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

I'll start teaching some French soon too...

Joe C

Why am I still not being taught anything?

Yeah! Me too! (Did i even join up for the French thing or was I just lurking...)

I will teach... soon... I promise!

Where do people want to start? Are people happy with the conjugations of the basic verbs, etre - to be, avoir - to have, faire - to do/make, etc.

e.g. can you say in french :
I am
he/she is
You are (plural + singular )
we are
they are

I have
he/she has
you have (plural + singular )
we have
they have

Do people want to learn simple phrases?

Have you studied any tenses? Do you know what the subjunctive is?

If we can get an idea of what levels people are on we can start teaching at an appropriate level, otherwise there will be stuff which is just totally inappropriate.

Maybe we should start a thread to deal with each aspect of Grammar, one for the present tense, one for the perfect and another for the imperfect. One that covers pro-nouns and so on and so forth, we can always create more as things crop up.

Mel

Hello Mel!

nice to meet you!

my French is pretty bad, and I’m thankful for every kind information. please do correct me whenever I make a mistake. I’d be perfectly happy if we could learn how to conjugate basic verbs, and how to form sentences with them. and maybe later on when to use which tense…

I like the idea about the different threads. I personally would probably concentrate on a thread dealing with the present tense. I’d be glad to get familiar with the basics of French…

see you later!

Katkodl

Ok, well I think we ought to wait for the head of department to arrive before we create new threads but the idea is sound. If we start with etre - to be as our verb you can conjugate it in the present tense as follows.

je suis ..... un(e) singe?
I am ........ a monkey?

je suis ..... etudiant(e)
I am ........ a student

(notice how we don't use un for a profession, the (e) at the end is used if you are female and it means you sound the last 't')

il est ...... un poisson
He is ....... a fish

elle est .... francaise
she is ...... French

(again with the e at the end because we are talking about a female)

on est ...... bien
One is ...... good/well
('on' directly translates as 'One' but can be used for 'we' and in place of the passive in English, so 'it is found that...' would be written as 'on trouve que...' I'm not going to go into this one too much as it works the same as il and elle but is used differently.)

tu es ....... bizarre
you are .....

(This is the single form, used when talking to a friend or someone younger than you.)

vous etes ... grand(e)(s)
You are ..... big/tall

(add the 'e' if the person/group is all female and the s if it's a group)
(This is the plural form but it is also use when you want to be polite, typically used for people who are strangers and older than you. When you get to know people like your teachers etc they may tell you that you can use the tu form to address them.)

Ils sont .... petits
They are .... small

(note the s at the end because we are in the plural form!)
(Ils is used for groups of masculine things or a mixed group.)

Elles sont .. belles
They are .... Beautiful

(the masculine of Belle is Beau and the masculine plural (mpl) is beaux)
(This one is used for a group of all female things.)

If you want to say 'Mel is...' you use the elle conjugation, if you want to say 'Peter is ...' you use the il conjugation. If you are saying 'peter and Paul are...' you use Ils, 'Mary and Mel are ...' Elles. If you have a mixed group, 'Mary and Paul are....' you use ils.

Working from these examples can you do me another example for each of the conjugations. I'd like to see at least one nationality, profession and colour! You can use the internet or a dictionary to find the vocabulary you'll need. Don't worry about getting stuck and if you have any questions at all you can come and give me a shout.

Mel

thanks for the explanations! here are my exercises:

Je suis une femme.
I am a woman.

Je suis Autrichienne.
I am Austrian.

Je suis actrice. (no article here, right?)
I am an actress.

Il est un chien.
He is a dog.

Elle est une souris.
She is a .

On est Britannique.
One is British. (I’m not sure about the usage of this one…)

Tu es sympathique.
You are nice.

Vous êtes intelligent(e)(s).
You are intelligent.

Ils sont ophidiens verts.
They are green snakes.

Elles sont insatisfaites.
They are not satisfied.

Nous sommes étudiant(e)s.
We are students.

un beau noir chat
a beautiful black cat
des beaux noirs chats
beautiful black cats
une belle grande femme
a beautiful tall woman
des belles grandes femmes
beautiful tall women


how many mistakes? I used a dictionary - I will have to learn some vocabulary. and I always get the articles wrong. I was sure that “le chat” was female.

katkodl

Go for it, make new threads Just make the subject lines follow some sort of format similar to this one so it's beginner-friendly.

Sorry, I would be teaching, but I won't have internet at home until the end of August

Je suis une femme.
I am a woman.
CORRECT

Je suis Autrichienne.
I am Austrian.
CORRECT

Je suis actrice. (no article here, right?)
I am an actress.
CORRECT

Il est un chien.
He is a dog.
Whether you're talking about a real dog or figuratively about someone, it's "C'EST un chien"

Elle est une souris.
She is a mouse .
As above

On est Britannique.
One is British. (I’m not sure about the usage of this one…)
Very strange this (both in french and english). "On" can be used to replace "nous" as in "on y va" (let's go) but not in a sentence like this. And generally the nouns "anglais", écossais"... would be used, not "britannique".

