que le spectateur jugera satisfaisant à regarder. Une pratique courante est de zapper durant les coupures de publicité. »* https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zapping, May 1…
Quels sont vos livres préférés? Posted by Elizabeth Schmermund on May 18, 2015
Aimez-vous lire, chers lecteurs/chères lectrices? Si vous répondez “oui,” quels sont vos livres préférés? I love to read. Some books have changed my life and some have saved my life. They’ve transformed the way I view the world and the people around me, have taught me how to empathize, and have helped guide me through rough…
10 Nouveaux Mots Pour 2015 Posted by Elizabeth Schmermund on Apr 27, 2015
Every year, the editors of the French dictionnaires Le Petit Robert and Le Petit Larousse announce the new words that will be added to the next year’s edition. There are normally two rules the linguists employed by these dictionaries use in order to determine whether a new word should be incorporated: 1. the frequency of the…