Another French test

[mint]

[quote user="NormanH"]
But without going into phonetics there is no really accurate way of representing sounds. I was just trying to show that the accents in French are there to show the sounds, not just something decorative. Once you feel that they become essential.
[/quote]

The International Phonetic Alphabet works perfectly well but I have not been able to find it in a programme that I could use on here.

When I work with the OH on his pronunciation, I tell him to make è sound like there. 

To my chagrin, when I was on the Camino, the French people, whilst telling me I spoke very good French, did also point out that I spoke it with an English accent.  When I told them, no, it was a Charentais accent, they just laughed their heads off!

Edit:  And Chance was right, they did ask for "Futur" so that should have alerted you to the fact that you should use just one word and not two to express futur proche

[Chancer]

So it is a piege for English speaking Spaniards who want to do a French test then!

Or perhaps simply an universal toolbar.

[allanb]

[quote user="NormanH"]

the ay in bay is a diphthong with two sounds not just one...[/quote]

In England, yes.  There aren't so many diphthongs in Scotland; the Scots (most of them, anyway) pronounce "bay" very much like bé, which gives them an advantage in France. 

They have a similar advantage with the "o" sound; "low" in Scotland sounds about the same as l'eau.  

[Chancer]

I just did the English test which confirmed my worst fears about my abysmal education (the progressive English teachers smoked dope in front of the class) as I only scored 71.7. Mainly due to not having a clue what the English grammatical terms or tenses were, it still is my stumbling block in learning French.

My comprehensive school was so big and spread between two buildings half a mile apart that most of the teachers did not know each other, I vividly remember the French teacher talking about verbs, it was the first time we had ever heard of them, not that she believed us she just thought we were playing up, our French learning pretty much stalled at that point as I we had  no clue what she was talking about.

As for the English lessons we weren't even taught to spell let alone have our mistakes corrected, a real shame as my elder sisters both had a really good grammar school education, I passed the 11+ but it made no difference due to the politics of the day.

All of which makes me especially proud to have got 62 (I still reckon it should have been 80 [:)]) in the French test.

[Patf]

So that's the difference - as I come from near Scotland my vowels are like those in France.

There was also an interesting Geordie gutteral "r" which is heard in the local accent here (Gers.)

[Patf]

Referring to Allanb's post:

So that's the difference - as I come from near Scotland my vowels are like those in France.

There was also an interesting Geordie gutteral "r" which is heard in the local accent here (Gers.)

[NormanH]

[quote user="sweet 17"]

[quote user="NormanH"]

But without going into phonetics there is no really accurate way of representing sounds. I was just trying to show that the accents in French are there to show the sounds, not just something decorative. Once you feel that they become essential.

[/quote]

The International Phonetic Alphabet works perfectly well but I have not been able to find it in a programme that I could use on here.

When I work with the OH on his pronunciation, I tell him to make è sound like there. 

To my chagrin, when I was on the Camino, the French people, whilst telling me I spoke very good French, did also point out that I spoke it with an English accent.  When I told them, no, it was a Charentais accent, they just laughed their heads off!

Edit:  And Chance was right, they did ask for "Futur" so that should have alerted you to the fact that you should use just one word and not two to express futur proche

[/quote]

I think that there and bear rhyme too, so we agree on that one...

They didn't actually specify the futur, but the version in the active voice was in the futur so technically the passive version should be also. But you see that's what I hate about these things. They don't allow the variations which are perfectly ok in normal usage, and insist instead on trying to trip people up, thereby giving the impression that 'teacher always knows best'...a sort of power game.   I don't think I have noticed people making a big distinction between futur and the compound future with aller, what ever the books say..

It put me off languages at school, and although I would have got in the 90s on this test, these little things rankle

[Loiseau]

[quote user="sweet 17"]

... if petit-fille doesn't need an e than grand-mère doesn't need one either.

[/quote]

Not sure, Sweet, that you're right on the first part of this one - unless things have changed since my massive 1998 Collins-Robert dictionary came into being. 

It gives "petite-fille (pl. petites-filles)"  [geek]

Angela

[mint]

Angela, I don't know how and where I have got that from either and I am not prepared to say that I am definitely right!

But, look here:

http://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/7296697

Perhaps that's not a granddaughter (now I'm not even sure how to spell that word in English)

[Patf]

[quote user="You can call me Betty"]I'm puzzled by the marking system. I came out with 87.5.....[8-)]

[/quote]

I think there's something wrong with it too. Yesterday I got a score of 29.5. Today I got 71.5, more or less the same answers, but omitting all of 16, 17, and 18.

[Loiseau]

[quote user="sweet 17"]

...But, look here:  http://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/7296697 ...

[/quote]

Not sure I'd give a Manhattan-based on-line auction site credence over the Collins-Robert dictionary, Sweet!

In fact, on that page, the spelling appears as "petit fille" near the top, and "petite fille" on another item near the bottom!  And in both cases, it obviously means "little girl" rather than "granddaughter"

On gosh - granddaughter (?sp);  you've got me worried now!  And me an erstwhile sub-editor...

Angela

[mint]

Angela, you're right, what do these autioneers know?  Quite a nice figurine though.

Don't start me off on spelling; mine's been getting worser and worser.  Not only that, I think my vocabulary is shrinking.  I believe it does so at the same rate as my brain, alas.