Comment ça s’écrit 2

It is really important to know the alphabet so I hope you know it already. If you don’t then these notes might help.

There are some difficult letters to remember in French. Think of E as your last breath after you have been stabbed. Do the action of being stabbed and it will help you to remember. It is really important to get to grips with the vowels as they are so common.

There are some easy letters. You always have to try to sound a little French but the letters that are very close to English are F L M N O S Z. You might think that seven letters that sound like the English equivalents must make life very easy, or at least 7/26 easy. However you still have to learn every letter otherwise you might forget which are the English sounding letters.

A bientôt

Comment ça s’écrit

You never know when you may need to spell something. Even in English there are times when you need to spell your name. So here is l’alphabet and I will give you la pronunciation with English words unless I tell you they are French.

A (ah rhymes with car) B (bay) C (say) D (day) E (eu rhymes with the French word peu) F (eff) G (sounds like the French words j’ai) H (ash) I (ee rhymes with me) J (jee think of gigi then halve it) K (car) L (ell) M (em) N (en) O (oh) P (pay) Q (coo) R (air) S (ess) T (tay) U (oo as in typhoo) V (vay) W (dooble vay) X (eexs) Y (eegrec) Z (zed).

You might think that is difficult but there are a lot of languages with alphabets that you would not recognise. If you think like that then the French alphabet is really easy.

A bientôt

At the restaurant 2

So the waiter knows how many there are of you. There is a table free and you are nearly eating. One of the main differences between French and English food is how steak is prepared. You can ask for steak that is saignant, this means the steak has hardly seen the kitchen. Literally it means bleeding. If you ask for your steak à point this may translate as just right for eating, or just at the right moment, but in terms of steak it is medium. However if your tastes are at all English then ask for bien cuit, and the steak may be partly cooked. Don’t get me wrong I love steak in France, it is just a case of getting the translation correct.

After the meal you can say le repas était bon (or mauvais) or it may even have been délicieux. And finally after the meal you ask for l’addition s’il vous plait.

A bientôt.

At the restaurant

The French are well known for their gastronomy, the art or science of good eating. We even use the French word gastronomy (OK the French word is actually gastronomie but you get my point.

If you go to a restaurant (there’s that French influence again) you can start with the usual bonjour but you may then have to ask est-ce que vous avez une table libre? I always encourage guess work and in this sentence let’s say that you don’t know the word libre. It’s not from the star sign libra meaning the balance or the scales but is associated with words like liberation or freedom. So now no translation is needed for this sentence and you have your table.

I like the expression, nous sommes quatre or any other number, because it is so simple. The waiter may be able to see that there are four of you but you have to learn this simple sentence because we don’t say we are four. In English it would be there are four of us.

A bientôt

The irregular passé composé

Just when you thought you had the hang of the perfect tense along come quite a few exceptions. If you want to say that you drunk something you would have to say j’ai bu quelque chose, even though the verb is boire and ends with –re. If it were regular it would be j’ai boiru but once you have heard j’ai bu or nous avons bu or ils ont bu a few times then you wouldn’t think about boiru. It would sound really strange to hear boiru but I suppose it is the sort of mistake that could be made by a ‘novice’. You soon get used to bu.

Two irregular verbs that you have to know are the very common verbs être et avoir. Ja’ai été means that I have been... J’ai eu means I had... Learn these participles because they open other French language doors.

I’ll mention two other irregular participles because they are useful and easily confused. Plaire means to please, and pleuvoir means to rain, so ça m’a plu means it pleased me (or more usually I enjoyed it) and il a plu means it rained.

A bientôt

The passé composé 2

I have described the perfect tense in a previous blog but I want to go on today to give some examples. I’ll remind you that the perfect tense is composed of the auxiliary verb which can be être but is usually avoir. The past participles fall into three main groups. Those verbs ending in –er have particples ending –é, -ir verbs have participles ending –i, and the participles of –re verbs end in –u.

It is perhaps easier just to see examples of the perfect tense. The verb to hear is écouter. I heard is j’ai écouté. It can take some time to get used to French pronunciation but you know where you stand with é because it always sounds like the English letter A. Even though the pronunciation is constant and fairly easy for English speakers, do try to make it sound a little French.

To finish is finir. I have finished is j’ai fini. They have finished is ils ont fini. To sell is vendre. I sold is j’ai vendu, and we sold is nous avons vendu. As long as you know the conjugation of avoir then the perfect tense is fairly easy, apart from the exceptions, but I’ll save those for the next blog.

Maintenant j’ai fini.

A bientôt.

Mont Saint-Michel

I have been to France many times and I usually take the ferry from Portsmouth. Whether I go to Caen or Cherbourg, I tend to see Mont Saint-Michel in the distance. I have only been to the island twice. The first time was in January and it was worth visiting. It is such a distinctive landmass and it has a long history. If you want a quick summary of the island’s story then you could do worse than see the free film in the Mont Saint-Michel service station.

I have been twice, once in January and once in August. Don’t go in August. As soon as you enter through the main gate you will meet a crowd. The crowd, the heat and the narrow steep path with its kiss-me-quick type shops were enough to put me off. I might go again but it would have to be January.

A bientôt