If you need to Discover how to speak French there all kinds of techniques – private lessons (ideal but high priced) local night classes, on the net French courses, french language software, take your pick. What none of them can prepare you for are the occasional – and mostly understandable mistakes – where we believe we understand some thing and in reality we’re just a bit short!
For example, a friend of mine was in search of a French property. He thought that the place in “rue du chateau d’eau” sounded extremely attractive. It should be close to a chateau, you would believe. What much better for your French residence than to be near one of these magnificent historical buildings?
Well mostly he was proper. “Rue de” does indeed mean “the street of”. Regrettably a “chateau d’eau” is a water tower. Now some folks locate them incredibly attractive, and they’re an iconic component of the French countryside, but they’re not very the fairy-tale castle he was hoping for!
It is an example of how, when you Discover how to speak French, you have to take in the entire French phrase not just the individual words.
Of course the individual words can trip you up just as quickly. Yet another friend (who I should say now speaks really very good French) was visiting France on holiday. She came down to breakfast in her hotel and looked at the menu, seeking some thing generally French. “Pampelmouse” sounded especially exotic so she ordered that, only to be rather disappointed when half a grapefruit was served!
Any language will generally trip you up occasionally – we just can’t know it all at once. If you will need to Discover how to speak French I would suggest that in addition to any other lessons you generally carry a modest french to english dictionary with you, or one of the very good pocket electronic versions now accessible. It will just give you the capability to check prior to making those small “faux pas” (that’s mistakes, by the way). You must look out most for the things you nearly believe you know but aren’t incredibly certain of. You wouldn’t, for example, need to have to put “petrole” in your car – in France you would get paraffin!
For much more info on learning how to speak French and a light-hearted but informative view of all things French pop over to Frenchlife4real.com. It is written by an English-speaking ex-pat living and working in France full-time so regardless of whether you\’re coming on vacation, or thinking of moving to France permanently, It\’s well worth a visit.
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