So today I tried to go register for two weeks of classes at the Alliance Française before I return to the US, but they were full for this week, so I guess I'm on my own for a couple days.
Which brings me to my main point: French verbs that they don't teach you in school but turn out to be useful.
In high school and at the Sorbonne, we went over the Important Verbs: être (to be) and avoir (to have) were the two big ones, with faire (to do) and mettre (to put) and prendre (to take) and then random ones like venir (to come) and danser (to dance) to remind you of the verb endings. But there are really cool ones that they never teach you until you're reading a book meant for French twelve-year-olds and realize that you don't know ANY of the words and then go look them up and you're amazed at how quickly your world in French grows, because people actually use these. Like bouder, which means "to sulk." To sulk! Or hurler - to howl. On one hand, there's no reason to go over "to sulk" in any grammar class, but on the other - now you know how to say that someone's sulking or howling. How cool is that?
Hi Bronwyn,
ReplyDeleteSorry you could not get into the class, and that is probably a good way of learning, reading children's French books ( never thought of that)
I have been trying to brush up on my French, with Michele Thomas's tapes, have you looked into them. I did take French lessons back in High School, but that was a long time ago.
Happy week
Hugs
Carolyn