{"id":30246,"date":"2018-05-29T05:30:53","date_gmt":"2018-05-29T03:30:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/?p=30246"},"modified":"2018-05-28T21:17:24","modified_gmt":"2018-05-28T19:17:24","slug":"if-only-it-were-that-simple","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/if-only-it-were-that-simple\/","title":{"rendered":"If only it were that simple"},"content":{"rendered":"

My son will be 24 years old next month! He is my pride and joy, but raising a boy did have its challenges. Like many parents, I was always looking for just the right way to guide him on the path to adulthood (and to good manners, behavior, and grades!) If only I’d come across this little story sooner.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I’ve used the “hidden text” technique again so you can practice your skills without relying on my translations. If you want to see the English, just use your mouse to highlight the hidden text below the French text. Let me know what you think in the comments.<\/div>\n

L’imprudence*<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t
On avait coup\u00e9 des peupliers au bord d'un ruisseau profond, et ils \u00e9taient tomb\u00e9s les uns dans l'eau, les autres en travers du ruisseau.<\/b>
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Someone had cut down some poplar trees along a deep stream, and they were lying some in the water and others across the stream.<\/i><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Le petit Th\u00e9odore, en passant par l\u00e0, quitta sa m\u00e8re pour courir sur les troncs d'arbres<\/b>
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Little Teddy, passing that way, left his mother to run on the logs<\/i><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
et passer sur l'autre rive, o\u00f9 il voyait des fleurs charmantes; et pourtant sa m\u00e8re le lui d\u00e9fendait!<\/b>
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to get to the other side of the stream, where he saw some lovely flowers; even though his mother forbid it.<\/i><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Le petit d\u00e9sob\u00e9issant fit un faux pas et tomba dans l'eau.<\/b>
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The little disobedient one took a wrong step and fell in the water.<\/i><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
La pauvre m\u00e8re poussa un cri; le grand fr\u00e8re de Th\u00e9odore se jeta dans le ruisseau et le retira tout transi de peur et de froid.<\/b>
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The poor mother cried out; Teddy's big brother threw himself into the stream and pulled him, frightened and cold, out of the stream.<\/i><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Quand Th\u00e9odore vit sa m\u00e8re p\u00e2le et tout en larmes, il lui promit de ne plus faire d'imprudence et de toujours l'\u00e9couter.<\/b>
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When Teddy saw his mother, all pale and weeping, he promised never to be careless again and to always listen to her.<\/i><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n

*\u00a0L’imprudence<\/em> can be translated as\u00a0negligence, carelessness,\u00a0<\/em>or even\u00a0recklessness<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Here is some useful vocabulary to help you with this tale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t
Fran\u00e7ais<\/b><\/th>English<\/i><\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
le ruisseau<\/b><\/td>stream<\/i><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
l'arbre (m)<\/b><\/td>tree<\/i><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
la fleur<\/b><\/td>flower<\/i><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
la m\u00e8re<\/b><\/td>mother<\/i><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
le fr\u00e8re<\/b><\/td>brother<\/i><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
tomber<\/b><\/td>to fall<\/i><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
la peur<\/b><\/td>fear<\/i><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n

Do you recognize the predominant verb tense used here? This little tale of woe uses the\u00a0pass\u00e9 simple<\/strong><\/a>. It’s less and less common these days, but was the tense for writing about the past, well, in the past!<\/p>\n

La semaine prochaine<\/strong> \/ Next week<\/em><\/p>\n

We’ll have a short tale\u00a0pour les petites filles parmi vous<\/strong> (for the little girls among you).<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"This story comes from Project Gutenberg<\/a>, a source of free digital books. You can learn more and find French stories and more on your own here<\/a>.<\/div>\n

This weeks photo by Anton Atanasov from Pexels (CC0 license).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

My son will be 24 years old next month! He is my pride and joy, but raising a boy did have its challenges. Like many parents, I was always looking for just the right way to guide him on the path to adulthood (and to good manners, behavior, and grades!) If only I’d come across…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":30262,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3,6,13],"tags":[284,346,357,432,55189,12514],"class_list":["post-30246","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-grammar","category-vocabulary","tag-free-french-lessons","tag-french-grammar","tag-french-language","tag-french-vocabulary","tag-grammaire-francaise","tag-vocabulaire-francais"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t