Stuff I bet you didn't know!!

In France, the showers and sinks are kept separate from the toilets (like, in two totally different rooms!), because of their idea that you should have one room for being unclean (the toilets), and one room for de-germifying yourself!

 

Nice French dinners consist of multiple courses of food, one of which is literally just for cheese, and probably some bread to eat it with!

 

It's against the law to name your pig Napolean in France!

 

The submarine was invented by the French!

 

Originally, the Eiffel Tower was meant to be built, then taken down again and sold for scrap metal... (Who would do that??)!

Speaking French

     We had a true French woman come in to our class last Friday. She's a very sweet woman who comes from Paris, the site of the Eiffel Tower. I was so jealous that I've never even visited and she gets to live there! Her accent when speaking English was just beautiful. If you've never heard a French person speaking English, look it up, it's gorgeous!
     I can't imagine how we must sound to them. I heard once that the French think we sound nasally, although I don't know how much truth there actually is in that statement... I don't know how else to speak to sound clearer! It's not like we talk through our nose... What does nasally even sound like??
    
     Anyway, we learned from this lovely French woman how to pronounce certain French sounds. The "ou" part of any given word must be pronounced ooh. The sound you must make when pronouncing words such as "tu", sounds like you're saying an English "ee" with your mouth in the shape of an "o". Finally, the "eux" sound, as in the word "peux" (can), sounds like "ouh". Sorry if that's unclear... It's sort of a mix between ooh and uh.
     So yeah, the Madame pronounced each of these three for us because although they are similar, they distinguish very different words from each other.

      I love my French class and learning the French language, and if you know of anyone who is considering taking classes, talk them into it!
    

In Class

     So this week we've been doing a ton of review from last year (french one), and have worked a bit with possessive adjectives. These in english would be my, your, his, hers, etc. Except that, in french everything is 20 times more confusing! There are three different types of the word "my". If you're using it in front of a singular, feminine noun, you use "ma". In front of a singular, masculine noun, it's "mon" (pronounced mohn), but if it's in front of a plural noun, you've got to use "mes" (pronounced may) whether the following noun is feminine OR masculine!

     

     If you've never taken any french, you're probably wondering what in the world I mean by masculine and feminine nouns. Basically, every noun in french must be coupled with an article (a/an, the, etc.), or a possessive adjective, which will tell you whether that particular noun is masculine or feminine. You can think of these as the Mr. or Mrs. of a noun... I really have no idea why the French do this, but that's the way it is! For example, the french word table, "table" (pronounced tob-luh) is a feminine noun. Therefore, when you are talking about the table, you would say la table. However, if you wanted to say the tables, the "la" would then change to "les" (lay), because the noun is plural. Les tables.

     

     Here are some more examples:

             My table = Ma table.

             My tables = Mes tables.

             My pen (This is a masculine noun) = Mon stylo.

Super Cute!

We watched this adorable video in French class last year...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=381bv0_Gpo8

Firstly...

     I'd like to mention right away that this blog is a school assignment, so it won't be the very best, I'm sure. : )  My posts will loosely relate to French in general and what my French II class has been up to, what's going on in french club, maybe some random facts.... You know, the usual. :D