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I will have to make sure Ivygirl sees this thread -- she's been fanatical about her French studies in high school -- talking in French all the time at home. She will love reading this.

Welcome, Choobak!

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Have you heard Eugene Onegin?

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I read that as "Eugene, Oregon", Syn.

Farmgirl

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Teshi: It's "à l'écrit". And "français", languages are masculine. But if you say "the French language" then it would be "la langue française"... Complicated, huh?

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ingénieur informaticien, et tu as le droit de penser à la chanson...

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Hehe, there was a guy in Lyon that sang that song in a Communications class! It was hilarious, since I couldn't tell if he was worse at playing guitar or singing!

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J'aime aussi les livres plus théoriques sur les échecs, la stratégie, la sociologie.

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Hello everybody.
Well ! Anna wants [me to describe myself] better. I want to use more French sentences than [I will] later. But, for everybody, [I will] try to translate in English ([even though] I'm not very strong [in Shakespeare's language] )

I am a young [25-year-old] Engineer who [works] in Paris (in France, not in Texas)
I love [to] play chess in my club which is near the butte Montmartre.
I like very much cooking for my friends (and [eating] with them )

I like walking in Paris, going in the [bookshops] and other [shops], visiting museums, or simply [sitting] down on the verge of the Seine. (probably we’d say “on the banks of the Seine”)

I like [reading] the books of authors like Moorcock, Pratchett, Leblanc, and [of course] OSC.
I [also like more theoretical books] on Chess, Strategy, or Sociology.

And above all, I love music ! When [I] can, I go at the [theater at] Champs Elysées to listen [to] the great Orchestras play some Classical pieces. (Debussy, Bach, Chostakovich, Tchaikovski,...)

I hope I don't make a mistake in my translation.
I would like to say hello to all members of this forum community.

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Bienvenue à Hatrack, Choobak! Moi, je suis une étudiante Américaine qui a étudier la français depuis (mon dieu) six ou sept ans. Mais je ne suis pas très bon à le parler ou le écriver. Je suis en train d’oublier le français parce que j’ai aussi étudie le japonais. Je suis un mauvaise étudiante de la français…

Je suis heureuse que tu est là, parce que maintenant je peux practiquer.

Of course, now I'm not sure whether it should be bienvenue à Hatrack or bienvenue au Hatrack? I suppose it depends on whether you pronounce the H ou pas. But anyway, welcome!! I hope you enjoy our community.

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Pas de problème : c'est un plaisir pour moi que d'aider ceux qui veulent améliorer leur français :

commençons [my note are under "[]" in English (i must work it )] :

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Choobak, je pense que je vais pratiquer [very good ! no mistake here. It's a difficulty of french : must i write "er" or "é" ? a tip : replace the first group verb by "faire". if it sing better with "fait", use "é" else use "er".] mon francais içi ["ici". "c" is prononced "sss" if it is followed by "e", "i", and "y". "ç" is when we want the "sss" when it 's followed by "a", "o" or "u" as "reçu"... hard ! ], parce que je vais oublier le tout! S'il vous plait [you can "tutoyer" me : use "te" ], tu peux dire à moi [said "tu peux me dire". it's fluider.] quand ma grammaire est horrible, et <<correct>> mon <<mistakes>>!

Desolée, probablement tu ne veux pas travailler, et ma français [little agreement fault : "mon français"] est vraiment horrible [there is worse than you ]. Il y a beaucoup de places ou j'ai besoin d'aider! [lol. I understand what you want to write : "Il y a beaucoup de points où j'ai besoin d'aide"]

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Posts: 1189 | Registered: Dec 2004  |  IP: Logged | 

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Ok, since Choobak seems to be busy right now, I'll step in and help you, Raia:

First, if you want to say: "I forgot it all", instead of "j'ai oubliée le tout" you'd want to say:
- "j'ai tout oublié" <=> "I forgot everything" (close to "I forgot it all")
- "je l'ai complètement oublié" = "I forgot it entirely", where the "l'" refers directly to "the French"

Your phrasing can be used too, but it doesn't seem to fit in the context. Of course, Choobak will come and say I'm wrong, but hey, he's French, what does he know?! (Warning: joke, joke, joke!)

Notice that you also don't need to accord the subject "je" with the past participle in this case, because the auxiliary verb is "avoir". (there are exceptions, but you won't encounter them if you keep it simple) You have to accord the two if the auxiliary verb is "être". For example, if a girl says "I went...", it's "Je suis allée".

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quand j'était <<supposed to>> m'apprendre!

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Ugh, I'm having problems understanding what you wanted to say... "I forgot everything I was supposed to learn"? In this case, "quand" (when) doesn't really belong there, and you'd like to say "donc j'ai oublié tout ce que j'était supposée apprendre". You also have an example of a verb conjugated with "être", where you have to accord the participle with the subject: "j'était supposée".

Phew, enough for now. This reminds me of the time my friend's sister was trying to speak French and I was correcting her every other word. I'm glad I don't have to do it that often in your case!

And I have a question, for everyone who speaks more than one language fluently: do you mix the two? In terms of words, but also in terms of phrasing, I mean. Among the Romanian students in France it has become quite usual to use many French words, sometimes pronounced Romanian-like... It's funny when you go home and have to remember to substitute the REAL Romanian word every time... This is less common with the phrase syntax, but it's more awkward when it DOES happen... I've had my share of amazed glances...

Edit: Hmm... Anna made me reread my post, something I should have done BEFORE posting it... Oh well, one mistake gone, don't know how many others remaining!

[ December 09, 2004, 03:30 PM: Message edited by: Corwin ]

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Anna, thanks for the confirmation. And yes, your pharsing sounds better than what I wrote; I was stuck with the verb "suppose", I... err... suppose...

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...unable to find a good translation. Most of the time, it's because a good translation doesn't exist...

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See, there's a difference with us. We use "batiment", a Romanian form of "résidence", "resto", and stuff like that just because we don't bother using the perfectly suited Romanian equivalent. We use those words when talking to foreign students around here, and we just go ahead and use them in Romanian too. Just lazy...

A thing that's even stranger happened to me several times when I was really, really tired. I would start thinking in Romanian, and then talk to non-Romanian colleagues in Romanian too! They would just give me a blank look... Can't blame them!

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Ugh, I'm having problems understanding what you wanted to say... "I forgot everything I was supposed to learn"? In this case, "quand" (when) doesn't really belong there, and you'd like to say "donc j'ai oublié tout ce que j'était supposée apprendre". You also have an example of a verb conjugated with "être", where you have to accord the participle with the subject: "j'était supposée".

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I like readind the books of authors like Moorcock

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