French

Hey guys! Today we’ll be talking about the French language. French is a Romance language but that doesn’t mean it’s more romantic than other languages. It just means that it’s Latin-based. Although it’s Latin-based, French was also influenced by Celtic and Germanic languages as well. French-speaking people or nations are often referred to as “francophones.” French is an official language in 29 countries, and is the fourth most widely spoken language and second most taught language in the European Union. That said, I’ll cover some basic words and phrases in this blog post.

First, let’s start with pronunciation. This video does a good job of explaining how to pronounce French consonants and vowels:

Here are some basic French phrases (Please feel free to plug them into Google Translate to listen to them: https://translate.google.com/. But keep in mind Google translate might be a little off on translations.):

An app that I love to use and is free (even better!) is Duolingo. I took French in high school and college but I never use it so my French still sucks. However, I like to practice what little French I did retain with Duolingo. When I remember to use it anyhow. The best advice I can give to anyone who’s learning French to visit France is to pay attention to French etiquette. It’s a BIG DEAL in France. I went to France when I was 15 with my friend who was also 15. She had a bad habit of using the informal while talking to people much older than us. Don’t do it! That’s very rude and they became visibly offended by it! Also, try to speak French. Even if it isn’t perfect. They’ll be more accommodating if you speak French versus English.

A good article to read if you plan on visiting France:

http://www.fluentu.com/blog/french/basic-french-phrases/

Or if videos are more your thing:

To watch Eddie Izzard’s bit about learning French:

Additional Reading:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_language