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French, anyone?


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There are so many languages in the world. Many of them seem more relevant than others in the global sphere such as English, Mandarin and Spanish but I think any language is worth learning. It enlightens you on the culture and the people, not just on how they speak. I'm getting ready to take a course in French and I've never had any experience with French and can't really say that I know any words.

Does anyone know French? Any tips for a new learner?

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I can tell you that being an English speaker can be a double-edged sword when you learn French. There are many words that English has borrowed form French and thus will be very familiar to you. In French, these words will be pronounced according to French pronunciation and will of course sound very different to what you are used to in English.

The rhythms of the language are very different as well. It is the tell-tale give-away that someone is an Anglophone speaking French! French has no fixed stress patterns like in English and you will notice how French people seem to string their sentences together and let their words flow into one another such that beginners are often not able to tell where one word ends and another begins!

The grammar is very similar to Spanish and Italian. Nouns change form for singular and plural (they often are pronounced the same though) and have gender - masculine and feminine. The adjectives can have up to four forms so if you say 'That is a big car' , 'Those are big cars', 'That is a big chicken' and 'Those are big chickens' - the word 'big' will have four different spellings; a car is feminine in French and a chicken is masculine.

Verbs will have different conjugations and many of the common ones are highly irregular; so 'go' as in 'They GO to school' and 'GO to school!' and 'I want to GO to school' will look and sound totally different.

That's my summary but do not be intimidated,  :smile: as a beginner these will be taught to you in a very systematic way.

I hope you enjoy your class!

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Just for your information, guys, the new subforum "study french" is now online and is waiting to be fed with some interesting content :=)))  :grin:. There are quite a lot of french speaking people on linguaholic.com already, so I hope we can the discussions going as soon as possible.

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Just for your information, guys, the new subforum "study french" is now online and is waiting to be fed with some interesting content :=)))  :grin:. There are quite a lot of french speaking people on linguaholic.com already, so I hope we can the discussions going as soon as possible.

That's great, thanks. I looked and didn't see anything which is why I started this. I guess I'll be taking my discussion over there.

I'll make a thread in the French section a little later or maybe this can be moved over to it?

@BWL

Thanks a ton. This is a very clear and concise summary of what's in store. I'm pretty good at Spanish, so I understand how adjectives change as a result of masculinity and femininity. I'm pretty excited now though.

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You're welcome, pojokers!

French is a beautiful language! Enjoy your class! You're most welcome to post any questions on the French language subforum and I'll try my best (or get someone else who is more expert) to answer them.

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I speak French - I studied it at school for eight years, so I'm almost fluent now. It's a really beautiful and interesting language which allows you to access an amazing culture. My advice is to take it slow - it's one of these languages that needs a lot of care and attention to really grasp. The wonderful thing about French is that it's one of the hardest Romance languages, so if you learn Spanish or Italian afterwards, they're a walk in the park!

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I did a 4 year degree course in French - language, literature, philosophy, politics, history .... Best thing I've ever done especially since I had to spend a year in France.

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I actually don't dare to say I know French. I studied it in high scholl and have my levels, but ever since I got into university, I haven't practiced it. Apart from few articles I read for research, that's it. I am in need to start at least reading and wacthing movies or I will get completely out of track.

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Just for your information, guys, the new subforum "study french" is now online and is waiting to be fed with some interesting content :=)))  :grin:. There are quite a lot of french speaking people on linguaholic.com already, so I hope we can the discussions going as soon as possible.

Great. I would love to participate over there.

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  • 2 months later...

Yes, I agree that there are so many languages that are worth learning, despite the popular necessary language like Spanish. From want I understand, French is a difficult language to learn, not to discourage you. Most languages have different dialects, so when you learn it, it is best to have someone that you can practice with on a daily basis. Unfortunately, as with most languages, after you learn it, you have to continue to speak it or you will forget what you learned.

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I learned French when I was in high school, but I dropped out the class 3 months later. I think French is very difficult for me to learn, not to mention I didn't learn French on my interest. It is one of hardest languages I have learned in school.

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I'm living at France at the moment. I can tell you that French is easy to learn the basics, harder to learn the grammar. The only problem with French grammar is that you have an exception for every single rule. The best way to learn is probably by taking small courses, speaking with french people and understanding how the sentences are composed and how french is spelled.

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I think learning any language would give you some insight on the culture behind it, but yeah, the French language is definitely rich in culture. I studied it daily for a month, and I found it relatively easy to learn, but the words are a little hard to pronounce, and it's so easy to make them sound inaccurate or even sound like a different language with just a simple mispronunciation. I hope to immerse myself in their culture by means of living a while in France soon, I think that will turn out to be more efficient in teaching me the language, and it certainly will provide for a fuller experience.

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