French is very different to Filipino as some of you may know. For one thing, French is not phonetic. A good example is the word "voilà" which means "there you are." Do you pronounce it like /voy lah/? As many of you may know, it's pronounced /vwah lah/, almost like /wah lah/. Listen here: http://www.forvo.com/word/voil%C3%A0/

Oooh, I love the way French sounds. Ehehehe. Pero syempre, mas masaya parin ang Filipino.

By the way, is Canadian French slightly different from French-French? I noticed that the French seem to need subtitles to understand Canadian French shows. Weird

Canadian French or Quebecois (Quebec French) is considered a much purer French than French French. French French has more words from other languages, mainly English, which is called Franglais (Francais + Anglais). "Le week-end" in French French, "La fin de la semaine" (Literally "The end of the week") in Canadian French.

Food! I'm hungry!

avoir faim - to be hungry
manger - to eat
déjeuner - to have breakfast or lunch
dîner - to have dinner

avoir soif - to be thirsty
boire - to drink
Je voudrais... - I would like...
commander - to order

le repas - meal
le petit-déjeuner - breakfast
le déjeuner - lunch
le dîner - dinner
le goûter - snack

l'hors d'œuvre, l'entrée (f) - appetizer
la soupe, le potage - soup
le plat principal - main course
la salade - salad
le dessert - dessert

la cuisine - kitchen, cooking
la salle à manger - dining room
le restaurant - restaurant

Accents in French are very important. Here's how to add them...

To Insert an accented letter:
1) Ensure that "Num Lock" is switched on on the Numerical Keypad on the right hand side of the keyboard.
2) Hold down the ALT key (to the left of the space bar) and type the codes below, on the Numerical Keypad. (NOT the numbers at the top of the keyboard)
3) Release the ALT key.

à: 0224
â: 0226
é: 0233
è: 0232
ê: 0234
ë: 0235
ç: 0231
î: 0238
ï: 0239
ô: 0244
ù: 0249
û: 0251
Ç: 0199
œ: 0156

Hello! I'm back from the dead so to speak. Hehehe... For the new ones, Je m'appelle Lucille. I'm not so sure about my spelling. Como sava, Marco? Hahaha... ;p

Comment ça va? Ça, c'est l'orthographe correcte (That's the correct spelling).

Oui, ça va bien merci, et toi? (Yes, I'm fine thanks, and you?)

Choose from this list:

Ça va bien = I'm fine.
Ça va mal = I'm feeling bad.
Ça va bof = So-so.

"Je m'appelle" is correct.

Je m'appelle... - My name is/I am called...
Comment ça va? - How are you?
Bonjour - Hello
Salut - Hi/Bye (depends on context) (colloquial)

"J" in French isn't pronounced like in the word "jar," which is a harder J sound. It sounds more like jzh, like Jzhunagev :)

/zhuh ma pell/ - Je m'appelle
/ko mun sa va/ - Comment ça va? The /mun/ sound here is nasal, like ngongo(?) is that the term?

/sa loo/ Salut. In French, final consonants are not pronounced. Most of the time. Not always.

With this list:

Ça va bien = I'm fine.
Ça va mal = I'm feeling bad.
Ça va bof = So-so.

You do pronounce the final consonant.
/sa va biyen/
/sa va mal/
/sa va bof/

Infinitives are the base or root form of a verb, which has not been conjugated or changed to fit a subject and tense.

For example:
To eat - base form/infinitive
I am eating.
He eats.
We eat.
She ate.
You have eaten.
We will eat.

The "eat" part of each of the above sentences are slightly different. This is called conjugation.

In French, conjugation is easy to learn...for regular verbs (verbs which follow the same rule). For irregular verbs, well, you'll just have to learn the rule for each individual verb. But don't let that put you off.

Infinitives in English always have "to" before the verb. Like "to eat" or "to dance." In French, an infinitive can be identified because it ends with either -er, -ir or -re.

e.g.
Manger - to eat

In the present tense, we can conjugate manger like so:

Je mange - I eat or I am eating
Tu manges - You eat or You are eating (informal)
Il/Elle mange - He/She eats or He/She is eating
Nous mangeons - We eat or We are eating.
Vous mangez - You eat or You are eating(formal, like "po")
Ils/Elles mangent - They eat or They are eating

Je - I
Tu - You (informal, to a friend or someone younger)
Il - He
Elle - She
Nous - We
Vous - You (formal, to your boss, or someone older, like when we'd use "po")
Ils - They (group of males, or group of males and females)
Elles - They (group of females ONLY)

Manger /man - jay/
Je mange /zhuh manj/
Tu manges /tu manj/
Il/Elle mange /eel manj / /el manj/
Nous mangeons /nu manjon/
Vous mangez /vu manjay/
Ils/Elles mangent /eel manj/ /el manj/

The French don't discern between I am eating or I eat, unlike in English. So, it's similar to Filipino, "Kumakain ako ng gulay" can mean I eat vegetables in general, or I am currently eating vegetables at this point in time.

