Days of the Week

Bon Jour

Today we are going to learn how to say the days of the weekend in French.

You have to take this as part of your vocabulary to be able to tell what day it is.  That’s the way you just learn some new vocabulary in order to get by little words, like days of the week and months of the year.

So let’s go and enjoy your French:

FRENCH	ENGLISH
Lunedi	Monday
Mardi	Tuesday
Mercredi	Wednesday
Jeudi	Thursday
Vendredi	Friday
Samedi	Saturday
Dimanche	Sunday

Au revoir

L' adjectif possessif

The possessive adjective (L’adjectif possesif in French) goes before the noun and it agrees on its genre and number.  Let’s see the possessive adjectives that we have in French on the table below:

Subject	Male	Female	Plural
Je	Mon (My)	Ma	Mes
Tu	Ton (Your)	Ta	Tes
Il/Elle	Son (His/Her)	Sa	Ses
Nous	Notre (Our)	Notre	Nos
Vous	Votre (Your)	Votre	Vos
Ils/Elles	Leur (Their)	Leur	Leurs

For the female nouns you have to use female possessive adjective.  However, if that noun starts with a non-sounding h or with a vowel we use the male form of the adjective:

MON ÉPÉE

(MY SWORD)

SON ATTENTION

(HER ATTENTION)

TON ATTITUDE

(YOUR ATTITUDE)

Let’s see some examples using the possessive adjectives in French:

MA VOITURE EST GRANDE

(MY CAR IS BIG)

TA VOITURE EST PETITE

(YOUR CAR IS SMALL)

NOTRE FILLE EST HAUTE

(OUR GIRL IS SMALL)

VOTRE FILS EST MAIGRE

(YOUR SON IS THIN)

LEUR CHIEN EST FÉROCE

(THEIR DOG IS WILD) 

False Cognates

Bonjour!


Today I am going to introduce you to concept of Cognates and False Cognates.


Cognates and False Cognates exist in every language you want to learn.


Basically a Cognate is a word in another language that is similar to your mother tongue in this case to English.  Cognates could be really helpful when you are learning a new language to assimilate this new vocabulary.


However, there are some False Cognates and you have to be careful with these words.  False Cognates are words that, even if they are similar to words in English, they don't have the same meaning.


There's not a full list of False Cognates.  However, take a look to this list.  As you progress, working with your dictionary you can add more words to your list of False Cognates:

French Word	English Word	French Meaning
Assister	Assist	Attend
Collège	College	Junior High School
Crayon	Crayon	Pencil
Déception	Deception	Dissapointment
Demander	Demand	To Ask, To Request
Entrée	Entrée	Appetizer
Gros	Gross	Big
Libraire	Library	Bookstore
Pièce	Piece	Room, Coin
Sale	Sale	Dirty
Zone	Zone	Slum, Area

  

L'adjectif démonstratif

·         In French we use the demonstrative adjective which is:

Ce / cet	Male singular	This, that
Cette	Female singular	This, that
Ces	Plural	These, Those

·         In French when the noun has a male singular form we use "cet".  However, if the noun starts with a vowel or with an "h" which has no sound we have to use: Ce

Ce garçon	This (that) boy
Cet avocat	This (that) lawyer
Ce crayon	This (that) pen
Cet arbre	This (that) tree
Cet hôtel	This (that) hotel

·         The plural form of the demonstrative adjective is the same for both male and female nouns (ces).

·         We translate the demonstrative adjective as "this" or "that" depending of the context. Nevertheless, in French, to express proximity or distance we can use the words "-ci" (here) or "-là" (there):

·       Demonstrative adjective + noun + "-ci / -là": 

Cette voiture-ci	This car
Cette voiture-là	That car
Ce crayon-ci	This pen
Ce crayon-là	That pen