The Wonderful
World of French
“When
all else fails, use French!” –Monsieur Zack
Opening Words,
As a writer, I have to have my prologue! Believe it or not, I’ve taught French before, but far
from advanced French lessons. I’ve taught my little 11-year old cousin some French
All right, introduction over and done with, let us get
onto the language!
French is fairly easy to get
going, but it is NOT English. (Obviously, but this means you cannot use English
pronunciations for French words.) A variety of different rules and
pronunciations must be observed.
Let us start with the basics!
Lesson 1: Hello, Goodbye, and how to
say it!
Let’s start off with the same thing my own French teacher got
our class started with. Bonjour.
Means hello, right? Well, if you want to go to
Bonjour consists of two French
words. Bon, which means good. Then jour, which means
day. Together this is good day! However, simply, it means hello, you do
not need to worry about what time of day you say this, as it’s
not taken literally as “good day.”
Let’s take apart the word for pronunciation. I do hope you
know your basic English… otherwise… well;
you won’t do so well here!
Bon:
Pronounced like “Bone”
but without the “e,” it
also requires a bit of a French accent. (Not
pronounced “B-on J-or”)
Jour:
*J’s retain the same sound with nearly, if not all, French words. No
"juh" or "guh" sound like we use in English. You carry the
J on without such a sound. I'll see if I can get a
recording made.
Side Trip: Vocabulaire
Français (*inclines you to review the lesson)
-Bonjour:
Literally, "good day." No 'n-sound'
is present. [B-own-jour]
-Salut: Hi (Informal) [Sah-loo]
-Au revoir:
Good-bye (Formal) [Oh-rev-wahr]
-Quoi de neuf?: What's Up or What's New? [Qwa-duh-neuhf]
-Je m'appelle...: My name
is... [*Juh-mah-pelle]
-Je voudrais: I would
like... [*Juh-voo-dray]
-J'ai soif: I'm thirsty
[*Jhay-swahf]
Side Trip:
Les Aliments Français! (*inclines
you to review the lesson)
-un
jus: Juice
+ d'orange: orange
+ de
pomme: apple
+ de
raisin: grape