Author Topic: French 101  (Read 16811 times)

Offline Protege moi

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French 101
« on: June 29, 2007, 10:29:26 AM »
Hey all,

I'm volunteering my time to fic writers who have questions about the French language, should they using it in their stories and the online translators just don't seem to be doing the trick!

The goal is to have a bit of an archive of common French sayings, etc. or provide help to those who want to stick it into a story and make sure it sounds right!

I think the general feeling is that no person is going to be writing entire sentences in French, but if for some reason there will be, I'll do my best to try and help out with that! 

This thread is here as a tool, should writers wish to use it, and I don't want anyone to feel obliged that they have to. 

I will check the thread every week day.  If any Francophone out there wishes to volunteer a suggestion, please feel free.  I'm also hoping if you find a mistake that you'll correct me. 

Laissez les bon temps rouler!
« Last Edit: June 29, 2007, 10:42:32 AM by Lucia »

xenokattz

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Re: French 101
« Reply #1 on: July 18, 2007, 12:36:45 PM »
This is for a Smallville fic (of all things!) but I would love to have a double check anyway:

Sois sage pendant nos absences, d'accord? = Be good (as in obedient) while we're gone, okay?

Also, when a kid has just mastered full sentences (maybe around 4 or 5) what kind of grammatical mistakes might she make? ie) confusing tenses and plurals

Thanks in advance!

Offline Protege moi

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Re: French 101
« Reply #2 on: July 18, 2007, 02:12:03 PM »
Having discussed things with you, I think our best bet is:

'Soyez ob?issants pendant notre absence.'

As for errors in little kids with speech, I'm not so sure, as i've not spent a lot of time around French speaking toddlers.  Any francophones who have, please feel free to imput.

But I can see confusing sounds, and yes, confusing tenses.  Plurals are difficult to illustrate in speech, because often they're indicated by a silent 's' at the end of a word...it's not an audible mistake, but more one you would see on paper.  they might, however, make gender mistakes. 

again, i'm not certain on this, as i've never been around a kid developing language in french.

Offline GambitMojo

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Re: French 101
« Reply #3 on: February 03, 2008, 02:46:40 PM »
How many in the Guild are 'actual' Cajuns?

I think it would be cool to do a fan series in Cajun. aka a Gambit online perhaps comic book

anyone have an opinion on this???

Offline Protege moi

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Re: French 101
« Reply #4 on: February 04, 2008, 11:57:00 AM »
I have no idea how many 'actual' Cajuns are in the Guild.  Though, we do boast quite a few Francophones.

~V

la

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Re: French 101
« Reply #5 on: February 06, 2008, 06:45:26 PM »
Yeah I doubt there are any real Cajuns about. If you are one I dare you to come out!

I'll ask someone in the morning about the children's mistake thingies. After all this thread does concern some of my favourite people and many of my favourite topics, how could I not. Plus it'll give me a conversation starter in the office. Always a toughie when they're much older than you. And trust me adults make gender mistakes too! Fools of Tookes. Autoroute got one of mine confused the other day.

Ooh, I just realised that question was quite old! Tant pis, I'm asking anyway.

Alors mes filles, a demain
xLx
« Last Edit: February 06, 2008, 06:47:04 PM by la »

Offline Protege moi

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Re: French 101
« Reply #6 on: February 07, 2008, 10:59:36 AM »
Salut, la!

Ca fait du longtemps!  comment vas-tu?  t'es toujours ? Paris, n'est-ce pas?

Is GambitMojo a femme?  i'm so bad at judging that according to screen names.

Anyways, i'll be interested to know what you find out from your co-workers.  ever the linguist, though the topic is old, it still is something i'd like to know.

that, and kids say the darndest things!

~V


la

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Re: French 101
« Reply #7 on: February 09, 2008, 08:37:41 PM »
Ja, je suis toujours a la capitale, just check out my freshly (or should I say, *Frenchly*, bwahaha) edited picture in ze gallery de la vie reelle. Ouais.

Oops, sorry for besexing GambitMojo. Forgotted you see.

