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There is a surprising amount of English on French TV mainly in adverts. Lots of English music on the Virgin channel.

I'm finding French hard going. I can hold limited conversations now provided people don't speak too fast. I'm also getting fairly good at reading French (I'm reading some classic French novels at the moment) however I get very little practice at writing French. So while for example I can read your sentence "pour votre questions peut être" and understand it perfectly well, I would have struggled to write it and made spelling mistakes with peut être". French seems to have a lot of "redundant" stuff in it. Verb transformations taking so many forms depending on who is doing them. I'm sure the same action doesn't need to be expressing in fifteen different words depending on who and when! Frustrating.

Yes, somewhat surprising (English on French TV and radio).... in the past, the French (with a very strict 'language institute' also) protected their language from words immigrating theirs. (computer = ordinateur, they decided, par example.... um, all Dutch just call it computer, like the rest of the world probs). Not saying they're snobbish, I understand their proud-ness a little, but in the past they went a little 'rococo', like they did in architecture and art. (i.e. too much, IMO).

Qui, tranquillement, s.v.p.... most of the time they tend to speak so swift, with lots of hand gestures, vivid facial expression and all, (not easy on an Asperger, I figure) but when they/most see/hear you make an effort to speak their language, they are quite patient and helpful, I noticed.

Well, my language is specked with English words and phrases. Hip managers talk mixing the two all the time (and bugger, I'm turning into one myself (sometimes) if I'm not careful).

(sorry for the long post, languages seem to be an interest of mine)

Hi everyone

Are you the resident French expert? If so I would like to bend your ear from time to time. (Assuming you understood that English idiom ) Are you French?

I can move my ears but I can't bend them.
... But on the other hand, I guess I can lend you one.

It'll all depend on the purpose.

D'ya think I'm writing engrish on purpose?

Occasionally I have a question about the French language but don't really have anyone to ask. My French neighbour helps me with pronunciation from time to time, but he isn't very academic. The only question that springs to mind at the moment is this: When reading French literature sometimes phrases are in angle quotes such as « phrase » and other times with underscores _phrase_ what is the difference between the two forms? Can you tell me please?

I suppose that the difference is when you read on internet or onto books?
There's no underscores when you read books.

I read 20000 Lieues sous les mers by Jules Verne as a downloaded eBook. Maybe it is because it is from the Internet? Both forms are used in the book though. The name of the submarine is shown as _Nautilus_ but speech is within the angle brackets and sometimes the odd phrase such as: La « question
du monstre » enflamma les esprits.

Winner...

It is about 47 degrees Fahrenheit, 82% humidity, and party cloudy skies here right now.

I win yet again!

Too easy. My turn now.

Bunnies!! !

David Hume says I will win. You wouldn't want to argue with a man crazy enough to wear that thing on his head.

Last edited by McTell on 18 Oct 2009, 5:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I win again!