French Lessons

Se tromper - Making a mistake

Se tromper de (measurement) - Be out by

Se tromper de (noun) - Getting the wrong

Tromper - Deceiving, eluding

Tromper quelqu'un - Cheating on someone

Definite articles: determiners that refer to a known subject (The cat is asleep - Le chat dort)

Demonstrative: refers to things that are being pointed out (This, those, it's: Cette, ceux-là, c'est)

Direct speech: someone words, passed out directly (She said: "I am hungry" - Elle a dit "J'ai faim")

Gerund: en + verb ending in -ant; describes a second action happening at the same time as the first (She sings while running - Elle chante en courant)

Indefinite articles: determiners that refer to an unknown subject (A cat is at the door - Un chat est à la porte)

Partitive articles: determiners that refer to a subject that is a portion of something bigger (Je veux de l'eau - I want water)

Past participle: the second part of the perfect tense (She has drunk water - Elle a bu de l'eau)

Possessive: refers to owned beings or things (Her, Ton: Sa, Your)

Present participle: verb ending in -ant; describes something or a fact that has consequences; sometimes turns into an adjective (A charming boy - Un garçon charmant; Mary being gone, I went for a run - Marie étant partie, je suis allé courir)

Reported speech: someone's words, passed out indirectly (ex: She told John that she wanted him there).

Subjunctive: mood triggered by certain verbs and expressions followed by que (I need to go - Il faut que j'y aille)

Transitive: refers to an element that requires an object (ex: Verb Aller - To go: Elle va + à l'école)

As a student learning French, I thought it would be neat to offer French resources not only for myself, but for other French learners!

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Conjugating Words (-ER, -IR, -RE; regular & irregular) + examples

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Imparfait vs Passe Compose

Imparfait vs Passe Compose 2

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Futur Proche (near future, using aller)

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100 Subjects

41 Subjects

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Space Vocabulary (Tumblr Masterpost)

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Type French + its Accents

Studyblrs who are Learning or Already Speak French (click French)

French Words Daily (a Tumblr Account)

French Words Daily (another Tumblr Account)

Tips

Definitely keep a notebook

Take a class if possible

If you’re taking a class, write down any extra French vocabulary you may get; my teacher likes to call it “bonus free knowledge” when she gives us extra vocabulary

Practice pronouncing. All. The. Time.

Take notes

Have readable notes

Practice writing & grammar

Once you start learning, do not stop or else you’re going to forget things!!

Take quizzes & tests online for practice

Make some online French friends :))

Thank you for reading my masterpost!

MY MASTERPOSTS:

How to Color Code & Highlight Efficiently

How to Make Flashcards

How to Get & Be Motivated

How to Get Enough Sleep

The Mega Stationery Masterpost

What are in my Pencil Cases?

Usually, the adjective comes right after the noun (Le manteau rouge)

Short and common adjectives are often placed before the noun - beau/belle (beautiful), bon-ne (good), bref/brève (brief), grand-e (tall/big), gros-se (fat), faux/fausse (fake), haut-e (high), jeune (young), joli-e (pretty), mauvais-e (bad), meilleur-e (best), nouveau/nouvelle (new), petit-e (short), vieux/vieil/vieille (old) - (La jeune fille)

If there are at least two coordinated adjectives, they come after the noun and are connected by a coordinating conjunction (Elle est drôle et belle)

If not, they go on each side of the noun (Une belle porte noire)

Some adjectives can go both before or after depending on their meaning:

Ancien-ne: former (Une ancienne boutique) VS old (Un bâtiment ancien)

Brave: respectable (Quel brave homme) VS courageous (Un chien brave)

Certain-e: particular (Un certain âge) VS sure (C’est un fait certain)

Cher/chère: dear (Ma chère Sophie) VS expensive (Une voiture chère)

Curieux/curieuse: odd (Une curieuse manie) VS interested (Un chat curieux)

Dernier/dernière: last of all (Une dernière fois) VS most recent (Lundi dernier)

Drôle: strange (Une drôle d’histoire) VS funny (Une histoire drôle) 

Grand: great (Un grand homme) VS tall (Un homme grand)

Pauvre: pitiful (Un pauvre garçon) VS moneyless (Une famille pauvre)

Prochain-e: next (La prochaine fois) VS coming (La semaine prochaine) 

Propre: own (Mes propres mains) VS clean (Des mains propres)

Pur-e: simple (Une simple demande) VS pure (Une demande simple) 

Sacré-e: awesome (Une sacrée fille) VS holy (Une parole sacrée) 

Sale: disgusting (Une sale histoire) VS dirty (Une cuisine sale)

Seul-e: only (Une seule femme), VS alone (Une femme seule)

Simple: modest (Une simple demeure) VS simple (Une questions simple)

Vrai-e: real (Une vraie histoire) VS true (Une histoire vraie)

D'affilée - In a row: J'ai couru cinq kilomètres d'affilée

Attention - Watch out!: Attention, andouille, tu vas te blesser

Nul-le - Bad, trash: Ce film est complètement nul! (casual)

Bref - Anyway/In short: Enfin bref, c'est mal parti

Suffire (impersonal) - All that's needed: Il suffit que tu partes à l'heure

Are you curious to know what you get when you are naturalised?

