Post 5 - The verb 'Aller' - French Fluency

Another verb in French is aller, which translates to 'to go'.
According to the book,"the verb aller is irregular in the present tense" (Rodchester) meaning that it has a different set of conjugated endings than regular -er verbs.

For example;
"Nous allons au resto" translates to "We are going to the restaurant"
A more common one is;
"Comment allez-vous?" translates to " How are you?"
This phrase makes sense because allez is the conjugated form for vous. Another thing to note when saying this phrase is that because allez begins with 'a', there is a liason, a verbal linkage, of the 't' from comment and the 'a' from allez, producing the pronunciation of 'tally' before the vous.

Note: Fans of Doctor Who may recognize the phrase "Allons-y", which translates to "Let's go", as allons in the conjugated form to nous, which means we.

Rochester, Myrna Bell. Easy French Step-by-step: Master High-frequency Grammar for French Proficiency--fast! New York: McGraw-Hill, 2009. Print.

Post 4 - Present Tense - French Fluency

Like English, there are multiple tenses in French. One of these tenses is the present.
One variation from English, however, is that "the present tense in French has three equivalents in English," (Rodchester, 48)
This is shown in the attached picture;

To go in detail, the phrase "Je parle français"can be translated into multiple versions in English, such as "I speak French", "I am speaking French", "I do speak French".
This is another example of how French is simpler than English - would you rather have one phrase or three for the same one?


Rochester, Myrna Bell. Easy French Step-by-step: Master High-frequency Grammar for French Proficiency--fast! New York: McGraw-Hill, 2009. Print.

Post 3 - Days and Months - French Fluency

Months and days are important in any time-keeping system. In French, the months and days of the week are very similar except for the fact that "[they] are not capitalized" like they are in English. (Rodchester, 42)

The days of the week are translated in this chart; 

Unlike English, "to say that you do the same activity every Monday..." (Rodchester, 42), you must add the article le (the) before it. 

An example is in the sentence 'Le lundi, je suis au gymnase.' 

Translated, this means that 'On Mondays, I'm at the gym.' Note that in the French version, 'lundi', or Monday is not capitalized.

Question: Do you see any patterns in the French translations of the days of the week?

Rochester, Myrna Bell. Easy French Step-by-step: Master High-frequency Grammar for French Proficiency--fast! New York: McGraw-Hill, 2009. Print.

Post 2 - Irregular Verbs

In French, there are regular and irregular verbs.  Irregular verbs have "...special conjugation patterns"(Rodchester) that differ from the patterns of the regular verbs.
An example of one of these irregular verbs is être, which means to be.
You would conjugate this verb by first turning the verb to it's infinitive form; in this case, it is already in the infinite (être). 
(Infinitives "do not include a noun subject or a subject pronoun" (Rodchester).)
Then, depending on the person and whether it is singular or plural, you add the appropriate ending (shown below) to the given infinitive.

An example of a conjugation of être: 

"I am tall." translates to "Je suis grande."

"We are in the living room." translates to "Nous sommes dans la salon."

Question: Do you see any connections between the English and French present tenses? (Is the spelling similar? Are the two completely different?)

Rochester, Myrna Bell. Easy French Step-by-step: Master High-frequency Grammar for French Proficiency--fast! New York: McGraw-Hill, 2009. Print.

Post 1- IRP2 - French Fluency

As a preliminary test, and so I can track my progress, I took an online quiz and recorded my score.

My goal for the end of the semester is to be in the Advanced/Proficient section. 

Over the weekend, I completed half of Chapter 1. This chapter is about masculine/ feminine words and  definite (le/la/l') and indefinite (un/une) articles. I am learning that masculine and feminine nouns and adjectives are very important and practice will be vital, as 'The genders of French nouns are hard to guess." (Rochester, 3)

The importance of this digression is shown in the translations for handsome, which is beau, or belle. Beau is the word for handsome and belle is the word for beautiful, although they both stem from a similar definition. Although saying a woman is handsome or a man is beautiful doesn't sound too odd in English, the French language is very specific and it will sound very strange and out of place. 

My question regarding this post is if you think that the masculine/feminine system is a useful way of organizing words, or simply another way to make language harder? When answering, keep in mind that English is lacking in this organization, yet it is one of the hardest languages to learn. 

Rochester, Myrna Bell. Easy French Step-by-step: Master High-frequency Grammar for French Proficiency--fast! New York: McGraw-Hill, 2009. Print.

Introduction- French Fluency

My second IRP is about improving my French language skills. My book, Easy French: Step-by-Step by Myrna Rochester, will help me become fluent so I can one day attain my goal of becoming fluent in French. I am currently enrolled in 1st year French, and having this as a project in another class will help me stay ahead in French, as well as maintain a good grade in both. To test my abilities, I will preform periodic test with the website France Langue (http://www.france-langue.com/online-french-test.html).

Rochester, Myrna Bell. Easy French Step-by-step: Master High-frequency Grammar for French Proficiency--fast! New York: McGraw-Hill, 2009. Print.