Joyeux Noel…

noel

Je vous souhaite à tous un joyeux Noël!!!

Herman

French Reading Quiz on School Subject

Bonjour les amis,

Last weekend, posted a new lesson on the school subjects in French. I hope you’ve had some time to study it during the weekend and today, I would like you to quickly test what you’ve remembered from it.
Click here to complete this short French reading quiz.

Remember, you can always find the original lesson on French School Subjects here.
Post your comments or questions here if you have any problems, and I will make sure to respond as quickly as I can. Bonne chance :-)

What do you study at school?

Bonjours les amis!
It’s already back-to-school here in the United States, and this post couldn’t be more timely. Philosophy, French, Geometry, Music, etc, etc. I’m sure you easily guessed the topic I’m about to discuss here: school subjects! Bravo!
Why don’t we learn how to pronounce these school subjects in French? How about using the verb AVOIR to do this?
I am giving you below a hint of what our current lesson is about:

la biologie. Biology Vous avez un cours de biologie à 11 heures. You have a biology class at 11 o’clock.
la musique. Music Chris adore la musique classique. Chris loves classical music.

If you want to continue this Frenchtastic journey, simply click on this link to learn more about French disciplines and courses.

tomber dans les pommes

tomberpommesTomber dans les pommes

This French idiomatic expression means ‘To faint/lose consciousness/pass out‘. Its literal meaning is ‘to fall in the apples‘. Listen to an application of this idiom:

‘Marie était si fatiguée qu’elle est tombée dans les pommes.’ (Marie was so tired that she  fell in the apples.)

Its etymology is still unclear, but one theory is that it may be derived from ‘tomber dans les pâmes’, which is also coming from ’se pâmer‘  (to faint). But again, this is just a tentative explanation. Another possible explanation has been drawn from a letter George Sand, a famous female French writer sent to her mother in which she explains “being in cooked apples” while she was recovering from an illness. She wrote: ‘Je suis un peu dans les pommes cuites‘, which denotes a state of great physical exhaustion.

We may never know the real etymological source of this French idiom, but whatever this may be, I wish I could fall in a chocolate bucket if I fainted. :-)

Playing With Days and Months

Salut,

Now that you know how to say days and months in French, wouldn’t be good to see if you can remember some valuable things from it? I would like then to propose you two little exercises for good practice. The first activity is a very simple one (yes, I know, I’m too nice :-) ). It’s a matching activity where you will be asked to match days in English with their French translations. It won’t take you more than 3 minutes. Here is the link to the 1st activity: http://frenchtasticpeople.com/les-jours-de-la-semaine.php

The second activity deals specifically with months and requires a little more skills (some writing skills, I mean). You will be required to fill in gaps based on some cues that will be provided in text. Click on the link below if you want to start it: http://frenchtasticpeople.com/the-months-in-french-activity.php .

Bonne chance!

Saying Your Birthday in French

Salut à tous!

One piece of information that you may have to give when filling out an official document is your birth date.
To be born ? être né(e). Note that the “(e)” is here as an indicator of the feminine gender.

Now follow this pattern if you are asked about your birthday:
Quelle est la date de votre anniversaire? (When is your birthday?)
C’est le 10 octobre. (It’s October 10th)

And follow this one if you are asked about your birth date.
Quelle est votre date de naissance? (What’s your birth date?)
Je suis né le dix octobre, 1978. (I was born on October 10th, 1978)

Note: If a woman is answering this question, she will have to write née (additional (e)) – Gender agreement.

There is a complete lesson addressing this topic with lots of audio clips to help you on the way… Click on the link below:
http://frenchtasticpeople.com/classroom/lessons/chapter-two/learning-to-say-the-date-in-french/

Animal Crossword in French

animal_crossword

Bonjour les amis,

Yet another fun vocabulary  exercise with animals. This is a crossword filled with images. All you need to do is look at an image of an animal and provide the correct name in French. So tell me, how long do you think it will take you to complete it? I’ve set the timer to 45 minutes. Hmm, too long? too short? I am convinced that you’ve studied very well the  Animal section of the Talking Dictionary and that you’ll spend only 10 minutes to finish it. Not so sure about that? Well, there is only one way to know… Click on the link below to begin your crossword and come back to post a comment about how long it took you to complete it. Bonne chance!

http://frenchtasticpeople.com/french-animal-names-crossword.php

Herman

Testing your French skills on Chapter 1 With Two Exercises

Bonjour chers amis,

I am confident you’ve had enough time to work on the first chapter I uploaded a couple of weeks ago. I also hope you’ve checked the Talking Dictionary (especially, the ‘Animals’ section ) since you will have now the opportunity to test your knowledge with some pretty cool activities.

You will be tested on French words and expressions you remember from The Talking Dictionary and some of the lessons in Chapter 1 (especially the one on How to Describe Others and Yourself)

Now, understand that each exercise is timed [5 minutes / and 30 minutes for the longer one] and therefore, you may feel a little bit of pressure to complete your assignments under the time allowed. But don’t panic yet. They are not that difficult, and with a little bit of preparation, I am certain that you will do just fine. Post comments and questions if you have any problem.

Click here for Activity 1. http://frenchtasticpeople.com/french-dictionary-animals-activity1.php

Click here for Activity 2. http://frenchtasticpeople.com/french-lesson-clothing-activity1.php

Merci et bonne chance.

French Expressions with Beverages and Drinks

Bonjour les amis,

One thing that comes almost immediately to mind when we talk about the country of France is her wine. France has the world’s largest wine production with a production of about 7–8 billion bottles every year according to OIV (International Organization of Vine and Wine). (Hehe, that’s more than enough to get us all quite drunk for a while :-) ).

The reason I am talking about wine today is because I have just completed the Drinks and Beverages section of the Talking Dictionary in French. There, you will learn how to correctly pronounce many of the most common drinks and beverages in the French language.

One important verb to learn when talking about drinks is, of course, the verb boire (to drink). I hope the audio clips below will help you with the pronunciation. Don’t forget to return to the Beverage section to learn more words and expressions with cool images and sounds. A bientôt!

je bois I drink
tu bois you drink
il/elle boit he/she drinks
nous buvons we drink
vous buvez you drink
ils/elles boivent they drink

French wisdom one click away

Bonjour tout le monde,

As we say in French, “Chose promise, chose due”. (Promises must be kept). I promised everyone I would open a French Proverb section on this website by the end of July. It’s now completed…or almost. I still need to record a few audio clips and VOILÀ!!! But I didn’t want to keep many of you waiting for too long. So here are 31 proverbs starting with the letters A and B that I am offering you as linguistic appetizers :-) . Hope you’ll enjoy them.
You can click here to access the full list of French proverbs starting with the letter A .

French

English

Literal Translation

À cœur vaillant rien d’impossible.

Nothing is impossible to a willing heart. For a brave heart, nothing is impossible.