almost bilingual

scale as in the measuring device comes from the old norse skal, for a drinking vessel sometimes used as a weighing device

1: most of the time i see people mock french it’s for some ‘no letter is pronounced the way it should be’ (looking at you oiseau post) thing when A) actually that is exactly how each of these letters in that order should be pronounced… in french. and B) who are you to judge how a language pronounces stuff?

and more importantly 2: a language is always someone’s native language or favourite language or comfort language or anything, it’s like making fun of people’s favourite (often cultural) homemade childhood dish because it’s different from your culture’s dishes

like language and culture and thought patterns are inherently intertwined

You can pronounce the letter X five different ways in French:

#1. [ks]

when it’s inside a word: Texte \tɛkst\

when it follows E and is followed by a consonant: Excellent \ɛk.sɛ.lɑ̃\

when a word ends in -ax, -ex, -inx, -ox, -ynx, and sometimes -ix or -yx: Thorax \tɔ.ʁaks\, Lynx \lɛ̃ks\ 

#2. [gz]

when it’s the first letter of a word: Xylophone \ɡzi.lɔ.fɔn\

when it follows E and is followed by either a vowel or H: Exactement \ɛɡ.zak.tə.mɑ̃\, Exhumer \ɛɡ.zy.me\ 

#3. [s]

in SIX (6) and DIX (10), when used without an object: J’en ai six \sis\

in DIX-SEPT (17) and numbers from 60 to 69: Soixante \swa.sɑ̃t\

in the name of certain cities: Bruxelles \bʁy.sɛl\, Auxerre \o.sɛʁ\  

#4. [z]

in numbers derived from DEUX (2), SIX (6), DIX (10): Sixième \si.zjɛm\, Dix-huit \di.z‿ɥit\, Deuxième \dø.zjɛm\ 

#5. [/]

when a word ends in -eux: Heureux \œ.ʁø\, Ceux \sø\

when a plural word ends in -aux, -eaux, oux, aux: Chevaux \ʃə.vo\

when an invariant word ends in -x: Choix \ʃwa\, Voix \vwa\ 

So let’s say you’re in the same boat I am (this is a running theme, have you noticed?) and you’ve just got, like, SO MUCH STUFF that HAS to get done YESTERDAY or you will DIE (or fail/get fired/mope). Everything needs to be done yesterday, you’re sick, and for whatever reason you are focusing on the least important stuff first. What to do!

Take a deep breath, because this is a boot camp in prioritization.

Make a 3 by 4 grid. Make it pretty big. The line above your top row goes like this: Due YESTERDAY - due TOMORROW - due LATER. Along the side, write: Takes 5 min - Takes 30 min - Takes hours - Takes DAYS.

Divide ALL your tasks into one of these squares, based on how much work you still have to do. A thank you note for a present you received two weeks ago? That takes 5 minutes and was due YESTERDAY. Put it in that square. A five page paper that’s due tomorrow? That takes an hour/hours, place it appropriately. Tomorrow’s speech you just need to rehearse? Half an hour, due TOMORROW. Do the same for ALL of your tasks

Your priority goes like this:

5 minutes due YESTERDAY

5 minutes due TOMORROW

Half-hour due YESTERDAY

Half-hour due TOMORROW

Hours due YESTERDAY

Hours due TOMORROW

5 minutes due LATER

Half-hour due LATER

Hours due LATER

DAYS due YESTERDAY

DAYS due TOMORROW

DAYS due LATER

At this point you just go down the list in each section. If something feels especially urgent, for whatever reason - a certain professor is hounding you, you’re especially worried about that speech, whatever - you can bump that up to the top of the entire list. However, going through the list like this is what I find most efficient.

Some people do like to save the 5 minute tasks for kind of a break between longer-running tasks. If that’s what you want to try, go for it! You’re the one studying here.

So that’s how to prioritize. Now, how to actually do shit? That’s where the 20/10 method comes in. It’s simple: do stuff like a stuff-doing FIEND for 20 minutes, then take a ten minute break and do whatever you want. Repeat ad infinitum. It’s how I’ve gotten through my to do list, concussed and everything.

me: lemme see it. garlic salt

Danish:......

English: What?

Danish:.....

English: Oh no

Danish:

my masterpost | my studygram | ask me anything

[click images for high quality]

[transcript under the cut]

Other advice posts that may be of interest:

How To Study When You Really Don’t Want To

Active Revision Techniques

How to Revise BIG Subjects

Common Study Mistakes

Bonjour! Is there a list of things that a french beginner should learn, is there a specific order to learn topics in french? Also, love your blog, it helps me a lot.

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Hello, thanks love you too! Here's roughly how to proceed:

#1. Genders.

Nouns, adjectives, determiners and past participles in French are either masculine or feminine. There is no neutral.

Known: LE/LA/L’ (+ vowel) + singular, LES + plural (The girl)

Unknown: UN/UNE + singular, DES + plural (A cat)

Uncountable: DU/DE LA + singular, DES + plural (Sugar)

How do I know what gender an item is?

