rocherouge

Regularly used expressions

Before we moved to France I spoke french, that is to say... I mayored in French and in my youth French was spoken by my oncles and aunts imported from France and Africa.

From that time I learned an inpeccable pronounciation, but thats all it was. So from the moment we emigrated i listen to the French Radio, watch French TV, attend French lessons, learn French words and reed the French newspapers. And finally after harrasing myself for over a year, I am finally beginning to understand the language and speak it fairly wel too.
Ok there are some freaky talents that do all this much faster Ruud attended two years of French during high-school, but by some miraculous way he always understands what it is about. It is not fair, but I believe this to be one of those testosteron things.

Whatever, before we emigrated, I was searching for all thos everyday expressions, and whatever the quality of the electronic version of the dictionaries. Learning french is something done in the streets, in the cafe and not from a book of words. To make it easy for everyone, I created a list with regularly used expressions. Short frases that are easy to remember. Its not always the best of French for it's ‘français parlé’ the spoken version, but still well understandable.

I will regularly update this list. And if you feel the need to add, or correct, please let us know..... have fun!

* mets tes chaussures This expression can be used for other clothing like tes habits (your clothing) ton caleçon (your underware, boys), ta culotte (your underware, girls), tes chaussettes (your socks), ton manteau (your coat), etcetera

* ça va? If you have spoken with people before, the will complement the daily 'bonjour' with the question ‘ça va?’, it is a tokoen of interest, but this is not meant to learn everything one coudl know about you. Its more like "i like you and next time we will talk some more", so the common responce to this question is (oui, très bien!), If you respond with ‘comme ci, comme ça’ that indicates problems, the coverages of this expression might extend much further then in other languages

* ça a été? Often used (mauvais français?) to ask if you have finished eating in a restaurant or wether yo have all thats required (shops)

* allez-y It might seem negative, but that its notit is more like an encouragement to do something. like Go On or Yeah Do That.

* je vous laisse is a freindly way to terminate a conversation, and its an equivalent for, i'm going now, or ill hang up soon.

Funny and usefull books to learn French slang are Merde and Merde encore by Geneviève Edis.

Links:

		http://www.la-conjugaison.fr the conjugaison for over 8.000 French verbs (LingoFranca). Type the verb and press Enter. You will see all the conjugations of the verb entered.
		http://www.francaisfacile.com for anyone willing to learn French, spoken and/or written, it contains douzains of tests, tests etcetera.

geplaatst door Maartje Heymans om 23:46  |  stuur een bericht