Monday, November 28, 2011

Your Name in French

You think it is not possible, but it is very likely that you will not be able to make out that you are being addressed.




Especially, if you are in France.

And this is not because the French do not respect the way your name is to be pronounced. Since set of letters are pronounced in a particular way in French, your name would come out very differently from a French mouth.

So, in order to avoid embarrassment when someone is calling out to you and you look back blankly, here’s a way out. Before you travel to France or any other Francophone countries or just for fun, type your name in Google Translate, after choosing 'Translate from French', and click on the bottom right icon (“listen”). You are likely to get a good imitation of how your name would come out of a French mouth. It is the surname - if it is long - that gets distorted the most.

Enjoy!
Note: The image used here belongs to Michal Zacharzewski

Friday, November 25, 2011

Learning from Pictures

I like to think that our brains process information in the form of images. Hence the dreams. And therefore the capability to absorb information better when presented pictorially.

Here’s an example:




Now you will never forget assez means enough.
That I chose Cleopetra (Astrix and Cleopetra) - the queen of Egyptians, who developed stylized pictograph script - to make my point is sheer coincidence.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

A Song, A Gem, A Learner's Delight

I discovered this song on You Tube quite by accident. I was looking for phrases that go de … en … For example, de plus en plus (more and more), de temps en temps (from time to time). When I looked for the phrase de moins en moins (less and less) I hit upon this amazing French song.

The song, de moins en moins, is brilliant by itself but what makes this particular video a learner’s delight is that this has lyrics and a good translation. Here enjoy ...



Charles Aznavour has a fantastic voice, I must say. Note: Expand the video to get a good view of the lyrics and the translation.

By the way, if you prefer Celine Dion instead (by which I mean, slow, melodious and simpler lyrics), then here's one with lyrics and translation.



Amusez-vous! Enjoy!

Strange Ways of the Brain

I just discovered a fascinating aspect of how the brain works, or, at least, how my brain works. Very disconcerting.

While working through the Les grandes fugures de l’histoire section of the Easy French Reader, I noticed that I was automatically translating the French sentences that were written in present tense into past tense in English. Let me explain with an example …

Les Gaulois ont une civilisation guerrière. Ils aiment les batailles, et ils aiment aussi bien boire et bien manger.

In my mind, I translated this as: The Gauls were a warrior culture. They loved to fight, and they loved to drink and eat, when clearly ‘ont’ and ‘aiment’ are in present tense. It is as if the brain automatically places the sentences in past tense because I am reading history. Strange!

By the way, the above example sentence also points out to the fact that Asterix comics are culturally accurate!

Monday, November 21, 2011

Context Based Language

I finally took the leap. I purchased the Easy French Reader by R. de Roussy de Sales. I will review the book at some later date. I have completed about half the book and, so far, I have enjoyed reading it immensely.

The earlier you start reading French text, the more confidence you will gain. Books that fall under the category of ‘Learn French’ tend to spoon-feed you. That element of spoon-feeding is missing in this reader. I am encouraged by my success in rapidly reading pages after pages without having to refer to the dictionary. Languages, in general, are so context dependent that one need not know every word to understand the meaning of a sentence or a paragraph or even an exchange.

In fact, in some cases, even a beginner should be able to grasp the meaning. All you need to know is a bit of English. Here’s an example from this book …

JULIE Je ne comprends pas porquoi tu es si ignorant!

MARC Je
proteste! Je ne suis pas ignorant! Ce n’est pas moi, mais autre Français, Charles Cros, qui a invité le phonographe!

JULIE Ce n’est pas vrai. C’est
Thomas Edison.

Even if you do not know a word of French, it is easy to see that two people are arguing about who has invented the phonograph. It is also obvious that one is from America and the other from France. See how context based a language is!

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Politeness and Food

Je voudrais manger quelque chose. -- I would like to eat something.

No, no, I am not hungry right now. This was perhaps the first complete sentence I learnt in French. I do not remember the context or when exactly, but this sentence is stuck to my mind. Whenever I wish to switch my brain to ‘French mode’ all I have to do is recall this sentence.

