So, I thought I’d share a recipe for Fondue aux trois fromages:

Ingrédients

200 g de gruyère
200 g de fromage à raclette
100 g de mozzarella
1 gousse d’ail émincée
10 cl de lait et 20 cl de vin blanc
1 cuillerée à soupe de fécule de maïs
poivre noir du moulin
muscade râpée

Dice the cheese.  Heat up the milk, all but 4 tablespoons of the wine and the garlic in a caquelon (fondue pot).  Add the diced cheese all while stirring well.  In a separate bowl, mix the corn starch and the remaining white wine.  When the cheese has melted but is not liquid, pour this mixture into the caquelon while continuously whisking.  Simmer until smooth and creamy.  Bring to a boil and let it cook for a few minutes.  Add pepper and nutmeg.  Let the fondue simmer gently over a hot plate in the middle of the table as everyone dips their food into it.

Post from: French Blog

Although it felt like I was never going to get it in the beginning, with help from the teachers at the Sorbonne and my French friends, I unlocked the treasure chest that is French literature.  One of my very favorites is Madame Bovary.  I’m not sure why really, but I fell in love with this novel by Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880).  One of my favorite excerpts is when Emma Rouault (the main character) discovers her new home three days after her wedding to the widowed Charles Bovary, a very shy, uninteresting and insensitive man she had just recently met.  The reader becomes Emma as the description is thoroughly made from her perspective.  The detailed adjectives and nouns make for impressive imagery as Flaubert uses objects instead of emotions to show who his characters are.  It’s heart-breaking to feel just like Emma, the only daughter of a rich Normand farmer, as she discovers a home that her new husband had not even prepared for her, having left it just as his first wife (who Emma refers to as l’autre) had decorated it and which as far as Emma is concerned is old, dirty and of poor taste (un papier jaune-serin, des fleurs pâles, la toile mal tendue, flambeaux d’argent plaqué, bois de sapin, une grande pièce délabrée…).  My favorite line in this chapter is: …Emma songeait à son bouquet de mariage, qui était emballé dans un carton, et se demandait, en rêvant, ce qu’on en ferait, si par hasard elle venait à mourir.

Flaubert apparently wrote this story after having read about a young woman who cheated on and was later murdered by her husband.  Hence, the fact that Emma later commits suicide which is presaged in this line I quoted.

I encourage all my readers to open up a French novel and read just a little excerpt.  Use a dictionary if you really need to, but only for the words that really block your general understanding of the story.  Don’t waste time looking up each and every one of the words you don’t know as this will frustrate you before you even finish one sentence.  And after all, the most important thing is that you get a general idea of the plot or the action as that will be enough to keep you wanting to go back for more.

Post from: French Blog

Janvier, février,
Mars, avril,
Mai, juin,
Juillet, août,
Septembre, octobre
Novembre et décembre.

Douze mois dans l’année ce n’est vraiment pas assez
Pour pouvoir mieux s’amuser
Il faudrait en rajouter.

Janvier, février,
Mars, avril,
Mai, juin,
Juillet, août,
Septembre, octobre

Novembre et décembre.

Et c’est terminé
On a fini cette année
Il faut tout recommencer
Pour une nouvelle année.

You can listen to and legally purchase/download the album here.

Post from: French Blog

La Reunion is a small island of about 970 square miles and a population of approximately 827,000 that lies right in the middle of the Indian Ocean.  The people of La Reunion obviously speak French as that it is the national language, but the Creole language also exists.  Today, I’m going to give you 6 Creole proverbs from La Reunion and see if you can match them up with an English explanation.

Post from: French Blog

Je n’aime pas le brocoli.
Je ne veux plus jouer avec toi.
Ma maman ne me laisse jamais faire ce que je veux.
Ma maman ne m’achète rien quand on fait du shopping.
Je ne veux personne dans ma chambre !
Je ne vais pas encore à l’école.
Je ne veux ni dormir ni me reposer.
Je n‘ai qu’une petite glace !

Basically, to be negative in French, you just have to place ne before the conjugated verb and pas or another negative expression after that same verb.  In other words, you form a negative sandwich with the conjugated verb as the filling.

Some of the most common negative expressions include:

You can see from the above examples that ne…ni…ni and ne…que don’t follow the same pattern as the other expressions.  Instead of following the conjugated verb, ni and que are placed before the word they modify.

