Learn who your real French friends are
You’ve probably heard the word ‘actuellement’ used to mean ‘actually’. As you may have guessed from the title of this post (and the tagline), ‘actuellement’ is a faux ami (or false friend) of ‘actually’.
Actuellement actually means Continue reading “FAUX AMIS”
In French unlike English, ‘h’ is normally a vowel and is treated the same way other vowels are. That is why we say ‘l’homme’, for instance; the article l’ is used before singular nouns beginning with vowels. This is known as h-muet (silent h). What is less known is the existence of h as a consonant as well. This phenomenon is known as h-aspiré (aspirated h) and has two very important bearings on how words are represented.
Continue reading “H-aspiré, H-muet: the double identity of ‘h’”Protips: The little things you learn to pro up your French
In English, answers to both affirmative and negative questions take the same form:
‘Did you buy the cheese?’
‘Yes’
‘Didn’t you buy the cheese?’
‘Yes’ (implied: yes, I did buy the cheese)
In French, a positive response to an affirmative question is ‘oui’, while that of a negative question is ‘si’:
‘T’as acheté le fromage ?’
‘Oui’
But:
‘Tu n’as pas acheté le fromage ?’
‘Si’ (implied: si, je l’ai acheté)
COMME UN PRO 