Joyeux Noël!

Christmas is just around the corner. Joyeux Noël! as we say in French.

French people usually leave work earlier on Christmas Eve because they are going to celebrate Christmas that evening. If you were in France, you would hear Joyeux Noël! everywhere you go: from the sellers/cashiers in shops, the colleagues, the waiters at the restaurants or simply your neighbours! On Christmas day, people call their family and friends to tell them Joyeux Noël!

The 25 December is a public holiday in France. 

Interrogative sentences: les phrases interrogatives

There are different ways to ask a question. The examples given mean "Do you go to Paris?"

1. by raising the voice at the end of the sentence: Vous allez à Paris?   

2. by adding "est-ce que" to the beginning of the sentence: Est-ce vous allez à Paris?

3. by putting the verb first, then the subject: Allez-vous à Paris? (note the hyphen that is used when the subject is a pronoun).

4. by using a question word:

- Why?              =   Pourquoi?           

- How much? / How many?  =  Combien?   

- Who?  =  Qui?                      

- Which?  = Quel/Quelle/Quels/Quelles? (depending of the gender and number of the subject)

- How?  =  Comment?

- Where?  =  Où?

- What?  =  Que/Qu' ?

- When?  =  Quand?

French idioms: "Donner sa langue au chat"

The literal translation of "Donner sa langue au chat" is "to give one's tongue to the cat"! This idiom means to give up finding the answer to a question. We use this idiom to ask for the answer to a question after we tried to find the solution.

Example:

- Où se trouve Bruges?

- En Espagne?

- Non!

- En Allemagne?

- Non!

- Je donne ma langue au chat!

- La bonne réponse est la Belgique.
 

Public holidays in France: l'Armistice

Every 11 November, France commemorates the end of the World War I. It's called "l'Armistice". The armistice was signed on 11 novembre 1918 in France. It ended a war that lasted four years and killed millions of people. This public holiday is to pay tribute to the soldiers who died for France on the battlefield. It has been a public holiday since 1922.

In 1920, an unknown soldier who died during World War I in Verdun was buried under the Arc de Triomphe at the end of the Champs-Élysées in order to pay tribute to the unidentified dead soldiers. Every year, flowers are put on the tombstone of the unknown soldier ("La tombe du Soldat inconnu") and a ceremony is held there.

Public holidays in France: la Toussaint

The 1st of November is la Toussaint in France, or "All Saints' day". It's the day when French people commemorate their dead. It's a catholic celebration but as it is a public holiday, most people in France take the opportunity to go to the cemetery. They buy chrysanthemum flowers to put on the grave and light candles to symbolise a happy life after death.

The name comes from "tous les saints" as the celebration is dedicated to all saints.

Since the end of the 1990's, French people celebrate Halloween on the eve of la Toussaint too. It's become more and more popular since then.

Summer time / winter time

In France, we put the clocks forward or backward in summer and winter. We call it "passer à l'heure d'été" in the summer, "passer à l'heure d'hiver" in the winter. There is also the expression "changement d'heure" meaning changing the time.
For the winter time, you must put the clocks backward the last Sunday of October.
For the summer time, you must put the clocks forward the last Sunday of March. 
French have been changing the time since 1974. Why? Officially to save energy.

French idioms: Faire la grasse matinée

L'expression du jour est: "Faire la grasse matinée!" or "Faire la grasse mat'!". Translated literally, it is: "to do the fat morning". It doesn't make sense of course! This idiom means: "to sleep late in the morning".

You need to conjugate the verb "faire".

Example: 

J'ai fait la grasse matinée / J'ai fait la grasse mat'.                        I slept late this morning.

Tu as fait la grasse matinée / Tu as fait la grasse mat'.               You slept late this morning.

Les pronoms personnels sujets - Pronouns for the subject

Here are the pronouns that replace a noun or a person that is the subject of the verb in the sentence.

Je/J'       I:         The J' is used when the following word is a vowel or silent h.

Tu          you:     It is used when speaking to one person in a familiar way.

Il            he/it:    It replaces a masculine noun or person in the singular form.

Elle        she/it:   It replaces a feminine noun or person in the singular form.

On         :            It's the familiar form to say "we", or when using an indifinite subject such as "you,                            they, someone".

Nous      we:       It replaces many persons.

Vous      you:     It is used when speaking to 2 or more persons or when you speak to one person

                          in a polite, respectul or formal way.

Ils           they:   It replaces a masculine noun or persons in the plural form or when there are 
                          masculine and feminine together.

Elles      they:    It replaces a feminine noun or persons in the plural form.

French idioms: Il pleut des cordes!

It's been raining a lot these past few days! And heavy rain too!  Il pleut des cordes! As we say it in French. Literally: "It's raining ropes". The English equivalent idiom is "It's raining cats and dogs". 

This idiom is considered as familiar language in French.

Different types of sentences in French

Sentences in French are formed in a similar way than in English. For short sentences, you won't make much mistake if you keep the same structure as the English sentence.

There are four different types of sentences:

1. The declarative sentence:

            Ex.:      Le chat joue avec la souris.          The cat is playing with the mouse.

2. The interrogative sentence:

            Ex.:      Joue-t-il avec la souris?             Is she playing with the mouse?

3. The imperative sentence:

            Ex.:      Joue avec moi!                          Play with me!

4. The exclamative sentence:

            Ex.:      Quelle belle maison!                What a beautiful house!

Masculine or feminine in French?

Nouns in French have this particularity to be either masculine or feminine. Not that they belong to the masculine or feminine sex because why a word such as "table" belongs to the feminine? These are word genders. 

Masculine words have the article: un or le
Feminine words have the article: une or la

The plural for un/une is des.

The plural for le/la is les.

You must learn the word with the article because there is no rule to remember which one is masculine or feminine, except for animals or human beings.

Example:

un stylo = a pen

une maison = a house

le cahier = the notebook

la pluie  = the rain

des voitures = cars

les enfants = the children