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Articles, Part 5: Expressing Quantities
Now you know what to say when you want some beer, an indefinite quantity of wine, and whatever you will need to treat it: (Did you forget?) Listen...
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Juggling With Pronouns: Going Further
We know how to say I, to you (shtuh) and You, to me (tüm) as in Je te donne une soupe (I give you a soup) and Tu me donnes une soupe (You give me a soup) (remind me). We even know how to say I, it to...
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The Two Coulds Who Could
How do you say “could” in French? Pourrais! Some will say. Pouvais! Others will claim. Who is right? Actually, both are. It depends what “could” we are talking about: . 1) Firstly, the polite could, or...
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BD du jour: Au Courant
Today’s dark bédé (Bande Dessinée) comes from Lamisseb: Prendre le large lamisseb.com Vocabulary le large: the open sea prendre le large: to clear off (traditionally for boats) avant de: before...
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French Videos With French Subtitles For Kids
A great mine of short animated clips in French with read along subtitles for anyone with a child’s heart, from Frenchteacherforkids. Perfect for practising your listening and reading skills online. 15...
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French Pronunciation: A Good Address
Here is a jewel of a website if you want to improve your French pronunciation, to the point of speaking like a native: Enseignement/Apprentissage de la Prononciation du Français offers training...
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Oui tu peux!
Can you use can in French? The verb “to be able to” is pouvoir /poov war/. Could someone conjugate it in the present tense? I hope this didn’t throw you off too much, because this inconspicuous verb,...
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Dans la vente au détail
Meet Amanda. Amanda works in retail. She’s a sales assistant. But only half of the time. Oh, don’t get me wrong, she’s employed full time; but, you see, she lives in a bilingual city where half of the...
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Let’s.
In the English language, when you want to suggest doing something, including yourself and your interlocutor, the word to start your sentence with is “Let’s…”. However, if you try to look up the...
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The “it” Factor
When venturing into speaking French, sooner than later, the need to express “it” pops along. And so does the problem. Because how to say it? There’s more than one way. Let’s explore them together....
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Words Starting With de…
Having learned French for a while, you might get to a point where words starting with the letters “d.e.” get all mixed up when you speak. Let’s look at each one together. . Word: Dedans Pronounced:...
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Jmuh son…
. . . . That’s right. I feel in French is Je me sens… /jmuh son/ (Listen). Let’s conjugate the verb: . (Listen) . You can pair this with any emotion… . (Listen) . (Listen) . (Listen) . (Listen) ....
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Négation de l’infinitif
Woah, woah, woah. First off, what is an infinitif ? Un infinitif (pronounced en fee knee teef) is a verb that is not conjugated: a verb in its dictionary form: Hey, did you know you could put these...
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Something They Won’t Teach You In School: Proper Stress
If you weren’t convinced of the importance of good pronunciation by my previous post about my mother’s flub, here is another one, from my father this time. . In the 1950′s my father traveled from...
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Savoir Or Not Savoir?
I know, I know… in French, I know is Je connais /shconay/ LISTEN In French, I know is Je sais /shay/ or /sh say/ or /juh say/ LISTEN . . Yes. In French, there are TWO different verbs to express “to...
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Birds In Their Little Nests Agree – Or Not
This post will be about compound verbs – aka le Passé composé, le Plus-que-parfait, le Conditionnel passé and the rest of the double-verb gang… – and whether they should agree or not with their...
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J’avais vs J’ai eu
Question: Answer: Because it can’t be quick. Problem is, you see, there are two ways to say “I had”, depending on the context. Let’s take a look at them. 1. J’ai eu /jay ü/ Use this when “I had” means...
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Qui voudrait…?
When we want to offer something to a group of people, we sometimes say, “Who wants (to)…”. This translates as: “Qui veut…” /kee vuhr/ or “Qui voudrait…” /kee vood ray/. Following this utterance, you...
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