The word for what in French is "que". You could thus ask a question such as:
Que fais-tu? What are you doing.
There is a different situation in English where we use the word "what". Consider the sentence:
I do not understand what you are doing.
This sentence is not a question. In French, we cannot simply replace the English word "what" with "que" when we are not using "what" as the first word in a question. Let us take the sentence above and paraphrase it in English to yield:
I do not understand that which you are doing.
Notice how "what" has been replaced by two words "that which". It is this exact construction we use in French to say "what" in a sentence like the one given in the example. "That which" is translated as "ce que". Thus, the correct sentence in French would be:
Je ne comprends pas ce que tu fais.
Here are some more examples.
Examples
Je déteste ce que tu m'a dit. I hate what you said to me.
[I hate what that which you said to me.]
Ce que je voulais dire c'est
qu'il viendra. What I meant to say is that he is coming.
[That which I meant to say
is that he is coming.]
J'aime bien ceux que vous
avez acheté. I like the ones you bought.
[I like those that you bought.]
Monday, March 25, 2013
Build or fight
Two French words people sometimes struggle with are "battre" and "bâtir", specifically when it comes to conjugation these. You really do not want to get the conjugations wrong as you might end up telling someone you are fighting rather than you are building something.
For a long time, I struggled to remember which word meant what. The trick that helped me was to remind myself that "bâtir" uased to contain an 's'. I know this because of the use of the circumflex. Thus, somewhere in the mists of time the word was something like "bastir". The word "bastir" reminds me of the English word "bastion", which is a type of building. Therefore, "bâtir" means to build. I wonder, by the way, if the word "bastille" is somehow derived from "bastir".
I am not going to give the full conjugations of the two verbs. Instead I will give only the present tense of "nous" for each verb:
Nous battons We fight/We beat
Nous bâtissons We build
For a long time, I struggled to remember which word meant what. The trick that helped me was to remind myself that "bâtir" uased to contain an 's'. I know this because of the use of the circumflex. Thus, somewhere in the mists of time the word was something like "bastir". The word "bastir" reminds me of the English word "bastion", which is a type of building. Therefore, "bâtir" means to build. I wonder, by the way, if the word "bastille" is somehow derived from "bastir".
I am not going to give the full conjugations of the two verbs. Instead I will give only the present tense of "nous" for each verb:
Nous battons We fight/We beat
Nous bâtissons We build
Reflecting on the Reflexive
Read the conversation below:
Adam: I am going to shave.
Jacques: Who are you going to shave?
Adam: I am going to shave myself. Who else?
Jacques: Well, you should have said so in the first place, you idiot. If you do not say who you are going to shave, you could be shaving anyone.
Adam: You are a pervert.
Jacques: No, I am French. You must not be an English idiot.
Adam: I want to shower.
Jacques: Who do you want to shower? Oh la la.
Adam: I want to shower. You know, I want to wash myself.
Jacques: You idiot. You got me all excited. You should have told me you were going to shower yourself. You must always tell me who you are going to shower.
Adam: I want to brush my teeth.
Jacques: You are learning idiot but your style is poor. You should say "I want to me to brush the teeth".
Adam: Have you been drinking?
Jacques: Just a little wine.
Adam: You must you stop from drinking.
Jacques: Ah, you are starting to speak the beautiful French.
In all languages, we have what are called transitive verbs and intransitive verbs. A transitive verb is one that must take an object or similar, for example, "feel". You would never sa "I feel". Something is missing. What do you feel? How do you feel? This verb has to have something after it. An intransitive verb is one that does not require something afterwards, for example, "understand". You can say "I understand" and that would make perfectly good sense. Yes, you can put something afterwards as in the sentence "I understand French" but it is not always required as is the case with transitive verbs. In French, most verbs are transitive verbs. You almost always have to say to whom or what you are performing an action.
Examples
Je me douche. I am showering (me).
Il se lave. He is washing (himself).
