French alphabet

 The French Alphabet is the same 26 characters in the Latin alphabet - both upper & lower case... just pronounced a little differently. There is also 5 diacritics & 2 orthographic ligatures.

NOTE: the letters "W" & "K" are rarely used, except in loan words or regional words. Also the vowels are A, E, I, O, U & Y.

Also the French seem to pronounce the vowels more than the consonants. Whereas English speakers normally say the consonants more so than the vowels.

A - ah

B - beh

C - seh

D - deh

E - eh

F - eff

G - zheh

H - ahsh

I - ee

J - zhee

K - kah

L - ell

M - em

N - en

O - oh

P - peh

Q - koo

R - air

S - ess

T - teh

U - ooh

V - veh

W - doe-blah-veh

X - eeks

Y - ee-grek

Z - zed

Diacritics:

acute ( ´ ), 

grave  ( ` ),

and circumflex  ( ˆ ) accents, 

the diaeresis (tréma)( ¨ ), 

and the cedilla ( ¸ )

Ligatures:

The two ligatures are œ and æ.These ligatures are treated like the sequences oe & ae.

More on the Ligatures & Diacritics later.

French (Directions & Around the house)

Today we are going to branch into directions... always useful & simple enough to add into everyday conversation at work or with friends and family.

While I'm sure many males (sorry for the stereotype) would find this post completely useless, I have been lost in Paris in the middle of the night & needed to lead a group of Aussies back to our hotel - so this came in handy.

To get someone's attention:

Excusez-moi, Monsieur = Excuse me, Mister

Pardon, madame/mademoiselle = Sorry, madam/miss

This is a good starting ground.

Then you could say:

Où est l'hôtel ____? = Where is the hotel _______?

à gauche = to the left

à droite = to the right

So between left & right I always had trouble. The only way I could get to know them was to learn "right" droite - which had the letter "R" in it. "R" for right. Gauche doesn't have an "R" so I knew that was left. There may be a better, easier way to learn it but that worked for me.

tout droit = straight ahead

tournez = Turn

Sounds similar, easy enough.

continuez = Continue

une maison = a house

un appartement = an apartment

un immeuble = an apartment building

en haut = upstairs

en bas = downstairs

The memory hook I used for bas (downstairs) was that a bass singer had a low, deep voice - he was at the bottom of the scale - bit of a stretch, but I knew that it had to be down.

AROUND THE HOME:

le garage = the garage

Again, easy enough to remember.

une chambre = a bedroom

une salle de bains = a bathroom (sink & tub)

les toilettes = the toilet

la cuisine = the kitchen

This is where you make all the authentic French cuisine.

la salle à manger = the dining room

le salon = the dining room

le jardin = the garden

The task for this lesson is to try using the directions in your everyday speech... or even if you just start thinking these words when someone asks. If you can't add some of the words into your conversations, perhaps try the rooms of the house instead.

Perhaps you have to go down to le jardin to water your plats? Or surprise your partner by cooking up a storm in la cuisine.

Give it a go. I'm sure you'll be pleasantly surprised at the results. If need be, come up with your own memory hooks to help memorize the vocabulary.

BONNE NUIT!

Swedish - Body Parts

Time for some Swedish (YAY!!)

So, I tried to think of what I wanted to post today. I didn't want boring grammar as I've been reading that all day - so today is just going to be a mindless, simple post... but helpful nonetheless.

ENGLISH - SWEDISH

Arm - arm

Hand - hand

Foot - fot

Blood - blod

Neck - nacke (this refers to the back of your neck only - not the throat area).

Throat - strupe

Nose - näsa

Finger - finger

Heel - häl

Toe - tå

knee - knä

tongue - tunga

lip - läpp

navel - navel

health - hälsa

I really need to get some audio/video up to demonstrate pronunciation etc but this will at least jog my memory when looking over notes. Obviously there are more body parts but these are the first few I have learnt.

Basic Phrases - French.

Bienvenue! Welcome to Lesson 2. 

Hello - Bonjour

Good evening - Bonsoir

Good night - Bonne Nuit

This is probably a good time to mention that "bonne" or "bon" translates to GOOD.

Hi - Salut

Goodbye - Au Revoir

I am - Je suis

Stylish!

Please - S'il vous plaît
  
Thank you - Merci

You're welcome - De Rien

Excuse me - Pardon

A fairly straight forward translation.

I'm sorry - Je regrette

You feel regretful of your actions - literal translation: I regret.

Yes - oui

No - non

This is a fantastic word to learn if you are going to visit France; especially Paris, as there are gypsies all over the city. You must say this forcefully or they will keep trying to sell things to you - even following you half way to your hotel. True story.
  
Good luck - bonne chance

Again, here is the word "bonne". 

What's your name?  - Comment tu t'appelles?

There are a few ways to ask someone their name. This is a more informal way of asking but I find it is the easiest. 

My name is ______ - Je m'appelle _________

Pleased to meet you - Enchanté

How are you? - Comment ça va ?

Very good - Très bien

Not bad - pas mal

And you? - Et toi?

 See you soon - A bientôt

Today's challenge: Try adding a few of these phrases into your conversations today. Meeting someone new -  Enchanté. Bump into someone near the water cooler - Pardon. Even saying Au Revoir at the end of a catch-up with your friends.

You can do it, or you can pretend to do it. The only real difference is you'll be cheating yourself out of great practice.

I will try to put up some audio for pronunciation/practice as soon as I can.

Bon Voyage!  I will see you again soon.

Friends jumping onboard

Android Complex 2.0 is a go!

One of my friends is keen to learn a language - French, specifically - so I've said I'll help her out.

This will keep me focused on my learning at the same time.

We have had lesson one. Colors.

ENGLISH-FRENCH:

1. Red - Rouge.
Think "rouge your cheeks" like to put on blush. Blush is usually red. Ergo - Rouge.

2. Orange - Orange.
Easy. You know 2 French words already. Well done.

3. Blue - Bleu.

4. Pink - Rose.

5. Purple - Violet.
Simple enough.

6. Grey - Gris.

7. White - Blanc.
Think Sauvignon Blanc - white wine. Or you could think blanc .. like blank... blank piece of white paper.

8. Black - Noir.

9. Yellow - Jaune.
You can think jaundice - turns your skin yellow.

10. Green - Vert.

11. Brown - Marron.



Now ENGLISH-SWEDISH:

1. Red - röd.

2. Orange - Orange.

3. Blue - blå.

4. Pink - rosa.

5. Purple - lila.

6. Grey - grå.

7. White - vit.


8. Black - svart.

9. Yellow - gul.

10. Green - grön.

11. Brown - brun.

 Now to come up with my own memory hooks for Swedish.

Hope Lesson 1 helps you out. Perhaps gets you interested in learning a language -whether it be French or Swedish. Feel free to jump on the bandwagon and learn with us.

Just One

The number of languages I'm fluent in.

One.

My native language. I'm incredibly embarrassed.

Now there's nothing wrong with only knowing 1 language. However, for someone who wants to be a translator/linguist... or someone who loves to travel... or someone who is going to be living overseas in the next 4 months - it's not acceptable.

So this blog is going to be my way of compiling my thoughts into one place. Everything I learn will be put here (hopefully I remember to post fairly frequently or this is going to look embarrassing).

By the time I get overseas I'm going to hopefully have a bit of knowledge under my belt & then this will probably turn into a travel blog.

You can check out my other blog here. Hopefully I don't repeat myself too much between the two.