English Speakers and French subtleties Hey everyone,
I’m a novice when it comes to spoken French and the subtleties of the language but I really want to do it justice when I reference it in my novel. The particular scene I need help with is a first person account of a French woman where she tells the reader about an occasion when was approached by English Gentleman (an official and very well educated) who was fluent French speaker, but not a native, and how she knew he wasn't French. I wanted to include details of how she
she might have missed initially if she wasn’t paying too much attention to him but as her guard was up already in the scene, she was able to spot the giveaways that others may have missed.
Whether it be pronunciation, tense, inflection or something to do with the time etc.
The English man in the scene approached the French woman when she’s at work in a post office and hands her a note. He tells her something along the lines of ”I need this delivered by tomorrow morning, 9:30 at the latest. Tracked” with a French name and address on the envelope. I’m thinking something around the way he says the time could be interesting, but I’m not sure how it would work yet?
What are some subtle giveaways that native French speakers pick up with non native French speakers that indicate to them them that they’re not French? (That aren’t so obvious.)
Any thoughts will be helpful. Thank you for your time🙏🏻
My biggest mistakes at this simple point in A1 are because I don't know the word as opposed to missing the grammar rules (parce que, par, oeuvres, etc.). When I make mistakes the lessons recommended are almost always about the grammar -- are there lessons or suggestions for picking up more vocabulary? (although I'm suspecting that just doing exercises is the best way to get exposed to more words :-) )
The hint that is given first has cinque with lowercase, but when I used that I got it wrong.
Bonjour,
We know that indefinite articles "un/une/des" become "de" in negative form with the exception of verb être and verbs of states. But, does this rule also apply to the negative of interrogative sentence?
For example:
Il mange une pomme. -> Il ne mange pas de pomme.
Is the following also true?
Est-ce qu'il mange une pomme ? -> Est-ce qu'il ne mange pas de pomme ? and
Mange-t-il une pomme ? -> Ne mange-t-il pas de pomme ?
I didn't find any reference about negative interrogative and indefinite articles so have to ask to clear my doubt. Also, please confirm the case with negative interrogative and partitive articles.
merci beaucoup.
Dans cette example : " C'est le vin le plus sec que l'on puisse trouver ", pourquoi on dit " que l'on " mais pas " qu'on " ?
Would 'doué' have been as good as 'talentueux' here?
The commentary is simply too fast. May I suggest that you have a slower speed, in addition to the present one. Duolingo does this, and I find I need to break down the words -- then, I can play the faster speed, as I know conversations aren't done in a slow speed. But, as of now, the words simply run together and I can't discern individual words.
Yet, "un vrai nom" can mean a person's real name, correct?
Hey everyone,
I’m a novice when it comes to spoken French and the subtleties of the language but I really want to do it justice when I reference it in my novel. The particular scene I need help with is a first person account of a French woman where she tells the reader about an occasion when was approached by English Gentleman (an official and very well educated) who was fluent French speaker, but not a native, and how she knew he wasn't French. I wanted to include details of how she
she might have missed initially if she wasn’t paying too much attention to him but as her guard was up already in the scene, she was able to spot the giveaways that others may have missed.
Whether it be pronunciation, tense, inflection or something to do with the time etc.
The English man in the scene approached the French woman when she’s at work in a post office and hands her a note. He tells her something along the lines of ”I need this delivered by tomorrow morning, 9:30 at the latest. Tracked” with a French name and address on the envelope. I’m thinking something around the way he says the time could be interesting, but I’m not sure how it would work yet?
What are some subtle giveaways that native French speakers pick up with non native French speakers that indicate to them them that they’re not French? (That aren’t so obvious.)
Any thoughts will be helpful. Thank you for your time🙏🏻
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