Jupiter Jones PI

I agree with SirTenenbaum. Don't let some of the bizarre complexities of French deter you from learning it. It's true that there are certain things about the language that are difficult for a native English speaker. There are other things about French that are very easy. For example, if you're an English speaker, you already know a lot of French. This is true for two reasons: 1. French is derived from Latin while English borrows numerous words from Latin. 2. English has borrowed a huge number of words from French and vice versa. As an English speaker, you have a huge head start over native speakers of Russian, Mandarin, or Korean. You can learn to recognize the Latin-derived words and make a minor change, and voilà (borrowed French word), you've got the French word you need. For example, the "ism" words change to "isme" and then you use French pronunciation and you've got your word. "Astigmatism" becomes "Astigmatisme." There are tough things like knowing when to keep consonants and when to voice them. However, as is the case with any language, it gets easier with time. When you first start, it will seem really hard. Just keep using the language. Don't worry if you butcher it at first. That's normal. There isn't anyone who's good at another language as a beginner.

I wrote a story in French for one of those sites where people correct for one another. I wanted to say, "It's your fault we're stuck here." I wrote: The French person corrected it as: He's a native speaker, so I'm sure his correction is right. However, I'm wondering if I should have also added an S to "coincé" as in: My thinking is "on" does not mean "one" here; it means "we," so maybe adverbs that refer back to it should be put into the plural as if I were using "nous." Should I add this S or not? The other surprise was that the corrector changed my relative pronoun "que" to "si," which I thought meant "if." The English sentence "It's your fault we're stuck here" implies "that" as in, "It's your fault that we're stuck here." Shouldn't it therefore be "que" combined with "on" to make "qu'on" as I wrote it?

I'm new to Linguaholic. I'll likely be asking questions about French, the language I'm currently learning. I've been at it for about two years now. I learned German back in the 80s and achieved a high level of fluency in it. I didn't realize how much I missed learning a language. I skype several times a week with people in France and Canada. It's helping me a lot to improve, and I'm helping others with English.