Let's conjugate "danser" meaning "to dance" in the present tense.

Je danse
Tu danses
Il/Elle danse
Vous dansez
Nous dansons
Ils/Elles dansent

See the pattern? The reason "nous mangeons" is not "nous mangons", like it should be, is because it would be pronounced like "nu mang gon", and that doesn't sound French ;) more like Filipino. Tingnan niyo! Nu mang gon! Whatever that means :)

So with -er ending REGULAR verbs, just take off the -er and add the following endings:

Je -e
Tu -es
Il/Elle -e
Vous -ez
Nous -ons
Ils -ent

Someone conjugate the verb "jouer" meaning "to play"!

Argh, conjugations! My kryptonite. This is where all my efforts to learn other languages die. Ehehehe

Je joue
Tu joues
Il/Elle joue
Vous jouez
Nous jouons
Ils jouent

Very good!

In French there is a rule that means that two vowels cannot run on to each other between two words. For example, Je aime is wrong. It turns into J'aime.

So to conjugate the word aimer, meaning to love, you do:

J'aime (je aime)
Tu aimes
Il aime
Nous aimons
Vous aimez
Ils aiment

Now conjugate adorer, annuler, ajouter and find out what they mean :) one person to a verb please :)

Using post #4 and the conjugation rules we've learnt, someone write the correct sentences in French for:

I am ordering the main course.
You are eating the salad. (informal)
He is having lunch.

Anyone want to try? Maryse?

Marco wrote: "Using post #4 and the conjugation rules we've learnt, someone write the correct sentences in French for:

I am ordering the main course.
You are eating the salad. (informal)
He is having lunch."

Try lang...

Je commande/ordre le plat principal.
Vous mangez de la salade.
Il ayant/prend le déjeuner.

It's which verb translates to which that confuses me.

I think the 2nd line should be:

Tu manges de la salade

Other than that, I'm with Beng. :)

Maryse wrote: "I think the 2nd line should be:

Tu manges de la salade

Other than that, I'm with Beng. :)"

Ay, oo nga. Informal form nga pala. hihihi

Il prend le déjeuner is correct but I wanted you to say Je mange le déjeuner. Ayant is different ;) don't use a translator!

Ordre...use commander...so je commande.

In French, there's a difference between:

Je mange la salade

and

Je mange de la salade.

The former means "I eat salad" in general. For example, "Do you eat salad?" "Oui, je mange la salade." Yes I eat salad.

The latter means "I (am) eat(ing) the salad" (that is in front of me). For example, "Son, are you eating the salad?" Oui, je mange de la salade.

Now conjugate adorer, annuler, ajouter and find out what they mean :) doesn't have to be one person to a verb!

Marco wrote: "Ayant is different ;) don't use a translator!"

I'm actually using my old Spanish-French Dictionary...hahaha. I'll buy myself an English-French dictionary as soon as I can.

Ahaha! Use this: http://wordreference.com

Very good resource ^^

Marco wrote: "Ahaha! Use this: http://wordreference.com

Very good resource ^^"

Why... that was great. Thanks for the tip. :)

Okay, let's conjugate "adorer" (to love) in the present tense

1) Take off -er (ador)
2) Add endings:

Je (ador) -e
Tu (ador) -es
Il (ador) -e
Nous (ador) -ons
Vous (ador) -ez
Ils (ador) -ent

3) Correct spellings depending on vowel-to-vowel rule:

J'adore (NOT Je adore)
Tu adores
Il adore
Nous adorons
Vous adorez
Ils adorent

4) Choose which one to use in a sentence.

J'adore le chocolat - I love chocolate.

Now conjugate annuler - to cancel/to annul!

Words like "annuler," which are words that look like its English meaning are called cognates. Other cognates include: le chocolat, l'hôtel, l'hôpital, le badminton, le tennis, extraordinaire, la bicyclette, la musique, l'université, la céréale and many more! You already know what these words mean because you can relate to its English.

There are even Filipino-French cognates, which include: le pantalon (ang pantalon), travailler (magtrabaho), la page (ang pahina), la musique (ang musika), les ventes (ang benta), vingt (bente), l'ambulance (ang ambulansya), le bain (banyo), les vacances (ang bakasyon), but these are obviously Spanish or English cognates too.

HOWEVER (a very big however), there are also words that look the same but don't mean the same thing, these words are called "faux amis" meaning "false friends." For example, éventuellement does not mean "eventually," it means "possible" or "if necessary." "Le patron" doesn't mean the patron saint, it means "the boss." "Le but" is "a goal" and not a but.

It is important for French-learners to realise that there are faux amis and cognates.

Est-ce qu'il n'y a pas un personne ici qui veut essayer mes exercises? :(

Sorry, been busy...

J'annule le voyage.
Tu annules le dîner.
Il annule ...
Nous annulons ...
Vous annulez ...
Ils annulent ...

Bien fait! Well done!

Marco wrote: "Bien fait! Well done!"

Merci!