Clair, are you paying attention? Useful expressions!

[ericd]

Well done mint ! This is part of the very complex art of learning a foreign language. Back when I arrived in the UK and that I had to deal with Geordie speaking colleagues, stupid Union Reps and pub conversations. Then jut about overnight I could understand what was being said on television. At the time, I remember thinking to myself "there is just one challenge left, that is to understand what they say on the radio". That time came soon afterwards without me even noticing. Then one day the penny dropped, I could understand just about everything that was said on all channels...... Today, I still cannot understand the lyrics of many songs though .....

[NormanH]

I can almost never hear 'lyrics' nowadays because the articulation is so poor, but when I see them in print I don't understand them either

[Chancer]

[quote user="idun"]I am so glad that all we had was french tv and radio, we only tried the world service during the Falklands War, we must have had the air of something from WW11, the radio crackling and hardly audible and we would have our ears just about on the radio speaker, to catch any news. We needed to hear, as the news in France, seemed to be more about how well their exocets were working, sadly they worked, and that was not what we wanted to hear.
[/quote]

 

Proudly medd eeen Frohnse in the factory opposite me, a loud cheer went up when the Sheffield was sunk that could be heard 2km away in the cité ouvrières [:(]

 

This was related to me by  a Portuguese immigrant, not one other person has ever mentioned it nor that they made the exocets (which is undisputable) when I broach the subject people get very uneasy quickly turning to aggression so I know it is true, it shows that the hatred is very close to the surface.

 

Loads of these same people when insulting me or the English will cite the WWII bombing raid on the factory (which was actually the Americans) where a couple of bombs hit the cité ouvrières, having seen the post raid recon photos and the spread of craters it was a small miracle there were so few civilian casualties, stupid to drag these things up just to insult a foreigner, I say that they are right,  we are stupid, the 1350 WW1 British soldiers buried in our village alone (outnumbering the inhabitants) had given their lives for nothing, and we were still stupid enough to liberate them again in WWII.

[idun]

Chancer we were well aware of the 'cheers', and as we had not been in France that long, it left us feeling rather uneasy.

How things have changed with regards to getting information.

[mint]

Something's wrong with my eyes as well as my understanding[:'(]

Norman, amongst others, will know that I recently changed my internet provider and that I am now with Orange.

So, in the messagerie, there is a word brouillon but, for whatever reason and probably because I didn't know the word, I had been thinking it was bouillon!

 Anyway, you know how you have a word in your mind and read it as per your mind and not notice any difference?

So, there I was wondering whether bouillon meant emails that are sort of "boiling" away, much as a pot on a back burner.  Would they be emails that I should be replying to?

Then, when I couldn't make out what on earth the brouillon was referring to, I noticed the "r" and realised that it didn't say bouillon!!!

So then and only then did I look the word up and now know it means "rough copy" or draft in Thunderbird!

[NormanH]

Just to go back to your previous topic for a while.

I could read French reasonably well before living here, but had some of the usual difficulty hearing it, and one thing in particular I found hard to keep up with was the very fast méteo bulletins that have to be got into a  couple of minutes.

On holiday here I used not to be able to catch them.

When I started living here in earnest I had a répondeur; the genuine old physical answer-phone, and used, coward that I was, let people leave messages so I could replay them several times until the penny dropped, especially with complicated numbers.

One day I switched on the TV and....I could understand  everything the forecaster was saying [:)]

[idun]

Mint, I have recently made a new file on my desk top called 'brouillons' and it is a word I use frequently. I have a lot of stuff with brouillon after it in my computer.

I like it and frankly can no longer think of an english equivalent. Although, it must mean something like rough copy???? although I haven't looked it up.[:$] There may be a good english word, but I do not need one, brouillon, says just what I want it too[:D]

[Loiseau]

QUOTE mint

So, there I was wondering whether bouillon meant emails that are sort of "boiling" away, much as a pot on a back burner.

END QUOTE

LOVE it, mint!!!

[andyh4]

Norman wrote, " I had a répondeur; the genuine old physical answer-phone, and used, coward that I was, let people leave messages so I could replay them several times until the penny dropped"

Likewise on my drives down, I would tune the car radio to the Autoroutes info - 107.7FM. Every half hour you would get the news, weather and traffic info (more often at peak times). When I started it could take from Belfort to Lyon before all of the pennies had dropped.

