*Franco-German*

Sunday, June 18, 2006

German
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Lesson 13
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GEOGRAPHIE (2)

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I am crazy over cars now and I love revising this Chapter, the second Chapter of my German textbook. Proof: This lesson is taught in German classes and in the text book too, I am not drifting away from the language, German. In Weisseuropa, alphabets are placed beside car plates to differentiate the cars from different countries.

Deutschland - D
Frankreich - F
österreich - A
die Schweiz - CH
Belgien - B
Tschechische Republik (Czech Republic) - CZ
Slowak. Rep. - SK
Dänemark - DK
Spanien - E
Grossbritannien - GB
Griechenland - GR
Ungarn - H
Italien - I
Finnland - FIN
Norwegen - N
Niederlande - NL
Polen - PL
Schweden - S
Litauen - LT
Portugal - P

I didn't translate the countries' names except for Czech but you should be able to understand them. They's rather similar to English. If you don't understand, you can use online translation or ask me directly. :)

Extra info: The German language was once the lingua franca of central, eastern and northern Europe. Within the European Union, German is the language with the most native speakers, with more than English, French, Spanish and Italian. As a foreign language, German is the third most taught worldwide. It is also the second most used language on the Internet. The language has its origin in Old High German. There are numerous dialects of German, many of which are not intelligible to speakers of standard German or a different dialect. Some consider Low German to be a different language from German; Low German has been given the status of a minority language by the European Union, although it is less used today in the traditionally Low German-speaking areas of northern Germany.

Repeat after me!

"Deutschland ist ein sehr schönes Land."

I was a teacher @ |9:50 am|

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Saturday, June 17, 2006

Leçon 13

Les adjectifs qualificatifs

Adjectives have to agree to the nouns.
'e' is usually added to an adjective that describes a feminine singular noun.
'es' to feminine plural
's' to masculine plural
Nothing is to be added to an adjective that describes a masculine singular noun.

Of course, there are exceptions. Eg. nouveau, beau, vieux.

Masculine Singular + Consonant | nouveau | beau | vieux
Masculine Singular + Vowel | nouvel | bel | vieil [For pronunciation reasons (similar to the replacement of vowels with an apostrophe)]
Masculine Plural | nouveaux | beaux | vieux
Feminine Singular + Consonant/Vowel | nouvelle | belle | vieille
Feminine Plural | nouvelles | belles | vieilles

A word is an adjective when:
1. It doesn't have any article attached to it.
2. It's preceded by the verb être.
Usually, any word that comes immediately after être has to agree with the subject. The past participle is an example. However, if there is an article after être, the words that comes after the article will most likely be a nom. (Duh)

Therefore, occupations can be adjectives. That explains why they have both the masculine & feminine forms. Some occupations only have one form, that can be used for the 2 genders.

In English, all adjectives are placed before the nouns, but in French, adjectives that have 2 or less syllables are placed before the noun and those that have 3 or more syllables are placed after the noun. Colours & nationalities are exceptions. That is, they are always placed after the noun regardless of the number of syllables they have.

J'AIME LA FRANCE

I was a teacher @ |5:35 pm|

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Friday, June 16, 2006

German
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Lesson 12
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GEOGRAPHIE (1)

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As I have said before, there are 4 Cases in German. However, I am not going to teach all at once because there'll be 99% chance that you'll get them all mixed up. Also, it's boring to keep on teaching grammar. Let's drift away for one or two lessons. What's on for today? Geographie. Asia? No, the spellings of the Asian countries are almost the same as English and it's rather boring. Since Germany and France are in Europe, are we going to learn about Europa? No, that's a little to big a place. Let's focus on Weisseuropa. (West Europe)

All right, This is the map. :)
Three most important German-speaking countries:

1. Germany ---------- Deutschland
Hauptstadt (Capital): Berlin (Berlin)

2. Austria ---------- österreich (Okay, the o with umlaut is supposed to be capitalised but I can't find a capital one. Sorry.)
Hauptstadt: Wien (Vienna)

3. Switzerland ---------- die Schweiz (die Schweiz is always preceded by its Artikel, i.e. die.)
Hauptstadt: Bern (Bern)

Your favourite:
France ---------- Frankreich
Hauptstadt: Paris (Paris)

Other more prominent countries include:
1. Italy ---------- Italien
Hauptstadt: Rom (Rome)

2. Spain ---------- Spanien
Hauptstadt: Madrid (Madrid)

3. Portugal ---------- Portugal
Hauptstadt: Lissabon (Lisbon)

4. Poland ----------- Polen
Hauptstadt: Warschau (I dunno whats Poland's Capital City in English. Weird. Is it just Warschau?)

5. Danemark ---------- Dänemark
Hauptstadt: Kopenhagen (Copenhagen)

6. Britain ---------- Grossbritannien
Hauptstadt: London (London)

7. Ireland ---------- Irland
Hauptstadt: Dublin (Dublin)

8. Norway ---------- Norwegen
Hauptstadt: Oslo (Oslo)

9. Sweden ---------- Sweden
Hauptstadt: Stockholm

10. Finland ---------- Finnland
Hauptstadt: Helsinki (Helsinki)

Notes of interest:
1. Greece ---------- Griechenland
Hauptstadt: Athen (Athens)

2. Russia ---------- Russland

Repeat after me!

"Deutschland ist ein sehr schönes Land."