Tu es sympathique.
You are nice.
CORRECT

Vous êtes intelligent(e)(s).
You are intelligent.
CORRECT

Ils sont ophidiens verts.
They are green snakes.
Ce sont des serpents verts. (ce sont: see above) (des: unlike in english, there must be a qualifier for plurals) (ophidien is a term only used be zoologists)

Elles sont insatisfaites.
They are not satisfied.
"Elles ne sont pas satisfaites" is much better

Nous sommes étudiant(e)s.
We are students.
CORRECT

un beau noir chat
Un beau chat noir
des beaux noirs chats
des beaux chats noirs
une belle grande femme
correct BUT "une femme grande et belle" sounds better
des belles grandes femmes
as above

Adjectives in french go generally AFTER the object they qualify. There are exceptions, which include "grand" et "beau", but stringing them together in front sounds clumsy.

sorry you had to wait, i just got here.

Zut!

J'ai oublie cet fil je l'ai vu un soir et m'ai dit que je doit le faire mais je l'ai oublie le matin prochain

J'ai le impression que il y a les fautes qui vien de moi, specificment les un avec les animaux personne m'a dit avant.

Je suis d'accore que 'on' est difficile a utiliser, je pense que ce sera mieux si on le n'utilise pas pour ce moment et concentrer sur les autres.

Je suis sur que j'ai fait des fautes comme tousjours donc si quelqu'un veux les corriger....

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Bother

I had forgotten this thread, I saw it one evening and told myself that I must do it and then forgot it the next morning

I get the impression that there are errors that come from me, specifically those about the animals no-one told me before.

I agree that 'on' is difficult to use and I think it will be best if we don't use it for the moment but concentrate on the others.

I am sure that I have made errors as always so if there is someone who wants to correct them...

Mel

Thanks a lot for the corrections!

Now I have two questions:

1. If someone has a dog that counts as a family member, would the family say: “he is a nice dog” (Il est un chien gentil.) or rather “it is a nice dog” (C’est un chien gentil.).

2. If it’s let’s say Donald Duck we’re talking about, would we say: “he is a duck” (Il est un canard) or rather “it’s a duck” (C’est un canard.)?


katkodl

for the dog you can say "c'est un gentil chien" OR "c'est un chien gentil" OR "il est gentil". this last version is the one that gives the "part of family" feeling. if you use the species name, it has to be "c'est".

"c'est un canard"... "il est irascible" (quick-tempered) but "C'EST un canard irascible".

to enlarge the subject, animals which are pets can be described as either masculine or feminine: "elle est gentille" or "c'est une chatte gentille". for other animals, a frog is always "LA grenouille", a zebra is always "LE zèbre", regardless of actual physical gender. for farmyard animals there are distinctive male and female nouns which can be used. you can say "la jument" (mare) but say "le cheval" and never "la cheval" even if the horse in question is female.

Zut!

J'ai oublie CE fil. je l'ai vu un soir et JE ME SUIS dit que je doiS le faire mais je l'ai oublie le LENDEMAIN MATIN.

J'ai l'impression que il y a DES fautes qui vienNENT de moi, specifiQUEment CELLES avec les animaux; personne NE ME L'a JAMAIS dit.

Je suis d'accorD que 'on' est difficile a utiliser, je pense que ce sera mieux si on NE L'utilise pas (BETTER: de ne pas l'utiliser) pour LE moment et SE concentrer sur les autres.

Using capitals to point out your mistakes may look severe, but don't take it that way; i just think it's a good way to highlight the modifications. be assured that your version is very adequate and the average french person would be very complimentary; "ahh, if only i could speak english as well as you do french..."

Thank you for the explanations. I didn’t even know that there’s a female form for “cat” or “dog” .

Can I say:
C’est une grenouille mâle. Il est vert.
C’est un zèbre femelle. Elle est belle.

It's a male frog. He's green.
It's a female zebra. She is beautiful.

Or is it the other way round?

katkodl

what curious questions!

admit that the likelihood of needing to say these things is at best remote

but where it is necessary to specify the gender of such animals (animal documentaries, etc.) one generally says "la femelle du zèbre" or "le mâle de la grenouille".

oui les majuscules sont tres facile a noter. J'aime bien ce method de souligner les fautes. Merci bien Riotact

Yes the capitals are very easy to spot, I really like that method of highlighting errors. Riotact

J’adore des grenouilles. Ce sont gentilles! (I admire frogs. They’re cute!)

My questions are not THAT remote, are they ? I like frogs a lot, you know .

Thank you for telling me how I can express myself when talking about frogs and zebras! C’est très important! (That’s very important!)


katkodl

"oui les majuscules sont tres facileS a noter. J'aime bien ceTTE methodE de souligner les fautes."

il n'y a pas de quoi. (a rather distinguished way of saying "you're welcome")



"J’adore LES grenouilles" (frogs in general, not particular frogs). "ELLES sont MIGNONNES!" (gentilles = nice)

note that the more common french expression is "j'adore les grenouilles; elles sont DELICIEUSES".

J'espere qu'il y a moins des fautes dans l'email je viens d'ecrit a mon banque Francais!

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I hope there are less errors in the email I have just written to my French bank!