Je vais bien, I gave my co-workers the question to mull over over the weekend. I'll see them again on Tuesday as I work elsewhere on Mondays. I shall do some recon in this other work too, worry-ye not. k then, ciao for now mesdamessieurs. See, good girl.

xLx

Offline Protege moi

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Re: French 101
« Reply #8 on: February 10, 2008, 11:21:24 AM »
La (or should I say good girl?),

Tu me fais rire. 

Hmm, a picture in the gallery...i'll have to go and check it out.  i'll probably end up getting insanely jealous about it ;).  i wanna go to france!!!

how many jobs do you have?!

~V

la

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Re: French 101
« Reply #9 on: February 24, 2008, 07:22:20 PM »
Well my coworkers were null in coming up with an answer. In the end, all  got was

1> One kid, par exemple, says 'noir and noirte' instead of 'noir and noire'. Gender confusion at the age of 7 there.
2> Gender of less common words - not always easy eh...
3> long words - they add and subtract syllables as they wish
4> comical interpretation of words - they heard a word they didn't quite understand somewhere and used it in a unfitting context.

So pretty similar stuff to kids in all languages really. And of course it's particular to each kid. If they're well spoken then they're not likely to make more mistakes than the ones above.

Zere ve go.

xxx

Offline Sheba

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Re: French 101
« Reply #10 on: May 07, 2008, 09:58:39 PM »
*Pokes topic gently*

Ummm, is this dead? If it is I'm sorry, but I really wasn't sure where else to ask this, and it's been bugging me. In some of the stories I've been reading lately--filthy Remyslash fan that I am--Remy refers to his male lover as 'chere'. I know that's how he calls Rogue in canon, so I was wondering if the authors were just messed up on that or if 'chere' can indeed be unisex.

Also, stupid as it sounds, what key combination do I press to get the little accent-thingie over the second e?

wingy

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Re: French 101
« Reply #11 on: May 08, 2008, 12:57:54 AM »
If you want to be a grammar freak about it, cher would be masculine, chere feminine.

And no idea about the key combinations, but some of the latest versions of word and open source software writers are auto-correcting foreign accent marks.

Offline Protege moi

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Re: French 101
« Reply #12 on: May 26, 2008, 08:46:36 PM »
? = alt+0233
? = alt+0232
? = alt+0234
? = alt+0235

hold down the alt key as you enter the numbers in sequence.

Offline Nevaratoiel

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Re: French 101
« Reply #13 on: May 31, 2008, 07:15:46 PM »
Or:

? = alt+130
? = alt+136
? = alt+137
? = alt+138

? = alt+131
? = alt+132
? = alt+133
? = alt+135
Nicole a.k.a. Nev a.k.a. Neva

I come and go, and come and go, but you're not rid of me that easy... ;D
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Mini Wolfsbane

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Re: French 101
« Reply #14 on: June 17, 2008, 12:07:09 AM »
Ugh...could someone help me or back me up on this semi-debate I'm
having or something?! Please?

I'm on an Evo forum. Some chick asked what Cherie meant,
(spelled it sherie. LOL What?!) anyway, someone else came in
and said:

Quote
'Mon Ch?ri' means 'My Darling'

Then I said how I thought "mon cherie" meant "my dear".

Then he said:
Quote
You're close! 'Mon Cher' is actually 'My Dear' 
This is an adjective, and Ch?ri is a noun.

What??

I've always thought
cher=male form of dear
chere=female form

Nothing about nouns or adjectives or "dear" and "darling".
What the heck is he talking about?! It should be noted
I've never been good with adjectives, nouns or anything
else. Never really learned them. So, I suck.
I know a noun is a person, place or thing, but
anything after that my eyes just glaze over.
Sad, I know.

*ahem* I wouldn't put it past him if he were all wrong.
Not to hold grudges, but the first time we talked, he
was a real jerk. Nicer to me now, but I'll never forget
that.

Thanks!
« Last Edit: June 17, 2008, 12:25:17 AM by Mini Wolfsbane »