AK_Thug AMish Posted March 13, 2004 Report Share Posted March 13, 2004 I have a few random things I keep messing up in French, if anyone could help that'd be great -When you use the phrase "Il y a beaucoup de ..." do you put the nouns in plural or singular?-does de + une and simplify to something besides d'une?-What is the phrase for 'I don't care' (would be useful in class )-is the word for sloth (the animal) paresse or paresseux?-and more, when I think of them Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkAngelBGE Posted March 13, 2004 Report Share Posted March 13, 2004 1. plural2. Not that I know. 3. LOL...dunno tho 4. paresse Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Tutankhamun Posted March 13, 2004 Report Share Posted March 13, 2004 Gah. That looks copnfusing but when you start to read it it probally makes more sence. The only other language I can speak is Spanish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chichigrande Posted March 13, 2004 Report Share Posted March 13, 2004 Desmond and Me do have something in common, we both can't speak French. My friend tried to teach me and I found too confusing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akya Posted March 13, 2004 Report Share Posted March 13, 2004 1-plural2-nope I don't think so...3-Je m'en fous or Je ne m'en préoccupe pas or Ce n'est pas quelque chose qui m'inquiète...whatever personnaly, I use the first expression...it's from us french canadian (from Quebec) 4-Un paresseux Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AK_Thug AMish Posted March 13, 2004 Author Report Share Posted March 13, 2004 so.. 'il y a beaucoup de grands livres' is right?ah French Canadian, they have different words for everything! je m'en fous sounds interesting, since 'fous' is 'insane', right?next question: how often do you need to use subjunctive? One teacher said that it is common, the other said that only some people use it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Klaas Posted March 14, 2004 Report Share Posted March 14, 2004 je m'en fous is also used by the French/Belgians a lot, it's not tipically Canadian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curufinwe Posted March 15, 2004 Report Share Posted March 15, 2004 Okay guys ... there are several misconceptions here ...1. You can either use singular or plural ... literally, "beaucoup de ..." means "a lot of ..." ... so you can say ... "il y a beaucoup de personnes à la gare" (There are a lot of people at the train station) ... and here "personnes" is plural ...but you can say "il y a beaucoup de lait" (There is a lot of milk) ... but here "lait" is singular ... so basically, "beaucoup de ..." can be used either in the singular or plural forms, according to what you want to say ...2. no ... de la remains as it is ...de le turns to du ...de les turns into des ...de un turns into d'un ...de une turns into d'une ... and finally ...de des turns into des ...VOILA 3. I don't care can be translated more politely than "je m'en fous" ... which corresponds more to "I don't give a f**k"You'd better say : ça m'est égal or je m'en ficheWe use "je m'en fous" in France too ...... it is just rude. and here "fous" is not the plural for "crazy people" ... but it comes from the verb "foutre" ...4. The sloth (the animal) is un paresseuxparesse is the adjective for sloth.Now, the other question ....Subjonctive is used in everyday life ... but it is seen as a difficult tense by most of the French population. So basically, only the present of the subjonctive is used in French when actually the imperfect of subjonctive would be needed ... anyway ... at least it is a little correct.But do you know that you use subjonctive in English without even knowing it ?e.g: if I were rich, I would buy a nice car.I were is an old form of subjonctive in English ... it expresses a wish most of the time now ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Klaas Posted March 15, 2004 Report Share Posted March 15, 2004 Yeah, subjonctive is also used in Dutch, but rarely though. Only some expressions require it, but if you would use it as in French you would sound a bit old-fashioned.Anyway, subjonctive was hell for me in French classes, I hope you get rid of it soon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curufinwe Posted March 15, 2004 Report Share Posted March 15, 2004 Not likely to happen ... it IS necessary in the language, it expresses something else than indicative ... sorry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clodhopper Posted July 10, 2004 Report Share Posted July 10, 2004 Zeez eez my French Accent, so zat meanz I am French expert! No? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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