A French phrase a day: The serious thread

Discussion Open Forum
1

This is the second French thread. The first one degenerated into something other than what I intended it to be. I, and I suppose other posters, would like to learn some useful French phrases with an explanation here and there of grammar, etc. This thread is intended to be linguistic and not cultural or political. The French I would like should be a universally accepted form of the language. Posters with differing points of view on grammatical issues can state their case without being offensive. I have a great respect for the French language because of it’s influence on English. I hope this thread can be a linguistic version of the “photo a day thread”, which I find inspiring.

2

Thanks for the new thread, AAF.

J’ai faim, je sors manger!
(I’m hungry, I’m going out to eat!)
Note that the ‘e’ in ‘je’ is gone!

ps: to all, if the little french you know is some ‘f’ word, don’t feel obliged to post here. Thanks!

3

What does “sors” mean in the sentence or could you explain the grammar behind it? Thanks 5566.

4

Sortir is the verb meaning “To go out”

Conjugated as follows:

je sors
tu sors
il/elle/on sort
nous sortons
vous sortez
ils/elles sortent

5

very nice, irishtu. right on :bravo:

for the present tense, that is.

‘manger’ means ‘to eat’. in this case it is an infinitive (note the ‘er’).

6

How do you say: “Can’t we all just get along?”

7

“ne pouvons nous pas tous nous entendre?”

8

french would never say that! just kidding :smiley: dablindfrog’s translation is pretty accurate!

Il fait chaud aujourd’hui.
(It is hot today.)
note that we don’t say it is hot in french but rather it ‘does’ hot.
if you speak spanish you’ll also note that ‘hui’ in ‘aujourd’hui’ is related to ‘hoy’.

9

avoir la gueule

(I may be a little off, maybe it’s de la gueule)

but it’s to have balls, ie guts/courage/daring.

10

[quote]avoir la gueule

(I may be a little off, maybe it’s de la gueule)

but it’s to have balls, ie guts/courage/daring.[/quote]

indeed, it’s avoir de la gueule.
this expression can have different meanings or interpretations but it ‘s usaully used in a familiar way to say that something looks good. when referring to somebody’s behaviour, it would mean braggart (’[il n’a] que de la gueule’).

11

Que voulez-vous apprendre aujourd’hui?
(What do you want to learn today?)

12

[quote=“5566”]Thanks for the new thread, AAF.

J’ai faim, je sors manger!
(I’m hungry, I’m going out to eat!)
Note that the ‘e’ in ‘je’ is gone!

ps: to all, if the little french you know is some ‘f’ word, don’t feel obliged to post here. Thanks![/quote]

They have comma splices in French? I don’t remember that in any of my French courses.

Darn. I know a few ‘f’ words in French.

faire
fenetre
faim
finalement
fin
famille
fou, folle
fils, fille
fermer
faux ami
fevrier
fourmi
fauteuil
faute
fourchette
fours
femme
froid
fraise
fatigue

et

FNAC. :smiley:

In French, the names of languages and nationalities are not capitalized. A common error made by French speakers is to fail (oops, another ‘f’ word slipped in there) to capitalize these words when using English. For example:

In French, it would be “si le petit peu du francais que vous savez
”

AAF, don’t you think it’s a little limiting to learn a single phrase of a language a day, especially since learning languages doesn’t really work that way?

13

if you read my posts, you’ll see i never capitalize any word. :sunglasses: thanks for reminding me though
 i’m kinda lazzy


Si le peu de francais que vous parlez se limite aux quelques mots que certains vont glaner sur la toile, fermez votre gueule! Tiens, une histoire de gueule, encore une fois
 Merci pour corriger mon anglais, au passage.

that one doesnt count :smiley: for those who dont know:
(federation nationale d’achat des cadres)

it isnt the best way to learn but he has the right to learn the way he wants. in this case, i do believe it’s to satisfy his curiosity. it’s fun after all. personally, i’d be more than glad if he ‘teaches’ us some afrikaans as promised in the other thread.

14

I have a French question

I have a big car
J’ai une grande voiture

I have a fast car
J’ai une voiture rapide

Why does “big” come before the noun and “fast” comes after it? Or maybe I am wrong? It’s been awhile since i’ve been in a french class.

15

I have a french question. I was writing on a facebook page about living in taiwan and someone ( a friend of a friend) wrote t’chine les chinois!
I can guess it means “to china you chinese” if i think t sounds like to, or you china the chinese which doesn’t make sense.

Anyone from quebec here and can translate le joual?

16

tchin tchin is a toast, like Cheers, its just a play on words. lyrics to the kids song here http://dessinemoiunehistoire.net/comptine-tchin-tchin-les-chinois/

17

Vive la France!!!

18

Thanks. I thought the guy was being a jerk. So he wrote "cheers China the chinese " or “cheers the chinese” or was playing with words making tchin look like chine (china)? .
Which still doesn’t make sense to me.
At least i know not to be offended. I think

19

Plus ça change, plus c’est la mĂȘme chose!

20

Merci, j’ai pensĂ© trop. It was at the same time a white supremacist group was rallying in quebec.
But hey, could be worse if he had said
“Tu es un as”
I would have really misunderstood that