I was a teacher @ |4:53 pm|

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Thursday, June 15, 2006

Leçon 12

Les Prépositions

1. Thierry habite chez Madame Béart.
It's used when you want to refer to someone's residence/house. No gender.
2. Il veut aller au Japon.
au=à le (gramatically wrong)
Masculine Singular
3. Je suis allé à la piscine aujourd'hui.
Feminine Singular
4. Elles travaillent à Singapour.
It's used for cities, regardless of the gender.
5. Mes parents ont une maison aux Philippines.
Plural
6. Je vais aller en France.
Feminine Singular. Only used for countries.
7. Charles travaille à l'hôpital. (au)
Marie va à l’école en bus. (à la)

The words in bold are somewhat like the 'at' in English.
The genders of the places determine the type of words used.

J'AIME LA FRANCE

I was a teacher @ |4:58 pm|

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Wednesday, June 14, 2006

German
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Lesson 11
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KASUS: NOMINATIV

2nd Case in German, Der Nominativ
Der Nominativ, or the nominative, refers to the first subject. For the first Subject in a sentence, the Artikeln, or the masculine/neutral/feminine forms that precedes it (unless the Subject is the name of a person, all subjects should have an Artikel preceding it.) are as follows.

Masculine ---------- der (the) /ein (one)
Neutral ---------- das/ein
Feminine ---------- die/eine
Plural ---------- die

Deutsch und Franzözsich sind die besten Sprachen. (German and French are the best languages.)

Repeat after me!

"Deutschland ist ein sehr schönes Land."

I was a teacher @ |4:51 pm|

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Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Leçon 11

Le-Masculine Singular
La-Feminine Singular
Les-Plural

These words are used for general nouns, somewhat like the the in English, but they are used more generally.
Eg. J'aime le chocolat. - I love/like chocolate.
Le isn't needed in English. However, in French, most of the time, there should be either Le, La or Les in front of nouns in general.
Le & La are used for uncountable nouns too.
Eg. Elle ne mange pas la viande.

Un-Masculine Singular
Une-Feminine Singular
Des-Plural

These words are used for nouns that are not mentioned/introduced before. They are used when a noun first appears in a sentence/passage.
Un & Une are somewhat like the a in English.
Des would be more like the some. It is mostly used for countable nouns only.
Eg. Il y a des fruits sur la table.

J'AIME LA FRANCE

I was a teacher @ |6:54 pm|

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Monday, June 12, 2006

German
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Lesson 10
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KASUS: AKKUSATIV

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There are four German cases. Today, let's look at der Kasus (Case): Der Akkusativ. (the accusative)

When in Akkusativ form, the second subject has its artikel (the der, die, das which shows whether the noun is masculine, feminine or neutral) slightly altered.

The normal in green. And the nominativ in red. And the altered in bold.

Der, Die, Das
Masculine ---------- der, den
Neutral ---------- das, das
Feminine ---------- die, die
Plural ---------- die, die

Ein (One)
Masculine ---------- ein, einen
Neutral ---------- ein, ein
Feminine ---------- eine, eine

Repeat after me!

"Deutschland ist ein sehr schönes Land."

I was a teacher @ |3:50 pm|

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Leçon 10

La négation

Basically, you just need to add ne before & pas behind the verb. They always come immediately before & after the 1st verb.
Eg. Je ne nage pas. (I don't swim)
Ils n'ont pas chanté. (They didn't sing)
Elle n'a pas une voiture. (She doesn't have a car)

Take note of the 3rd example. Remember to replace the 'e' with an apostrophe if the verb starts with a vowel.

J'AIME LA FRANCE

I was a teacher @ |1:34 am|

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Sunday, June 11, 2006

German
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Lesson 9
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ANTWORTEN

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When answering a question, take note of the way the question is phrased.

When a question starts with a verb, e.g. Hast du Haustiere? (Do you have pets? [Literal: Have you house-animals?]), this a Yes or No question. Therefore, the answer should start with Ja (Yes) or Nein (No).

When a question starts with one of the 6 elements -- Wer, Was, Wann, Wo, Warum and Wie (Who, What, When, Where, Why and How) -- answer to the point.
Note that the 6 elements in Deutsch all starts with "W" while the English Version has 5 Ws and 1 H. Haha. Just a random point.

Also, the grammar of the answer must be taken note of. I won't specify now or it'll make it very confusing because the grammar is not taught yet. :)

Lieb deine Familie! (Love your family!)

Repeat after me!

"Deutschland ist ein sehr schönes Land."

I was a teacher @ |4:06 pm|

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Saturday, June 10, 2006

Leçon 9

[Continued from Les Chiffres]

Onze 11
Douze 12
Treize 13
Quatorze 14
Quinze 15
Seize 16
Dix-sept 17
Dix-huit 18
Dix-neuf 19
Vingt 20

Vingt et un 21
Vingt-deux 22
Vingt-trois 23
...
...
...
...
...
...
Trente 30

Trente et un 31
Trente-deux 32
Trente-trois 33
...
...
...
...
...
...
Quarante 40

Quarante et un 41
Quarante-deux 42
Quarante-trois 43
...
...
...
...
...
...
Cinquante 50

Cinquante et un 51
Cinquante-deux 52
Cinquante-trois 53
...
...
...
...
...
...
Soixante

Soixante et un 61
Soixante-deux 62
Soixante-trois 63
...
...
...
...
...
...
Soixante-dix 60+10=70

Soixante et onze 60+11=71
Soixante-douze 72
Soixante-treize 73
...
...
...
...
...
...
Quatre-vingt 4x20=80

Quatre-vingt-un 81
Quatre-vingt-deux 82
Quatre-vingt-trois 83
...
...
...
...
...
...
Quatre-vingt-dix 90
Quatre-vingt-onze 91
Quatre-vingt-deux 92
...
...
...
...
...
...

cent 100
mille 1000
million 1000000
milliard 1000000000

J'AIME LA FRANCE

I was a teacher @ |5:06 pm|

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