FrenchPod101.com Blog

Just as an engine helps a car move, mastering basic grammar helps you express yourself and communicate your ideas clearly. The more you know about the engine parts, the more you can improve your engine’s capacity. Similarly, the more you know grammar, the better your French will be!

French grammar has the reputation of being boring and complicated, but it’s not so terrible. The main difficulties are the word genders and the conjugation system (shared by all Romance languages). It is just a matter of remembering some basic rules that will reduce your chances of making the most common French grammar mistakes. The most common one is gender.

In French, all nouns have a gender, either masculine or feminine.
A basic rule for nouns and gender, is that nouns ending in:

• -ance, -ence
• -ée (except le lycée, le musée)
• -eur (except le bonheur, le malheur)
• -ie
• -ion, -sion, -tion,
• -xion
• -té
• -ure

Noun genders, though a difficult concept, is unavoidable to learn! Getting the gender of a word wrong can lead to confusion or worse; completely give a different meaning to your sentence. Keep in mind that it is just a matter of learning and perseverance. Like a car engine, learn the parts and how to use them for a smooth ride!

In this series of mini-lesson tweets on Twitter, we help you perfect your house-related vocabulary to become a master in knowing French homes. Here is the recap of this week’s phrases for your reference:

If you are lucky and have a backyard, “un jardin”, you can sunbathe in the summer.

And if you don’t have a backyard, you can still open “la fenêtre”, “the window”, for some fresh air.

Take a look at your neighbor’s life by getting up “le toit”, ‘the roof”.

What do you do with your “garage”, “garage”? Park your car? Store your things?

You are “casanier” (male) or “casanière” (female) if you are a homebody “Je suis casanière en hiver.” In the winter I am being a homebody.

Enjoy!

In this series of mini-lesson tweets on Twitter, we help you perfect your house-related vocabulary to become a master in knowing French homes. Here is the recap of this week’s phrases for your reference:

Where you hang out with family and friends : “le salon”, “the living-room”.

Where the magic happens (or not) : “la cuisine”, “the kitchen”.

Where the magic also happens (or not) : “la chambre”, “the bedroom”.

Have you ever waited for someone to get out of the bahtroom, “la salle de bain”?

Usually in France the bathroom is separated from “les toilettes”, “the restrooms”.

It’s always nicer to work from home, in your  “bureau”, “office”.

Hope you enjoyed!

In this series of mini-lesson tweets on Twitter, we help you perfect your media-related vocabulary in order to beat French people at conversing about the news.  Here is the recap of this week’s phrases for your reference:

When you don’t want to stain your fingers with newspaper’s ink: “Je lis l’actualité en ligne.”, “I read the news online.”

An easy one: “un magazine” is “a magazine”…but it’s always good to know.
You probably know that French people hate to find a typo, “une coquille”, in their newspaper.

To talk about all newspapers in general: “la presse écrite”. “La presse écrite attire moins de lecteurs.” “Newspapers are attracting less readers.”

Do you follow the news, “l’actualité”? “L’actualité de la semaine est inquiétante.”, “This week’s news are worrying.”
When you want to share the news with your French friends: “J’ai lu cet article aujourd’hui…”, “I read that article today…”
Not a weekly, not a monthly, but…a daily! “Un quotidien”, “Le New York Times” est un quotidien.”

Any questions? Feel free to ask in the comment section!

Stay tuned daily for our tweets, and for those of you who haven’t started following us on Twitter, head there now and sign up!

It is always useful to know the slang for “money” in a foreign language, if only not to get ripped off and to understand when people talk about what is in your wallet…

 So many different ways to say “money” in French! Those greedy French.

 Before we get to those words I would like to mention a French argot specialist. His name is Michel Audiard and even if you probably never heard this name before, you need to know that he is one of France’s pride.

Michel Audiard (Born in 1920, died in 1985) was a famous screenwriter who is known for his acid, humorous, and “argotique” writing. And, if you happened to watch movies written by Michel Audiard, you surely came across  a multitude of French money-related slang.

