Sometimes, I wonder how long it will take before I learn most of the French grammar I will need. Just when I think I have a handle on some grammar topic, it seems that soon after there is a lesson something like, "oh, by the way, in this situation the verb agrees with the subject but not in this other situation." Another area of French grammar adds to my doubts: the French subjunctive.
The subjunctive mood in French profoundly changed the way I looked at the language. The subjunctive mood expresses subjectivity, doubt, or unlikelihood. The conditional, which describes a condition or a possibility, is not the same. English does have the subjunctive mood but it's rarely used and has been side-stepped in preference for using the passive voice and conditional statements. One could say that French subjunctive can even be used subjectively, that is: sometimes you use it and sometimes you don't. Several French people have told me they avoid the subjunctive tense because it is so difficult.
On the positive side I've found plenty of resources to help me. Try Laura K. Lawless's "subjunctivator" at http://french.about.com/library/verb/bl-subjunctivator.htm Or, to find a landslide of information on this topic search for "french subjunctive" on the Internet. When speaking in French, for me it's best to lean on expressions I absolutely know. The word espérer (to hope) works well using the indicative tenses (although there are exceptions) so I try to stay with "J'espére que..."
One would presume that our ancestors would gift us with an invariable language. But then who could predict the over-running of England in 1066 by the French or, upon its creation, the European Union declaring English as its official language? When languages run into each other there is definitely impact on both languages.
In my first year of French studies, we studied dialogues in which French people made statements such as "Je suis cool..." My head hurt for a while until I realized the French used the term "cool" to express that one has a laid-back or relaxed personality. In American English, declaring that you are cool makes it clear that you are definitely not cool. We use this term to make the claim that something or someone is beyond excellent and they are cool enough to play the role of never acknowledging that "fact."
.After living in France in the early 80s, it's sometimes difficult for me to grasp that even the French have embraced English for practical reasons, especially in commerce. One of the admirable qualities of French culture is the pursuit of retaining the "French-ness" of the language and this tenant was very evident (and still is) in everyday life. The French Academy enforces standards of French but language migration is inevitable. In matters of language usage, people rarely restrict themselves to what they've been taught in school.
As has historically always happened, languages mix and morph and real people use what is useful to them at the time. If it's not confusing enough to find English words in French (that usually don't mean exactly the same thing in English), I recently read a discussion of some of the differences between French and Quebecois. The Old World and New World keep drifting apart geologically and linguistically, despite all the technologies allowing us to interact almost instantly.
The French are recognizing the necessity of using English at times. Sometimes in Europe I overhear people talking and, because of their accents, wonder where they are from... and then I work out that they speak what I call Euro-English. Most of the time when you hear someone else's accent it reveals their origins. Euro-English is an exception. These are people for whom English is a second language but they are extremely fluent. France has not been left out of this trend.
I recently saw a placard in Parisian bookstore window offering books and materials to teach one's child English. One afternoon, while I read a book and waited for my husband at a street side table, I overheard a mother at the neighboring table. She asked her preschool aged girl to recite the English she'd learned that day. The little girl sang a song in English and her mother gave her kudos. Shouldn't preschoolers learn the subjunctive mood early, too? Well, she has 13 years of French schooling to look forward to and that should set her straight.
The subjunctive mood in French profoundly changed the way I looked at the language. The subjunctive mood expresses subjectivity, doubt, or unlikelihood. The conditional, which describes a condition or a possibility, is not the same. English does have the subjunctive mood but it's rarely used and has been side-stepped in preference for using the passive voice and conditional statements. One could say that French subjunctive can even be used subjectively, that is: sometimes you use it and sometimes you don't. Several French people have told me they avoid the subjunctive tense because it is so difficult.
On the positive side I've found plenty of resources to help me. Try Laura K. Lawless's "subjunctivator" at http://french.about.com/library/verb/bl-subjunctivator.htm Or, to find a landslide of information on this topic search for "french subjunctive" on the Internet. When speaking in French, for me it's best to lean on expressions I absolutely know. The word espérer (to hope) works well using the indicative tenses (although there are exceptions) so I try to stay with "J'espére que..."
One would presume that our ancestors would gift us with an invariable language. But then who could predict the over-running of England in 1066 by the French or, upon its creation, the European Union declaring English as its official language? When languages run into each other there is definitely impact on both languages.
In my first year of French studies, we studied dialogues in which French people made statements such as "Je suis cool..." My head hurt for a while until I realized the French used the term "cool" to express that one has a laid-back or relaxed personality. In American English, declaring that you are cool makes it clear that you are definitely not cool. We use this term to make the claim that something or someone is beyond excellent and they are cool enough to play the role of never acknowledging that "fact."
.After living in France in the early 80s, it's sometimes difficult for me to grasp that even the French have embraced English for practical reasons, especially in commerce. One of the admirable qualities of French culture is the pursuit of retaining the "French-ness" of the language and this tenant was very evident (and still is) in everyday life. The French Academy enforces standards of French but language migration is inevitable. In matters of language usage, people rarely restrict themselves to what they've been taught in school.
As has historically always happened, languages mix and morph and real people use what is useful to them at the time. If it's not confusing enough to find English words in French (that usually don't mean exactly the same thing in English), I recently read a discussion of some of the differences between French and Quebecois. The Old World and New World keep drifting apart geologically and linguistically, despite all the technologies allowing us to interact almost instantly.
The French are recognizing the necessity of using English at times. Sometimes in Europe I overhear people talking and, because of their accents, wonder where they are from... and then I work out that they speak what I call Euro-English. Most of the time when you hear someone else's accent it reveals their origins. Euro-English is an exception. These are people for whom English is a second language but they are extremely fluent. France has not been left out of this trend.
I recently saw a placard in Parisian bookstore window offering books and materials to teach one's child English. One afternoon, while I read a book and waited for my husband at a street side table, I overheard a mother at the neighboring table. She asked her preschool aged girl to recite the English she'd learned that day. The little girl sang a song in English and her mother gave her kudos. Shouldn't preschoolers learn the subjunctive mood early, too? Well, she has 13 years of French schooling to look forward to and that should set her straight.
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