Most negative expressions in French are adverbs.  However, rien and personne are pronouns that can also be used as a subject or object in a sentence.  So, when used in these ways, rien and personne are placed in the normal subject or object position.  Ne is still placed directly before the verb.  Examples:

Rien ne se passe. (Nothing happens)
Personne ne joue avec moi. (Nobody plays with me).

Be careful!  Although you can’t make a double negative in English, you can in French.  Just make sure you place ne before the verb, omit pas when using other negative expressions in the same sentence and place the negative adverbs before the negative pronouns.  You might see something like this:
Personne ne fait jamais rien! (Nobody ever does anything!)

What negative sentences can you come up with?  Please share in a comment!

Post from: French Blog

1. La mère de ma mère c’est ma grand-mère.

2. Les enfants de mon oncle ce sont mes cousins.

3. La fille de ma mère c’est ma sœur.

4. Le frère de mon père c’est mon oncle.

5. Le père de mon père c’est mon grand-père.

6. Le frère de mon oncle c’est mon père.

7. La sœur de ma mère c’est ma tante.

8. La sœur de ma tante c’est ma mère.

You may have noticed the use of ma, mon, mes in the above sentences.  These are called adjectifs possessifs in French and possessive adjectives in English.  In all of these examples, I have used the first person possessive adjectives; in other words, the French versions of “my”.  Below are some more examples with third person possessive adjectives; in other words, the French versions of “her”, “his” and “their”.

You must make the possessive adjective agree in gender and number with the noun the object belongs to; in other words, depending on whether the noun is singular or plural / masculine or feminine.

Just to be sure you get it, compare these two sentences:

Il avait invité tous ses amis à sa fête. (He invited all of his friends to his party.)
(just one “owner”)
Ils avaient invité tous leurs amis à leur fête. (They invited all of their friends to their party.)
(more than one “owners”)

Careful though as the possessive adjectives ma, ta and sa before words that begin with vowels or a silent h all end in “n” regardless of whether they are masculine or feminine.  Examples: mon adresse, ton amie, son identité.

Post from: French Blog

admonester : réprimander vivement (to admonish)

sermonner (to lecture)
gronder (to scold)
réprouver (to reprove)

Comment avez-vous fait?

Post from: French Blog

1. La mère de ma mère c’est ma _______________.

2. Les enfants de mon oncle ce sont mes ________.

3. La fille de ma mère c’est ma ________________.

4. Le frère de mon père c’est mon ______________.

5. Le père de mon père c’est mon ______________.

6. Le frère de mon oncle c’est mon _____________.

7. La sœur de ma mère c’est ma _______________.

8. La sœur de ma tante c’est ma _______________.

Post from: French Blog

VOWEL	WHERE IS YOUR TONGUE?	WHAT IS YOUR MOUTH DOING?
[i] as in joli	very far in front	smiley, almost closed
[y] as in salut	very far back	almost closed and rounded
[e] as in étude	in front	a little open
[ε ] as in faire	in front	open
[a] as in la	in front	very open
[ə] as in le	in front	a little open
[œ] as in neuf	in front	open and rounded
[Ø] as in bleu	very far back	a little open and rounded
as in pomme	a little back	open and rounded
[o] as in mot	in back	open and very rounded
[u] as in jour	a little back	a little open and very rounded
as in vin	in front *remember this one is nasal as if you have a cold	open and smiley
as in dans	a little back *remember this one is nasal as if you have a cold	very open and rounded
as in pont	in back *remember this one is nasal as if you have a cold	a little open and really rounded

Practice them in front of a mirror…I know, I know…it’s not that easy!  But, the important thing is to have fun when you’re learning and believe me this makes for some laughs!

Post from: French Blog

I’ll remind you of the rules:

Règles
Je vous donne dix catégories et une lettre.  Vous devez répondre avec un mot qui commence avec cette lettre.  Évidement, vous ne devez pas répondre le même que les autres et il faut être créatif.  Bonne chance!

Also, please remember that you can’t enter more than one word for each category.  Have fun!
Lettre: M

Catégories:
1. l’architecture
2. la nature
3. les voyages
4. les villes
5. la fête
6. le mariage
7. le sport
8. les nombres
9. les langues
10. la musique

I believe emmanuel was the winner of the last round.  Let’s see who wins this one…write a comment with your answers.

Post from: French Blog