useful french phrases

mollykins | 17:10 Mon 07th Jun 2010 | Society & Culture

41 Answers

We're going to france for a week in July, so would like to amalgamate some useful phrases, which, not being rude, i probably won't learn for a couple more weeks yet, after my exams have finished.

I can do some basic stuff like salut, comment ca va?

ca va bien merci! et toi?

but i haven't done it since year 9 and then i was rubbish. I need important stuff like horse steak and frogs legs in french as i don't want to end up eating them.

merci, molly xx

Tipping at hairdressers

Times Cryptic Jumbo 873

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mollykins

Question Author

Thanks, yet again its only a cheap get away, for a week before most kids' sumemr holidays begin but i'm looking forward to it. Plus we're going by ferry so if that ash cloud comes again we'll be ok.

jno

in the hurricane season? Mon dieu.

mollykins

Question Author

I didn't think france got many hurricanes . . . .!

grasscarp

Mais oui, ma chere
http://www.telegraph....-strength-storms.html

mollykins

Question Author

That was 6 months ago.

grasscarp

actually it was 18 months ago. I was only showing you they do get them!

mollykins

Question Author

oh yeah, well everywhere you go is prone to some kind of natural disaster even home, so are you suggesting we never go anywhere?

treebear

i want to go to france the thunderstorms here at the mo are scary

mollykins

Question Author

Roughly how warm is it in Brittany in July?

grasscarp

Lots of useful stuff here, including a link to more climate detail
http://gitelink.com/brittany.htm

tamborine

pronouciations etc here, bon voyage

http://www.learningfr...asicPhrases/index.php

mollykins

Question Author

thanks tambo my pronounciation is aweful.

MarkRae

> Je suis content que vous allons bien ....

Hmm - if you're trying to tell Molly that you're happy that she's well, then (assuming you're older than her) you'd say "Je suis content que tu vas bien"... However, I can't imagine any French person actually saying that - it just doesn't sound "French"...

> "Il pleut en Suffolk a ce moment".

Il pleut en Suffolk en ce moment-là.

> j'espere que vous aurions des bonnes vacances en France. A bientot ....

j'espère que tu passeras de bonnes vacances en France. A bientôt.

Eve

To be honest Molly, don't try to be too clever, just learn a few words and how to pronounce them properly to show you are making the effort and to appear well mannered.

Hello, goodbye, thank you etc...

Think realistically how you would receive someone coming up to you and randomly remarking on something random and obviously not being able to understand any real response you could give them.

Maybe you could learn a little stock spiel which doesn't need much response (in French anyway).

Oh, another one to watch is the weather. Be very careful with expressing you are hot or cold!

One thing you are likely to find, depending on where you go, is that their English is far better than your French. Languages tend to be taught from a much earlier age over there, taught to a greater degree and continued for longer under their education system.

They also come across a lot of music, TV, film etc... in English. When I worked over there I remember they used to have The A Team and Walker The Texas Ranger on every week day night after the french teen soap type programmes.

It doesn't always work though. When I was there helping teach English in a secondary school, a song came out called Banana Split (classic video!) but they sang it as in:

ba as in back

na as in nappy

na as in nappy

Suffice it to say we encountered a fair amount of pronounciation issues from that.

Word to the wise correcting the French does not tend to be very well received!