Asking Questions 3: Use Inversion
The third way to ask a question in French is by using inversion, or switching the verb and the subject. Manges-tu des bonbons? = Are you eating some candies?Parlez-vous français? = Do you speak French? When you use inversion with…
Asking Questions 2: Use est-ce que
Another way to ask a question is by placing est-ce que at the beginning of a declarative sentence. Tu manges des bonbons. = You are eating some candies.Est-ce que tu manges des bonbons? = Are you eating some candies? Elle…
Asking Questions 1: Use Intonation
Over the next few lessons, we will learn several ways to ask a question in French. The easiest way is by changing the intonation of your voice, raising the pitch near the end. We also do this in English. I’m…
Showing Possession
French does not have the handy “apostrophe s” that English uses so freely to indicate possession. Whereas we might say in English, “This is Paul’s bicycle,” the French equivalent, “C’est la bicyclette de Paul,” translates as, “This is the bicycle…
S'il vous plaît – Please!
s’il vous plaît (SEEL voo PLAY = please) To say “please” in French, we use the phrase s’il vous plaît. This polite expression literally means, “if it pleases you.” Perhaps you have received an invitation that contains the initials R.S.V.P.…
Gender
One of the key differences between English and French is that French nouns have gender. Gender exists in many languages such as Spanish, Italian, German and some of the oldest documented languages that we are still familiar with today, Latin…
La Tour Eiffel
Did you know that the French civil engineer Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, who designed and built the famous Eiffel Tower in Paris, also designed the complicated framework that supports the Statue of Liberty in New York City in the United States…
La Tour Eiffel
LA TOUR EIFFEL (pronounced la TOOR ay-FELL) The French word TOUR means tower. A great landmark, and one of the world’s most famous towers, is the Eiffel Tower in the city of Paris, France. The 300 metre (984 ft) high…
Bon Voyage 5: Jules Verne
Jules Verne was a writer ahead of his time. In 1865, over one hundred years before the first man landed on the moon, Jules Verne imagined such a trip in his novel De la Terre à la Lune, From the…
Bon Voyage 4: Around the World in 80 Days
Just for fun, watch one of these film adaptations of Around the World in Eighty Days by French author Jules Verne. 1956 with David Niven, Cantinflas and Shirley MacLaine (Oscar for best film) 1989with Pierce Brosnan, Eric Idle and Peter…