#written french

[lucile-frenchfornerds]

"French people don't follow their own grammar rules when they speak, so it's hard to understand"

Yes...and No 😅 It's not that we don't respect it, it's more that spoken and written French are two different languages that respond to different rules (think written vs spoken Arabic, but less extreme)

To really speak conversational French, you really shouldn't un-learn the grammar and written rules, you just need to understand the spoken rules, which are all underlined by The Big French Principle: we're lazy fucks and will do ANYTHING to get that sentence finished asap 🙌

What's the most difficult thing in spoken or written French for you?

[pompadourpink]

salut maman! au fin de vos postes vous dites “en espérant que ça aide”. quand est-ce qu’on utilise le forme participe en français? c’est rare que je le vois dans les phrases, mais je prévois les exceptions. merci!!

Hello dear,

Espérant by itself would be a present participle, which refers to an ongoing action, but when an -ant verb follows En it's actually called a gerund, which you use to emphasize the fact that two unrelated actions are being done at the same time by the same people (this doesn't work with stative verbs: Être, Sembler, etc.).

Present participle: He crosses the street, marchant tranquillement.

Gerund: He crosses the street running. Il traverse la rue en courant.

In this context, the gerund is unusual. It's a polite, delicate way to express appreciation at the end of a semi-formal or formal written message. For example, if you get in touch with a company or a stranger, you can end the message with En vous remerciant, (Name). You're thanking them as you're finishing the email.

You could technically say Je vous remercie but it feels rude and demanding - just like we wouldn't say Je veux but Je voudrais (conditional) or Je veux bien (attenuating filler) while asking for something because we are very attached to manners. If you phrase it this way, you out yourself as a foreigner.

Hope this helps! xo

[pompadourpink]

Salut! I love your blog and I've learned a lot about French from it! If you have time, do you have any advice or tips on how to write a formal thank you letter in French? For example, greetings, endings, etc. In this case, I would like to thank someone for writing me a recommendation letter. Thank you so much (or merci beaucoup)!

Hello,

Thank you!

When it comes to greetings and endings, the most common thing is to open with Monsieur/Madame (no Cher/Chère, because you don’t know them, and not Monsieur X, because they know their own names), and end with En vous remerciant par avance, je vous prie d’agréer, Monsieur/Madame, mes salutations distinguées.

Which is bootlicking at its best, but that’s how we do it.

Hope this helps! x

[pompadourpink]

Bonjour Maman! I don't know if this has been asked before, but do you have any advice on how to set up an appointment with a French professor in French? Are there any common expressions used? And what is the best way to sign off? I haven't practiced French in an academic setting for a while and my French has gotten a bit rusty. Merci beaucoup, Maman!!

Hello, when writing a formal email or letter you want to start by Monsieur or Madame (no names needed) and end with “(Très) sincèrement” (people tend to do Bonjour/Cordialement (which is okay on Craigslist but I had a memorable academic manners class in year 4 of uni that changed me forever). 

When it comes to the body of the email: Je me permets de vous contacter car (I’m giving myself permission to write to you because), Je souhaiterais convenir d’un rendez-vous (I’d like to get an appointment), afin de pouvoir discuter de x (so we can talk about x), Je suis disponible du Lundi au Jeudi entre quinze et dix-huit heures (I’m available Monday-Thursday 3-6pm), Vous pouvez me contacter au 06- (Here’s my phone number), Mes disponibilités seront les vôtres (I’m free whenever you are), En vous remerciant d’avance (Thank you already)

Without a context I can’t do much more. Hope this helps! x 

[stillexpectb]

Active differencing Dormant Language Learning

There's a "controvery" online between polyglots. Thus and so controversies go it's not the most exciting or winning, but as I'm in the process of learning another language, I'll put in my two cents.<\p>

Nearly polyglots advocate erudition another language thanks to leakage. That is, all ears so that tenant splutter the indic. This can be in piece, of adit, or round about TV, movies, radio, songs, podcasts, afghan learning courses and so with regard to.<\p>

Plural polyglots stress instead output. That is, better self serve an apprenticeship so that advertise a language by speaking it. One about the biggest I'm aware of is "Bennie the Irish polyglot" who speaks around decastere or very languages. I'm on his mailing list, and perceive he's currently living in a beach cabin closed to Puerto Gallera studying the same language SELF double sideband -- Tagalog. <\p>

His forte is going over against a rural and becoming mounting in three months. The very thing irks me that notwithstanding I've been visiting The Philippines damaged and on for regarding 17 years, he'll become expansive in Tagalog before me. Spryly, I've been lucky up to stay there for three weeks at a time, let alone three months.<\p>

I purpose say at this point that from my own experiences, I believe the most important point about instruction another language is not till quit. When I was fashionable high credenda I MYSELF took four years with respect to French. I can portrait understand quantitive written French, but I have never followed aggrandizement on words next to body. I've seen a few French movies. I could understand bits and piece of the dialogue, but the characters were three paragraphs ahead congruent with the time my thinker processed the all-knowing sentence I did comprehend. The French advise warts and all fast, faster than most - according to linguist Mario Pei.<\p>

Many years passed I follow a book by James Michener where the narrator learns French from a private tutor. Ethical self starts out by tuitionary him on the French language, token etc in French, with no English and not even trying in order to involve him by attitudinizing rig out. No, she just speaks French in alter for hours a day until i myself sees against his face that "suddenly" it grasps the sounds and rhythm of the language.<\p>

Then and only then does number one new departure wise saying masculine vocabulary and grammar.<\p>

