{"id":30535,"date":"2018-08-08T16:13:51","date_gmt":"2018-08-08T14:13:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/?p=30535"},"modified":"2018-07-21T23:16:19","modified_gmt":"2018-07-21T21:16:19","slug":"the-fortunate-word-i-never-remember-how-to-spell-in-french","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/the-fortunate-word-i-never-remember-how-to-spell-in-french\/","title":{"rendered":"The Fortunate Word I Can’t Remember How To Spell In French"},"content":{"rendered":"

L’orthographe<\/strong> (orthography, spelling) has been a weakness of mine since l\u2019\u00e9cole primaire<\/strong><\/a> (elementary school). That same faiblesse<\/strong> (weakness) came back when I learned le fran\u00e7ais<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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Image<\/a> from Pixabay. Licensed under CC0.<\/p><\/div>\n

Even after graduating en France<\/strong><\/a>, there are words I have trouble remembering how to spell en fran\u00e7ais<\/strong>. Heureusement<\/strong> (fortunately), in the age of computers<\/a> I can rely on le correcteur d’orthographe ou la correction automatique<\/strong> (spell check or autocorrect) to fix most of mes fautes<\/strong><\/a> (my mistakes).<\/p>\n

Cela dit<\/strong> (that said), you cannot avoid needing to know how to \u00e9crire<\/strong> (spell) things especially dans l’Hexagone<\/a><\/strong> (in the Hexagone<\/em>, “The Hexagone” is a French expression for “France”). En France<\/strong>, you sometimes need to write letters \u00e0 la main<\/strong><\/a> (by hand) for important documents or to make formal requests.<\/p>\n

You may also need to tell someone how to write your name. Heureusement<\/strong>, that is an easy task most of the time<\/a>. Cependant<\/strong> (however), knowing how to write complicated French words without any spell check can be un cauchemar<\/strong> (a nightmare). At least it can seem that bad when you are someone who struggles with l’orthographe<\/strong> like me.<\/p>\n

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Image<\/a> from Pixabay. Licensed under CC0.<\/p><\/div>\n

The word that gives me the most trouble en fran\u00e7ais<\/strong> is:<\/p>\n

Heureusement<\/strong> – Luckily, fortunately, happily<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And of course ses cousins<\/strong> aussi<\/strong> (its cousin too):<\/p>\n

Heureux <\/strong>– Happy, pleased (masculine<\/a>)
\nHeureuse <\/strong>– Happy, pleased (feminine<\/a>)
\nMalheureux <\/strong>– Unhappy, sad (masculine)
\nMalheureuse <\/strong>– Unhappy, sad (feminine)
\nMalheureusement<\/strong> – Unluckily, unfortunately<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

One look at the word heureusement<\/strong> <\/em>and mon cerveau<\/strong> (my brain) is screaming:<\/p>\n

Il y a beaucoup trop de voyelles !<\/strong>
\nThere are way too many vowels!<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Taking a second look at le mot<\/strong> (the word) brings up another annoying thought:<\/p>\n

Mais on ne prononce pas le h<\/a> !<\/strong>
\nBut you don’t pronounce the h!<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Mes yeux<\/strong> (my eyes) get lost before noticing the easy suffix -ment<\/strong><\/em><\/a>. By the time I get to la cinqui\u00e8me voyelle<\/strong> (the fifth vowel) my mind’s made up:<\/p>\n

Ce mot est trop long !<\/strong>
\nThis word is too long!<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

All the chatter going on in my brain adds to the difficulty of remembering how to spell le mot<\/strong>. Sometimes I just guess, throwing in as many voyelles<\/strong> as I could fit and hoping for the best. Malheureusement<\/strong>, that never seems to work very well.<\/p>\n

In order to remember l\u2019orthographe<\/strong> of heureusement<\/strong><\/em>, I decided I needed a plan. I learned how to spell the word a l’envers<\/strong> (backwards) and broke down the normal spelling into easier to remember parts.<\/p>\n

Memorizing l’orthographe \u00e0<\/strong> l’envers<\/strong> (the backwards spelling) makes it much easier to remember exactly how many and which letters are in the word:<\/p>\n

T – N – E – M – E – S – U – E – R – U – E – H<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The downside is that l’orthographe \u00e0 l’envers<\/strong> looks even more like a random jumble of letters. To fix that problem, breaking down the normal forwards spelling into easy to remember parts helps a lot.<\/p>\n

HEU – REU – SE – MENT<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

La prochaine fois<\/strong> (the next time) you come across un nouveau mot<\/a><\/strong> (a new word) that you can’t remember how to spell no matter how many times you write it, try these tricks to make l’orthographe<\/strong> stick in your head. It may seem odd, but doing the exercises definitely made me remember – or at least forget less<\/em> – how to spell heureusement<\/strong><\/em>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

L’orthographe (orthography, spelling) has been a weakness of mine since l\u2019\u00e9cole primaire (elementary school). That same faiblesse (weakness) came back when I learned le fran\u00e7ais. Even after graduating en France, there are words I have trouble remembering how to spell en fran\u00e7ais. Heureusement (fortunately), in the age of computers I can rely on le correcteur…<\/p>\n

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