de ou à? (1)

Bonjour à tous!

I am going to talk about the use of de and à today. They can be very confusing...

No matter where you learn French, you must come across "jouer de" and "jouer à" in the first semester. Then, here comes "faire de"... Remember:

jouer de + un instrument de musique

jouer à + un sport

faire de + un sport (OMG! This is the confusing part!!!) 

ex. Il aime jouer de la guitare.

ex. Il aime jouer au tennis.

ex. Je fais du vélo tous les jours.

Let's take a look at another use:

une tasse de café ou une tasse à café?

Both are correct, but they have different meanings.

de is used to talk about le contenu, similar to avec, while à refers to la fonetion, like pour.

Therefore, une tasse de café means a cup of coffee, while une tasse à café means a coffee cup. 

How about une tasse en procelaine?

en means fair avec, talking about la matière. So, une tasse en procelaine means a procelain cup.

Let's look at more examples:

une brosse à dents  (a toothbrush)
une brosse à cheveux (a comb)

une brosse à chaussures (a shoe brush)

Un verre en cristal est cher. (A crystal glass is expensive.)

Using the correct prepositions is very important because if you use the wrong one, what you are talking about may sound very weird. For instance, if you tell a shopkeeper, "Je voudrais voir ce sac de main.", I really don't know how the person will react. Of course, he / she must be smart enough to know that you want to look at the handbag, but not a bag of hands, but still... very weird indeed.

Can you guess the meaning of the following words?
un sac de bonbons
un sac à dos

un sac en papier

The answers are: a bag of candies, a backpack and a paper bag. 

However, please pay attention to un verre à pied which has nothing to do with our feet. C'est un verre à pied:

The French use different glasses for different drinks. Let's learn some vocabulary items:

C'est un verre à eau.

C'est un vere à champagne.

C'est un vere à vin.

C'est un vere à cognac.

C'est clair? (Um... oui... j'espére...)

Articles Partitifs (du, de la, de l', des)

Bonjour!

Articles are important and can never be left out. Yet, we always forget this essential element. I can still remember that one of my teachers, Bruno, always exclaimed "l'article!" when we made this mistake. Today, I am going to focus on articles partitifs - du, de la, de l' and des.

1. Si la quantité  est comptable (If the quantity is countable) 

=> des + n. pluriel

ex. Je voudrias des bonbons.

2. Si la quantité  est non comptable (If the quantity is uncountable) 

=> du + n. m. / s.

=> de la + n. f. / s.

=> de l' + n. m. ou f. / s. (qui commence par une voyelle)

ex. Bois-tu de la limonade?

ex. Bois-tu de l'eau minérale?

ex. Bois-tu du café pour le petit déjeuner? Oui, j'en bois (un grand bol / un peu / beaucoup).

("en" refers to things in general. We will talk about the use of "en" later.)

If we want to specify the quantity, of course we need to use un / une / numbers.

ex. Avez-vous bu une tasse de café ce matin?

C'est facile, non? 

Féminin ou Masculin?

Salut!

Today, I am going to talk about a basic but difficult grammar point in French - GENDER!

When I first learn French, I found this grammar aspect crazy. I was like, "Who would want to know if a table is feminin?!" and more importantly (and desperately), "Mon Dieu! How can I remember the gender of a table?! Ce n'est pas possible!" Yes, it was difficult... as there is no such thing in the two languages that I master - Chinese and English. 

Sadly, I still make random guesses in tests and exams... but there are rules:

1. 75% of the nouns that end with "e" are féminin. (Yes, 75% only.) How about the remaining 25%? Some of them are masculin as they come from other languages.

ex. "le théâtre" is from Italian.

