Les jours - The days

Days of the week in French:

Monday - Lundi
Tuesday - Mardi
Wednesday - Mercredi
Thursday - Jeudi
Friday - Vendredi
Saturday - Samedi
Sunday - Dimanche

Well I suppose this would be my last update until after the New Year. Here is wishing everyone Joyeux Noël et Bonne Année. Meilleurs Voeux! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Best Wishes!

The verb être (to be)

One of the verbs that I first learnt and which I thought to be important was être. It is similar to "to be" in English. These are all in present tense.

Je suis - I am
Tu es - You are (informal)
Il est - He is
Elle est - She is
Nous sommes - We are
Vous êtes - You are (formal or speaking to a group of people)
Ils sont - They are (masculine or mixed male and female group)
Elles sont - They are (feminie group)
C'est - This is/It is (can be used to introduce someone)
Ce sont - These are (plural of c'est)

Examples:

Je suis étudiant - I am a student (étudiante for feminine. Note that you don't say "un" or "a" in this case)

Il est ingénieur - He is an engineer (again you don't say "an" like in English. This is the same for all occupations)

Nous sommes professeurs - We are teachers

Elle est femme au foyer - She is a housewife

C'est mon amie Jenny - This is my friend Jenny

Greetings and introductions

The first thing they always teach you in a new language is to say hello and ask how is one doing. So here goes.

Good day: Bonjour
Good evening: Bonsoir
How are you?: Comment ça va? (literally "how it goes?" pronounced as sa-va) or just Ça va?
I am well: Ça va bien or Ça va très bien (I am very well)
What is your name: Comment vous appelez-vous? (How do you call yourself? in a formal way) or Quel est votre/ton nom? (What is your name? votre=formal, ton=informal)
My name is...: Je m'appelle... (literally "I call myself...")
Nice to meet you: Enchanté(if female add -e)

For example:

F: Bonjour monsieur!
M: Bonjour madame. Comment ça va?
F: Ça va bien. Et vous?
M: Très bien. Comment vous appelez-vous?
F: Je m'appelle F. Quel est votre nom?
M: Je m'appelle M. Enchanté.
F: Enchantée.

Typing in French

To type all the accent acute etc. in French such as é, è, ê etc. using the US/UK keyboards, check out this page by Microsoft.

Using US-Int'l Keyboard Layout to Type Accented Characters

It is easy to setup and only takes a while to get used to it!

To setup the Int'l keyboard, follow these simple steps for Windows XP.

1st: Go to Control Panel -> Regional and Languange Options.

2nd: On the new Regional and Language Options window, click on the second tab to open
Languages tab. Then click on Details under "Text services and input languages".

3rd: Click on Add and then select French (France) or you can also use the default English. DO NOT click on OK yet.

4th: Check the "Keyboard layout/IME" and choose "United States - International" under the drop down list. Click OK.

That's it! You can start typing using the rules as in the document!

French learning websites

There are lots of websites out there for French learners. I particularly like the idea of learning French through podcast, as you can copy the audio files to your MP3 player and listen to it repeatedly on the go until you can remember what was being taught. Another advantage to this is that you can learn how to pronounce it exactly, although you might not want to follow the pronunciation in public places. The French podcast I like best for now is the French for Beginners podcast. It is easy to follow, and the information is clearly published on a .pdf file. French Steps by BBC is also very good with lots of activities and tests. You can subscribe to their newsletter and they will email you weekly on how to proceed with that course. Or if you prefer to learn everything by yourself, the French website by About.com is very useful.

Happy Learning!

Au Sujet de Moi - About Me

Firstly, a short introduction about myself in French!

J'ai 25 ans et je suis étudiant à l'université de la Reine à Belfast. Je suis de Malaisie et je suis d'origine chinois.

Mon grand père et ma grand mère étaient de la Chine mais ils sont morts maintenant. J'ai un père, une mère, 4 soeurs mais je n'ai pas de frère. Mon père est retiré et mon mère est femme au foyer. Mes première et quatrième soeurs travaillent dans un bureau. Mes deuxième et troisième soeurs travaillent en Chine. Ma première soeur est mariée. Son mari est ingénieur. Ils n'ont pas d'enfant. J'ai aussi 4 cousins. Une de ma cousins est mariée et elle a un fils qui s'appelle Kang Kang. Il a 8 mois et il est très mignon!

J'aime nager, courir, le cinéma, le théâtre, la musique, la photographie et apprendre le français.

OK well that took me some time! If you spot any error, do let me know!

Learning French

My friend's ChinEasy blog has prompted me to start my own "language learning" blog too. As some of you may be aware, I have been learning French for about half a year now. My progress is slow as I am quite busy at the university at the moment, so I still have a long way to go! I have to say that French is one of the languages that I like the best! The pronunciation is difficult, especially the letter "R", the grammar can be different from English, and like many of the world's languages, all things can be separated into masculine and feminine, which have to be dealt with slightly differently. Having said that, I am not about to give up, and if you too are learning French, let's learn together!

I am not too sure what the contents of this blog are going to be like. I suppose I would post some contents in French as well as some of the things that I have learned over the past few months and the future. If I made any error, please do tell me!