French thread

[Yannick]

Hello,
As I was the first to offer the idea of a language board,
I think it is overdue time that I start a French thread,
for all those who want to try to write in French, or ask about France, or ... 
I will let you start to speak 

Bonjour,
Puisque j'ai été le premier à proposer l'idée d'une partie consacrée à d'autres langues que l'anglais,
il était grand temps que je lance un sujet "français",
pour tous ceux qui veulent essayer d'écrire en français, ou poser des questions sur la France, ou ...
Je vais vous laisser commencer à parler

[curiosity]

So, I have this tiny question.
 
I've been learning French at school (haven't practiced since, sadly), and we've been taught that normally "e" isn't pronounced if it is put in the end of a word, like in régime, table, théâtre, right? However, today I've been listening to some readings of Baudelaire's poetry and noticed that "e" is clearly pronounced where I would just skip it - in words âme, nature, fangeuse (I bet you understand which poem I'm talking about). So, as a native speaker, would you be so kind and tell whether my guess is wrong or is it just some... er... regional thing, maybe?

[Yannick]

I've been learning French at school (haven't practiced since, sadly), and we've been taught that normally "e" isn't pronounced if it is put in the end of a word, like in régime, table, théâtre, right? However, today I've been listening to some readings of Baudelaire's poetry and noticed that "e" is clearly pronounced where I would just skip it - in words âme, nature, fangeuse (I bet you understand which poem I'm talking about). So, as a native speaker, would you be so kind and tell whether my guess is wrong or is it just some... er... regional thing, maybe?

I found the answer http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_caduc - http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89lision - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elision_(French)
but to easily explain it, I will need like ... 12 hours of sleep or more 
I will try, but maybe FrogEater or Rollo will help too.

"e": while it is frequently omitted in the standard Parisian accent, in positions where there is no anaptyxis used, it is almost always used in South of France, presumably by influence of Occitan substrate.
So yes, it can be a regional thing, and differ if you live in Paris or Marseille or Montréal, but in some case, you always pronounce it. I fear I can't tell more now.

[ruth]

:uk: my guess is that it's a product of the fact that it's poetry, not that it's a regional difference in pronunciation. in a lot of older english poetry (think shakespeare), in order to fit the meter of the poem there are many times where a syllable that would otherwise be silent is pronounced (this is sometimes shown with an accent, i.e. "blesséd" [bles'sed] vs. "blessed" [blest]). i imagine the same thing is true of french poetry, but i can't be sure, so hold out for a native french speaker to see if they know better than i do.

:france: mon estimation est que c'est à cause du fait qu'est poésie, et pas de différence régional en prononciation. dans beaucoup de la poésie anglaise (comme shakespeare), pour aller avec le mètre de quelques poèmes on a besoin de prononcer une syllabe qu'on ne prononce pas normalement. (on parfois en montre avec accent aigu, alors comme "blesséd" au lieu de "blessed".) j'imagine que c'est aussi comme ça avec la poésie française, mais je ne peux pas être sûre. quelqu'un qui a français comme langue maternelle doit dire si on sait meilleur que moi.

[Hrollo]

:france: Oui, la prononciation et la métrique de la poésie française suivent des règles spécifiques qui ne sont pas tout à fait celle de la langue de tous les jours, et notamment, le -e final se prononce et compte comme une syllabe si le mot suivant commence par une consonne. Mais si le mot suivant commence par une voyelle, ou à la fin d'un vers, on ne le prononce et on ne le compte pas.

:uk: Yes, French poetry's pronunciation and metric follow specific rules which are not exactly those of everyday language; notably, final -e is pronounced and counted as a syllable if the next word starts with a consonant. But if the next word starts with a consonant, or at the end of a line, it is not pronounced nor counted.


Sidenote: we already have a thread to speak romance languages in general, maybe it's not necessary to have one specifically for French as well.

[Nimphy]

I don't necessarily think this thread is a bad idea, but isn't the romance thread enough? People already speak French there, and I feel much more comfortable brutally butchering your language when I can do the same to Spanish and provide Italian translation. It's fun, you know? Me with Italian, you guys with French, ruth and Headfinder with Spanish, Luci with Portuguese, communicating with broken mixes of languages... Plus, if we had to have a thread for every single language, this board would do that separation thing we discussed... Just saying. I'll just lurk around, au revoir!

[curiosity]

Oh, I get it now. Yannick, Ruth, Rollo, merci beaucoup pour vos réponses! 

I hope you won't mind if I ask questions (if I have some) concerning French in the Romance languages thread, then.

[Hrollo]

I don't mind at all, I like answering questions about language.

[Yannick]

I am always happy to help.

I don't necessarily think this thread is a bad idea, but isn't the romance thread enough?

