Learning French log (Road to DELF B1)

[LanguageLearner0007]

Realized that it counts the listening exercises towards activities but it is not reflected in your score, it's separate.

Kwiziq all time activities: 171
Kwiziq A1 Achievement Score - 60.37%

Listening exercises completed:

Conversation du matin (A1)
À l'hôtel (A1)
À la boulangerie (A1)
À la gare

[Suzie]

I have never tried the Kwiziq dictées, but should consider adding them to my list. Thank you for the reminder!

By the way, I take the craziness of documenting Kwiziq example sentences even further by adding them to Anki (L1->L2 translations). Sometimes this feels like the absolute overkill, but I feel it is worth it. I am progressing very slowly, but the grammar is really burning into my brain. I strongly believe it increased my fluency.

[LanguageLearner0007]

Let's take the craziness of documenting Kwiziq up a notch, shall we?

It's been suggested that it's good to write the Kwiziq errors in a separate notebook. I will write those errors here in the thread with marks "Notes to self", feel free to ignore these posts, it's for my own benefit. I want to describe the erroneous thought process in my mind and the correction needed.

Notes to self

1. Vous ________ de la musique.
You're putting some music on.
(HINT: Conjugate "mettre" (to put on) in Le Présent)

I have responded "metez" whereas the correct answer was "mettez".

My thought process here was remembering the structure where je/tu/il/ils have one form of the verb and nous/vous have another (exceptional) form. For example, the conjugation of the verb compléter.

Here, I need to remember the different structure for verbs like "mettre" where "t" is doubled in all plural forms.

2. C'était la dernière soirée du ________ jour. .
It was the last evening of the last day.

I have responded "dernièr" whereas the correct answer was "dernier".

My thought process was simple - I need to remove the "e" for the masculine noun and leave everything else as it is, e.g. the accent grave.

Here, I need to remember the rule that the adjectives with -ère in the feminine form transform into simple -er in the masculine form.

3. Je porte une bague ________ argent.
I'm wearing a silver ring.

I have chosen the response "en" which was correct. I have also chosen the response " de l' " whereas the correct response was " d' ".

My thought process here was... I think I just thought that using l' sounds more eloquent, I didn't remember the actual rule.

Rule: when something is made of something, use simply en/de, without any additional articles.

4. How would you say "Scooby-Doo is scared of monsters." ?

I have chosen the response "Scoubidou a peur de monstres." whereas the correct response was "Scoubidou a peur des monstres.".

My thought process here was using of "de" regardless of singular/plural which I think I saw in the negative sentences.

Rule: with non-negative sentences you need to align de/des with the singular/plural form of the noun in question

[LanguageLearner0007]

Notes to self

5. Il ________ des poules dans son jardin.
He raises hens in his garden.
(HINT: Conjugate élever (to raise) in Le Présent)

I have responded "éleve" whereas the correct answer was "élève".

My thought process was to put the verb in the correct form and I didn't see the need of using a particular accent, since the original verb didn't contain any.

Rule: even if the original verb doesn't have any accent, the first "e" in the structure -E(-)ER becomes è with je/tu/il/ils.

[LanguageLearner0007]

Notes to self

6. How could you say "They're sitting down now." ?

I have chosen a response "Ils s'assoient maintenant." and it was correct.
I have also chosen a response "Ils s'assiedent maintenant." whereas the correct one was "Ils s'asseyent maintenant."

My thought process here was simply trying to remember the 2 possible ways of saying it, without a particular logic. This one is real something. I looked back at the lesson and really didn't understand how to remember this very idiosyncratic situation. I can't think of anything better than just memorizing the whole thing, remembering that the letter "d" is never used in the plural form.

The difficulty of this rule is somewhat disproportionate but here we go.

Rule:

1st version of conjugation: je m'assois/tu t'assois/il s'assoit/nous nous assoyons/vous vous assoyez/ils s'assoient
2nd version of conjugation: je m'assieds/tu t'assieds/il s'assied/nous nous asseyons/vous vous asseyez/ils s'asseyent

[LanguageLearner0007]

Notes to self

7. Vous ________ à côté de Lucie.
You're sitting down next to Lucie.
(HINT: Conjugate s'asseoir (to sit down) in Le Présent)

The same topic as before BUT the error I made was not related.

I answered "s'asseyez" and the correct answer was "vous asseyez". This one wasn't new and this was simply lack of attention on my part (but also an indication that it is not yet deeply ingrained in my mind).

Rule: conjugate reflexive verbs correctly, including using the structure "vous vous".

[LanguageLearner0007]

Notes to self

8. Nous ________ de Londres.
We have just arrived from London.

I answered "viennons d'arriver" whereas the correct answer was "venons d'arriver".

A rookie mistake, I didn't remember the correct conjugation of the verb "venir".

Rule:

Je viens
Tu viens
Il vient
Nous venons
Vous venez
Ils viennent

9. Tu ________ tes parents tous les jours.
You call your parents every day.
(HINT: Conjugate "appeler" (to call) in Le Présent)

I answered "appèles" whereas the correct answer was "appelles".

My thought process was to apply the logic that should really only be applicable to exceptional words, like "acheter", whereas a different logic should apply.

Rule: The majority of -ETER and -ELER verbs follow this rule:

In je/tu/il/ils conjugations, double the T (-eter) or the L (-eler).

[LanguageLearner0007]

Notes to self

10. Ma bonne résolution est d'apprendre ________ .
My New Year's resolution is to learn French.

I have responded "le français" which was correct and it was the only correct response. I also responded "français" which was not correct.

My thought process here was the fact that just "français" may be acceptable because it is sometimes used without the article. For example, in a sentence "Je ne parle pas français". Both variants are acceptable, you can also say "Je ne parle pas le français".

Also, usually in such questions there are multiple responses, didn't think there will be only one.

Rule: Unlike in English, definite articles (le,la,l',les) are used with titles, languages & academic subjects in French.

11.
________ 6 janvier, j'étais malade.
On Tuesday the 6th of January, I was sick.

I have responded "Mardi" and the correct response was "Le mardi".

My thought process was around the fact that "Le mardi" would typically be used in a repetitive process, for example something I am always doing on Tuesdays. I wasn't sure about this one, so when enumerating an entire date, it is done with the article.

Rule: when giving a whole date (day/number/month/[year]), use this form "Le mardi 5 mars, j'ai rencontré Lola."

12. Nous ________ nos voisins.
We disturb our neighbours.
(HINT: Conjugate "déranger" (to disturb) in Le Présent)

I have answered "dérangons" and the correct answer was "dérangeons". Subtle. Soften the "g", ok.

Rule: In French, to preserve the soft g in front of vowels a/o/u, we use ge.
This rule applies to verbs ending in -ger when they are conjugated.

[LanguageLearner0007]

Kwiziq all time activities: 198
Kwiziq A1 Achievement Score - 70.02%

[LanguageLearner0007]

So after 70%, it becomes extremely difficult to improve the score further, this is probably because of all the mistakes I've done before. Also, Kwiziq stopped offering new lessons, I think I've done them all at the A1 level, it all looks more or less green in the map. Will keep pushing through, not sure if I need to get that to 100% or should I move to A2 already?