Grammatically, this is a difficult sentence. voudrais is first person conditional conjugation of vouloir -- to want. This is, of course, considered more polite than Je veux manger quelque chose. -- I want to eat something, for obvious reason. And in my case particularly so because the upper limit of my culinary skills is limited to pain grillé --toasted bread, and œufs brouillés – scrambled eggs. If politeness can get you good food, then why not?

Friday, November 11, 2011

Past, Present and Future Together

I dislike the way languages are taught to adults. I can understand the gradual increase in complexity when children are taught, but to an adult it makes no sense to first teach the present tense, then the future, then the past, when in most case you are likely to use all of them together.

Here’s an example:

Demain, je vais aller aux États-Unis. Je vais là après une longue période. J'ai été il y a environ huit ans.
Tomorrow, I will go to the United States (immediate future). I am going there after a long time (present). I was there about 8 years ago (past).

There! You have all the three tenses explaining a situation. However, since the teaching material is designed fr gradual elaboration, it takes longer the usual to start speaking a new language fluently. I think there is scope for improvement in adult education.

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Puzzling French Numbers

You plan to visit Paris soon. The email from the hotel you plan to stay is in front of you and you are puzzled.
Well, I am not surprised.
I grew up learning to write Three Thousand Two Hundred and Fifty as 3,200.50.
In France and other countries in continental Europe, this number will be written as 3.200,50. Basically the decimal and the comma are interchanged.
Some write is as 3 200,50 -- look, no decimals!

I do not mind one way or other, but why can’t we standardize the convention for representing numbers? Numbers have been around for many years now. It’s not that difficult, or is it?

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Dating Cute Girl, The French Way

What at first blush looks like the Spanish word for ‘yes’, turns out to have multiple meaning in French.
And yes, si does man ‘yes’ in French too, but in a contradictory sense. One uses si to say yes if you do not agree with the negative sentence that occurred just before.
“You didn’t do your homework?”
Si, j’ai fait. (Yes, I did.)

However, I bet that you are already familiar with the most common use of si. No? Come on! Try harder, please. S'il vous plaît (if it pleases you). There is no such thing as being too polite. The use of s'il vous plaît should fetch you handsome returns in terms of service and attention. As will si vous voulez (If you want) in response to “Do you want to shop?” Particularly, effective with women! Believe me. I am married.

And what if you are not yet married and find some special? You might want to say il / elle est si mignon. (S/he is so cute.) You could also compare. Elle n'est pas si mignon que d'elle. (She is not as cute as her). Commencer datation, sinon quelqu'un d'autre le fera. (Start dating, otherwise someone else will.)

Although sinon is used in the sense of otherwise in the above sentence, the root of sinon seems to lie in si and non (if not).

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Word pairs

rire and sourire - to laugh and to smile.

pleuvoir and pleurer - to rain and to weep (as if it is raining down the cheeks)

prendre and comprendre - to take and to take it all in (meaning, to understand)

I love such pairs. Helps me improve my vocabulary and retain it too.

Monday, November 7, 2011

Bien

Bienvenue.Welcome.
Today I enter the wonderful world of bien. This must be the most flexible word in the French dictionary...

sûr (sure) and bien sûr (of course) are very similar when you respond to someone with enthusiasm, but bien sûr scores for me every time.

Nous regardons la peinture (we look at the painting) does not have the impact that Nous regardons bien la peinture has. Here bien places an emphasis on the action, regardons.

bien could be used in the sense of ‘really’: C’est bien joli. (It really is pretty). Vous avez bien dit ça? (Did you really say that?) You could easy replace this by Vous avez vraiment dit ça?, but the sentence looks more sophisticated with a bien.

Don’t get carried away with bien, however. Respond to “Is the dish good?” with a C’est bon, and respond to Comment allez vous? (How are you?) with a Je vais bien, merci

Hopefully, someone will tell me in the very near future, Vous parlez très bien le français.

Saturday, November 5, 2011

Second-Hand Opportunity

Today I learnt that it is necessary to investigate a word thoroughly before moving on to the next one.
Consider this …

Je suis content que j'ai l'occasion de pratiquer le français -- I am glad I have the opportunity to practice French.

