Basic French, Very, very easy!

[Clank]

Hi, I've written a few guides, I thought I'd write this cause I'm bored.
I can speak french, although I am not quite fluent yet, oh well, onto the guide:


Greetings/Farewells:
In this section, I will teach you basic greetings and farewells...
In French, as in most languages, there are usually two ways of saying things, formal and informal, I will teach you both ways.
I will use two tags to define these - (Formal) or (Non-Formal)

Here are the 2 most basic greetings:

• Salut (Sal-ue)
• Bonjour (Bon-jor)

And the 4 most basic farewells:

• Bonsoir (Bon-swa)
• À bientôt (A-ben-twa)
• À demain (A-de-man)
• Adieu (A-dee-u)

What they mean:

Salut - Hi. (Non-Formal)
Bonjour - Hello. (Formal)

Bonsoir - Good evening. (Formal)
À bientôt - See you later/soon. (Non-Formal)
À demain - See you tomorrow. (Non-Formal)
Adieu - Farewell. (Either.)

Titles:

• Monsieur (Mons-zeur)
• Madame (Mad-amm)
• Mademoiselle (Mad-moh-zell)
• Mamam (Ma-mam)
• Papa (Pa-pa)

What they mean:

Monsieur - Mr/Sir.
Madame - Mrs/Madam/Lady.
Mademoiselle - Ms/Young Lady.
Mamam - Mum/Mom.
Papa - Dad.

How to use them:
Now you know what they mean, I"ll teach you how to use them...

When a man is greeting another man he does not know in the day time, he would say:
'Bonjour, Monsieur'

When a man is greeting another man he knows in the day time, he would say:
Either:
'Bonjour' or,
'Salut'

When a man is greeting another man he does not know in the night, he would say:
'Bonsoir'

When a man is greeting another man he knows in the night, he would say:
'Salut'

When a woman is greeting another woman she does not know in the day time, she would say:
'Bonjour, Madame'
And to a young woman:
'Bonjour, Mademoiselle'

The night time is the same as men.

Introducing yourself:
I will now teach you to introduce yourself, and ask other to introduce themselves.

Here is how to say, 'My name is ...'
Je m'appelle ...' (Je-mah-pel)
After this you can say: 'Et toi?' (et-twa)
Which means, And you?

Here is how to say, 'What is your name?' (undelined letters mean they are 'slient')
'Tu tappelles comment? (Tu-t-app-ell Com-on)

So, here is how I would greet a kid I did not know at school:
Me: Salut! Tu tappelles comment?
Kid: Salut Je m'appelle Kid, Et toi?
Me: Je m'appelle Clank.

Asking how people are, ect...
I will now teach you how to ask someone how they are, and reply to this.
In french, to ask how someone is feeling, you say:
'Ça va?' (sa-va)
Or: 'Comment Ça va?' (comm-on sa-va)
It does not matter which.

Here are some of the replies you can answer with:

• Ça va mal (sa-va mal)
• Ça va tres mal (sa-va tres-mal)
• Bof! (B-o-f)
• Oui, Ça va (we-sa-va)
• comme-ci comme-Ça (comie-si comie-sa)
• Ça va bien (sa-va beh-in)
• je suis malade (je-swee-mal-ade)
• Ça va tres bien (sa-va-tres-beh-in)

What they mean:
Ça va mal - Bad.
Ça va tres mal - Very bad.
Bof! - Ok/I don't know.
Oui, Ça va - Yes, I am fine.
comme-ci comme-Ça - So-so.
Ça va bien - I am good.
je suis malade - I am sick/ill.
Ça va tres bien - Very good.

So, if I was talking to a kid at school, it would go like this:
Me: Salut! Tu tappelles comment?
Kid: Salut Je m'appelle Kid, Et toi?
Me: Je m'appelle Clank.
Kid: Ça va?
Me: Oui, Ça va/Ça va tres bien.

I could replace 'Oui, Ça va/Ça va tres bien.' with any of the ones on the list.


Age
Now we know how to do all of that, I'll add in how to have a conversation about your age, and where you live...

Age note: In french, you ask what age someone 'has', not what she or he 'is'.

Oh, before we go into ages, I'd better do some counting...
Numbers 1-70:

0 zéro (zero)
1 un (un)
2 deux (dur)
3 trois (twa)
4 quatre (cat-ra)
5 cinq (sink)
6 six (see-s)
7 sept (set)
8 huit (wii-t)
9 neuf (nurf)
10 dix (dee-s)
I'll only go up to ten for now...

