h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Spiff I am only starting to learn French, I only very basic French phrases, I am not able to start a conversation in French yet, that will be ablong time yet. This is not a French conversation thread. This is the French Desk to help people learn the language.

Kat

Hi Kat,

Hey, don't be that way,

I'm certainly *not* objecting to trying to help; on the contrary, I'm suggesting that we could be *more* helpful in some ways.

Sorry about the non-reply you mention. I haven't been on-site much this whole year past, and I guess that one has slipped my memory. sorry bout that, .

But don't worry about me anyhoo, . I'm not in charge here (Dieu soit loué! [God be praised!]) and you seem to be getting on just fine with other people on this thread and some others. I was just adding my 2 Eurocentimes.

Nonetheless - and at risk of repeating what i may have said to you elsewhere - have you looked at the bbc.co.uk Learn French pages? Lots of themed vocab and beginners exercises to look at.

Alors, bonne année, et bon courage pour tes cours de français in deux mille quatre!

A bientôt
speef

PS - Never think a 'university education' is some kind of prerequisite to learning French or anything else.

Salut/Bon Soir Spiff

Je suis beaucoup sorry for my nastiness and my bad-temper, (I am part Italian) and bad behaviour.

merci for the link, Je avec looked at. Je like watching Poirot as he does use quite a few French phrases.

I do not understand why they still call other flavours of fromage frais (cheese-strawberry), fromage frais and not fromage citron etc.

Take care Spiff

fromage frais - literally translated - is fresh cheese. Cheese as normally eaten is a soft white mass before it is left to dry and continue ripening to the hard yellow stuff which is normal "fromage". So it is unmatured - fresh - cheese.

The feminine form of frais (LE fromage frais, du lait frais - fresh cheese, fresh milk) is

"fraiche"

(de l'eau fraîche, des pommes fraîches - fresh water, fresh apples)

Strawberries are fraises - it has nothing to do with frais, which comes from a different root and is spelled with a circumflex - at least in its feminine form.

hey Kat
I'm sure you'd manage just fine if ever you went to France
The moment the French people see that you TRY to speak French ( and it helps to be female)they literally do anything to help you- at least that's what I experienced when going to France
Btw, I'm sure you'd never get mixed-up poivre ( pepper ) and poire ( pear ) again if ever you had tried to eat poivre
Bel

Bonjour tout le monde....

I'm still ing regarding n*quer... I really didn't realise that it has become such a strong word... in my days it seemed to be just a naugthy word [playground stuff etc... well, we're talking about years ago so obviously things have changed]... I remembered that word being that way because of a joke i heard when i was a kid...

Perhaps i was more innocent that i thought in these days...

I should try to keep up with the "evolution" of the French language somehow... and do what i usually tell people learning French: listening to a French radio time to time...

Can i come out of my hiding place now?!...


Aaaaah Serge Gainsbourg... Such a poet... a cheeky one, but a great poet all the same... if any of you have a chance, try to get "La Ballade de Melody Nelson"... One of my favourites...
Loads to say when it comes to the guy... Hopefully we will have ample opportunities to do so in a near future...

Spiff... No problem regarding making the most of this page/project... All suggestions are welcome... We can start new threads if/when needed and that way cater for everyone's needs/etc... For certain subjects/topics we could also add links to the relevant threads on the Help Desk page... just say the word...

Everyone: Talking about links, don't hesitate to post links to relevant entries etc... i will try to add them to our homepage asap [and if i can't do it soon enough due to RL commitments, ask Mr Manda U193090 and he will do it for us]... The more info the better...

Doh!!!!!... I had to shorten my reply as i've got to go offline soon [not for too long fortunately] so i hope that what i said made sense...

Kat... Yep, you're doing well... don't put yourself down... French is not an easy language to learn anyway... so just take your time and enjoy....

RE: fraises... Can i mention a certain song?!
It goes that way:

"Ah les fraises et les framboises
on ne les reverra plus
Ah les fesses de Francoise
on ne les reverra plus..."

"fesses" would be err... cheeks...
[can't think of the appropriate translation right now as it's still too early in the morning for me]

Apologies to any lurkers who happened to be called Francoise....

A bientot...

loup

Bonsoir Trillian's child, Belana and loup.

Thank-you you all for your very kind help and assistance. I know remember when fromage frais first came out and how you could only get them in very small pots.

