Monday, October 31, 2011

4. Days and Numbers

Let's start with numbers
1: un
2: deux
3: trois
4: quatre
5: cinq
6: six
7: sept
8: huit
9: neuf
10: dix
11: onze
12: douze
13: treize
14: quatorze
15: quinze
16: seize
17: dix-sept
18: dix-huit
19: dix-neuf
20: vingt
21: vingt et un
22: vingt-deux
30: trente
31: trente et un
32: trente-deux
40: quarante
50: cinquante
60: soixante
70: soixante-dix
80: quatre-vingts
90: quatre-vingt-dix
100: cent
101: cent un
102: cent deux
200: deux cents
300: trois cents
400: quatre cents
500: cinq cents
1,000: mille
1,000,000: un million

Expressing Age
To express your age, instead of using "I am" you use "I have", thus the pattern became like this:
"I have ____ years" instead of "I am ____ years old"
or "J'ai ___ ans" in French

Example:
J'ai quatorze ans (I am fourteen years old)
Elle a vingt ans (She is twenty years old)
Nous avons douze ans seul (We are only twelve years old)
Ma mère a quarante-quatre ans (My mother is forty-four years old)


Here is the expression to ask someone's age
"Quel âge as-tu?"
or for a more formal/polite approach, you could say "Quel âge avez-vous?"

Days
Monday: lundi
Tuesday: mardi
Wednesday: mercredi
Thursday: jeudi
Friday: vendredi
Saturday: samedi
Sunday: dimanche


Aujourd'hui: today
Hier: yesterday
Demain: tomorrow
Après-demain: the day after tomorrow

Expressing dates
But before, first you should know the name of the months in French:
January: janvier
February: février
March: mars
April: avril
May: mai
June: juin
July: juillet
August: août
September: septembre
October: octobre
November: novembre
December: décembre

This is the pattern to tell date in French:
C'est/On est/ Nous sommes + le + date + month + year (optional)
Example:
C'est le 31 (trente et un) octobre
On est le 17 (dix-sept) août
Nous sommes le vingt-six mars

*Notes: except for the first date of the month, like January 1st for instance
It's January 1st -> C'est le premiere janvier

3. Adjectives

I will give you lists of adjective examples, but first thing first, these are the rules you have to remember concerning adjectives


1. Adjective's gender (masculine/feminine) and number (singular/plural) agrees with the noun
Example:
Adjective: intelligent (clever)

Masculine
Singular
Un garçon intelligent (A clever boy)

Plural
Les garçons intelligents (Clever boys)

Feminine
Singular
Un fille intelligente (A clever girl)

Plural
Les filles intelligentes (Clever girls)

To learn further about this, check the agreement of french adjectives. Of course, there are also some irregular forms of the agreement

2. Unlike English, in which the adjective is placed before the noun, French adjectives are placed after the noun


un oiseau blanc (a white bird)
un livre utile (a helpful book)
une vache lente (a slow cow)
la peau douce (soft skin)

3. Exception of the number 2, there are some adjectives placed before the noun, which are:
Adjectives which describe of the following,
Beauty
Age
Good or Bad
Size*

*except for grand (big)

Some adjectives that are supposed to be placed after the noun for the literal meaning, could mean differently when placed before the noun. For further explanation about this, look here

Those are the rules. Now, let's get down to business. I will give you a list of adjectives:
affectueux: affectionate
seul: alone
en colère: angry
magnifique: beautiful
ennuyeux: boring
commun: common, joint
chacun: each
égal: equal
chaque: every
drôle: funny, weird
amusant: entertaining
beau: handsome
difficile: hard, difficult
interessant: interesting
gentil: kind
paresseux: lazy
seulement: only
uni: plain
puissant: powerful
joli: pretty
fier: fire
rare: rare
malade: sick, ill
petit: small
grand: big
étrange: strange
suffisant: sufficient
fatigué: tired
inutile: useless
utile: useful, helpful
très: very
bien: well
merveilleux: wonderful
jeune: young
vieil: old
athlétique: athletic
cassé: broken
chauve: bald
maladroit: clumsy
fou: crazy
frisé: curly
actuel: current
enchanté: delighted
assez: enough
célèbre:fa mous
plat: flat
bon: good
mauvaise: bad
génial: great
heureux: happy
triste: sad
intelligent: clever
merveilleux: marvelous
nerveux: nervous
agréable: pleasent
poli: polite
possible: possible
véritable: real
serieux: serious
lisse: smooth
mince: thin
doux: soft
raide: straight (hair)
vrai: true
sauvage: wild