J'utilise une dictionnaire d'occasion -- no, it doesn’t mean that I use a dictionary for the opportunity. Rather it means, I use an second-hand dictionary.

As if learning language was not difficult enough!

Friday, November 4, 2011

Bringing Out the Flavour

Nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs … ho hum! These are the basics of any language and are as exciting as … as … plain loaves, I guess.
What gives colour to any languages are the phrases. You need to use phrases to bring out the flavour of French. Even if they are simple ones.

Here are three such …
1. Moi non plus
 Usage :
"Je ne connais pas cet homme." -- I don’t know this man.
"Moi non plus." --- Me neither.

2. Tout à coup
Usage :
Tout à coup, le diamant à disparu. --- Suddenly, the diamond disappeared.

3. Ça y est
Usage :
Ça y est ! On a fini. -- That’s it ! We have finished.

Thursday, November 3, 2011

French Mother-in-Law

The French must be politically the most astute of all. Why else would they call the mother-in-law belle-mère?

Irregular Verbs and the Tower of Babel

We missed out on a golden opportunity to redress the wrongs done to us by the Gods at Babel. Different languages ensured that we were not able to build the Tower of Babel. But surely the grammar was codified long after the languages themselves evolved to a quasi-steady state.

SO WHICH IDIOT INVENTED IRREGULAR VERBS?

Or perhaps Gods introduced the irregular verbs to ensure that people may never master each others' language and make another attempt at tower.

Frustrations in learning new language apart, I think that the Tower of Babel was the noblest endeavour that (hu)man ever attempted: the tower was dedicated to the glory of human beings; what could be nobler?

Avoiding the Subjunctive in French

There are chances that you get the subjunctive wrong even in English.
No?
Ok, then … What is wrong with the sentence that follows:
I wish I was rich.

Some of you will correct it immediately to:
I wish I were rich.

Others will aver that it doesn’t matter, as long as the meaning is clear.
I prefer to be grammatically correct!

French too has its share of Subjunctive and I have been avoiding it since it is a little more involved than its English counterpart. But if you dislike it, there are ways to avoid it.

The most quoted example is, of course, is the substitution of il faut que with il faut + infinite.
Thus, Il faut que j’achète des pommes can be easily replaced by Il faut acheter des pommes without any fear.

But, as I was trying to get my head around this, I realized that there are ways to avoid subjunctive. Though the meaning might modified a bit, you can get by.

Here’s an example …
J’ai peur qu’il soit trop tard. -- I am afraid (that) it is too late.
The sky will not fall on your head if you just say …
J’ai peur. Il est trop tard. -- I am afraid. It is too late.
Or just …
Il est trop tard. -- It is too late.
You might consider adding, C’est dommage -- It’s a pity, just to bring in that personal touch.

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Essential Toolset - Learn French - Free on Internet

There are many free dictionaries and translation tools available on the Internet, but I find the following invaluable for self-study:

1. Google Translate: Not only does this tool, help you translate from French to any language of your choice and vice-versa, it also allows you to pull out (that little keyboard icon at bottom left) a virtual keyboard to allow typing French accents, which is a huge plus.
However, I have noticed that the translation works better with longer sentences than with small phrases.

2. Verb Conjugator: Goes without saying that a good verb conjugator is sine qua non of self study. I find this one very neat. Great help.

3. Verb Deconjugator: The first thing I realized as I initially progressed through intermediate French is that at times it was very difficult to figure out the infinitive based on a conjugated verb, particularly when it was one of those irregular verb. I mean, how could anyone figure out (easily) that vécu is the past participle of vivre (to live).

I thought to myself, “Wow! All I need is to build an app that could give me the verb from its conjugate. This could be a killer app. I could be rolling in money.” Alas! Someone has already thought of it and has done a wonderful job of it.

I find this Verb Deconjugator excellent. Though I did find a word missing from its database: percuté (from percuter: hit or smash).

I will keep updating this toolset as I come across more useful tools.