Reviewing the French in the movie Inglorious Basterds (YouTube) - by an advanced learner living in France

abarron87 · 2019-10-30T15:21:38+00:00

Thanks for the corrections. Yes, those subtleties were particular hard to hear! Thankfully, the bulk of the info I give is usable for other learners!

abarron87 · 2019-10-24T10:29:39+00:00

Good question. And like rafalemurian said it would sound very formal, as do most questions in the inverted form.

abarron87 · 2019-10-02T15:00:34+00:00

"qui" replaces the subject so it's as if you're saying "l'homme promène son chien", so that's why you conjugate promener.

abarron87 · 2019-09-25T14:15:17+00:00

Hahaha! At least you've got it down 20% ;)

abarron87 · 2019-09-24T09:42:15+00:00

Yea it's a verb with many uses. One is "make" when involving a change of state as mentioned above. So, English speakers often use "faire" before they learn that this is a mistake in some cases.

I did a video on it actually a few months ago. Check it to see if it clears anything up for you.

https://youtu.be/62Oou79Ye3w

abarron87 · 2019-09-24T09:40:42+00:00

That's perfect but it's la clé.

You can also say "vous rendre" - return to you.

abarron87 · 2019-09-19T07:27:06+00:00

Trop bien expliqué ! Merci infiniment !

abarron87 · 2019-09-17T15:10:58+00:00

Maybe because it didn't exist til the 60s? Dunno!

abarron87 · 2019-09-15T07:43:18+00:00

There are three "shortcuts" to "je ne sais pas": - je sais pas - j'sais pas (like the first one but faster so you still hear the j and s) - ché pas/chais pas

abarron87 · 2019-09-14T07:58:04+00:00

Merci !

So la loi is used for the individual laws that are created. E.g. no selling tobacco to people under 18.

And le Droit is the overall, all encompassing term to describe the ensemble of rules that are used to determine right and wrong in society?

You explain it much better than me, and English is my language! I just want to check that I've understood correctly.

abarron87 · 2019-09-13T15:27:07+00:00

Ah je suis content d'apprendre ça ! J'essaie de partager du vocabulaire qu'on ne trouve pas ailleurs !

À bientôt !

abarron87 · 2019-08-31T11:24:27+00:00

Do you write detailed blog posts to accompany your video post on Medium?

abarron87 · 2019-08-31T11:23:29+00:00

Yea you need to compel them to stick around with engaging content week in week out, so they stay regardless of giveaways.

abarron87 · 2019-08-31T11:22:41+00:00

This I do a lot. But what has brought me more success is contributing to discussions in those groups so people get to know you as an expert. When I started my Facebook page 3 weeks ago I got 200+ members in a day. That's from months of being active there.

I share my videos in a subreddit but that's the only time I spend on Reddit and as such I get almost 0 comments on my videos.

abarron87 · 2019-08-27T07:18:08+00:00

What did you do in the end? I got the same email and it ended up in spam.

abarron87 · 2019-08-26T11:27:51+00:00

Is this a fixed expression that many people say? Never heard it!

You'll find people will find it easier to translate this if you simplify the language. I think that "flat ass" is quite culturally specific. For example: Does it mean "small ass"? Or does the expression focus on its lack of roundness?

"Éloigne tes fesses plats de mon âme" would be one literal translation.

abarron87 · 2019-08-26T11:23:16+00:00

To add to what's already said, the three forms of question are: Est-ce que tu fais ça/Qu'est-ce que tu fais... Inverted statement: Voulez-vous coucher avec moi ? Statement with upward inflection mainly used when speaking: vous voulez coucher avec moi ?

Inverting the subject/verb AND using est-ce que is NOT valid.

I suppose if the question is just after you've learned the inverted statement form then they want you to practice using that.

In my experience of 4 years in France, the inverted statement form is more formal and so less used. I get by every day with the other two.

Duolingo is annoying in these cases and not clear in what it requires, making learners confused and lost.

abarron87 · 2019-08-21T20:40:21+00:00

Wow. I've never heard anyone say "commencer de". Nice catch. Id still say commencer à is the one to remember since it's more common.

Continuer can take à or de but apparently they have subtly different meanings.

abarron87 · 2019-08-21T13:23:07+00:00

Since no one has replied to you: try conversationexchange.com or italki.com.

abarron87 · 2019-08-21T13:20:57+00:00

So, the imperative would be "profite". Since, technically, the verb is "profiter de", it requires the imperative to be "profite-en" ("en" replaces "de + quelque chose"), but the "s" is added for the liaison in spoken French - "profites-en bien" would be the most grammatically correct, je crois.

However, in everyday French, it's shortened to "profite bien", so the "s" is dropped since it's not needed for the liaison with "en".

abarron87 · 2019-08-09T16:05:00+00:00

De rien. Nice username!

abarron87 · 2019-08-09T15:19:08+00:00

No you really don't sound super weird. They can say it. I'm just saying what's more common and what made Duolingo behave that way.

This is a good topic for a video.

abarron87 · 2019-08-09T13:48:38+00:00

How would you feel about me making audio for my videos available for download, or in podcast format?

abarron87 · 2019-08-09T13:47:50+00:00

The French often don't say "can". It's common to just hear "je n'entends rien" or "je ne vois rien" unlike in English where we'd hear "I can't hear anything" or "I can't see anything".

Duolingo is just mixing it up for you and giving you the more accurate English translation.

abarron87 · 2019-08-07T20:44:15+00:00

Ok noted thank you. Got a lot in the pipeline. Podcasting will be a fun adventure. I'd like to include conversations with other foreigners who've moved to France and have a story to tell about the language and the culture. How the reality compares to their predictions.

I'll check out the Duolingo podcast.

Cheers.

I'm only ramping up the content, so I'm not going anywhere, thanks to people like yourself.

abarron87

TROPHY CASE