Wednesday, October 26, 2011

2. Verbs (and its conjugations)

In French, the usage of a verb is pretty complicated. It has its own form depends on what subject you use (I, you, he, she, or we). But to know how to form the verb, first you must understand the verbs in the infinitive form in which when you translate directly to English, have "to" in front of them. (Example: attendre: to wait, parler: to speak, courir: to run)



Verbs in the Infinitive Form
This is the basic form of verb. Usually in sentences, you change its form according to the subject you use. But not necessarily, if you already have another verb. Or sometimes, you don't have to put in a subject, for example: Allons danser (Let's dance) although allons is based on aller which means "to go". See that's what I meant, if you already have a verb that has changed form (in this case: allons). So the other verb stays in the infinitive verb (in this case: danser). But let's not confuse you with these now. You'll get it by time.

So, the  verbs in the infinitive form is divided in to three by its suffix (-er, ir/ire, or ir/oir/re). Every each has its own way to change form, but like English and perhaps any other language, it also has irregular verbs which I will explain to you later.

Example:
attendre (to wait)
parler (to speak)
marcher (to walk)
manger (to eat)
finir (to finish)
courir (to run)
lire (to read)
dormir (to sleep)
voir (to see)
prendre (to take)
suprendre (to surprise)

Pronouns
Before I explain to you about the conjugations, you probably should first take a look at the pronouns we will use. Now, in the pronouns I will explain later in the fifth chapter as I've summarized, I will give you the list of all pronouns. But here, we need only to know about the subject we use to state what somebody's doing.

Je : I
Tu : You (familiar)
Il : He
Elle: She
Nous: We
Vous: You (formal)*
Ils: They

*Vous sometimes can mean as "you" in plural. But when you combine it with a verb, the conjugation stays the same whether you mean "you" as in one person or "you" as in more than one person

These are important to remember, as I will give you example with these pronouns when I give examples of the conjugations.

Radical and Terminaison
I'm not really sure of this, I mean I don't understand this completely. But I have read it in some book, so I'm pretty sure it's accurate. In the purpose to easily understand about conjugations, we could remember this thing. So a verb consists of  radical (the root of the verb) and terminaison (suffix). We can not change the root of the verb, but the suffix could be change to match the subject and tense. In conjugations, we only change the suffix to fit it with the subject and the tense.

Example:
Trouver
Trouv (radical) -er (terminaison)

Conjugation Pattern


To not get you mixed up, every verb and conjugation I will explain here are all present tense. If you want further reading, you could check here

1. Verbs which end with -er (in the infinitive form)
For this kind of verb, change the suffixes to:
 -e for Je
 -es for Tu
 -e for Il/Elle
 -ons for Nous
 -ez for Vouz
 -ent for Ils

The pattern is pretty much like this, to help you see it clearly:
 Je + Radical (R) + e
 Tu + R + es
 Il/Elle + R  + e
 Nous + R + ons
 Vous +R + ez
 Ils + R + ent


Example:
TROUVER ->
Je trouve
Tu trouves
Il/Elle trouve
Nous trouvons
Vous trouvez
Ils Trouvent


trouver: to find


Additional notes:
For radical that ends with the consonant 'c' (avancer, menacer, commencer, balancer, remplacer, etc). You change the "c" to "ç" for the subject Nous. The purpose is to avoid any hard "c" sound, as in cone, candy, , caramel, etc

Example:
Commencer
Je commence
Tu commences
Il/Elle commence
Nous commençons
Vous commençez
Ils commencent

commencer: to start

For radical that ends with the consonant 'g' (manger, arranger, bouger, changer, voyager, partager, nager, etc). You add 'e' before 'o' for the subject Nous. The purpose is to avoid a hard "g" sound as in gorillas, grain, gamble, etc