As for the Romance thread, to be bluntly honest here it is so chaotic it make me want to tear my eyes!
it is so confused, fuzzy, foggy,...
I thought it was a fun game, but never that it was supposed to be the only location where we could use any of these languages!  :'(

People already speak French there

Well they can still play there and if they only want to try to speak 1 language, they can come here.

if we had to have a thread for every single language, this board would do that separation thing we discussed... Just saying.

Oh, please, not again, I only returned 2 days ago, I don't have the force to speak again of this very prematurate fear.

Qui vivra verra  =  Time will tell
how to translate proverbs

[Nimphy]

I am always happy to help.
As for the Romance thread, to be bluntly honest here it is so chaotic it make me want to tear my eyes!
it is so confused, fuzzy, foggy,...
I thought it was a fun game, but never that it was supposed to be the only location where we could use any of these languages!  :'(
Well they can still play there and if they only want to try to speak 1 language, they can come here.
Oh, please, not again, I only returned 2 days ago, I don't have the force to speak again of this very prematurate fear.

Qui vivra verra  =  Time will tell
how to translate proverbs

Hey, I was just saying! See, I have issues with French, just like you do not understand Italian. Not everyone speaks every language, you know? But It's not like I'm telling you that you should absolutely close this thread because it's the most horrible idea that ever existed  !

[kjeks]

Salut.

Here is a children's story I'm practicing on:

Mon ami Marius:
"J'ai un nouvel ami", dit le petit frère.
"Mon ami est petit", dit le petit frère. "Et ila un gros ventre!"
"Mon ami a de grande orailles", dit le petit frère. "Et il aime nager!".
"Mon ami s'appelle Marius", dit le petit frère. "Et il est orange e blanc!"
"Ah", dit Léon. "Ton ami Marius est orange et blanc et il a un gros ventre. Alors, c'est un cochon d'inde."
"Non!", dit Sophie. "Ton ami Marius est petit et il aime nager. Alors, c'est un poisson."
"Mais non!", dit Filou. "Ton ami Marius a de grandes oreilles. Alors, c'est un lapin."
"Regardez", dit le petit frère. "Voilà mon ami Marius!".

Can you guess what animal Marius is?

[Nimphy]

Salut.

Here is a children's story I'm practicing on:

Mon ami Marius:
"J'ai un nouvel ami", dit le petit frère.
"Mon ami est petit", dit le petit frère. "Et ila un gros ventre!"
"Mon ami a de grande orailles", dit le petit frère. "Et il aime nager!".
"Mon ami s'appelle Marius", dit le petit frère. "Et il est orange e blanc!"
"Ah", dit Léon. "Ton ami Marius est orange et blanc et il a un gros ventre. Alors, c'est un chochon d'inde."
"Non!", dit Sophie. "Ton ami Marius est petit et il aime nager. Alors, c'est un poisson."
"Mais non!", dit Filou. "Ton ami Marius a ge grandes oreilles. Alors, c'est un lapin."
"Regardez", dit le petit frère. "Voilà mon ami Marius!".

Can you guess what animal Marius is?

I could understand that ('cept for a couple of words, but that's fine), so i feel very well right now. As for Marius... a fox?

[kjeks]

I could understand that ('cept for a couple of words, but that's fine), so i feel very well right now. As for Marius... a fox?

Marius n'est pas un renard

But you're close.

http://vocaroo.com/i/s03qaOn8hrEU And I tried to read eat. I practiced hard and hope I managed to improve on some of the tasks Monsieur Frogeater gave me . With all those nice christmas songs I did not want to put it in the vovaroo-thread.

[Hrollo]

Some fixes, if you permit

Mon ami Marius:
"J'ai un nouvel ami", dit le petit frère.
"Mon ami est petit", dit le petit frère. "Et il a un gros ventre!"
"Mon ami a de grande oreilles", dit le petit frère. "Et il aime nager!".
"Mon ami s'appelle Marius", dit le petit frère. "Et il est orange et blanc!"
"Ah", dit Léon. "Ton ami Marius est orange et blanc et il a un gros ventre. Alors, c'est un cochon d'inde."
"Non!", dit Sophie. "Ton ami Marius est petit et il aime nager. Alors, c'est un poisson."
"Mais non!", dit Filou. "Ton ami Marius a de grandes oreilles. Alors, c'est un lapin."
"Regardez", dit le petit frère. "Voilà mon ami Marius!".

And this:

Marius il n'est pas renard

Would be better either as "Marius n'est pas un renard" (literary standard), or "Marius, ce n'est pas un renard" (spoken standard).

[kjeks]

Some fixes, if you permit

And this:

Would be better either as "Marius n'est pas un renard" (literary standard), or "Marius, ce n'est pas un renard" (spoken standard).

Many thanks Rollo. I had to search for so long to find something near the correct form