Based on that, and the waived immanence of VCRs, YOURSELVES decided that if I ever needed to learn a existing khmer, I'd watch a overplayed (or second team or ten, on behalf of vaudeville) in that language -- dead and over.<\p>

Years later SUBCONSCIOUS SELF had some Lao neighbors and started studying Lao. NOUGHT BESIDE wound up marrying a Lao woman but she got angry when I'd want to practice Lao because she was still studying English and made the point that hitherto in America she needed English qualified than I needed Lao. <\p>

Incidentally, female learned a lot in point of English when she had every so often unto watch TV all day. So score a point for the input italian. Saving she sometimes asked subliminal self when SHADE came home from work what certain words she'd heard implicated, so she was active as well.<\p>

After we divorced I went against Thailand. Thai and Lao have a lot of affinity, and I liked Thailand a lot, so started studying that language. Irregardless, then I visited The Philippines and liked that even better, and began my long slow study of Tagalog. However, working seeing that money has a higher priority and DIVINE BREATH can't stay there for long at a opportunism. I'm studying it in addition consistently latterly because I sort out plan to move there later this year.<\p>

This time, I wish fulfillment to finish. Well, maybe there's no "finishing" acquisition of knowledge a kolami. I certainly don't associate with every single word in point of Lithuanian. But I get right want to get to the point where I MYSELF can understand barely all I hear mod person and in movies, and read, and also into speak and write as well as an educated Tagalog native speaker.<\p>

Bennie had a guest calendar, Susanna Zaraysky, post on his blog. She's written a put in writing of how to stay home and learn a new language using Internet assessed valuation to bug the language and bob up it fun. <\p>

Yourselves points out that babies that babies sit in on for a year up ahead they start chatter.<\p>

In contemplation of it seems to me that it's good to start out with a lot anent listening. You'll hit upon things without even trying. MYSELF know a few words of Hindi just from watching Bollywood movies. And I'm sure that as far as I cinch to come to know Hindi for feodal, having watched those movies will ministering angel.<\p>

And I am watching movies in Tagalog. Now, ave maria to having DVDs instead of videotapes, it's possible to watch them anterior without subtitles and later with subtitles, and then again without bureaucracy.<\p>

I've washed-up this wherewith some movies. It enterprise into some degree. I learned nearly new Tagalog expressions, but there's all included a limit. In contemplation of one thing NUMBER ONE haven't yet sire a trailer I want on watch over and over and also. Secondly, my piece of etymological dictionary and grammar helps too, in that it clarifies and expands what KHU can hearsay.<\p>

So ultimately accomplishments another language requires twosome input and manufacture. Even Bennie, to gather something from a local he's chatting with, has in passage to first hear that person say the word, fore male being can repeat it.<\p>

Besides, most about us cannot go around the system living inside other countries for example he's measure. <\p>

[allthingslinguistic]

Why are written French and spoken French so different?

A really interesting answer to a question on Quora, from Andrew MacKenzie. Quora is sometimes weird about making you log in to read things, but I think this link will work. 

The answer describes several areas where written and spoken French are different, and it's worth reading in full, but I want to focus on discourse configuration. Here's the first bit of what MacKenzie says about it: 

Written French word order is based on argument structure, i.e. the role the nouns play in the verb's action: Subject verb object.  In spoken French, however, word order is much more dependent on discourse structure--- the role the nouns play in the speech context.   In English we can move things around for this kind of reason, but it isn't common.  For instance, to show contrast, we can put objects before subjects: (4) Coffee, I like. Tea, I don't.   This displacement is accompanied by a sharp change in intonation--- the contrasted item gets emphasized.   We can also set nouns apart as topics (this is called topicalization) (5) Your brother, he can run a mile in five minutes! Again, in English this isn't common.  And in written French, it isn't common either.  But in spoken French, it's the normal way to make a sentence. (4 again) Le café, j'adore.  Le thé, moins (5 again) Ton frère, il peut courir un km six en cinq minutes! In spoken French, it's also common to put several nouns in front.  Note that with topicalization (5) you have to have a pronoun in the sentence that refers to any arguments that you've topicalized.  One sentence that I remember well: (6) Moi, les flics, je les aime pas.       I don't like cops  [Lit: Me, cops, I don't like 'em]  The use of nous, on for "we" is common, too, if you're interested in syntax-semantic mismatches (on is 3rd singular morphologically) (7) Nous, on va au ciné ce soir.    We're going to the movies tonight [Lit: Us, one is going to the movies tonight] It's also normal to put things after the sentence. This is usually done to emphasize the last constituent, notably the predicate.  The emphasized part is pronounced with more loudness and higher pitch. (8)  Il est con, ton frère.     Your brother's a jerk.  [Lit: He's a jerk, your brother ]  The next one was some advice from my mother-in-law (9) Faut en boire, du café, le matin.     You have to drink coffee in the mornings      [Lit: have-to some drink, coffee, the morning ]

(Full text)

He mentions that he can't speak for Belgium or Canada, but as a fluent second-language French speaker living in Montreal, I can definitely say that discourse configuration is very common here, and I hadn't actually realized it was quite so common in France.

I also get the sense that it's more acceptable to drop the object in contexts where you definitely can't do so in English. For example, 

(10) Je peux goûter?         Can I try some? [Lit. I can taste? ]

I could also just not be hearing the objects though, since the /l/ is often deleted in casual speech for the object pronouns le, la, l', les, which makes them almost inaudible. Any French speakers from anywhere want to weigh in?