Example:
Manger
Je mange
Tu manges
Il/Elle mange
Nous mangeons
Vous mangez
Ils mangent

manger: to eat


2. Verbs which end with -ir/-ire (in the infinitive form)
This kind of verb is pretty complicated. It has different radicals for the singular subject (je, tu, il/elle) and plural subject (nous, vous, ils). I will give you three examples
But before, you must remember the terminaison for this kind of verb
-s for Je
-s for Tu
-t for Il/Elle
-ons for Nous
-ez for Vous
-ent for Ils

Example:
FINIR
r: Terminaison

Radical
Fini-  
(For singular subject)
Finiss-
(For plural subject)

Hence the conjugations:
Je finis
Tu finis
Il/Elle finit
Nous finissons
Vous finissez
Ils/Elles finissent


finir: to finish


Example:
PARTIR
ir: Terminaison

Radical
Par-
(For singular subject)
Part-
(For plural subject)

Je pars
Tu pars
Il/Elle part
Nous partons
Vous partez
Ils partent


partir: to leave


Example:
ÉRCRIRE
re: terminaison


Radical
Écri
(For the singular subject)
Écriv
(For the plural subject)

Je écris
Tu écris
Il/Elle écris
Nous écrivons
Vous écrivez
Ils écrivent

écrire: to write


To help you see it more clearly, here is the pattern:
Je + Singular Radical + s
Tu + Singular Radical + s
Il/Elle + Singular Radical + t
Nous + Plural Radical + ons
Vous + Plural Radical + ez
Ils + Plural Radical + ent

The thing that you have to remember to conjugate this kind of verb is, you have to know which is the radical, and which is the terminaison. Sometimes the terminaison is the -ir, and -ire itself, or sometimes it's just the -re or -r. Sometimes the radical for the singular subject and the radical for the plural subject is the same, sometimes it's not. Although most plural radical ends with -ss (look at my first example)

3. Verbs which end with -re/-oir (in the infinitive form)
This kind of verb has to kind of terminaison:
For the verbs with the endings -re, it is:
-s for Je
-s for Tu
nothing for Il/Elle (look at the examples)
-ons for Nous
-ez for Vous
-ent for Ils

Observe carefully, I will give you the conjugations of verbs which radicals end with -d before -re (dre) and verbs which radicals end with -t before -re (-tre). If you look at the examples below, you will understand what I meant with nothing for Il/Elle

Verbs with -dre in the infinitive form
Example:
ATTENDRE
Je attends
Tu attends
Il/Elle attend
Nous attendons
Vous attendez
Ils attendent

attendre: to wait

Example:
PERDRE
Je perds
Tu perds
Il/Elle perd
Nous perdons
Vous perdez
Ils perdent

perdre: to wait

Additional notes
Except for verbs with pren before the -dre (like prendre -> to take or comprendre -> to understand) for this kind of verb, you need to change the d to n for Nous and Vous and change the d to nn for Ils.
Look: prendre

Verbs with -tre in the infinitive form
Example:
PROMETTRE
Je promets
Tu promets
Il promet
Nous promettons
Vous promettez
Ils promettent

promettre: to promise

Example:
PERMETTRE
Je permets
Tu permets
Il permet
Nous permettons
Vous permettez
Ils permettent

permettre: to allow

For the verbs with the endings -oir, it is:
-x for Je
-x for Tu
-t for Il/Elle
-ons for Nous
-ez for Vous
-ent for Ils
*note: for the singular subjects (je, tu, and il) add 'u' in the verb before x/t

Example:
VOULOIR
Je veux
Tu veux
Il/Elle veut
Nous voulons
Vous voulez
Ils voulent

vouloir: to want/wish

Example:
Je vaux
Tu vaux
Il vaut
Nous valons
Vous valez
Ils valent

valoir: to be worth

The conjugations varies for this kind of verb (with the ends -oir). In voir (to see), you add -s instead of 'u' and -x and change the 'i' into 'y' in nous and vous. The same apply to verbs that also ends with -voir like revoir (to see again). It is applied simmilarly to recevoir (to receive) savoir (to know), or devoir (to must/have to). Except for pouvoir (to can/be able to), which changes form the same with vouloir (to want).

