It's been a while since my last post, but I've been continuing my French studies, trying to just immerse myself in the language and looking into all manner of stuff, from pronouns to idioms. All good stuff!
However, today I thought it would be good to return to the structure of the DELF A1 syllabus, and write a little bit about my family. It's a bit similar to something I've already written about, way back at the start of this blog, though it's good to keep practicing these things, even if they are comparatively quite simple! I've also been trying to keep up with the GCSE French videos from Learn French with Alexa, and this subject is one that comes up in the speaking exam, so it's all good stuff!
Je suis marié, ma femme s'appelle Jemma. Nous avons une fille, qui s'appelle Phoebe. Elle a huit mois, et elle est très charmante. Nous nous sommes mariés depuis deux ans.
J'ai un frère, qui est plus âgé que moi, et nous ne nous entendons pas bien. Mon père est mort, mais ma mère s'est remariée il y a huit ans. Mes parents sont retraités.
Mon beau-frère s'appelle Simon, et sa femme s'appelle Rose - ils attendent un bébé dans les prochains jours. C'est très génialissime! Je suis emballé d'être un oncle! Mes beau-parents habitent près de nous, et je suis heureux de dire que nous nous entendons bien! Ils ont été très serviable à nous quand Phoebe était petite.
C'est bon d'avoir la famille près de nous, car nous les avons là pour le soutien et l'aide quand nous en avons besoin. De plus, ma belle-mère est une bonne cuisinière, et c'est toujours bon d'être invité à dîner!
So there we are, short and sweet, and not too complex an answer, but let's take a look!
Je suis marié, ma femme s'appelle Jemma
I didn't realise this until this week, but introducing other people is seen as a topic in its own right. I would have just thought it obvious, when you say 'je m'appelle' for "my name is", that it's clear you continue to conjugate s'appeler to get the right person - but there we are! Something else that I learnt this week - "to be married" is a reciprocal verb in French (I mean, it's obvious when you think about it), and so it has the additional pronoun in there, and the past participle needs to agree.
J'ai un frère, qui est plus âgé que moi
My brother and I don't get on - for years we've been falling out, and then I try to make up with him, and it then all goes wrong again. Anyway, therapy aside, this is a great little sentence. To start with, the qui there is a relative pronoun, which is replacing the subject 'mon frère' in the second part of the sentence there. I've been studying pronouns this week, and find them difficult but interesting, and I'm trying my best to master them! The next part of the sentence is saying that "we don't get along", and is a great use of a reciprocal verb. I've mentioned them already today, but reciprocal verbs are like reflexive verbs in that they need a pronoun, but rather than the action reflecting back on the subject, the action is shared (reciprocated) between two subjects. In their negative form, these pronominal verbs need the ne between the two pronouns, and the negative adverb (in this case, pas) comes after the verb. It sounds a bit awkward, 'nous ne nous entendons pas bien', but there we have it!
Mon beau-frère s'appelle Simon
Isn't it lovely how in-laws in French (and step/half relatives) are all handsome?! My brother and sister in law are expecting a baby, any day now, and it's incredibly exciting. Trying to say this in French had me stumped for a while, but using linguee.com allowed me to figure out the best translation is literally "they are waiting for a baby". Who knew?!
There are a number of ways of saying "great" and the like, but none of them seem to move into the realms of excitement that I wanted here. Enter frenchtoday.com, with this really useful article that runs down a number of ways to say "I'm excited" in their correct contexts! I'm really excited (!) by the idiom 'je suis emballé' - from the verb emballer, meaning to wrap up, but here meaning something along the lines of "carried away with enthusiasm"! I mean, being an uncle is going to be great!
C'est bon d'avoir la famille près de nous
I thought I'd finish off this with a little bit of philosophy, as it's very French to think about things like this, I find. Some interesting points from this last sentence - while the infinitive of a French verb means "to xxx", to say something like "it's good to have" isn't translated simply with 'c'est bon avoir'; instead you need a de before the infinitive. I know not why!
I'm also really quite chuffed to use the adverbial pronoun en here - nous les avons là pour le soutien et l'aide quand nous en avons besoin - this (hopefully!) means "we have them there for support and help when we need it", though of course it's slightly different in French, as we need to say "when we need some", which is what the en means here. 'Avoir besoin de' is another of these French idioms that I don't entirely feel is always worth mentioning, because I've sort of grown up with it, much like 'il fait chaud' for the weather, or 'j'ai faim' when I'm hungry. But they're said differently in French - you have hunger in French, and the weather does hot. Similarly, you don't merely need something, you have need of. Anyway, useful points for me to remember, perhaps, when I'm writing future blogs!
So that's my little wrap-up for this week. A fairly simply topic, though peppered with some idiomatic expressions that hopefully add some interest along the way. I'm currently not sure whether the DELF exams are being run during these crazy times, but I'm thinking that I'll soon be putting my hat in the ring for DELF A1, so I want to try and do more of this stuff to help me along the way!
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