[mint]

I'm OK with radio, andy, because I only listen to France Musique as a rule.

It's those electronic switchboards that I find the most problematic.  A couple of years ago, Clair had to ring my bank just to listen to the options and then tell me which button to taper.

Then a few months ago, Norman kindly explained to me which button to push to speak to someone at SFR.

Fortunately, nowadays many of the big companies have le tchat and I use that.  I can write pretty quickly and there is much less chance of misunderstanding.

If they say could you ring back, I now have a good excuse ready.  I type desolée, je suis dur d'oreille!  At which point, I get a message back, don't you worry madame, we will do it all straightaway and there is no need for you to worry about ringing back.

Mind you, don't you ALL use that excuse or we will all be blacklisted!

[mint]

It's official that I can read and write French[:P]

As you will know, I belong to two Nordic walking clubs.  There is some undercurrent of rivalry between the two "leaders" (spoken here in a French accent) but nonetheless, each is surreptitiously interested in what the other one does.  Eg, the leader of Club 1 took a few of us to a couple of walks that entailed the odd night spent away from here.  Next thing the leader of Club 2 has also organised some walks on similar lines.

Now we have a conférence with a medical doctor coming to speak to us at the premises of Club 2.  Of course, the Club 1 leader is interested and wants to attend.  So, he pretends he doesn't know the other fellow's contact details and the other one equally pretends he can't extend his invitation to this other chap because he's never found out HIS details.

So, who do they ask to be their intermediary?  Well, yes, ME, of course[:D] 

So now, it's official, I am entrusted to pass messages between 2 French persons who think I can read and write...........ha, ha!

[mint]

Where do I put the "en" when I want to use the "ne......que" construction?

Example of a scenario:  someone is cutting slices of eg ham.

I want to use "ne.......que", so I say je ne prends qu'une tranche.  But if I want to add "en", where in the sequence do I put en and how would it look or sound?

[ericd]

Hi mint. Je n'en prends/prendrai qu'une or qu'une seulement tranche. Merci

[ericd]

Qu'une seule!

[mint]

Super, Eric, merci![:)]

[ericd]

Or seulement qu'une....

[mint]

OK, Eric, totally "get" it now and can't wait to try it out at our "tea-time" where we speak both languages or a mélange of the two"!

Only problem is, I can NEVER say that I only want ONE piece of cake[:-))]

So I'll have to say je n'en prends que trois![:D]

[ericd]

Perfect mint !!

[mint]

If, like me, you can't bear to let another year go by without learning some more French ([:P]), here are a couple of questions to think about[:D]

When do you use ajouter and when rajouter?  What are the circumstances where you would use one instead of the other?  As far as I can see, they both mean the same thing?

Question numéro 2:  do you always use les retrouvailles much as you always use les toilettes (to mean the bog), that is, ALWAYS in the plural?

à vous!

[woolybanana]

In the sense of les retrouvailles dans les toilettes, Nimt? I think a recent ly deceased or is that diseased popsinger might have been able to explain that!!

[ericd]

Pour rajouter there must be some already there. Otherwise you will use ajouter.

[Chancer]

The same logic as charger et recharger une batterie, even if it comes fully charged when you buy it, the first time you charger  it, thereafter you recharger it.

[mint]

Thank you, Eric and Chance.

Wools, nobody makes me laugh as you do!

[richard51]

Three years + ago this comment was made:

"You are absolutely right of course, Norman.

Would you, or someone else, like to do an Index of the 28 pages ?

The 'Diner de Con' just drifted into this thread via the variations in language and meaning of the word 'juste'."

Is this thread past its sell by date?

[mint]

So you are already an accomplished French speaker and writer but spare a thought for those of us who still find this thread extremely useful!

I keep a notebook into which I have jotted many useful expressions from this thread, words and expressions that I might forget or neglect to use.

And, yes, I do look up the book regularly and I often decide to pick on words or expressions that I particularly like and I practise them over days and weeks until I am comfortable using them.

What's not to like?  It is after all useful, entertaining and, mostly, non-controversial?

No good complaining about the forum being "dead" when the most visited threads are deemed to be "past their sell-by date".

If the questions keep coming as do the replies, I would say that the thread is surely courant?