*Note: pouvoir, vouloir, and devoir act as modals in English (can, want, must- respectively). For further reading about modals in French, check here

Note that there are a lot of rules for conjugations in French. It is even hard for me to remember it all. Some of the examples I gave you might even be categorized as irregular verbs. Well, the most regular conjugations are all of the first example I gave you. The others could be categorized as irregular, but since it still has pattern so I added it here. To be fluent with the conjugation pattern and stuff, I suggest you read a french book, watch a french movie, read a french instructions (like the one you found from cosmetic bottles), or maybe read a more advanced french lesson. To learn more about the pattern of conjugation, check this out. And to look at the conjugation list, I suggest you look here. Or if you weren't clear with my lesson, you could check here.

Common Irregular Verbs
Like english, french also has common irregular verbs. These verbs has no pattern, so you really have to remember it by yourself. There are 4 most important irregular verbs you have to remember, être (to be), avoir (to have), aller (to go), faire (to make/do).

Être (to be)
This is the most important verb of the French language, or maybe any other language for that matter. In english, être act as to be (is, am, are). And it does literally mean to be. Sometimes it is used as an auxiliary verb
Je suis
Tu es
Il/Elle est
Nous sommes
Vous êtes
Ils sont

Example:
Je suis malade
I am sick
Tu es très jolie
You are very beautiful

Avoir (to have)
This verb does literally mean "to have". But sometimes it is also used as an auxiliary verb in past tense.
J'ai
Tu as
Il/Elle a
Nous avons
Vous avez
Ils ont

Example:
J'ai un chien
I have a dog
Tu as mangé des crevettes
You ate shrimp
J'ai perdu mes bagages
I lost my luggage

Aller (to go)
Means "to go" in English, as in when you are going somewhere, to a place. Sometimes it is used as auxiliary verb for the future tense. More accurately, somewhere near the future. The conjugation form "Allons" to be used alone, means "let's" in English
Je vais
Tu vas
Il/Elle va
Nous allons
Vous allez
Ils vont

Example:
Je vais à l'hôpital
I am going to the hospital
Allons visiter Paris
Let's visit Paris
Allons danser
Let's dance
Il va lire le journal
He is going to read the newspaper

Faire (to do)
This verb means "to do" or "to make" in French. "To do" in the sense of doing a work- like doing the dishes, doing the homework, doing the laundry, etc. "To make" in the sense of making something (a noun) like making  a  new friend, making a cake, etc. Well, it actually pretty much the same as it is in English
Je fais
Tu fais
Il/Elle fait
Nous faisons
Vous faites
Ils font


Example:
Nous faisons un gâteau
We are making a cake
Je fais la lessive
I am doing the laundry
C'est le tone qui fait la musique
It's the tone that makes the music
Enchanté de faire votre conaissance
Delighted to make your acquaintance

I guess that's pretty much it you need to know about verbs (and its conjugations). This is the least basic, if you need to know more you could always check out the links I preferred before. You could also buy a book about french grammar, or the best way to learn it is to take french lessons. I hope this is helpful.






Tuesday, October 18, 2011

1. Articles: Homme/Femme and Nouns

In french, most things has articles. Article is what you use to describe whether it is a feminine, or a masculine. You could memorize all of the articles, whether it is a masculine, or a feminine. But I think from what I have seen so far, most articles are masculine and only some of them are feminine. I sometimes re-check it on the internet though hahaha, but if you want to be a fluent French speaker, maybe you should memorize it.

Indefinite Articles
Or in English, we use "a" (a house, a building, an airplane, etc). In French, "un" is the article for the masculine noun, and "une" is the article for the feminine noun- I think it also works on adjectives. Those are for the singular nouns. If the noun is plural, the you'd use "des" whether it is masculine or feminine.