Elles se vont. They are leaving. (Literally: They are making themselves go.)
Le bus s'arrêtte. The bus is stopping (itself).
Nous nous battons. We are fighting. (Literally: We are making each other fight OR we are
fighting to us.
Remember that in the perfect tense, we use the verb être and not avoir with reflexive verbs. Hence, we have the examples below.
Examples
Je me suis douché. I showered.
Il s'est lavé. He washed.
Elles se sont allées. They washed.
Le bus s'est arrêté. The bus stopped.
Nous nous sommes battus. We fought/We had a fight.
Adam: I am going to shave.
Jacques: Who are you going to shave?
Adam: I am going to shave myself. Who else?
Jacques: Well, you should have said so in the first place, you idiot. If you do not say who you are going to shave, you could be shaving anyone.
Adam: You are a pervert.
Jacques: No, I am French. You must not be an English idiot.
Adam: I want to shower.
Jacques: Who do you want to shower? Oh la la.
Adam: I want to shower. You know, I want to wash myself.
Jacques: You idiot. You got me all excited. You should have told me you were going to shower yourself. You must always tell me who you are going to shower.
Adam: I want to brush my teeth.
Jacques: You are learning idiot but your style is poor. You should say "I want to me to brush the teeth".
Adam: Have you been drinking?
Jacques: Just a little wine.
Adam: You must you stop from drinking.
Jacques: Ah, you are starting to speak the beautiful French.
In all languages, we have what are called transitive verbs and intransitive verbs. A transitive verb is one that must take an object or similar, for example, "feel". You would never sa "I feel". Something is missing. What do you feel? How do you feel? This verb has to have something after it. An intransitive verb is one that does not require something afterwards, for example, "understand". You can say "I understand" and that would make perfectly good sense. Yes, you can put something afterwards as in the sentence "I understand French" but it is not always required as is the case with transitive verbs. In French, most verbs are transitive verbs. You almost always have to say to whom or what you are performing an action.
Examples
Je me douche. I am showering (me).
Il se lave. He is washing (himself).
Elles se vont. They are leaving. (Literally: They are making themselves go.)
Le bus s'arrêtte. The bus is stopping (itself).
Nous nous battons. We are fighting. (Literally: We are making each other fight OR we are
fighting to us.
Remember that in the perfect tense, we use the verb être and not avoir with reflexive verbs. Hence, we have the examples below.
Examples
Je me suis douché. I showered.
Il s'est lavé. He washed.
Elles se sont allées. They washed.
Le bus s'est arrêté. The bus stopped.
Nous nous sommes battus. We fought/We had a fight.
Have need of...
People often think it is strange that the English word "need" is translated by three words in French "avoir besoin de". However, if you think about it, it is not that strange. It is possible in English to say "I have need of a friend". This is exactly what French speakers say all the time "have need of". So now you know: "J'ai besoin d'un ami" is not such a strange thing to say :-D.
Means of Transport Prepositions
Sometimes people have difficulty remembering if they should say "en voiture" or "à pied" or which preposition should preceed the means of transportation. Actually, if you understand the constructions, it becomes easier. Remember that "en" can mean "in", at least in an abstract to slightly abstract sense. Imagine you want to go somewhere by car. You will be in the car when you travel. Now, you do not want to say something like "Je vais dans la voiture" because it would not be clear what you meant. Do you mean you are already inside the car and are moving around? If so, where are you trying to get to inside the car? That would be a bit bizarre. Are you trying to say you are getting into the car? Also, you are not referring to a specific car. You are not trying to say "I am going by the car". You are referring to a car in a semi-abstract sense, as a means of transport. There is no indication in the sentence "I am going by car" which specific car you will be taking. Now that I have bored you to death with why it is correct to say "en" rather than "dans" in this situation, let us look at some examples with "en":
Examples
en voiture by car
en bicyclette by bicycle (I know you do not get into the bike but we use "en" anyway)
en avion by plane
en train by train
en bus by bus
en bâteau by boat
Let us now turn our attention to the word "pied", which means foot. It would not make sense to say "en pied". How would you get into your own foot to go somewhere? You would instead go on foot. Do not try to say "Je vais sur mon pied". Are you trying to say you are going to walk on your on foot or stand on top of it? It does not make sense. We thus use à, which is sometimes used as a kind of abstract preposition when all other prepositions fail, that is when they do not fit. Here are some examples where we use à.
