Random Questions About the French Language

[Chuck]

Hey Alex! Uh, the "uh" part in the middle is sort of a vestigial syllable. Occasionally, people pronounce it slightly, but usually not at all. Alizée's exaggerating - stretching it out to 4 beats - just to fit the rhythm of the song. Normally it's spoken as just three syllables ("ma-dmwa-zell"), on the streets you'd likely only hear two ("mom-zell"). Any help?

[user472884]

Originally Posted by Alex405687

One question: ,
whats the difference when pronouncing Mademoiselle
I've heard it: Mad-moiselle
and: Madumoiselle (like heard in Alizee's MJ)
Hope someone may help, merci!

I don't think they're intentionally pronouncing it "mad-moiselle"... I think they are just barely pronouncing the "e". I think it's just cutting corners in the language, everybody knows what's being said so it's not a big deal. I do this a lot, for example I cannot properly say "picture (pick-shure)", I say it "pitcher"

also, anything that ends with "sks" or "sts"... just can't do it... instead of saying "masks" or "masts", I say "mass" for both cases.

[Toc De Mac]

It's the same thing with a lot of other examples where you have an "e" in the middle of a multiple-syllable-word.

For example, "je mangerai" becomes "zhe maw[n]zhray" instead of deliberately pronouncing the middle "e" as "zhe maw[n]-zhe-ray."



*Note: My pronunciation guides are terrible, I know.

[woohoo]

Well I can't speak French so I'll let alizees music do the talking.

[Alex]

Just wanted to say Thank You to Chuck, Jalen and Toc de Mac for your help in answering my question, Thanx you guys

[Ronald]

I've had French lessons back in the old days at school and now I'm re-learning it, cause I forgot most of it, which is a shame

When you want to deny something you use: ne.....pas

So I'm a little confused with lilly's song: J'ai pas vingt ans which should be something like Je n'ai pas vingt ans. I notice people writing more sentences without using "ne". I can't find any explanation on the net, so hopefully someone can explain, thanks

[Maquis]

Originally Posted by Ronald

I've had French lessons back in the old days at school and now I'm re-learning it, cause I forgot most of it, which is a shame

When you want to deny something you use: ne.....pas

So I'm a little confused with lilly's song: J'ai pas vingt ans which should be something like Je n'ai pas vingt ans. I notice people writing more sentences without using "ne". I can't find any explanation on the net, so hopefully someone can explain, thanks

It's a common contraction, most people use "J'ai pas" instead of "Je n'ai pas" which is mostly used for writing.

Basically "Je n'ai pas", the "e" and the "n" vanish.
Like English uses contractions like "I don't" for "I do not", "I can't" for "I cannot" etc...

[Ronald]

Thanks Maquis for the fast reply

[Maquis]

Originally Posted by Ronald

Thanks Maquis for the fast reply

No problem.
If I can be useful sometimes...

How can I type accented e in my laptop? I know how to with keyboard having numeric keys,but i don't know for my laptop. I use Dell Studio 14.