Re: OT: Slightly OT: French as a second language

En réponse à Aquamarine Demon <aquamarine_demon@...>:

>
> LOL... yeah, that's kind of what I thought, too... It's my mom's name,
> and
> she's claiming it's French for "beloved"... it looks KINDA like it...
> but
> not enough, I don't think...
>
"Beloved" is "Chéri(e)", and AFAIK not related to Cheryl. But I may be wrong.
After all, who knows that "gay" is really a French borrowing into English? :)))
(even the orthography. At the time of the borrowing, "gay" was written with
a "y" in French too :)) )

>
> Hey, it worked! :) Thanks. :)
>
You're welcome! :)

>
> Hehe.. so it's not only me! ;) I never really got that either... that
> and
> "never end a sentence with a preposition". I will if I want to. ;)
>
I don't even understand how teachers can teach you such things. Don't they talk?

>
> Why is that? I mean, what's the difference between the two? Did/do
> they
> have any different meaning?
>
They used to have a different meaning. The simple past was more or less
equivalent to the English preterite (but then, since we also have an imperfect,
the equivalence is not complete), while the compound past was more or less like
the present perfect. But we stopped using the simple past in speech, and the
compound past became used this way, losing its perfect sense (completely.
For "I've been looking for you for hours", we say: "Je te cherche depuis des
heures" with a present tense). Only in writing the simple past is kept (but the
compound past is not used then. We simply don't have anymore a perfect tense,
whether in writing or in speech).

>
> Hehe... the endings confuse a lot of people in my class... they're
> confused that you don't pronounce a lot of them...
>
:)) I can understand. They confuse French people too :) .

>
> Another tough one for some people (not me, though.... ;) )
>
And for the French too :) .

> >and 'ne' is mandatory to make negative sentences! (except that in
> spoken
> >French, 'ne' has already disappeared for a long time now).
>
> Really?! I didn't know that....
>
Indeed. Using "ne" in speech sounds extremely formal and artificial. Good for
an official speech, but not for daily life.

>
> > "bunnies, bunnies it must be bunnies!"
>
> LOL... what's with that? ;)
>
Evil creatures in the Legend of Zelda (the first game on the 8bit Nintendo
Entertainment System). :))

Christophe.

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr

Take your life as a movie: do not let anybody else play the leading role.