English Speakers and French subtleties Hey everyone,
I’m a novice when it comes to spoken French and the subtleties of the language but I really want to do it justice when I reference it in my novel. The particular scene I need help with is a first person account of a French woman where she tells the reader about an occasion when was approached by English Gentleman (an official and very well educated) who was fluent French speaker, but not a native, and how she knew he wasn't French. I wanted to include details of how she
she might have missed initially if she wasn’t paying too much attention to him but as her guard was up already in the scene, she was able to spot the giveaways that others may have missed.
Whether it be pronunciation, tense, inflection or something to do with the time etc.
The English man in the scene approached the French woman when she’s at work in a post office and hands her a note. He tells her something along the lines of ”I need this delivered by tomorrow morning, 9:30 at the latest. Tracked” with a French name and address on the envelope. I’m thinking something around the way he says the time could be interesting, but I’m not sure how it would work yet?
What are some subtle giveaways that native French speakers pick up with non native French speakers that indicate to them them that they’re not French? (That aren’t so obvious.)
Any thoughts will be helpful. Thank you for your time🙏🏻
Hello,
I have a tiny question. If I want to say "I thought about her", should I use:
a) Je lui ai pensée
b) J'ai pensé à lui
c) J'ai pensé à elle
Because I notice that for verb + de, we can use "penser d'elle" (think of her), so for the case verb + à, can we use à + pronouns as well (option b,c)? Can we use "elle" instead of "lui" for such case? Finally, can we use option b) instead of a)?
Why is this not in Imparfait? It's a description and the family, presumably, continues to love dogs.
In the first sentence, there is "Baccaulauréat" in the answer, but the clue is "Baccalauréat."
I am also unsure about the use of the singular "siècle" in the last sentence since you do not have "siècle" after XVIIIe. Shouldn't the English be "Between the end of the 18th and middle of the 19th Centuries."? or "Between the end of the 18th Century and the middle of the 19th Century."?
Hey everyone,
I’m a novice when it comes to spoken French and the subtleties of the language but I really want to do it justice when I reference it in my novel. The particular scene I need help with is a first person account of a French woman where she tells the reader about an occasion when was approached by English Gentleman (an official and very well educated) who was fluent French speaker, but not a native, and how she knew he wasn't French. I wanted to include details of how she
she might have missed initially if she wasn’t paying too much attention to him but as her guard was up already in the scene, she was able to spot the giveaways that others may have missed.
Whether it be pronunciation, tense, inflection or something to do with the time etc.
The English man in the scene approached the French woman when she’s at work in a post office and hands her a note. He tells her something along the lines of ”I need this delivered by tomorrow morning, 9:30 at the latest. Tracked” with a French name and address on the envelope. I’m thinking something around the way he says the time could be interesting, but I’m not sure how it would work yet?
What are some subtle giveaways that native French speakers pick up with non native French speakers that indicate to them them that they’re not French? (That aren’t so obvious.)
Any thoughts will be helpful. Thank you for your time🙏🏻
Hello everyone. I was taking a quiz in which I respond like this "nous nous sommes brossés les chevaux" but the site says that it is nearly correct and this version is correct " nous nous sommes brossé les chevaux". And it made me curious because the subject is plural and there is a reflexive verb!!!! Anyone could explain this contradiction?
Thanks
Speaking to friends, would it not be correct to say: 'Dépêche-toi', rather than 'Dépêchez-vous'?
For the phrase, "je suis né pour travailler dans ce domaine." the audio says something like, "je suis né pour cette vocation."
Why can't we use "vraiment" here for "really"? and why does it contract to "de" ? I know its because of the quantity of "beaucoup" however the expression is "avoir du mal à"?
At the beginning of the second sentence the word "BASTIEN" is in the text, but it is not in the audio. All of the other sentences have the characters' name in both the text & the audio.
In this example Je vois un soleil jaune et une fleur jaune. the pronounciation of the word jaune is very different for the first and second occurence. The first one is pronounced with an e almost like jauné, while the second one has a silent e like jaun.
Is the word pronounced differently depending on the gender, is the speech broken (it sounds very robotic), or is it pronounced differently depending on what word it comes before in the sentence (here ... jaune et ...)?
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