Example:
un avion (an airplane)
un bateau (a boat)
un chat (a cat)
un cheval (a horse)
une valise (a suitcase)
une plage (a beach)
une pomme (an appel)
des crevettes (shrimps)
des pommes (apples)
des bateaux (boats)

Definite Articles
The definite articles in English uses "the" and in French it is "le" for masucline and "la" for feminine. And then again, it is "les" whether it is masculine or feminine

Example:
le père (the father)
l'homme (conjucted from le homme means "the man" or "man")
le pays (the country)
le pont (the bridge)
la valise (the suitcase)
la mère (the mother)
la mer (the sea) haha you must becareful with this one and the one above, it kinda pronounced the same
les étoilés (the stars)
les couleurs (the colors)
les parents (the relatives)

Note: Where as in English we won't use "the", sometimes in french we add these articles although it doesn't literally translates as "the"

For example:
normally people would say "J'aime la magie" rather than "J'aime magie" although in English we would mean "I love magic", not "I love the magic"
So use "J'aime la magie"


Demonstrative Pronouns
"this", "that", "these", "those" in english. There are some of these things such as ceci, cela, and ça but I don't fully understand those. I could try to explain it to you but I would sound stupid and it wouldn't accurate. So it's best to look here if you want to learn it further. What I understand for demonstrative pronoun is "this" which translate as "ce" in french. As usual, "Ce" is for masculine and "Cette" is for feminine, and so "Ces" is for plural whether it is masculine or feminine. Although there is something else, you use "Cet" when the noun begins with mute h (for example: cet homme)


Example:
ce jardin (this garden)
ce navire (this ship)
ce billet (this ticket)
cet homme (this man)
cet hôtel (this hotel)
cette tour (this tower)
cette femme (this woman)
cette signature (this signature)
ces livres (these books)
ces poissons (these fishes)
ces animaux (these animals)


Plural Nouns
As you have seen earlier, the plural nouns for example in the previous articles, some simply end with "s" but some don't. You see in French, to make a noun plural mostly you just add "s" to it (and also change the article of course). But if the noun already ends with "s", "x", or "z" you don't need to add anything. Add "x" to make nouns plural which ends with "eau", "eu", or "ou" (e.g. l'oiseau -> les ouiseaux). Change "al" to "aux" to make noun which ends with "al" plural (e.g. animal -> animaux)


But you don't have to worry about the pronunciation (it's the writing you have to worry about, haha seriously) because usually there aren't any difference in pronunciation between the singular noun and the plural one. Well, it's not certain. The pronunciation really depends on the sentences. The best you could do is listen to a lot of french sentences or stuff to enhance your pronunciation. Mispronuncation could mean very different things in French.


Example:
la étoilé -> les étoilés (star/stars)
la valise -> les valises (suitcase/suitcases)
le pays -> les pays (country/countries)
le bureau -> les bureaux (office/offices)
le taureau -> les taureaux (bull/bulls)
l'oiseau -> les oiseaux (bird/birds)
l'hôpital -> les hôpitaux (hospital/hospitals)
le animal -> les animaux (animal/animals)

Les Couleurs
In addition to your french vocabs, I would like to teach you the colors I know in French. Just for fun.
Black = Noir
White = Blanc
Red = Rouge
Pink = Rose
Green = Vert
Brown = Marron
Blue = Bleu
Purple = Violet
Yellow = Jaune
Orange = Orange
Gray = Gris
Blonde = Blond
Brown (as in hair) = Brun




Monday, October 17, 2011

Survival French: A quick lesson of French


Before I say anything, I merely do these 10 posts of french lessons for a school assignment of my computer class (IT class? Idk what it's really called). You see, we have to make this blog and post 10 posts. But since I already have a blog, so- This theme "Quick Lesson of French" just occured in my mind when I was learning it. I admit that I am a very amateur in French and only understand the scrapes of it. So if you think you know better, please correct me- and forgive me.

Disclaimer(?):
If you'd see some phrases, or writings that look or seemed familiar like the ones you see from books/internets well maybe I got some from them. Maybe the ones you saw are the ones I learn my French from. But know that I don't like completely rip it off from those things, but I changed it a little bit and mix it up.


