I have my first conversation class of the year with the new french exchange assisstant in 45 mins! I am so nervous because I can't speak french!! Je ne peux pas parler français!

Moi aussi - bon chance!!

You can speak French well

Je deteste le francais. Est-ce que le cour etait bon?

I have my first conversation class 8.30 to 9 in the morning next monday...hmmm you can imagine how AWAKE i'll be then...

It didn't go too badly, he is way nicer than last years (he didn't laugh or sigh in that you-really-should-be-able-to-answer-that way)

Correction:
"Je ne sais pas parler le français." - "Moi non plus. Bonne chance."

Si je peux t'aider de quelque façon, dis-le-moi, je le ferai volontiers !

To quote Manuel - 'che??'

Ho decho che quiero ayutarvos con frances !
When you ask for Spanish, you get it
So I was just saying that I can help you with French.

What about Italian ?! I'm really confused about the subjunctive...

Subjunctive is used in Italian more or less in the same way as in Spanish and French, I believe, including a long list of verbs with exceptional conjugation, often very similar to Spanish, but never the same ! What's your confusion about ?

[quote=chocolatedog,Oct 3 2005, 09:08 PM]

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Ah soo desu ka? Wakatta no.


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What's THAT ?? Swahili ??

Iie, Swahili de wa arimasen. Nihongo desu.

Japanese

10/10 - go to the top of the class!!!

Arigato gozaimasu

(not forgotten all of it, just most of it

Nous parlions avec une personne francais qui a entre notre college aujourdhui, mais c'etait impossible a se comprendre!

"Nous parlions avec une personne française qu'a venu aujourd'hui, mais c'était impossible à lui comprendre!"?

My French isn't that great, but I think that's right.

~Wobby~

Definitely better than mine!

And apparently 'to visit' means to go in and look around in French, not just to go...then again, it probably does in English, and I just talk rubbish

Mind you, got my first 2 French courseworks back today, and 20/20 in both somehow :|

Aah, no fair, your courseworks are marked out of 20, we have ours marked out of 30! Problem is, 10 of the points are for 'fluent communication and expression', like you have to add the stupidest of phrases such as, "After having played piano by the gently sloping hills because practice makes perfect, I was contemplating whether I should have had a lie-in or traversed the countryside where I have lived since I was born." Oh well, 44/50 on my reading, 45/50 on my listening (mocks), so I'm content!

~Wobby~

Really good grades, Wobby.

Have you come across a book called "Mot a mot"? Lots of useful little essay-writing type phrases I seem to remember... it was a long time ago but I remember that being helpful

And now the correct version : "Nous parlions avec une personne française qui est venue aujourd'hui, mais il était impossible de le comprendre."

J'aime parler francais, mais je ne parle pas bien.

Try a French conversation book...buy a tiny one and learn a couple phrases. It helps.

"de le"? I thought that in french that would be just be de?

Argh! *clutches head in despair at the french grammar*

Here "le" is used as a pronoun (means: "it"), not as an article ("the"); that makes the difference !
Normally the rule is : "de + le" = "du", but after a negation, it becomes "de".
"Lui" is used for indirect object (both male and female), "le / la" for direct object. Lui is also used for an accentuated pronoun (male only), e.g. "C'est lui !"

Umm... this is probably completely wrong, but just wondering, if it were a female french person, wouldn't it be 'la' as opposed to 'le'? And does it make much of a difference if you use 'il était' and 'c'était', because they both mean 'it is', right? Aargh, french grammar, never really understood why they always called houses 'she'...

~Wobby~

I think masculine is 'la' and feminine is 'le'.

Car Expert

Nope, feminine is 'la', masculaine is 'le'

Another crazy pianist: Can I run something past you please? Ok... Subjunctive perfect of 'faire': je fasse/tu fasses/il fasse/nous fassions/vous fassiez... then is the ils form ils fassient or ils fassent?

Oh, of course! What was I thinking of before?!

Car Expert

qu' ils fassent

Thanks!

Goede Morgen

Ik spreek een beetje Nederlandse ook Franse en Duitse, maar het is niet gemakkelijk te schrijven.

Would love to speak it better.

Linguistic lot, aren't we.

"Nederlands, Frans, Duits", without "e" at the end. The rest is fine !
You must have a special reason to learn Dutch... ?
Whenever you have a question about it, I'm ready to help !


P.S. I would appreciate if someone corrected my bad English too...

Your English is fab Way better than my french anyway. How many languages do you speak? English, French and Dutch?

Not Japanese or Swahili!! (Sorry! - I'm being cheeky - I don't speak Swahili either!)

Indeed, I only speak a few European languages, but I won't mention them again, because I have already been showing off about that enough. Soon I'll be banned from the forums because of my arrogance...
Hey I don't mind you being a bit cheeky, chocolatedog ! I'm really not that quick to take offence, on the contrary : I'm amused !

ooooops - my first venture written dutch for ages and I boobed!

Thanks for the correction acp

I have spent quite a lot of time in the Netherlands, played a few (organ) concerts over the years, so thought it polite to address the audience in their own language. They complimented me on my accent, but its very deflating when they go on in PERFECT English.
Trouble is if you don't use it, you lose it. Fortunately I have two wonderful friends from Krimpen aan de Ijssel who will not talk to me in anything but Dutch when we meet.

Need more practise, need more time!