Sunday, April 8, 2012

A Week in France - part 2

All language learning books that I have come across, teach languages in slightly different order from how we would speak. This caused me lot of frustration because I could not begin to speak soon enough.

You see, the books first address the present tense completely and then move on to the past tense and final to the 'future' tense. Unfortunately that is not how we speak.

When we speak we mix past and present. See below ...

The scene continues from where we left it last (see last lesson).
***

She: "Comment était le vol? How was the journey?" (kommoN ay-tay luh vole? )
You: "Pas mal. Not bad." (Paa maal)

She: "Tu es fatigué? Are you tired?" (tu ay faatigay)
You (male ego in place): "Pas du tout! Not at all!" (paas doo too)
She: "Combien de temps et-tu à Paris? How long are you here?" (kombee-aN duh toN ay-tu aa Paree?)

You: "Une semaine seulement. One week only." (oon suh-mayne seul-moN)

She: "C'est génial! Je peux te montrer Paris le week-end”. That is great. I can show you Paris over the week end." (Say jay-nee-aal. Zuh puh tuh moNtray Paree luh week-end.)

You: "Super! Great!" (Soopair)
***
As you can see, even in the first conversation we mix up the past and the present. It is a necessary part of any conversation. A delayed learning of the past tense prevents you from useful conversation.
Since you and the girl are using the ‘tu’ form, it is worthwhile noting what the formal form would be for the following:
Combien de temps et-tu à Paris ? => Combien de temps êtes-vous à Paris?
Je peux te montrer Paris le week-end. => Je peux vous montrer Paris le week-end.

A couple of pronunciation tips:
Whenever you encounter N, go nasal.
Keep your "t" and "d" soft. The trick is to keep your tongue at the base of upper set of incisor teeth. 

No comments:

Post a Comment