2. Most words from other languages are masculin. However, Italian ones are exceptions. Those ending with "o" are masculin while "a" féminin. 

ex. "le piano"     "la pizza"

3. Words with the following endings are usually masculin:

-age  =>  le fromage

-al  =>  un animal

-ier  =>  le pommier

-isme  =>  le tourisme

-ment  =>  le gouvernement

-oir  =>  le couloir

4. Words with the following endings are usually féminin:

-ance  =>  la confiance

-ence  =>  la patience

-ée  => la penée

-eur  =>  la chaleur

-ie  =>  la philosophie

-ion / sion / tion  =>  la passion

-xion  =>  la réflexion

-té  => la beauté

-ure  =>  la confiture

Unfortunately, the rules above are just for reference. There are always exceptions in French. Anyway, I still find these rules useful. At least, I can get the answers correct more easily with the help of these rules.

À bientôt!

Les verbs en "-er" - conjugaison du présent et prononciation

Bonjour à tous!

All French learners know that the regular verbs of the first group are the easiest because they are indeed REGULAR! However, the spelling and pronunciation of some verbs can still be quite tricky. 

Let's take a look at the basic rule first:

We simply add "e", "es", "ons", "ez" and "ent". Très facile!

Pay attention to the pronunciation, though. We don't pronounce everything:

Je parle        Tu parles        Il parle

The endings should NOT be pronounced!!! However, for ils or elles:

Ils parlent       Ils chantent      Ils dansent

The endings should be pronounced and in these cases, you should pronounce the words with a light "l", "t" and "s" sound. 

(Although many grammar books point out that "ent" altogether should not be pronounced, all my teachers say that the ending should be read gently. I trust my teachers. of course. What's more, the words sound more beautiful with their endings.)

Yet, there are bound to be exceptions or special cases in French...

1. When "c" is followed by "o", it becomes "ç":

2. When "g" is followed by "o", it becomes "ge":

3. When "y" is followed by a silent "e", it becomes "i":

4. "e" or "é" becomes "è" when there is a silent "e" after the consonant:

5. "l" and "t" become "ll" and "tt" respectively when they are followed by a silent "e":

One last thing, the "e" followed by "ll" or "tt" should be pronounced as "é", and this rule applies to the verbs of other groups:

Ils jettent => (jétte)

Ils prennent => (prénne)

Ils mettent => (métte)

I really can't believe my eyes! This post introducing regular verbs of the first group can be this long! Anyway, I hope my notes are well-organized enough so that everyone can fully understand.

À bientôt!

le préfixe + la racine + le suffixe

Bonjour à tous!

Ok, I have to start organizing my notes from the two french oral workshops. As my teacher, Éric, taught in a not-very-organized way, so are my notes... But I still think he is the best teacher in AF.

In each lesson, he first asked us questions or gave us a situation and we had to say something (a few sentences maybe). Then, he tried to correct our mistakes and explained some grammar rules or introduced some sentence patterns.

Sur la liste, il y a quartre personnes inscrites.

"Inscrites" is an adjective (f / pl) which comes from the verb "inscrire".

"ins" is the prefix (le préfixe) whereas "crire" is the root (la racine).

"inscrire" = "écrire dans une liste"

Then, he further explained the use of "inscrire" before telling us more about le préfixe et le suffixe.

We usually use "inscrire" with "se", ie "s'inscrire", which is un verbe réflexif / pronominal.

ex. Je m'inscris dans le cours d'oral.

If you don't use it with a reflexive pronoun, make sure there is a direct object (complément object direct, ie COD) in your sentence.

ex. J'inscris mon fils dans le cours d'oral.

In this sentence, "mon fils" is the COD.

Ok. Let's go back to le préfixe et le suffixe. 

