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

Hiya Kat
I type only about articles today, then we will keep French lesson.
that I'm also not advanced French speaker. But it's good practice for me to write down the basic grammar here and learn a bit with you
**************

In French all nouns are either masculine or feminine and articles ('the', 'a', 'some') must agree in gender and unmber with the noun to which they refer.

'The' is expressed by :
"le" (m. sing.) le passeport = the passport
"la" (f.sing.) la cassette = the cassette
"l' " (before a vowel or h*) l'alcool= the alcohol, l'hôtel= the hotel
"les" (m. & f. pl.) les passeports=the passports

* A few words beginning with h take le, la.

'A' is expressed by :
"un"(m. sing.) un chéquier = a cheque book
"une" (f. sing.) une cigarette= a cigarette

'Some' or 'any' is expressed by :
"du" (m. sing.) du vin=some wine
"de la" (f. sing.) de la bière = some beer
"de l'" (before a vowel or h) de l'alcool = some alcohol
"des" (m.&f. pl.) des cassettes = some cassettes

Note: du is actually a contracion of de and le, and des is a contraction of de and les.

sometimes 'some' and 'any' are omitted in English, but they must always be expressed in French.

We have wine = Nous avons du(de le) vin.

Merci beaucoup Taeko.


kat

There are few rules that can help to determine the gender of French nouns. The best rule of all is to learn each noun and its gender together. Generally speaking, -e and -ion are feminine endings, although there are exceptions. Nouns denoting male persons are masculine and those which refer to female persons are feminine:

le monsieur = gentleman
le journal = newspaper
le magnétophone = tape recoder
le château = castle
le neveu = nephew
le prix = price
l'autobus (m.) = bus

la dame = lady
la valise = suitcase
la station = station

le journaliste = male journalist
la journaliste = female journalist

Occasionally only one gender exists and this has to be used irrespective of the sex of the person :

le professeur(teacher) is always masculine
la personne(person) is always feminine


the plural is formed:
a) by adding s
magnétophone(tape recoder) becomes magnétophones

b) by adding x to words ending au or eu
château (castle) becomes châteaux
neveu(nephew) becomes neveux

c) by changing the ending al to aux
journal(newspaper) becomes journaux

Words ending in s and x do not change :
autobus (bus or buses); prix (price or prices)

Hello Taeko, I hope you do not mind asking you to help loup.dargent's French Help Desk as he is short of available French speaking researchers for the help desk.
It is at The h2g2 French language Help Desk at A1022310

Thank you


Kat

Hello Kat
I don't understand you. I accessed to the A1022310, but I can't find any thread of loup.dargent .
You mean does he need someone who will talk with him in French or other?
And I don't mind if you tell him about me
***********
Apart from that, may I keep this thread or is this too much for you?

Looking forward to your reply

I'm sorry for my poor comprehension.

Taeko

Taeko loup.dargent is one of the listed referenced researchers on the French help desk. He cannot be on-line that often as he is a French tutor and he has alot of overtime work which prevents him to helping out with queries. You can either post onto his page offering your services.


kat

Hello kat
I understand what you meant.
But I don't think I can help him as my French is not good enough to support him.
I started this thread to learn French each other, you and me.
I'm not sure if you are happy with this thread. If it's too much for you, I'll stop this and just keep our conversation thread.
Well, I'll try to post to loup.dargent when I have enough time. I'm not sure though
Well, keep in touch with me, pleae
Taeko

Thank you Taeko, it is a good idea to have this thread continued please.

kat

***Kat, do you think I can support Loup.?*** or I misunderstand you?
********************************


**singular
je = i tu = you(familiar) vous = you(formal) il = he, it(m.) elle = she, it(f.)

** plural
nous = we vous = you(familiar) vous = you(formal) ils =they(m.) elles = they (f.)

Note: je becomes j' before a vowel or h.



English, on occasions, can be a very straigtforward language. Whether we are addressing a dog, our husband or wife, or the Prime Minister, we use the same word 'you'. In french, it's not quite so simple because we have two words for 'you' - tu and vous - and to use them incorrectly would be a very serious mistake.

The French use tu when talking to animals, children, very close friends and relatives. Note, however, that although you use tu to one child, you would address more than one child as vous. Teenagers use tu to each other even on the first meeting.

In all other cases we use the more fomal vous. Unless we indicate otherwise (by putting in brackets the word 'familiar') we would like you to use vous in all the exercises in this book(*** Kat, I won't use this exersice, so you can ignore this paragraph)

Note also that what has been said about tu and vous also applies to te(you), ton(your), votre(your), etc.

You are no doubt already vaguely familiar with the words, Monsieur, Madame and Mademoiselle; they maen Mr, Mrs and Miss and are placed, as in English, before a surname:

Monsieur Dupont, Madame Duval, Mademoiselle Martin.

the French also use these words a great deal in formal conversation, without a name following:
Bonjour, Monsieur. Good morning, good afternoon (to a man)
Bonsoir, Madame. Good evening(to a woman).
Au revoir, Mademoiselle. Goodbye(to a young woman).
Monsieur, Madame and Mademoisell also have a plural form:
Messieurs, Meskames, Mesdemoiselles.

s

Taeko loup will be very happy of your services and he will be very thankful of your very kind support.


kat

Kat What kind of service I can?
Could you tell loup about me in advance as I'm not confident on my French/English ...Japanese lol.

Well, I'll keep this thread when I wake up, as it's almost 01.00 of the 26th and I got fatigued after I went home from my friend's house though I enjoyed playing with her kids in Englishs

Apart from this thread, I'd like to keep our 'conversation thread' as well... What do you think of it. Shall we put our thread together and make one thread. But this thread must be only for French explanation I think we should enjoy our chat on another thread

Keep yourself warm and relaxed

Taeko

Kat
I looked through the loup.'s page.
It seems that there are much more researchers who will be good at French and have much more knowledge about French than me. I'm not sure whether I can help him or not, as I'm beginner of French learners though I can speak to my French friends, but it's very limited conversation. Even so, do you think I can help/support him? I think Lucky Star, Opti can speak French much better than me and they entry that page, I guess. I'm bit confused again. It's good for me to do something here so that I will have lots of experience, but if I can't do faithfully, it's not good for another researcher

See you soon
But I'll keep this thread anyway
Taamyu

Hi Taeko

I hope you are keeping well. I am sorry that I did not get back yesterday I hurt two of my nails and fingers on my right hand.

Even though loup has alot of researchers on his page, there time is very limited and some have had problems getting on.

You are very good and I am sure that you can support him.

Take care Taeko

Kat

Taeko yes it would be a very good idea to make this only for French explanation and the other one for chat.

Today is loup.dargent's birthday.

Thank you for the .

Take care

Kat

Kat,
I wonder if you unsubscribed our conversation thread, 'Konnichiwa Taamyu' as I haven't got any reply to that thread though I keep posting.
If you unsbuscribed by mistake, please drop into my space and find our conversation thread and try to re-start that thread. Could you do that? If you do that, I'll be very happy
Well speak to you soon, Kat
Take Care
Love
Taeko

Taeko I will go and have a look now.

kat