mr.moderino

[crude gyro]

Please be patient

Our volunteers look into many questions every day; sometimes it takes them a little while to answer.

Pro tip: you can rename the thread title with `.tr <thread name>`

Make it descriptive, including relevant context, but also to the point. This way you improve your chances of getting a more relevant and specific answer.

[sweet hawk]

Is there a website I can see to see more on this phenomenon?

[stone orchid]

I give you… WordReference.

[sweet hawk]

And a bientot is see you soon which is 3 words instead of 2 words which confuses me as an English speaker

[stone orchid]

The thing to notice here is not that one word in French meaning multiple words in English, it's just that that's how the meanings get translated over the two languages

Translation is always a trade-off between accuracy to the words and accuracy to the meaning

you can translate « à bientôt » literally as 'to soon' which is accurate word-for-word but not accurate to the meaning which is closer to 'See you soon'

[sweet hawk]

Hmm maybe I'm thinking from an English point of view

[sweet hawk]

So we just fill in the see you soon to make it make more sense?

[stone orchid]

Yeah, you translate by meaning in that case

[sweet hawk]

Ahhhhhhhh ty

[stone orchid]

When you're learning French, you shouldn't really rely on English becuase it's a different language of two different families

some things do cross over but you shouldn't assume everything

[sweet hawk]

What should I mainly rely on 😮

[stone orchid]

It's not that you shouldn't look to English but that you shouldn't look too closely

[lost sage]

You're searching for general meaning, not what each individual word means and trying to line them up

Especially at the beginning

[sweet hawk]

so english is Germanic and French is from Latin family?

[lost sage]

Yea

[sweet hawk]

what should i spend my time looking most at im pretty clueless rn

[sweet hawk]

so im assuming spanish speakers learn french the easiest. No wonder French is difficult for me because I'm used to a Germanic language

[lost sage]

Depends

Afaik italian is closer to french, but each individual person will have their own struggles with a language

[stone orchid]

For example, English has the progressive aspect which describes something happening with duration like the present progressive tense, 'I am writing'. It's often contrasted with the simple present tense, 'I write' where the former describes something you're doing at the moment whereas the latter describes something you do but not necessarily at the moment.

French doesn't have this aspect so you can't look up, 'I', 'am', 'writing' to get « Je suis écrivant »; instead, French subsumes both into the présent simple tense « j'écris » where this can mean either 'I am writing' and 'I write'.

[sweet hawk]

right now im on duolingo im on stage 2 on the 2nd pad thingy

unfortunately super duolingo is expensive so i only have 5 lives

[lost sage]

Just use duolingo classroom

[stone orchid]

Sorta. French for example requires articles with nouns and this manifests in something called the partitive article. In French, you can't just go, « Je veux thé » like in English 'I want tea', you have to say, « Je veux du thé » meaning 'I want some tea'. This part of French doesn't exist in Spanish, like English, so both English and Spanish speakers struggle with this.

[sweet hawk]

whats duolingo classroom

[lost sage]

Infinite hearts

Just google it it'll explain everything

[sweet hawk]

oof i graduated college last year hopefully im still qualified

[lost sage]

No requirements

[sweet hawk]

Ohhh so you can't just say ''I want apple juice'' you have to say ''I want some apple juice''

Can you say ''I want most'' or ''I want all'' apple juice?

[stone orchid]

FR: je veux du thé
SP: (yo) quiero té
EN: I want tea

if I want to translate that literally, I have to say, 'quiero alguno té' and 'I want some tea'

[sweet hawk]

So theres free super if you sign up for Duolingo classroom and I don't pay anything?

[stone orchid]

exactly

[stone orchid]

Nope, these would need adverbs of quantity and stuff which is another topic entirely

[lost sage]

Basically

[sweet hawk]

but for now, i just need to remember to say ''I want some juice'' instead of ''i want juice''?

[lost sage]

Yea basically

[sweet hawk]

what should i be doing now to maximize learning french

i really like duolingo and think its fun

websites i should use? good youtubers?

[crude gyro]

Check out our Big List ™ of resources here! https://www.reddit.com/r/French/wiki/resources/

[sweet hawk]

ty

Merci Beaucoup!

[lost sage]

Basically anything you enjoy is good

Have fun w it

[sweet hawk]

Je mange une orange. Au revoir, bonne nuit!