French Now Level 1 (Barron's Foreign Language Guides)

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Doubling a final n and adding a silent e at the end of a word (e.g., chien → chienne) makes it clearly pronounced. Doubling a final l and adding a silent e (e.g., gentil → gentille) adds a [j] sound if the l is preceded by the letter i.

A diaeresis on y only occurs in some proper names and in modern editions of old French texts. Some proper names in which ÿ appears include Aÿ (a commune in Marne, formerly Aÿ-Champagne), Rue des Cloÿs (an alley in Paris), Croÿ (family name and hotel on the Boulevard Raspail, Paris), Château du Faÿ [ fr] (near Pontoise), Ghÿs (name of Flemish origin spelt Ghijs where ij in handwriting looked like ÿ to French clerks), L'Haÿ-les-Roses (commune near Paris), Pierre Louÿs (author), Moÿ-de-l'Aisne (commune in Aisne and a family name), and Le Blanc de Nicolaÿ (an insurance company in eastern France). A leading world language, French is taught in universities around the world, and is one of the world's most influential languages because of its wide use in the worlds of journalism, jurisprudence, education, and diplomacy. [97] a b Institut Statistique de Polynésie Française (ISPF). "Recensement 2017 – Données détaillées Langues". Archived from the original on 7 April 2019 . Retrieved 7 April 2019. French orthography is morphophonemic. While it contains 130 graphemes that denote only 36 phonemes, many of its spelling rules are likely due to a consistency in morphemic patterns such as adding suffixes and prefixes. [105] Many given spellings of common morphemes usually lead to a predictable sound. In particular, a given vowel combination or diacritic generally leads to one phoneme. However, there is not a one-to-one relation of a phoneme and a single related grapheme, which can be seen in how tomber and tombé both end with the /e/ phoneme. [106] Additionally, there are many variations in the pronunciation of consonants at the end of words, demonstrated by how the x in paix is not pronounced though at the end of Aix it is . Up until its later stages, Old French, alongside Old Occitan, maintained a relic of the old nominal case system of Latin longer than most other Romance languages (with the notable exception of Romanian which still currently maintains a case distinction), differentiating between an oblique case and a nominative case. The phonology was characterized by heavy syllabic stress, which led to the emergence of various complicated diphthongs such as -eau which would later be leveled to monophthongs. [ citation needed]Under the Constitution of France, French has been the official language of the Republic since 1992, [47] although the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts made it mandatory for legal documents in 1539. France mandates the use of French in official government publications, public education except in specific cases, and legal contracts; advertisements must bear a translation of foreign words.

French Today has lessons and audiobooks that focus on teaching French the way it’s actually spoken first and foremost. Using their materials, you can become familiar with grammar and vocabulary concepts while also developing an understanding of what that grammar and vocabulary really sounds like in action. a b c d The World's 10 most influential languages, George Weber, 1997, Language Today, retrieved on scribd.com Alors, depending on the context, can mean “so,” “well,” “then” or “while.” Don’t be too intimidated by the specifics, though, as it’s usually pretty easy to figure out what it means from the context. It’s often just used as a filler or transition word along the lines of “well” or “so.”

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Population Reference Bureau. "2020 World Population Data Sheet – Population mid-2020". Archived from the original on 26 November 2020 . Retrieved 24 November 2020. Another çaphrase for good measure. This phrase has a more specific usage, as it usually falls into the category of making plans. Plans are important because they mean more opportunities for conversation! You don’t want to miss or misunderstand someone asking if you want to hang out again. The circumflex does not affect the pronunciation of the letters i or u, nor, in most dialects, a. It usually indicates that an s came after it long ago, as in île (from former isle, compare with English word "isle"). The explanation is that some words share the same orthography, so the circumflex is put here to mark the difference between the two words. For example, dites (you say) / dîtes (you said), or even du (of the) / dû (past participle for the verb devoir = must, have to, owe; in this case, the circumflex disappears in the plural and the feminine).

The world's languages, in 7 maps and charts". The Washington Post. 18 April 2022 . Retrieved 19 April 2022. Tous les êtres humains naissent libres et égaux en dignité et en droits. Ils sont doués de raison et de conscience et doivent agir les uns envers les autres dans un esprit de fraternité. [121] Almost 30,000 readers voted in the 2023 Telegraph Travel Awards, nominating their favourite destinations, hotels and holiday companies – and the results are in. Here we reveal your top ferry operators. Best Ferry Line

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Questions de langue: Nombres (écriture, lecture, accord)" (in French). Académie française. Archived from the original on 1 January 2015 . Retrieved 15 November 2015. French was the official language of the colony of French Indochina, comprising modern-day Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. It continues to be an administrative language in Laos and Cambodia, although its influence has waned in recent decades. [77] In colonial Vietnam, the elites primarily spoke French, while many servants who worked in French households spoke a French pidgin known as " Tây Bồi" (now extinct). After French rule ended, South Vietnam continued to use French in administration, education, and trade. [78] However, since the Fall of Saigon and the opening of a unified Vietnam's economy, French has gradually been effectively displaced as the first foreign language of choice by English in Vietnam. Nevertheless, it continues to be taught as the other main foreign language in the Vietnamese educational system and is regarded as a cultural language. [79] Eh bienis a common interjection that just means “so” or “well” but can often add emphasis to a question or statement. 7. Ben oui