Parle-moi de ta famille

Hello everyone!

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! 

Les vacances

Hello everybody!
I'm always thinking about what I can do to try and find ways to get me thinking more in French. Earlier this week, I'd started looking at the AQA GCSE French syllabus for something of a more structured plan for me re-learing French - it might seem odd, given that I have a GCSE in French, already, but still! Looking at some of the past papers on the site, I thought I'd give this a go, from the 2018 Writing part of the exam. I've been trying to learn more vocabulary in general, and words and phrases associated with holidays have been my starting point. I mean, it's probably the closest any of us is going to get to an actual holiday this year!

Vous décrivez vos vacances pour votre blog. Décrivez:

- votre destination de vacances préférée

- le voyage pour aller à cette destination

- vos vacances l'année dernière

- votre préférence pour les vacances à l'avenir

J'aime bien voyager en Grande-Bretagne. Quand j'étais jeune, nous voyageons ici souvent, car nous n'avions beaucoup d'argent. Je pense que j'ai visité la plupart du pays! Cependant, j'aime explorer les pays d'outre-mer aujourd'hui, bien que j'aime les petites vacances ici.

Surtout, j'adore l'Italie, et j'y ai visitée trois fois jusqu'à maintenant. Je suis allé à Milan deux fois, et je suis allé à Rome en 2018 avec ma femme pour la lune de miel. Mes vacances à Milan étaient la première fois que j'étais en vacances à l'étranger seul. Le voyage à Rome était très génial, car j'étais avec l'amour de ma vie - c'était merveilleux! Malheureusement, je n'aime pas voyager en avion!

L'année dernière, nous sommes allés dans le Kent, dans le sud de l'Angleterre. Nous étions là en mai, pendant que Jemma était enceinte, et nous ne voudrions pas voyager au lointain. Nous louions une petite maison au bord de la mer pour une semaine - c'était tranquille, et nous l'aimions beaucoup. Nous avons passé un bon séjour!

A l'avenir, j'espère voyager plus en France. Après avoir étudié le français j'aimerais utiliser la language dans la réalité. J'y ai visité il y a vings ans avec ma famille, mais nous ne sommes pas allés loin. Je voudrais visiter Paris, mais surtout je voudrais aller en Avignon car je suis très interessé par le Palais des Papes - j'aime beaucoup l'histoire médiévale. Mes vacances de rêve seraient visiter New England aux États-Unis. J'ai un projet depuis 2014 à visiter Boston, Washington et Philadelphia, mais je n'ai jamais eu d'argent!

Well the question asked for around 90 words, and I've gone on for more than 250! Of course, most of this answer wasn't written under exam conditions, so that certainly helps! But let's take a look through what I've come up with, and see if it's all correct...

J'aime bien voyager en Grande-Bretagne

An answer for this question asks for a whole bunch of tenses, so this opening paragraph is quite exciting in that respect! To start with, I thought I'd reminisce about holidays in Britain when I was young, using the passé composé and imperfect. Most excitingly of all, though, I've got a subjunctive trigger in here! 'Bien que j'aime les petites vacances ici' means "although I like small trips here", which is a fairly innocuous little sentence, I'm sure you'll agree, but 'bien que' is one of these little phrases that requires the subjunctive, which makes using this particularly tricky verb mood a little easier. At some point, I'll get round to writing a blog on the subjunctive, for sure, though I'm currently still getting to grips with it myself! That said, it's not exactly all that exciting, as regular -er verbs like aimer conjugate in the subjunctive very much like they do in the present tense. Anyway!

Surtout, j'adore l'Italie, et j'y ai visitée trois fois jusqu'à maintenant

I love Italy. It's been something of a love affair for me since my teens. Sadly, I've only been there three times before - though the last time was my honeymoon ('lune de miel') so that was really special! Getting back to the grammar here, I do like being able to use y when I can, as I said in my last blog - there's just something about it that feels so very French! Here, though, we've got an example of direct object agreement with a past participle, the only time verbs which take avoir as an auxiliary have to agree. However, I'm not 100% sure that I've got this right - are countries classed as direct objects in French? Don't know - but Italy is feminine in French, and as it comes before the the verb construction, the past participle would therefore need to agree. Right? I think so. 

L'année dernière, nous sommes allés dans le Kent

Last year, we went to Kent - my wife Jemma was pregnant so we didn't want to go far, and so rented a cottage near to the sea. It was lovely, anyway! Bit of a tricky one here, deciding which conjunction to use for "while" - I'd originally hoped to get in 'lorsque', as it's one of these words I'd like to use, but I think the better fit was indeed 'pendant que'. After all, Jemma was pregnant for the entire duration of our stay! I find it very French how the verb 'passer' is used to indicate spending time, so wanted to use that here somewhere.

A l'avenir, j'espère voyager plus en France

This last paragraph has got another mix of tenses, as I throw in the conditional as well! This last paragraph, describing my preference for future holidays, I thought would originally use a lot of the future tense, but I suppose the way the world is right now, that just wasn't going to happen! Of course, I'm sort of dreaming big with some of these ideas - I've had plans to travel to the USA since at least 2014, but never had the money - and you'd perhaps think that the subjunctive would be called upon once again, as the likelihood isn't great... but I'm choosing to be hopeful! 

I'm sure there would have been a much better way of writing this answer - certainly a bit more idiomatic - but I was trying to rely much more on my own knowledge that I've managed to gain up to now, without having my nose in a dictionary for most of it. I'm starting to produce longer written pieces in French now, albeit still very much focused around the DELF A1 level of talking about myself, but it really doesn't matter while I'm at this stage what I'm writing about - the fact that I'm getting to use the language and all the rest of it is really the important thing, I think!

I'd hesitate to say that I'm getting a lot more comfortable with writing in French, but I do think that a lot of things are slotting into place for me, now! And this is half the battle, and really the main reason that I spend a lot of my learning time writing - if I can get more used to writing my thoughts in French, that is a good way to practice the use of the language, so that I can grow in my confidence and speed at producing French. From there, I can then look at speaking more and more. Don't get me wrong, I speak fairly often in French anyway, though while I'm currently learning by myself, there aren't a great deal of opportunities to do so! To my way of thinking, if I can keep going with writing this stuff down, I'll be able to build those reflexes that should (will!) allow me to get more natural at speaking, once I manage to get all of the grammar down. 

That's my plan, anyway!