Here are a few 'age' phrases:

• Tu as quel age? - How old are you? (tu-a-qell-age)
• J'ai *age here* ans - I am *age* years (Jai *age pronouceation, see above* - anz)
• Il a quel age? - How old is he? (Ill-a-qell-age)
• Il a *age* ans - He is *age* (Ill-a-*age*-anz)
• Elle a quel age? - How old is she? (Ell-a-qell-age)
• Elle a *age* ans - She is *age* (Ell-a-*age*-anz)
• Vous avez quel age? - (Formal/Plural) How old are you? (voz-avee-qell-age)
• Vous avons *age* ans - (Formal/Plural) We are *age* (voz-avon-*age*-anz)

So here is how I'd talk to that kid:
Me: Salut! Tu tappelles comment?
Kid: Salut Je m'appelle Kid, Et toi?
Me: Je m'appelle Clank.
Kid: Ça va?
Me: Oui, Ça va/Ça va tres bien.
Kid: Tu a quel age?
Me: J'ai zero ans, et toi? ('and you?')
Kid: J'ai dix ans!

Updated with ages, more coming soon.

 

[zmagik]

Not Bad. you got some of the pronunciations wrong though

 

[Daily]

I think this may be incorrect.

Mademoiselle (Mad-moh-zell)

 

[Clank]

^ I'll edit it abit later.

 

[Clank]

Updated, ages now included, more coming soon.

 

[Nullware]

Adieu - Farewell. (Either.)

I'm sorry "adieu" is basically never used informally.

When a man is greeting another man he does not know in the night, he would say:
'Bonsoir'

Bonsoir is used when saying good night and parting from your company, not when greeting.

Vous avons *age* ans

The first person plural of the verb "avoir" indicating "we" would be "Nous avons".
[/quote]

Good guide though, I'm impressed at how this can actually teach people the basics quite effectively I would think. Thumbs up from me.

 

[Clank]

^ As I said, I am not that great at the language.

Thanks for the decent feedback.

 

[RutuliukaS2]

I love akcent of french girls ... They talk like their having an orgasm lol

 

[dark nite159]

Nice guide clank, We do french at our school for a second language. Not that hard tbh. 10/10, great layout, great spelling/grammar. <3.

 

[david123]

overall, i think its good could be helpful to some people although i don't take french, you never i live in Canada some of these words might be helpful especially since Canada possesses both english and french hehe thanks!

 

[Lake Huron]

Vous avons *age* ans - (Formal/Plural) We are *age* (voz-avon-*age*-anz)

should be nous avons, not vous avons

 

[darklord12345]

Very nice guide. I am actually english / french bi-lingual.

You got most of the pronounciations right.

But like you stated its just a basic guide, so I won't get into it.

 

[Faculty3000]

I love akcent of french girls ... They talk like their having an orgasm lol

Lol, that is funny and I have to agree. Also, the french really have some sexy accent.

 

[draiktame]

add Je suis and Je suis de, along with the nationality differences.

 

[Ganzta-Freak]

Love the guide, even though I already know French. (1/4 French)

Fix the pronunciations though.

J'aime votre guide, lol.

 

[Shin]

[*]Tu as quel age? - How old are you? (tu-a-qell-age)
[*]J'ai *age here* ans - I am *age* years (Jai *age pronouceation, see above* - anz)

You are saying that the "as" and "'ai" stands for "are" and "am"

If these were true, you would be using etre, as in Je suis or Tu es.

Je suis = I am
Tu es = You are

The words "as" and "J'ai" are a conjugation of the verb Avoir.

Avoir meaning "to have"

So basically the question is asking, "You have how many years", and "I have this many years".

Yes, it may not sound proper, but that is how the French language is composed.

I'm part French, and currently enrolled in French Class, so any more questions you may ask to help your guides.

C'est bon. (Huit / Dix)

 

[AMS]

nice french. i lived in paris for 5 years and most of your language is good. I also liked it how u broke the words up for pronunciation.

 

[enezero]

WoW great guide 10/10 helped me finsh my french hw

 

[Tsumiea]

over all I think its a good intro to french great job

 

[Tru3 Mast3r]

very nice, and helpfull. BOOK MARKED this page =) will help with my homework for french 1 lol