Wondrous Words Wednesday
I’m trying to learn a little French in advance of our trip to France in May. I thought I would report here on my progress and the interesting little things that I’m learning about differences and similarities between French and English.
Two of the most prevalent verbs in French, as they are in English, are “to be” and “to have.”
In case you’ve forgotten about conjugations of verbs, I’ll go through them in English for you. The “to be” conjugations for the present tense are: I am, you are, he/she/it is; we are, you are, they are. The “to have” conjugations are: I have, you have, he/she/it has; we have, you have, they have.
In English, then, we have three words meaning “to be” in the present tense (am, are, and is) and two words meaning “to have” in the present tense (have and has). French, which is famous for its difficult conjugations has six different words for each of these verbs in the present tense.
In French, the present tense of “to be” conjugates this way: Je suis, tu es, il/elle/ce est; nous sommes, vous êtes, ils/elles sont. The present tense of “to have” conjugates like this: J’ai, tu as, il/elle/ce a; nous avons, vous avez, ils/elles ont.
Here’s the part I thought you all might find interesting. In English, we use the “to be” words idiomatically to say things like “I am cold” or “are you hungry?” In French, they use the “to have” verbs for those sorts of things. J’ai faim correctly translates in English to “I’m hungry” but literally translates to “I have hunger.” Ages are handled in a similar way. Elle a 50 ans would be translated to English as “She is 50 years old” but really says “She has 50 years.”
Another interesting difference is that French has the concept of an informal and formal version of “you.” Vous is a plural “you” but it’s also the formal “you.” Since I don’t anticipate becoming bosom buddies with anyone or speaking to many children in France, I’m trying to forget tu and the verbs that go with it.
In my 100 Day Challenge, I pledged to learn 100 words of French in 100 days. I think I’ll count the present tense of verbs as one word, even though in both of these cases they are actually five. I learned the pronouns earlier, so I won’t count them.
My first two words then are:
1. suis, est; sommes, êtes, sont
2. ai, a; avons, avez, ont
Now, I just have to figure out how to use and remember them. I’m open to suggestions!
Visit today’s Wondrous Words Wednesday at BermudaOnion’s Weblog for more word play today!
Joy, I didn’t know you did Wondrous Words Wednesdays! I’ll come back. Good luck with the French- the same holds true for Spanish- I guess because they are both Latin based? If you are thirsty, you say, Tengo sed, which translates, “I have thirst”. There are also six conjugations for each verb, and man that formal “you” is hard to use sometimes. I hope you’ll share pictures from your trip- I enjoyed Ireland last year!
Bon! Your name translates well that every one will remember you.
I am reading Louise Penny’s mystery series and the main characters are Quebec French. There are conversational French phrases through -out. I am in love with her main detective and they talk about food a lot!
Good lucK with the French!
The Louise Penny novels sound like fun — and food words are definitely at the top of the list of what I want to learn.
We lived in France for 2 years and some of the most useful phrases (besides please and thank you) for me were Je voudrais, c’est le mien, je ne sais pas (the French generally shorten it to je’n sais pas or chez pas), and combien? Good luck!
Thanks! It’s good to know which phrases were most helpful!
I loved this English-French-Spanish lesson here today. It was fun. I’m a lover of the Louise Penny mysteries too. I’ve listened to most of them on audio and it’s so neat hearing them speak French. Such a beautiful language.
I’m brushing up on French for a trip this year too (June/July). May is a beautiful time to go. Have you been before? Where are you going? I’m sure you’ll have an amazing time. I love the idea of your 100 day challenge. It’s just under 100 days til we leave for our trip, perhaps I should do something similar? I was doing some French a few months ago, but then got waylaid over the holidays, I need to get back into it. Are you using CDs? They help a lot.
This is my first trip to France — I’m really looking forward to it. We’re taking a garden tour in the Loire Valley then tacking four days on at the end in Paris. I’ve got a bunch of CDs and DVDs and books from the library. I suspect I would get farther if I committed to one of them.
Where are you going?
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