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.):

English French
Good day. Bonjour.
Good night. Bonsoir.
Hi. Salut.
My name is _____. Je m’appelle _____.
What is your name? Comment vous appelez-vous?
How are you? Ça va?
Thank you. Merci.
Thank you very much. Merci beaucoup.
You’re welcome. De rien.
Please. S’il vous plait.
Yes. Oui.
No. Non.
Excuse me. Excusez- moi.
Pardon me. Pardon.
I don’t understand. Je ne comprends pas.
I don’t speak French. Je ne parle pas français.
Do you speak English? Parlez-vous anglais?
Where are the toilets? Où sont les toilettes?

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

1,105 thoughts on “French”

  1. You are so awesome! I do not suppose I’ve read through anything like that before.

    So nice to discover another person with original thoughts on this subject.
    Really.. many thanks for starting this up. This web site is one
    thing that’s needed on the internet, someone
    with a bit of originality!

  2. Hello there! I could have sworn I’ve been to this blog before but after
    browsing through some of the post I realized it’s new to
    me. Anyhow, I’m definitely glad I found it and I’ll be
    book-marking and checking back frequently!

  3. What’s Going down i’m new to this, I stumbled upon this I have discovered It positively helpful and it
    has aided me out loads. I am hoping to give a contribution & aid other users like its helped me.
    Good job.

  4. Greetings! I’ve been following your website for a long time now and finally got the courage to go ahead and give
    you a shout out from Austin Tx! Just wanted to
    tell you keep up the great work!

  5. I’m not sure where you’re getting your info, but good topic.
    I needs to spend some time learning much more or understanding more.
    Thanks for fantastic info I was looking for this information for my mission.

  6. I was recommended this website by my cousin. I’m not sure whether this post is written by him as
    no one else know such detailed about my difficulty. You’re incredible!
    Thanks!

  7. It’s a shame you don’t have a donate button! I’d without a doubt donate to this brilliant blog! I guess for now i’ll settle for bookmarking and adding your RSS feed to my Google account. I look forward to fresh updates and will share this blog with my Facebook group. Talk soon!

  8. Hey there! This is my 1st comment here so I just wanted to give a quick shout out
    and tell you I really enjoy reading your posts. Can you
    recommend any other blogs/websites/forums that cover the same topics?
    Appreciate it!

  9. Link exchange is nothing else however it is
    just placing the other person’s website link on your page at appropriate
    place and other person will also do similar for you.

  10. That is very fascinating, You are an excessively professional blogger.
    I have joined your feed and sit up for in quest of extra of your wonderful post.
    Also, I have shared your website in my social networks

  11. Hello! This is my first comment here so I just wanted
    to give a quick shout out and tell you I really enjoy reading through your posts.

    Can you recommend any other blogs/websites/forums that cover the same subjects?
    Thanks for your time!

  12. Whats up this is kinda of off topic but I was wondering if blogs use WYSIWYG
    editors or if you have to manually code with HTML. I’m starting a blog soon but have
    no coding expertise so I wanted to get guidance from someone with experience.
    Any help would be greatly appreciated!

  13. Hey there would you mind sharing which blog platform you’re working with?
    I’m looking to start my own blog soon but I’m having a hard time making a decision between BlogEngine/Wordpress/B2evolution and Drupal.
    The reason I ask is because your design and style seems different then most blogs and I’m looking for something unique.
    P.S Sorry for getting off-topic but I had to ask!

  14. Hey I am so happy I found your blog, I really found you by
    error, while I was researching on Askjeeve for something else, Regardless I am
    here now and would just like to say many thanks for a
    marvelous post and a all round exciting blog (I also love the theme/design), I don’t have time to read it all at the minute but I have bookmarked it and also
    added in your RSS feeds, so when I have time I will be back to
    read a lot more, Please do keep up the superb work.

  15. Magnificent items from you, man. I have bear in mind your stuff previous to and you’re just too excellent.
    I really like what you’ve received here, really like what
    you are saying and the way through which you assert it.
    You make it entertaining and you still care for to keep
    it wise. I cant wait to read much more from you. This is actually a tremendous site.

  16. Hi! This post couldn’t be written any better! Reading
    this post reminds me of my good old room mate! He always kept chatting about this.
    I will forward this page to him. Pretty sure he will have a good
    read. Many thanks for sharing!

  17. I have been browsing online more than 3 hours as of late, yet I never found any interesting
    article like yours. It is beautiful value enough for me.
    Personally, if all webmasters and bloggers made good content material
    as you probably did, the internet will probably be a lot more useful than ever before.

  18. hey there and thank you for your information – I have definitely
    picked up something new from right here. I did however expertise several technical
    issues using this web site, since I experienced to reload the web site lots of times previous
    to I could get it to load correctly. I had been wondering if your
    web host is OK? Not that I’m complaining, but
    slow loading instances times will often affect your placement in google and could damage your high-quality score
    if ads and marketing with Adwords. Well I am adding this RSS to my email and could
    look out for much more of your respective interesting content.
    Ensure that you update this again very soon.

  19. Hello there! Would you mind if I share your blog with my twitter group?

    There’s a lot of folks that I think would
    really appreciate your content. Please let me know.
    Thank you

  20. Have you ever thought about creating an ebook or
    guest authoring on other sites? I have a blog based upon on the
    same topics you discuss and would love to have you share some stories/information. I know my subscribers would
    enjoy your work. If you’re even remotely interested, feel free to shoot me an e-mail.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *