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