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🙏🏻
I gave elle s’assoit avec son fils but this was corrected to elle s’assois which isn’t the 3rd person .
How to identify passe compose
May have found a missing translation. I put "j'ai choisi de passer le reste de la nuit dans les buissons de Mme. Maron !" and was marked wrong, but "j'ai décidé de passer le reste de la nuit dans les buissons de Mme Maron !" and "j'ai choisi de finir la nuit dans les buissons de Mme Maron !" are accepted translations.
I have read the lesson and the forum. At this level, is it really necessary to learn several (confusing) ways of asking these questions? Could we learn to use one, the commonest one, and then come back to another lesson later for all the variations. I cannot get past this test (but I can get what I want in a boulangerie!) :)
In this sentence - 'Je souhaiterais presque être né dans un autre pays, de telle sorte que ma langue maternelle m'ait préparé à ces défis linguistiques' - could you have instead 'Je souhaiterais presque être né dans un autre pays, pour que ma langue maternelle 'm'ait prépraré...' ?
My husband, who is French, is adamant that 'avoir' is not used with apparu. Is it that this is a regional usage (eg Quebec v France or even South of France v Paris where he's from)? Or is it just uncommon? Otherwise, like many a native speaker, he could simply be mistaken!
Very interested by Chris’s use of “depuis” in “Je regarde depuis de belles collines”. Does using “depuis” impact a slight change in the English translation such as “I have been watching from beautiful hills” or am I overthinking it.
In the first sentence of the full text at the end of the lesson, the last phrase text reads "...mon père et moi avons décidé d'aller à la pêche !", but the audio says ..."alors, mon père et moi avons décidé d'aller à la pêche !"
During the exercise, the text for this phrase also reads "...mon père et moi avons décidé d'aller à la pêche !", but the audio says"...donc, mon père et moi avons décidé d'aller à la pêche !"
Since "comme" is the qualifier in the preceding phrase, the use of either "alors" or "donc" doesn't seem to make sense.
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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