He said that we can add le préfixe "in" to form opposites and le suffixe "able" to turn verbs into adjectives. 

ex. accepter (v) => (in)acceptable (adj)

Of course, we can't simply add "able" after an infinitive. Here is the formula:

ex. accepter => (nous) acceptons => - ons + able => (in)acceptable

ex. vendre => (nous) vendons => - ons + able => (in)vendable

ex. habiter => (nous) habitons => - ons + able => (in)habitable

ex. utiliser => (nous) utilisons => - ons + able => (in)utilisable

However, please pay attention if the word starts with "b", "m" or "p". Instead of adding le préfixe "in", we add "im":

ex. boire => (nous) buvons => - ons + able => (im)buvable

ex. mettre => (nous) mettons => - ons + able => (im)habitable

ex. manger => (nous) mangeons => - ons + able => (im)mangeable

ex. porter => (nous) portons => - ons + able => (im)portable

Great! That's all for today. Au revoir!

Useful French learning tools

1. A good dictionary, of course, tops the list. 

I have bought some, but they are not good enough because there are only a few words (not even sentences) explaining each vocabulary item. I'm desperate for an IPA, detailed definitions and tons of examples. 

One of my teachers has recommended this online dictionary - LAROUSSE - and I love it!!!

http://www.larousse.fr/

As I am still a beginner (despite learning this language for years...), I stick to the bilingual one. For each word, there is an IPA, some definitions and examples. You can listen to the pronunciation of the word and even all the examples, including the English translations.

2. TV5Monde

My teachers keep recommending this site to us as we can watch different French programmes there. Unfortunately, I have not developed the habit of watching French programmes yet, but I did watch Le Petit Prince last year and it was fun. (I did learn two words "le serpent" and "le renard")

http://www.tv5.org/

3. Exercise books

I am a traditional teacher x student. To me, drilling is the key to acquiring a language. Therefore, I have bought many exercise books: grammar, vocabulary, listening, mock papers... you name it. 

However, they are expensive!!! To make things worse, you can't find some good ones in bookstores. (There, you can only find those claiming you can learn French within two weeks / teaching you a few vocabulary items with pretty pictures / equipping you with a few phrases for travelling in Paris... They are useless but cost you a fortune!!!) 

Je suis radine. As a result, I started buying them from Mainland China a few years ago. I once went to an enormous bookstore / bookmall in Shenzhen. To me, it was heaven. There were a lot of books and exercises to choose from and their prices were really competitive! However, carrying them back to Hong Kong was sheer torture. Since then, I have been buying them through Taobao. Yes, I have to pay for the delivery but it is worth as I don't have to deal with the hassle. What's more, they are all in great condition!

* Attention!!! Those books are published in China, so there is bound to be simplified Chinese characters. I know that many Hong Kong people hate them... I am used to reading them though (coz I studied Chinese History at the university). 

4. FrenchPod 101

It isn't a commercial, but I do love this site! There are a lot of audio lessons of different levels, along with handouts!!! (YEAH! I love handouts!!!) You can find different learning tools and resources there as well (but I have not tried them out yet). 

http://www.frenchpod101.com/

5. Irregular verb tables

Being able to spell all the verbs and their conjugations is a must! You can find verb tables everywhere. I suggest sparing 5 minutes for a quick dictation every day. I'm trying to do so now. Tedious but essential! 

Language Learning ABC

Wow! I've become a blogger, eventually! 

I'm creating this blog because:

1. I'm too talkative and I still have a lot to say after bombarding my boyfriend, family, colleagues, students and their parents.

2. I've been writing articles for my Boss's bimonthly English paper. Right, I hate the task as I hate being bossed around (esp by those from the other department), but at the same time, I do want to publish articles on my own, with my own name on it. 

3. I've recently read several articles in Reader's Digest in which the bloggers / website creators share their knowledge online benefiting  lots of people worldwide. What an awesome idea!

4. I've got plenty of time these few weeks since summer courses have not started yet.

So... what am I going to write here? Two categories:

1. English: I'm an English teacher working at an English learning centre. I'm planning to explain some basic grammar rules and the mistakes made by my students. 

2. French: I'm learning French at Alliance Française and I'm going to organize and share my notes here.

I think I will write most of my articles in English... at least for the time being... dunno, see how things go.  (I hope I won't abandon this blog like what I did to my xanga several years ago...)