If you would like to check out one of his movies, I recommend Les tontons flingueurs (translated as ” Crooks in Clover” or “Monsieur Gangster” in English). This movie was made in 1963 and is a melange of gangster movie (yes, France has gangsters, too) and comedy. Probably 90% of the French have seen it at least once: it’s a classic. Now, the colloquial French in it might limit your comprehension at some parts, however with perseverance (and subtitles) you will enjoy it as much as any French person.

 And…one scene is ENTIRELY in English! There it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fRuExSRaBA&feature=related

 Anyway…I got carried away. Now is the time for some serious slang.

 You probably know that the standard word for “money” in French is  L’argent. Here are our five alternate (and much cooler) words:

 - Le fric (the most commonly used one)

- L’oseille (feminine)

- L’artiche (masculine - rare but its sound is particularly typical of the argot)

- Le blé  (literally this means “wheat” )

- Le pognon (comes from the word poignée, “fistful” )

 Hope you enjoyed!

In this series of mini-lesson tweets on Twitter, we help you perfect your media-related vocabulary in order to beat French people at conversing about the news.  Here is the recap of this week’s phrases for your reference:

If you’re reading a trashy French magazine, then you’re reading “un torchon”, which is also the word for “a dish cloth”.

 You want to say you know what is going on throughout the world? Then say “Je suis au courant”, “I am current with the news”.

When TV disappoints us, “Mon émission préférée ne passe plus.”, “My favorite TV show is not on anymore.”

An easy one : “un site internet” is “a website”…”Ce site internet est incontournable.”, “This website is a must see.”

Hey couch potatoes! A word for you: “zapper”, to surf the channels. “Je zappe toute la journée.”, “I surf the channels all day long.”

“Un éditorial” gives you the paper’s opinion. “L’éditorial est sévère avec le président.”, “The editorial is tough on the president.”

Just so you know, the French for “buzz” is also “un buzz”. “Le discours de Barack Obama a fait un buzz en France.”

 Any questions? Feel free to ask in the comment section!

Stay tuned daily for our tweets, and for those of you who haven’t started following us on Twitter, head there now and sign up!

In this series of mini-lesson tweets on Twitter, we help you perfect your media-related vocabulary in order to beat French people at conversing about the news.  Here is the recap of this week’s phrases for your reference:

First, “les médias”, the media. “Elle est harcelée par les médias.”, She is harassed by the media.

Then, we have “faire la une”, “to be on the front page”. “Britney Sprears fait encore la une?, Britney Spears is on the front page again?

An essential one, “les infos”, the news. “Je regarde les infos en ligne.”, I watch the news online.

Slang! “un canard” is argot for “a newspaper”. “Je lis mon canard au bistro.”, I read my newspaper at the bistro.

An easy one, “un scoop” surprisingly means “a scoop”…”J’ai un scoop!”, I have a scoop!

Any questions? Feel free to ask in the comment section!

Stay tuned daily for our tweets, and for those of you who haven’t started following us on Twitter, head there now and sign up!

Have you ever heard of the word l’argot?

You might have heard of it as being the French slang. Well, it is true to some extent. But there is more to l’argot than just being slang.

 Today we’ll introduce you to one argot French word. But before we do, let’s talk about what l’argot really is.

The initial meaning appeared in the XVIIth century in France to generally designate professional thieves, beggars and  bohemians.  This group of people was literally called l’argot.

The word evolved to later designate the language used by this group of people. Just like any social group, they would use a vocabulary that would only exist among themselves. Now, having their own language not only identified each other as a group, it also allowed thieves and assassins to plan their crimes without being understood.

 Overtime, the word l’argot ended up designating every language specific to a certain social group of people. Therefore, there is today l’argot parisien (”Parisian Slang”), l’argot de la Bourse (”Stock Market Slang”), l’argot du journalisme (”Journalism Slang”), etc.

Here in the French Bazaar, we will mostly introduce you to l’argot parisien, not because we are Paris centered, but because this specific slang is the most used among French people. The Parisian Slang is also the one that directly comes from the original thief and bohemian’s argot we mentioned above.

Enough with history! What is our first word? It is…

UNE ALOUF (noun, feminine) - A MATCH

(Standard French: Une allumette)
It is very easy to use, you can simply say :

Tu as une alouf?  “Do you have a match?”