There is a quite alot of French that is used in culinary terms and music terms. I have learned abit when I was playing the piano and in my recipe books. My tutor said the pronouncation for G and J is the opposited to the English on.

I would like to go to France for a weekend (le weekend), in the Normandy area as it has very good cidre and very good calavados.

loup thank you for your very kind compliments. When I watch Poirot he uses a phrase (I do not know if I am spelling it write) moi cherri but I do not know the meaning, please can you help.

I find it alot easier to learn when doing role play sessions either pretending I am at restaurant or going shopping.

I would like to learn more of the French expressions/colliquosims. I have a few in a small phrase book.

J'tai ete heureuse de votre connaissance.


Kat

Dancing and fencing got their share of French terms as well...

G and J... I still get confused at times and have to stop for a second or two before remembering which is which...


Poirot and his famous grey cells... He must have said "ma cherie" [which means "my darling"] to a Ladyfriend of his...
If he had said "mon cheri" then that would have been to a man... but somehow i would think that was "ma cherie"...

And nope, i won't go into any theory about Poirot' sexuality... I still haven't recover from my embarrassment with the n*quer episode...

Learning French through role-playing... The good thing about it is that everyone participates...

can't stay long unfortunately... Some other duties calling me away.. Haven't updated anything yet regarding the French Language Help Desk and its page [haven't had a chance to log in the other account actually..] so, if any of you wants to see some links added for when i update the page, it's still not too late mentioning them ...

A bientot...

loup

Merci beaucoup Loup for your very kind help and assistance.

I have done some fencing when I was at school, it was very elegant.

Please can you help me again is the word recipe French? If it is, is it it femmine or masculine, merci beaucoup.

Congratulation Loup on becoming an official ACE.


Kat

Kat... merci beaucoup...

Recipe would be "recette"[sp?!]... it might have come from the same latin root though [just guessing here]...

A bientot...

loup

merci beaucoup loup

I am translating a simple dish in my old dairy book called Coquelles St Jacques.


Kat

Mmmm! Coquilles StJacques! Régalez-vous! (Enjoy it!)

Bon appetit
speef

In German the word is Rezept and it means recipe as well as "prescription" - I am racking my brains trying to remember if a prescription in French is also a "recette"

Petit Robert says: Total des sommes d'argent reçues ( total amount of money received ) and lots of more stuff about finances .
Langenscheid says that "prescription" is "ordonnance"
Bel
.

Ah yes, of course!

My brain hasn't used that sort of thing for a while!!

Recette therefore is "recipe" and "receipt"

"Bon Dieu, mais c'est bien sur..."

[Reference to a very very old French Detective TV series...]

Re: recettes... Completely forgot about that one as well...

"Fencing" in French is "escrime" and could be pronounced like "S-cream" ... I know nobody asked but i wanted to show off...

Thank you Trillian's child, Belana, Spiff and Loup for your very kind help.

Please can anyone tell me is there any goood way of remembering numbers in French 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90 and 100. As I can only remember numbers from 1-39 after that my mind goes blank. I am also having problems remembering how to pronounce letters in the alphabet in French as I still keep on thinking of the English way of pronouncing the alphabet.

Kat

, no great help with that I'm afraid, quarante you can perhaps manage if you think of a quarter, and quatre-vingt (80) is four times twenty, and the official version for 90 is quatre-vingt-dix ( 4times 20 and 10 ) but you'll certainly hear people say huitante (80)and neunante (90) too , 100 = cent- just think of the American coin - it's only the pronunciation that differs.
The pronunciation of the alphabet will be more difficult, I'm just trying to put you some words to get an impression :
A - A- rgonaut
B - Be-lushi
C- ce-lebrate
D - de-relict
E - e-picure
F - ef-fort
G - gentle -without pronouncing the d behind the g
H- ush-er
I - ee-l
J - see G
K - ka-rma
L - El-len
M - em-press
N - en-clave
O - o-verall
P - pe-lage
Q - coo-l
R- freez-er
S - es-timable
T-te-ddy
U- b-oo-t
V - ve-llum
W- double -v
X - ex-change
Y- (igrek)
Z - (zet)
hope this will help you
Bel

Merci beaucoup for your very kind help and assistance. The phoentic alphabet in my French course book is not very clear as yours.

I like the French sound for y = igrek



Kat

I wonder if anyone can remember the French/english 80's disco song in Angel which was sung by the night club owner/singer in the Angel gang?


Kat