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Cherry G83-6105 POS...
Full size, 105 key, PS/2, standard keyboard; French language layout More |
...French (français, ) is a Romance language globally spoken by about 77 million people as a first language (mother tongue), by 190 million as a second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired foreign language, with significant speakers in 57 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France, where the language originated. The rest live essentially in Canada (particularly Quebec, and to a lesser extent Ontario and New Brunswick), Belgium, Switzerland, French-speaking Africa (Cameroon, Gabon, Côte d'Ivoire), Luxembourg, Monaco, certain parts of the U.S. state of Louisiana. Most second-language speakers of French live in Francophonic Africa, arguably exceeding the number of native speakers. La Francophonie dans le monde 2006–2007 published by the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie. Nathan, Paris, 2007. The Democratic Republic of the Congo is the Francophone country with the largest population. Read full entry
This entry is from Wikipedia,the leading user-contributed encyclopedia.It may not have been reviewed by professional editors(See full disclaimer)
- Win a French Wine Trip
- Find the wine enthusiast in you Wine country for the winning.
- us.franceguide.com
- 1.French language - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Most second-language speakers of French live in Francophonic Africa, arguably ... French is a descendant of the Latin language of the Roman Empire, as are ...
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F
rench_language
- 2.French language - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- French language. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Jump to: navigation, search ... French is a descendant of the Latin language of the Roman Empire, as are ...
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/i
ndex.html?curid=10597
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French Language?
I want to learn French
language at my own pace with
no pressure from whatsoever or
whoever. Any french tutor
online who is sweet enough to
give lessons?
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My college uses a software called TeLL me More, by Auralog. It covers not only the basics, but also intermediate or advanced level. It is also a lot less repetitive. My goal was to become fluent so it was perfect for me. It has a lot of different activities: picture/word association, videos, dialogues,..., includes also grammar and conjugation. It has also more content than any other language software. Their speech recognition is great so you can have a dialogue with the computer. You can check out their website at http://www.auralog.com for a free demo and compare too. You can check out independent reviews on the web too http://www.toptenreviews.com or about.com websites. The best way to learn a language would be through immersion, visiting these countries. Learning a language will require some time. In addition to software, you can have books which are useful as well. Audio CDs like Pimsleur for instance might help you out but you cannot get any feedback on your pronunciation so I did not like it so much |
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How different is the Canadian Say, for instance, a
French-Canadian and a French
conversed in their own native
language, would they be able
to understand each other?
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First of all, there are different language levels and dialects both in Europe and in Canada. It's not true that all French people understand eachother perfectly because it depends on where they are from and their social standing. A young rapper speaking verlan in the North of France may not be understood by a 40 year old man from Marseilles or Biarritz. There are also different dialects in Canada, including Québec French, Acadian French, etc., but for the sake of the argument, let's talk about Québec French here. Most educated Québécois have a good knowledge of written standard French, which in essence, means that they are able to make themselves understood by any other French speaker, provided they are accustomed to the accent. I've travelled abroad, and I've never had problems making myself understood anywhere. Of course, I know which are local words and I avoid them. There are differences in pronunciation (more nazalisation, whole sentence intonation and prosody differs, several longer vowels no longer distinguished in Europe (like côte/cote, on/un, pâte/patte, etc.) and there are also differences in vocabulary. But most importantly -- and this is where communication becomes difficult -- at the other end of the spectrum, there is also an old Quebec French dialect which does have different grammatical rules. One could say all Québécois are billingual and they go back and forth between these 2 extremes. For instance, there are many contractions in prepositions. dans les = dins sur la = s'a sur les = s'es, etc. Last consonants are often dropped il = i (i mange) elle = a (a mange) table = tab Nous form is unused and replaced by "on". "Ne" is almost never used -- but that's true in Europe as well, actually. There is an epenthetic t inserted in many verb forms: je suis arrivé = j't'arrivé je suis à Montréal = j't'à Montréal quand tu arriveras = mèque t'arriveras je vais t'aider = m'as t'aider While it's true that there are English words in QFrench, it would be false to say there aren't in European French and often times, Québécois tend to be more careful to avoid such words. weekend = fin de semaine chewing gum = gomme ferry = traversier label = étiquette (in music) Borrowed English words that tend to be masculine in Europe, tend to be feminine in Québec, such as job, sandwich, etc. Some people compare American and British English to French and Quebec French, but the difference is greater in French for 2 reasons. First, settlers came to America much earlier than the British and so have been separated for longer, and secondly, French settlers did not speak Parisian French and came mostly from Normandy, Burgundy, etc. It is only later that Parisian French became the standard. |
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What is the best language to I'm currently learning French
at intermediate level and was
thinking of picking up another
foreign language. For those
who speak this beautiful
language out there, what is
the best language to learn
next after French and why?
I would like to learn
something similiar to the
French language.
Anything other than English,
Mandarin, Malay - I've known
these.
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OK, everyone is a bit wrong. 1 - the most spoken languages are: Mandarin Chinese, Spanish and English. And 2 - French is nothing like Arabic, some French words derive from Arabic, however and some French is spoken in Arabic countries. I'd either go with Spanish because it's similar to French and opens up most of South America and some Asian counties for you to use it in as well as Spain (compared to French which isn't as widely spoken) or for something a bit trickier but certainly worth it - Mandarin Chinese. It's not too hard, quite fun and will certainly be useful in the future. |
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