Separate forum category?
 

How many have taken an interest in the French language since discovering Alizée?

People like her are powerfully influential and embassadorial for any culture or language.

Should we have a dedicated French learning forum category apart from translating vids and songs or would it be too far off topic?

I had a couple French speaking friends about 10 years ago, since then they have moved back to France and Lebanon. My pronunciation of French sounds is actually fairly good having listened to friends speak it. Aside from speaking it, which I don't have any opportunities now, I have no reading comprehension. I think that could be the focus here, so fans could eventually be able to read French sites, news and conversations in French regarding Alizée.

Sure I'm interested in learning French language. For that reason I also joined the French forum Alizée Alliance a few months ago. Reading about Alizée is a very nice way to learn French :)
But to learn the language correctly we will be strongly dependent on a small group of members who speak the language. So I think it depends on them (aFrenchie, garçoncanadien, ...... ) if they are willing to teach us.

So true, however I'm motivated to write some basic understanding text and reference stickies to start a separate category if Brad is willing. If it doesn't become useful it can always be merged with this forum at a later date.

I take it that object and embed tags work in posts, for a tiny flash audio player?

hi, if you ask us about French, we will be glad to help you. I haven't seen any questions yet so that's why I haven't answered any yet :) other than translations :D

That's not true...

If one person has a question, and nobody can answer it, then obviously someone will look for the answer elsewhere. Not to mention people will be asking questions that others may not have thought of..

Besides, you know the saying, 2 heads are always better than one...

I'm up for it. There's a few languages I'd want to try to learn before I get too ald to do so (if not too late already). It's just hard to find somewhere to learn them without going to a major college. I was also thinking that if we could get the grammar down, maybe eventually try to interact with Skype or something.

i've ALWAYS been interested learning ze french language. only problem is my lack of motivation to get started. it ended in freshman year. damn that french teacher. ooo i hated her. "bonjour class, ca va?!" eh...com si com ca.

well i made a learn french thread but i'm also learning so what ever i have learnt i have post and that's it french ppl were supposed to add to it but ...

what's com si com ca?

it sounds funny. lol

Alright I volunteer to start teaching. I will use my old textbook as a framework and also try to give you as much practice as possible, verbal, written, and listening (via that engine aFrenchie told us about). Speaking - well that is hard to teach on a forum. I don't know right at this moment how to help you all with that!

And of course, I will intersperse it with vocabulary so you all can build that as well.

PART 1: VERBS

Section 1: Personal Pronouns (les pronoms personnels)

French pronouns work very much the same way as in English, except for the word you and they. In English, you (plural) and you (singular) are exactly the same word. In French, they are not and in addition there is a formal "you" when you need to be respectful. Here goes:

Je = I
Tu = You (singular, informal, friendly)
Il = He
Elle = She
Nous = We
Vous = You (plural, or singular formal)
Ils = They
Elles = They

When you need to be respectful to somebody, you would call them "vous" instead of "tu". On the contrary, if he/she is your good friend "vous" would sound stiff or even mean - you would refer to your friends by "tu".

The other distinction between "tu" and "vous" is number. "Tu" is singular, but "vous" is plural. They both translate as "you" in English.

Ils and Elles represent another distinction that is not present in English. "They" in French is distinguished by gender. If it is a group of females only, "Elles" is the correct word to use for "They". If it is all males, or the group is mostly females and contains at least one male, "Ils" is the word to use for "They".

Now for your homework :):

Send me a private message with your answer to the following questions and don't look at my post while you do them :D:

1. Name all of the French "pronoms personnels".
2. Tell the difference between Ils and Elles.
3. If you are talking to the president, would you say "vous" or "tu".
4. If you are talking to your little brother, would you say "vous" or "tu".
5. If you are talking to your pet dog Topaze, would you say "vous" or "tu".
6. How would you say in French "you" singular, and how would you say "you" plural in French.
7. If you are talking to your friend, but she is in mourning, would you say "vous" or "tu".
8. Tell which of the following is not a correct match:
(A) Je = I
(B) Tu = She
(C) Il = He
(D) Nous = We
9. Tell which of the following is not a correct match:
(A) Ils = They
(B) Elles = They
(C) Il = She
(D) Je = I
10. Tell which of the following is not a correct match:
(A) Elles = They
(B) Il = He
(C) She = Elle
(D) Vous = you (singular)

Will check back later!

-garçoncanadien

oi...to study or not to study...to beer

je vous en prie

i think it means...ummm..."so-so"

beer....? no? more for me...

I think you need to read that question over again

Thank you so much for the lessons!

Question:

Is it necessary to always put the definite article before "pronoms personnels," or is it the choice of the person writing it? I've seen similar things translated but they are never consistent on wether or not the "the" word is there..

:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

I'm not seeing the what's wrong :/

Someone is going to have to tell me what it is, cause I really don't see it...

