Would you like to buy a vowel?
Or do you feel like when it comes to French vowels, you just can’t win?
You’ve probably noticed that they can be very odd and tricky.
If you’re an English speaker, that’s because …
Tired of the stilted dialogues in your French textbooks?
Eugène Ionesco famously mocked them by writing his absurdist comedy “La Cantatrice chauve” (“The Bald Soprano”) in the same style.
Check it out if you want an even more stilted …
Are you in a world of hurt over pronouncing the French ou and u?
You’re not alone.
The distinction is a nightmare for most Anglos.
Il a rougi and il a rugi may sound exactly the same to English …
French conversation is a delicate dance.
Just about every sentence you form takes into account formality, respect and familiarity.
In other words, you’re constantly making that choice between vous and tu (the formal and informal “you,” respectively).
Get it wrong …
I never carry an umbrella in Paris.
Sure, it rains, but you can always duck into a bar, order a Ricard (aniseed liquor), and share complaints with the assembled old drunks, comparing for example the sky to a pissing cow …
Maybe you need a break from learning to talk to Francophone businessmen, quebecois and hoodlums.
You’re tired of falling in love with Frenchies and sharing their lovely food.
If, all told, you’ve had enough of francophone humans, …
Oh, sure. You’re just learning French because you want to read Camus in the original.
You want to watch films by Jeunet without the distraction of subtitles. You want to converse with French intellectuals on their own linguistic turf.
That’s …