First of all... very nice weight in the paper and a very majestic pattern. We can see that we have levelled up in citizenship and that the days of waiting for 8 hours at the prefecture from 4am are definitely behind us.

Then: we have the decree signed by the competent ministers. It's a unique document and if you lose it, well there's no copy. So, well, you can't lose it.

A letter from the President himself: very solemn with very gratifying greetings

A copy of the Declaration of Human Rights and extracts from the Constitution.

The charter of rights and duties of the citizen, of course. We are supposed to know it by heart even before the naturalization interview: there are often questions about it (among other things, about some President of the Fifth Republic and some river).

And a letter from the prefect (93 for me) (A/N: this refers to this person's department). The paper is not as pretty as that of the Ministry of the Interior, but the end of the letter is personalised, which makes you a happy chappy.

Honestly:

- It's a difficult path, by no means a foregone conclusion, but an opaque one (you never know what is going on even several years into the procedure).

- You have to prove your integration, your income, your culture, your level of French. This is logical, of course, but it is not as easy or automatic as some people would have us believe.

- Not all prefectures are the same: some take up to 6/7 years to send the file to the Ministry of the Interior. Mine only took a few months!

*

As promised, some keyboard slang (we stole a lot from you)(sue us). I wrote what is accurate at the moment, a few years ago it was quite popular to write lik this m8 but it became pretty unhip (I could tell you that you can type “aussi” (: too, as well) “O6″ but literally no one has done that since 2008) most people write normally and add some of the following words :

Basics :

jpp (je n’en peux plus) : I can’t stand it anymore i.e. I’m dying from the lols/I’m so tired of this fucking shit

osef (on s’en fout) : no one cares

mdr (mort-e de rire) / ptdr (pété-e de rire) : lol

cmb / ctb (comme ma bite/comme ta bite) “like my dick/like your dick” : easy punchline to almost anything, ex : ‘the line was so long!’ ‘cmb’ ‘you have a short memory’ (tu as la mémoire courte) ‘ctb’

cmt (comment) : how / cmb (combien) : how much/many

slt (salut) / bjr (bonjour) / bsr (bonsoir) : hello

bn (bonne nuit) : good night

bcp (beaucoup) : a lot, much, many / tp (trop) : too, too much

mtnt (maintenant) : now / ajd (aujourd’hui) : today / jms (jamais) : never

srtt (surtout) : especially, above all / vrmt (vraiment) : really

jsp (je ne sais pas) : I don’t know / ms (mais) but

pr (pour) : for / pcq / pq (parce que) : because

pq / pk (pourquoi) : why

ss (sans) : without OR (sous) : under / sr (sur) : over, on

tt (tout) : all, everything OR (tant) : so much, as long

mn (mon) : my (m) / tn (ton) : your (m) / sn (son) : his/her

ns (nous) : we OR (nos) : ours / vs (vous) : you (pl) OR (vos) yours (pl) / lr (leur(s)) : their / theirs

fr (faire) : to do, make

tmtc (toi-même tu sais) : you know what I’m talking about, private joke

tkt / tqt (ne t’inquiète pas) : don’t worry

c (c’est) : it is OR (sais/sait) : know (½/3p sg) / ct (c’était) : it was

d (des) : some, ex : mange des chips / t (tes) : your (pl for one person)

h (heure) : time/hour, ex : on se voit à ql h? (at what time do we meet?)

keske (qu’est-ce que) : what is, ex : qu’est-ce c’est?

kesta (qu’est-ce que tu as) : what’s up/wrong with you?

ke / q (que) : that/what, ex : ke ve tu? (what do you want?)

ql / kel (quel(s)/quelle(s)) : what/which

askip (à ce qu’il paraît) : from what I’ve heard, apparently…

oklm (au calme) : relaxed, calm, ex : petite soirée oklm 

Borrowing to english or kids :

go : to leave (j’y go)

dodo (beddy byes) : to sleep, sleeping (je vais dodo)

miam (aka “yum”) : to eat (je vais miam)

lol, the legendary

chiller : to go somewhere and not do shit

fat : something big/amazing, ex : cette soirée est trop fat!

Dropping the vowels : 

It’s hard to explain but since so many words in french contain “ou”, “an”, “ai” or “on” (…), when we need or want to make verbs (or possessive pronouns as we have already seen) smaller, we drop those letters and the other person guesses what’s missing regarding the context.

A few examples (but you can play with lots of other verbs) :

vx / vt (veux/veut) : to want, ½/3psg, ex : tu vx d pom? je ss o magasin (do you want apples? I’m at the store) ; (voit) : to see, meet, 3psg

ss / st (sais/sait) : to know, ½/3psg ; (suis/suit) : to follow, ½/3psg ; (suis/sont) : to be 1psg+3ppl, ex : où st t chats? (where are your cats?)

cns (connais) : to know someone, 1p sg

pvs (pouvons) : to can, be able/allowed to, 1p pl