I would PM garçoncanadien the answers, but I'm sure he has enough to read over from other people..

i think 9. C is not a correct match
and i suspect something lse not gonna say till i'm very sure of it

btw in Alizee in japan vid what did that woman in the background say to Alizee in the end that made her laugh.

what is very good?

Pm!!.. Pm!!!
Lol

Or at least raise your hand to answer the question.. :D

To pull this off I think we'd need a separate forum section to organize it and have reference sticky topics like this.

Basic Rules:

Accented Characters

1. The cedilla (¸) is placed under the letter Ç to show that it is pronounced like the letter s and not the letter k.

François

2. There are three accents used over French vowels.

• a. The acute accent (´) is placed over the letter e. This indicates it is pronounced like “ay” like say or day.

  André

• b. The grave accent (`) can be placed over a, e, u:

  Père

• c. The circumflex accent (ˆ) can be placed over a, e, i, o, u:

  Jérôme

These accents usually indicate the pronunciation of the vowel but in some cases they distinguish the word itself:

to be continued.......

jesus...............

Pretty sure she asked "What are your impressions?" or something to that effect.

In question 10, I don't see the one that doesn't belong, either. Two of them are situational, but right nonetheless. o_O?

garçoncanadien, there's nothing wrong in question 10 indeed :confused:. Or was it a trap? :D

Yes, although it's "comme ci comme ça" ;)
(literally "like this like that")

http://www.moi-alizee.us/forums/show...=1983#post1983

Yea, it's just silly... Because vous mean both, singular and plural "you". Tho, the singular is then the formal way to say it (against the informal "tu"). So yea, there's nothing wrong in 10. It was trick or the D option was not planned very well.

ahhh sorrrrry I will type more slowly :o in 10 all options are right!!

hey im up for it. ive already learned a thing or 2 from garconcanadien and aFrenchie:)

yea, broadening my French music beyond Alizee, I'm going to have to learn some French or I'm going to have all of these phrases in my head that I don't understand.

It seems we have these French lessons every couple of months when new members join and express interest, but then they go away for a while. I wonder if it would be more efficient like has been suggested to create a section and not post similar things every few months. But although I will help where I can (you can PM questions or for translation help, but remember French is my second language) I don't know if I can teach French to someone who doesn't yet have the basics(I started learning it in the first grade, and how many of you remember how you where taught stuff in elementary school).

I agree! Let us have a section for French lessons. That way, it can be more efficient like Twitch said and then everybody interested can visit that area. I am willing to teach French from Square 1 :)

Yea, and maybe without so many user comments in between lessons. Maybe make a second thread to quote and comment on lessons.

how would you say "Learn French" in French? .. lol

apprendre français?

I think that actually means "to learn french," I just have no idea how to conjugate it since there is no personal pronoun..

"Apprendre le français". (French uses articles much more than English)
And Brad has to specify which tense. If it's infinitive, then the above. If it's imperative, then "Apprends le français".

damn that little article, it will elude me for all eternity

Sorry if this is a really retarded question, but it's the one thing I never picked up from Spanish class and none of my other classes went over it, even my native english classes, but I have no idea when to use imperative, infinitive, and the likes or what they even represent.
So if you could please explain. Thanks.

NO questions are retarded :) Never be ashamed to ask.

I would like to go over that with you all in a future lesson, but since you ask you shall receive :)

Imperatif = you are commanding somebody to do something
Infinitif = you can only have 1 conjugated verb in 1 sentence (in most French). All other verbs must be infinitive, except when you are using a compound conjugation (past tense, for example)
Passé Composé = past tense
Imparfait = something that happened in the past over a long time, and could be still happening now (or just 1st criteria)
Conditionnel = "would" + verb
Futur simple = stuff in the future
Futur antérieur = will have _____
Conditionnel passé = would have ______
Subjonctif = to say something is wished, possible, or doubtful.

These are the most important tenses for beginners. Other tenses are used in formal or literary work.

thanks! :)

I imagine how strange that can be for you indeed, since English conjugation is sooo very easy compared to other languages. You don't have to wonder about all those tenses just because most of the time they always conjugate the same way. In French (and most languages), you'll find lots of different changes. See here for a (almost!) complete example:
http://moi-alizee.us/forums/showthre...?p=12704#12704

What garçoncanadien said about infinitive and imperative.

garçoncanadien, you forgot a tense that is very important, in written mode at least. It's Passé Simple, that is past but only for something happening in a very short time. For example, "I took immediately that thing", as opposed to Imparfait (your definition was good), sort of: "I used to take that thing everyday"...

are you sure you want to ask beginners in French to learn Passé Simple? That is already a big list, and Passé Simple is like you said important mostly in formal writing.

Ok, talk about it later. Its conjugation by itself is quite difficult already ;)