Views from a Paris window   +  French Lesson Fridays - Rules

This is a photo of my desk when I was a French teacher. (It was always a mess!) Seeing this picture makes me just a little sad. I had such a wonderful time teaching French and my students were a hoot!
Bienvenue, mes étudiants. This is our first French lesson together, and I am so excited!

C'est adorable, n'est-ce pas?

Okay, the first thing that I need for you to do is participate in the survey I have (on the right in my sidebar) by voting on your level of proficiency in the French language. Since I have such a diverse audience, it is so important for me to know the majority's level of proficiency in French (particularly in reading & writing French). Don't worry -if you don't know any French at all, you will still be able to learn something here.

Okay Rule #1 (spoken like a true teacher; I have to make some rules!:)

This is a SAFE and FRIENDLY blog. No one is stupid here and all questions about the French language are valuable! If you choose to ask a question or leave a comment, please be polite to the other "students" and to me. Rudeness will NOT be tolerated!


A few things to mention before we get started : (I recommend that you read the following)

• I am not a native French speaker, so I am bound to make mistakes as we all make errors even in our own native tongue! If you are a native French speaker or proficient with the French language and notice a mistake, feel free to give me a polite correction.

• The method that I will be using to teach you will be out of the ordinary. What you are used to in a classroom doesn't work here. We can't even see each other or communicate one-on-one.


• I will be teaching you certain skills from the French language that will help you in reading and writing French. Unless you have already studied French and understand fundamental pronunciation, you probably will not learn how to speak (pronounce) the French you learn here. It's just not possible in this situation.


• All of the skills that I choose to teach you are based on what you can USE in your daily blogging, scrapbooking, crafting, etc. We're not going to start from the "bottom up" per se. The method of my instruction will be holistic. When I think of a better way of explaining my instructional method, I will amend this paragraph!


• For some lessons, I will divide the information by difficulty levels- Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced. Of course, this will all depend on my audience and who participates!


• I will do my best to make the formatting of these lessons easy to follow, but I am quite limited with font size, formatting, spacing, etc.

Okay, let's move to the first lesson!

Leçon numéro un - "It is... isn't it?"

BEGINNERS-

C'est ...

So a really common simple French phrase is C'est. This phrase means It is or It's and it is used to refer to a general situation or to describe something that is understood in the context of conversation.

For example, you are writing in your blog about how silly it is to spend so much money on fresh produce at the grocery store when you could have your own garden and you could add in French -C'est ridicule. (It's ridiculous!)

There are two easy ways to use C'est in your writing:

C'est + an adjective OR C'est + a proper name

Examples- C'est magnifique. = It's magnificent.

C'est Nathalie. = It's Nathalie.

Here is a list of "easy" adjectives that you can begin to use with c'est:

adorable, artistique, chic, classique, comique (funny/comical), fantastique, grave (serious), logique (logical), magnifique, populaire, ridicule, romantique, stupide, unique

(These are easy adjectives because they can be used to describe feminine or masculine (SINGULAR) things. We'll touch on the subject of adjective agreement at a later date!!)

INTERMEDIATE

Well, I am not sure how you understood the above lesson. If you are still following me, here is an extension to this lesson.

Here is an extension to the c'est + proper name concept:

You can add a personal pronoun such as moi (me), toi (you), nous (us), vous (you plural/formal) before the proper name.

C'est + personal pronoun + proper name

Example: C'est moi, Nathalie = It's me, Nathalie.

C'est nous, Nathalie et Stephanie = It's us, Nathalie and Stephanie.

This would be fun to use when commenting on a fellow francophile's blog. Bonjour, Mary, c'est moi à la parisienne! Hello, Mary, it's me, à la parisienne!

ADVANCED

So, this extension may not really be advanced per se, but it is the final addition to our lesson for today. If you're feeling confused, I would STOP here. If everything you have read thus far has been facile (easy), then here you go!

Adding n'est-ce pas

When using c'est + adjective, you can add this easy phrase after it to make it a question.

C'est + adjective + n'est-ce pas?

Example: C'est logique, n'est-ce pas? = It's logical, isn't it?

Well, if you are still reading, I am glad that you haven't given up on me, here. Posting a French lesson on a program where I have little control over its formatting has not been very fun, but that's okay. Learning how to teach you via my blog will be quite adventurous since I am accustomed to teaching high school students in a classroom setting. At least I don't have to worry about being interrupted or laughed at! :)

*Please feel free to ask me any questions about this email by commenting below- others may be thinking the same question! I will do my best to answer all of your questions ASAP!

*I would also appreciate any kind of feedback regarding this first lesson. Let me know if it's too easy, too hard, hard to follow, not interesting, etc. I will only get better at this and better serve you by reading your feedback!

*I hope that you will attempt to incorporate this new skill into your blog posts. Feel free to leave a comment if you have applied your newly acquired French skills to your own blog!