allanb Posted November 28, 2012 Share Posted November 28, 2012 [quote user="Frecossais"]Has anybody else any milestones they have reached or are aiming to reach in using french?[/quote]I can tell you about a milestone which I have definitely not reached, in spite of being fairly competent in French: understanding the phone numbers in recorded messages, at least when they include one or more pairs between 70 and 99. Especially the 90s. I find it terminally confusing when the first word you hear is "quatre" and the first digit turns out to be 9. What is particularly irritating is that, even if you accept the option "réécouter le message", all you get is the message content (if any) – the number, which may be the most important thing you need, is not repeated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idun Posted November 28, 2012 Share Posted November 28, 2012 Ah the numbers, what foolishness to have sums for numbers. 4 times20+( one to nine). I remember the first time I really 'heard' 99 being said and understanding what they meant and thinking this is a sum and not a number. The swiss and belgians say nonante, and octante(think I have heard huitante too) and septante. So logical. Until I moved back to England, I had a real, I mean really terrible problem with the 'E' in english if I needed someone to spell a word out to me. I would write an 'i' down and know it was wrong and then go brain dead. I'd mumble and ask them to repeat the word and the same thing would happen and they must have thought I was mentally deficient, which would be how I was feeling. Took me a while to get over it after we moved back.And what of those Geees and Jay's then. Back to front in the way they are said in english. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cendrillon Posted November 28, 2012 Share Posted November 28, 2012 "nonante, and octante (think I have heard huitante too) and septante. So logical."The Belgian family I worked for used septante and nonante though I don't think they used octante or huitante. Perhaps it's only the Swiss who use those. Despite my later training as a French telephonist I still have to listen very hard to French numbers to get them right."And what of those Geees and Jay's then" ...............they're a minefield! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
allanb Posted November 28, 2012 Share Posted November 28, 2012 I think Cendrillon is right about the Belgians: they are logical enough to say septante and nonante, but they just can't bring themselves to abandon quatre-vingts. My dictionary, FWIW, says that huitante is Swiss, but it describes octante as just "dialect," without being more specific. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nomoss Posted November 28, 2012 Share Posted November 28, 2012 Returning to the OP's question, almost everyone around here says "allez" to end a discussion and get on with whatever I/they were doing previously.It has about the same significance as "see you", or any other epilogue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frecossais Posted November 28, 2012 Share Posted November 28, 2012 Yes, the numbers! I had to resort to asking our postwoman to listen to an answerphone message with a phone no. It was said so quickly that I simply couldn't get it.However I had a breakthrough this autumn in regard to my use of French: I used the subjunctive after il faut que....!Chancer, like you, I was well chuffed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idun Posted November 28, 2012 Share Posted November 28, 2012 Well this anglaise has used octante in Belgium without problem, so I assumed that they were just like the swiss, who I am far more used to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted November 28, 2012 Share Posted November 28, 2012 The first time I ever heard the sunbjonctif used I had only been here a week or so, the woman who my neighbour has now thankfully divorced was drunk, slurring and had a lispy type speech impediment, not the best of circumstances to hear "il faut que tu faasscchheess" for the first time, I recall him really tearing her off a strip but didnt know what it was all about at the time, I was too busy wiping the spit from my eye. I know that it didnt resemble any verb that I knew, in fact it was one of the few verbs that I did know how to conjugate but not in the subjonctif. I suppose that was another milestone when I got the confidence to start using the subjonctif but its still only with a handfull of verbs, when I know that I should be using it with another verb I sort of try half heartedly and invite the oher person to correct me, I am always asking do we say it like this as otherwise people will never correct me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cendrillon Posted November 28, 2012 Share Posted November 28, 2012 Well this anglaise has used octante in Belgium without problem, so I assumed that they were just like the swiss, who I am far more used to.Idun it was a long, long time ago when I lived there[8-|] they (the Belgians) were not so international in those days and the E.U hadn't even been thought of! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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