Bonjour mes amis! Auhourd'hui I am here to help all of you Whyvillians who are planning to travel to France! What did you say? Non? Your next vacation is to Spain? Ah, c'est la vie. . .
Well, all of you non-Canadians out there probably don't know a lot of Français. So I am going to give you . . . drumroll, sil vous plait . . . A Whyvillian's Guide to French! How exciting, here's your chance to become bi-lingual! Well, sort of.
Pretend we are having a conversation! I would say something along the lines of:
Bonjour: Hello!
Hé: Hey!
Comment allez-vous?: How are you?
Comment t'appelle vous?: What is your name? (Who are you?)
You replies:
Bien: Good!
Très bien!: Very good!
Comme-si, comme-sa: Okay. Not good, not bad.
Mal: Angry, not good at all.
Très mal: Very angry or unhappy.
Merci: Thank you.
Je suis: I am . . .
Mon nom est: My name is . . .
Et vous?: And you?
I say:
Ehh, comme-si, comme sa.: Ehh, not bad not good.
Mon nom est Icyfairy!: My name is Icyfairy!
Pourqoui êtes-vous mal?: Why are you unhappy?
You retort:
Je ne suis pas mal!: I am not unhappy
Je suis heureux!: I am happy!
Fatigué: Tired
Faim: Hungry
Malade: Sick
Dans L'amour: In love
Dans Whyville: In Whyville!
I ask:
Quel est Whyville?: What is Whyville?
Qui est . . .?: Who is . . .?
Quand a-t-il . . .?: When is . . .?
Où est . . .?: Where is . . .?
You say:
Whyville est un site Web consacré à la science et aux maths d'étude, et à rencontrer de nouvelles personnes: Whyville is a website devoted to learning science and meeting new people!
I say:
D'accord: Okay. (Used more like 'Yepp' in English. Example: "So then you thread the needle like this . . . " "D'accord, d'accord.")
Oui: Yes
Non: No
Ah, non!: Oh no!
Je dois aller . . .: I have to go...
à l'école: To school
à ma maison: To my house
You sadly reply:
Ahh: Ahh. (A little obvious, eh?)
Au revoir!: Goodbye!
Vous avez une bonne nuit!: You have a good night!
Bonne nuit! Good night!
And you leave. Now, that was a very short conversation. There are many, many words in French out there! I recommend buying a French-English dictionary if you are intent on trying to memorize them all. If not, there are websites such as http://babelfish.altavista.com/ which translate English (And many other languages) into French, Spanish, Italian, even Chinese!
Jusqu'à ce que nous nous réunissions encore! (Until we meet again!)
Icyfairy.
Author's Note: Want some random words and phrases you can impess your friends with? Here are some:
L'eau: Water
Serveur, il y a une mouche dans mon potage!: Waiter, there is a fly in my soup! (say 'Serveuse' if your waiter is female instead of male.)
Je t'aime: I love you
Il sent comme les écaillements d'une pomme de terre dans ici!: It smells like the peelings from a potato in here!
Nouvelle personne: New person (A respectful name for a newbie! Maybe we should start calling them Nouvelle Personnes instead of noobs . . .)
Personne âgée: Old person (an oldbie)
Foudre de graisse: Grease lightning! (Lightning of grease)
Le poisson que nous avons pêché était ceci grand!: And the fish that we caught was THIS BIG!
Le renard brun rapide a sauté par-dessus le chien paresseux: The quick brown foz jumped over the lazy dog.
Merci de lire mon article, Je espérez que vous pouvez employer ces expressions à la maison et à l'école!: Thank you for reading my article, I hope you can use these phrases at home and at school!
