Re: French

> > > , based on a shaky memory that the Antoinette jussive ("let them ea=
t
> > > cake") was done with the subjunctive (in this case, "soit").  But I=
'm
> > > not 100% sure of it, which is why I'm posting it generally....
> > >
> >
> > IIRC, subjunctive only appears in written French, not spoken (except
> > quoting)..but then, this was some 500? years ago, so I'm sure the lan=
guage has
> > changed..
> >
> >
> > And actually, I would say 'Votre langue peut aller ici' (your languag=
e can go
> > here) or 'Votre langue peut e^tre ici' (Your language can be here)
> >
>
> I would say
>
> Votre langue devait =EAtre ici
> Your language should be here
>
> or
>
> Votre langue pouvait =EAtre ici
> Your language could be here
>
Both of those sound good...the second one (pouvait e^tre) sounds better, =
tho, IMO

> <looks to native French-speakers for approval>Come on guys, I know
> there's more than one of you out there, why aren't you helping us
> beginners out here?
>
Yeah, native French speakers! People like me who just recently learned th=
e
plusqueparfait without really reviewing the imparfait!

> And by the way, I never learned that the subjunctive was only used in
> the written language.  They make us practice all the time, things like,
> "Je veux que tu m'attendes", or is that wrong/not done?
>
Well, my handy-dandy book '501 French Verbs' (which BTW, is quite useful)=
 says, IIRC
(since the thing is in my locker at school :/) says French has 14 tenses,=
 7 simple,
7 compound..the tenses are (IIRC) simple, passe compose, conditional, con=
dtional
past, futur, future perfect, past simple, (I forget), imparfait, plusquep=
arfait,
subjenctive, subjunctive past, and something with futur anterier or somet=
hing...of
those, the only ones in school we've actually learned is present and pass=
e
compose...and our teacher more or less taught us conditional, imparfait, =
and futur
of avoir (to have), and then taught us how to make plusqueparfait, future=
 perfect,
and conditional past out of that...so for all the other tenses (and vario=
us other
things), i rely on '501 French Verbs' and it says that subjunctive, passe=
 simple,
and the other one (plus the compound tenses formed from them) aren't real=
ly used in
conversational French, only in writing (and also that they're going out o=
f style in
writing), so I'm taking all this from a reference book on French that I h=
aven't
looked at in a while...I may be wrong

> >
> > Though I find the hardest thing about this shirt idea is that 'Your l=
anguage
> > goes here' is an idiom meaning along the lines of 'There is the possi=
bility of
> > your language existing in this place' or 'Your language can/could exi=
st/be
> > here' not a very easy thing to translate..
>
> I agree.  Although it's good in a way because different languages can
> vary it depending on their idiom structure.
>
True, and really, this in a way is an interesting way to compare language=
s..though
really, what someone should do is come up with some maybe, 20 sentances t=
hat show
different things like verb tenses, possesives, etc..to use to compare how=
 langs do
things, along with several idiomatic expression ideas to be translated (s=
ince after
all, it's not the words that are being translated, but what the words mea=
n)...and a
list like that might help newer conlangers (such as myself) figure out se=
veral finer
points of their conlang(s), and also provide a nice base for comparing di=
fferent
languages (wait, didn't I already say that?)..so uhh..yeah, that's it...t=
hat's all
for right now..

-Axiem
-axiem@swbell.net