Examples
à pied on foot
à cheval on horseback, by horse
Lastly, I want to talk about the use of "par" with means of transport. You might hear the phrase "par avion", which means "by plane". Why is it sometimes "par avion" and not "en avion"? The explanation is simple. If you want to send a parcel or letter by air mail, the plane becomes your instrument for delivering something. You yourself are not getting on the plane and are certain not being delivered. Hence "en" would be unsuitable. We therefore use "par".
Examples
par avion by plane
par courrier by courier
par train by train
par bâteau by boat
Examples
en voiture by car
en bicyclette by bicycle (I know you do not get into the bike but we use "en" anyway)
en avion by plane
en train by train
en bus by bus
en bâteau by boat
Let us now turn our attention to the word "pied", which means foot. It would not make sense to say "en pied". How would you get into your own foot to go somewhere? You would instead go on foot. Do not try to say "Je vais sur mon pied". Are you trying to say you are going to walk on your on foot or stand on top of it? It does not make sense. We thus use à, which is sometimes used as a kind of abstract preposition when all other prepositions fail, that is when they do not fit. Here are some examples where we use à.
Examples
à pied on foot
à cheval on horseback, by horse
Lastly, I want to talk about the use of "par" with means of transport. You might hear the phrase "par avion", which means "by plane". Why is it sometimes "par avion" and not "en avion"? The explanation is simple. If you want to send a parcel or letter by air mail, the plane becomes your instrument for delivering something. You yourself are not getting on the plane and are certain not being delivered. Hence "en" would be unsuitable. We therefore use "par".
Examples
par avion by plane
par courrier by courier
par train by train
par bâteau by boat
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Weird for English Speakers
As I said in an earlier post, prepositions in French do not always correspond exactly to those in English. Two specific instances in French that are counterintuitive to English speakers are:
Je prends les jouets dans la boîte. I took the toys out of/from the box.
J'ai acheté la bicyclette à Jacques. I bought the bicycle from Jacques.
The way I made sense of these constructions as an English speaker is to try to get into the frame of mind of a French speaker. In the first example, I told myself that to get the toys I would need to put my hands inside the box and grab the toys while my hands were in there.
In the second example, I told myself I need to go to Jacques to buy the bicycle.
If you think about it, both the prepositions in English and French make sense in these instances based on how they are generally understood and used in the respective languages. The point is that we need to learn the logic behind how prepositions are used in French just as a French speaker would have to learn the logic behind how prepositions are used in English.
Je prends les jouets dans la boîte. I took the toys out of/from the box.
J'ai acheté la bicyclette à Jacques. I bought the bicycle from Jacques.
The way I made sense of these constructions as an English speaker is to try to get into the frame of mind of a French speaker. In the first example, I told myself that to get the toys I would need to put my hands inside the box and grab the toys while my hands were in there.
In the second example, I told myself I need to go to Jacques to buy the bicycle.
If you think about it, both the prepositions in English and French make sense in these instances based on how they are generally understood and used in the respective languages. The point is that we need to learn the logic behind how prepositions are used in French just as a French speaker would have to learn the logic behind how prepositions are used in English.
Go out, Take out
The French verb "sortir" can mean both to go out and to take out.
Examples
Je sort ce soir. I am going out tonight.
Je sort le chien. I am taking/letting the dog out.
Examples
Je sort ce soir. I am going out tonight.
Je sort le chien. I am taking/letting the dog out.
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