Oh another thing, as I have said, I'm an amateur in French, but I'm interested to learn this language. I really love this language and to be able to speak it like I speak English would be a blast. So if I make mistakes, please correct me. You'd think that why would an amateur in French give a quick lesson in French? Well it is for my assignment and I just love this language and I prefer to make this thing as an assignment, and I thought I'd just share what I know.

So anyway, I have to make like 10 posts, yeah? And this should be count as one, so I only need 9 other posts that I would make as chapters. So I've summarized it to 9 chapters:

6.       Polite Conversation
7.       Common French Phrases
8.       Insults
9.       Daphnee – Daphnee’s phrases

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Anorexia, Bullimia, oh wait there's more; Orthorexia Nervosa


"Other questions concerning those who may be suffering from orthorexia provided by Davis on the WebMD (2000) website are: Do they spend more than 3 hours a day thinking about healthy foods? When they eat the way they're supposed to, do they feel in total control? Are they planning tomorrow's menu today? Has the quality of their life decreased as the quality of their diet increased? Have they become stricter with themselves? Does their self-esteem get a boost from eating healthy? Do they look down on others who don't eat this way? Do they skip foods they once enjoyed in order to eat the "right" foods? Does their diet make it difficult for them to eat anywhere but at home, distancing them from family and friends? Do they feel guilt or self-loathing when they stray from their diet? If yes was answered to two or more questions, the person may have a mild case of orthorexia
(source: Wikipedia)




Yes, yes, yes, a million times- yes. The planning of the menu, the stress if you don't know what to eat for tomorrow, the condescending of people who don't eat "right" (remember my earlier post? yeah that is one of the main prove), the guilt- and self-loathing when I stray from my diet- you know, let me tell you something, I have once- bail on school because of this. I was too stressed of planning out my menus, to eat the "right" diet, and I was feeling very guilty and uncomfortable because I don't eat the "right" diet- so there that morning, I cried. Yeah, I know ridiculous, right? But it did happened. And I was supposed to take my midterms then, but I didn't. Because I was too "stressed", I was crying, and I had a temper tantrum. So I told them, "I don't feel like it." They made me go to the guidance counselor.


Lately I have been reluctant to eat outside, except if I had plan it for days earlier. And the boost of self-esteem when I eat "right". God, this is like seeing myself on mirror- only in the form of text. I know it sounded stupid, excuse my stupidity. I knew it, I am mental. I knew there was something wrong with me all along, but I've never figured out what it is. So, turns out I'm mental- anyway, I have never known this such thing exist. So what is this about anyway?




According to Steven Bratman, Orthorexia nervosa, as he originally defined it, indicates an unhealthy obsession with eating healthy food. The term is derived from the Greek "ortho", which means "right", or "correct", and is intended as a parallel with anorexia nervosa.The difference between Orthorexia and Anorexia is he said, "While an anorexic wants to lose weight, an orthorexic wants to feel pure, healthy and natural. Eating disorder specialists may fail to understand this distinction, leading to a disconnect between orthorexic and physician." He also said, "At times (but not all times) orthorexia seems to have elements of OCD. It mat also have elements of standard anorexia. But it is often not very much like typical OCD or typical anorexia."


OCD, huh? Well my mum is a huge time OCD and I was raised OCD by my mum. Well thanks mum maybe that what caused me to bare orthorexia nervosa. Hahaha jk mum. But seriously though, she's freakin OCD.


Point taken, although there are no biological disadvantages of eating healthy as in orthorexia nervosa, (of course there isn't- except if it's too much though, and if there's a wrong concept about the "right" diet) but there's this obsession that could damage some way in life. For example, if we're eating for three hours about what food we should eat, it would do some harm, wouldn't it? Three hours, try whole day- that's what happened to me. And the self-loathing, self-conscioussness towards food- isn't healthy. And in my experience, tiring. Sometimes I wish I had a food nutritionist, a chef, and they'd just tell me what to eat and what time to eat. Or sometimes I wish I'd just be an anorexic because it seems easier that way.

Yeah, right. Look at the underlined words

Seriously just look at it.

Familiar?