Or, in the plural form: Tu as des aloufs?  “Do you have any matches?”
My Dad (I know I keep talking about my Dad, but that’s only because he speaks the most eccentric French), back when he was a smoker, used to ask for aloufs all the time.

Our next word will start with “B”! We will see you around the corner of the bazaar…

Here is a post for our advanced students. It is going to be in French only. If you feel like you need a translation, please leave a comment and we’ll fix that!

Voici un article pour nos étudiants avancés.

Ou plutôt…voici un jeu pour nos nos étudiants avancés!

Vous avez déjà certainement entendu parler du Logo Rallye. Non? Là, vous vous dites: mais qu’est-ce qu’elle raconte?

Le Logo Rallye est un jeu littéraire inventé par le mouvement de l’OuLiPo – Ouvroir de Littérature Potentielle. Et là vous vous dites: L’Ouli-quoi??

Commençons donc par le commencement.

En 1960, Raymond Queneau, poète et écrivain français, fonde avec François Le Lyonnais, un mathématicien, français lui aussi, l’Ouvroir de Littérature Potentielle.

Ce groupe réunit des écrivains (comme Italo Calvino et Georges Perec, par exemple) mais aussi des mathématiciens qui proposent de construire une nouvelle littérature, une littérature expérimentale.

L’aspect le plus connu de cette “littérature potentielle” est l’écriture sous contrainte. Ecrire sous contrainte, cela signifie s’imposer des règles strictes pour écrire un texte, un poème, ou même un roman. Ces messieurs de l’OuLipo pensaient (et pensent toujours – L’OuLiPo existe encore aujourd’hui!) que les contraintes sont un moteur pour l’imagination. Les règles provoquent la créativité.

Un exemple? D’accord, un exemple.

 La méthode n+7 est un des exercices d’écriture sous contrainte les plus connus. En voici le principe:

- Prenez un texte déjà écrit, si possible célèbre, si possible un classique.

- Maintenant prenez un dictionnaire unilingue.

- La contrainte d’écriture (la règle, si vous préférez) est la suivante:

Vous allez changer tous les adjectifs de votre texte par d’autres adjectifs que vous trouverez dans le dictionnaire. Mais attention, pas au hasard!! Vous allez remplacer chaque adjectif par le septième adjectif qui suit dans le dictionnaire.

Imaginez que l’adjectif à remplacer est “vert”. Eh bien, prenez votre dictionnaire au mot “vert”, et allez jusqu’au septième adjectif placé après “vert”. Maintenant remplacez “vert” par le nouvel adjectif. Et renouvelez l’opération pour tous les adjectifs de votre texte.

Le résultat peut être extrêmement drôle, en particulier si le texte est très classique.

Est-ce que cela vous donne une idée de ce que l’OuLiPo* propose?

Bien sûr, leur travail est bien plus vaste et complexe. Mais ce serait trop long…

 Maintenant, voici le jeu que je vous propose aujourd’hui, appelé le Logo-Rallye:

Le Logo-Rallye, c’est facile. Je vais vous donner une liste de cinq mots, les cinq premiers mots qui me viennent à l’esprit. Et votre travail, c’est d’écrire, le plus vite possible et sans réfléchir, un texte de quelques lignes qui comprend ces cinq mots. Attention: gardez les mots dans l’ordre où je les donne!

Le principal ici est de NE PAS réfléchir, d’écrire très vite et de ne pas corriger ensuite. C’est ça qui rend le jeu drôle. Ne trichez pas!

Quand vous avez écrit votre texte, copiez-le dans la section “comments” de cet article, pour le partager avec nous. C’est parti!

- Voiture

- Enragé

- à genoux

- Gérard Depardieu

- Inutile.

* Un conseil: le livre de Raymond Queneau, Exercices de styles, est une bonne illustration de ce qu’il est possible de faire en écrivant sous contrainte.

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year from everyone here at FrenchPod101.com! We’re grateful to have listeners just like you, and we’re eagerly waiting for the upcoming year to learn French together!

And when the New Year comes around, be sure to make a resolution to study French with FrenchPod101.com!

Have a healthy and happy holiday season.

From Celine, Sam, Angele and the whole FrenchPod101.com Team!