le lustre = ceiling light; chandelier
Today's Objectives
- Fun blog vocabulary- masucline nouns!
- Making exclamations in French (No, not cuss words!) (Coincidentally, a fellow blogger friend of mine, Parisienne Farmgirl, has been using these in her titles this week!)
- ADVANCED - irregular plural French nouns! (Sounds, exciting n'est-ce pas?)
Well, as most of you know from studying some foreign language in high school or college, many languages assign a gender to every noun (person, place, thing, idea) in their language! Yeah, look around you right now. I bet you see at least 20 items within view of your computer. Each of them have a gender- male or female!
Now, if it were up to me, all pretty, delicious, and feminine things would be given a feminine gender, but that's not the way it is. L'Académie française makes those decisions not me! Dommage (too bad)! Don't worry I have a HUGE list of fun feminine French nouns for next week!
Beginners -
Below are some images of masuclin French objects:
(See the captions under each image for the French name of each object)
le canapé = settee, couch, sofa
le divan = couch, sofa
le lit- bed
le sac à main = purse, handbag
le cadeau = present, gift (The word for "gift" as in a talent is different in French)
(Merci for the image, Sande @ A Gift Wrapped Life!)
le chapeau = hat
le bébé = baby (This word is always masculine -weird, I know.)
Other masculine French nouns (sorry no images)
le café = café, coffee
le livre = book
le magazine = magazine
le plaisir = treat (pleasure)
le jour = day
Exclamations
Sometimes we see something that makes us stunned or we want a way to grab people's attention as in an end to a post or a title for a post. Here is a fun way to make an exclamtion in French:
Quel + masculine French (singular) noun
PRONUNCIATION - Quel sounds almost like "Kell" in English
Examples
Quel lustre! = What a chandelier!
Quel plaisir! = What a treat!
Quel jour! = What a day!
(Notice that the article le has been omitted in these exclamations)
Intermediate -Adding an adjective to your exclamation:
Quel + masculine French noun + easy adj (listed in Leçon 3)
Example
Quel cadeau splendide! = What a spendid gift!
Quel livre bizarre! = What a strange book!
Advanced -Irregular plural French nouns:
To make some nouns in French plural, you add an "X" not an "S" - Bizarre, n'est-ce pas?
Here is a list of some (masucline) French nouns that take an "X" instead of an "S" in the plural form:
Singular form :
le bâteau = boat
le bijou = jewel
le cadeau = gift
le chapeau = hat
le cheveu = one strand of hair
le manteau = coat
le tableau = painting
Plural form:
les bâteaux = boats
les bijoux = jewels, jewelry
les cadeaux = gifts
les chapeaux = hats
les cheveux = hair (head of hair)
les manteaux = coats
les tableaux = paintings
Advanced -Making an exclamation regarding masculine/plural French nouns:
Quels + masculine/plural French noun
Examples
Quels chapeaux drôles! = What funny hats!
Quels livres artistiques! = What artistic books!
I hope that you have fun using these new skills! A la prochaine!
French Lesson Friday student awards:
(I thought that I could create a "sticker" for your blog for your French student award. What do you think? I really don't care... it's up to the "class")
Leçon un - Fifi Flowers & BonjourMadame
Leçon deux- Nanci (LaChambreRose); Lorrie; Helene; & Cecile
Leçon trois - Tracie~MaPetiteMaison
Images #1 chandelier-Flickr; #2 settee-Flickr; #3 bed by Layla Grace; #4 purse -Flickr;
#5 painting - Flickr; #6 gift - A Gift Wrapped Life; #7 Kirsten Dunst (Marie Antoinette) Flickr; #8 baby - a la parisienne