Those that end with a consonant are likely masculine (Un éléphant), those that end with an -e likely feminine (Une girafe), especially if it follows a couple of the same consonant (Une tasse). A noun or adjective can be ‘gender-neutral’, or épicène (Juge, Drôle). There are obviously exceptions (Nation, Incendie).

What’s an uncountable item?

It’s a group of items that are either too small or too large to be counted: fruit, sugar, flour, people, etc (ex: Du sable, Des gens).

Let’s practice: Le facteur et la boulangère sont mariés. La ministre est sortie. Un chien aboie dehors. J’ai mangé du pain.

#2. Numbers.

To turn a singular into a plural, adding an -s is your most popular option. It can also be an -x (Bijou, Feu), nothing if the singular ends in -z, -s, -x (Nez); some words only exist as plurals (Ciseaux). There are a few irregulars (Oeil/yeux, Monsieur/messieurs, Madame/mesdames, Animal/animaux).

Let’s practice: J’ai deux petits frères qui sont nés (past participle) en 1998. J’ai un chat sur les genoux. Il y a des noix dans mes gâteaux. Mes yeux sont noirs.

#3. Verbs.

Verbs belong to one of three groups: -er except Aller (90%), -ir with a few exceptions, and the bin (auxiliaries Être and Avoir, Aller, -re, -oir, -ir exceptions). They can be modal (Should) or reflexive: preceded by an object pronoun (Je m’appelle).

The most useful verbs are:

Être: to be, avoir: to have, faire: to do/make, dire: to say, pouvoir: can, aller: to go, voir: to see, savoir: to know, vouloir: want, venir: to come, falloir: to have to, devoir: must, croire: to believe, trouver: to find, donner: to give, prendre: to take, mettre: to put down/place, laisser: to let, to need: avoir besoin de (...)

#4. Tenses.

The most useful tenses are:

Indicative present (J'aime le fromage - I like cheese)

Imperfect (J'aimais le fromage - I liked cheese)

Perfect (J'ai aimé le fromage - I have liked cheese)

Future (J'aimerai le fromage - I will like cheese)

Present conditional (J'aimerais le fromage - I would like cheese)

Present subjunctive (Je veux que tu prennes le fromage - I want you to take the cheese) triggered by certain verbs + que.

N.B.: There are irregular past participles (Être: été, Avoir: eu, Voir: vu, etc.).

Let’s practice: Je ne sais pas. Il dessinait bien. Nous sommes venus. Ils te verront quand ils reviendront. Vous seriez partis tôt.

#5. Function words.

Personal pronouns: Tu manges du pain

Demonstrative pronouns: Celui de ma soeur est mieux

Possessive determiners: C'est ton chien

Contracted words: Elle est au parc

Coordinating conjunctions: J'y vais mais j'ai peur

Subordinating conjunctions: Je demanderai quand il rentrera

Linkers: On se voit plus tard

Let’s practice: Je crois qu’elle sera à l’heure mais je peux me tromper. Pourquoi est-ce que tu pars? Nous reviendrons plus tard, quand il fera plus beau. Vous ne devez pas être en retard sans raison. C’est là, celle à droite.

#6. Basic knowledge.

Accents

Adverbs

Calendar

Colours

Conversation

En + Y

Family

Food

Negations

Numbers

Prepositions

Questions

Relative pronouns

Terminations

Time

Tu or Vous

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As you're mastering those, start practising.

Listen to music, podcasts, books while looking at the transcription - don't translate, get used to the pronunciation and the word chewing. Record yourself reading.

Then, start reading. I recommend starting with children's literature, especially books you already know in English. Things like Le petit prince or Perrault's fairytales should be accessible.

Use Reverso and Deepl as if you were paid to.

Study the pronunciation posts. The devil is in the details.

Learn vocabulary every week. Avoid translating English word by word, it's often a fool's bet; make a simpler sentence instead.

Explore my grammar tag once in a while.

and made me so much more effective is called “active recall”.

the concept of active recall is based on the fact that we retain information much faster through testing ourselves than through any other study method!

each time you ask yourself a question and try to answer it, neuron pathways are enforced in your brain, and every time you try to retrieve information, the connection to this information grows faster and stronger.

but what exactly does this mean? this means that the best way of studying is actually not through input, but through output.

if, for example, you’ve read through your lecture notes and understood them, the most effective way to remember them for a long time isn’t to read it again, to paraphrase it or to highlight the most important parts. instead, the best method to use is to test yourself by formulating questions and trying your best to answer those without looking at your materials.

if you can’t answer a question, look it up, either in the lecture notes, in the lecture itself, in a textbook or on the internet.

this way, you are forcing your brain to engage actively with the material as much as possible, which is why it’s been shown by several studies to be the most effective method for studying.

once i started using this method, i wasn’t just remembering a lot more and saving myself so much time otherwise spent with highlighting or making notes - i was actually a lot more confident to speak up in class when asked something and performed so much better in oral examinations!! by actively recalling the material, you’re basically giving your brain the best workout ever, while skipping time-consuming methods that lead to no results.

so read through your latest lecture slides, open your notebook, and think of some questions!

ps: you can also color-code your questions to denote how well you can already answer them!!