Big ambitions

[mastrinka]

I've just completed French with Paul Noble course and it was really enjoyment. He does it similar to M. Thomas, but with a native speaker instead of students. He goes pretty slow through the basics and I feel like I have learned some valuable things. Although I loved students in other courses, for French I prefer native speaker since the pronunciation has many subtle notes.
Now I plan to go through M.Thomas courses (Foundation, Advanced, Builder and Vocabulary) although after this course he sounds a bit harsh and unclear, but I love his pace and the confidence it gives me (although it's partially a false confidence).
My plan is to go slowly through those courses in October and November, half an hour a day approximately.

[mastrinka]

I've just completed Michel Thomas Foundation French, together with Foundation Review.
I've struggled a bit with Michel's pronunciation, I feel like with listening a higher voice (usually from women) makes it a bit easier to hear subtle differences between sounds.
I feel, though, like I've learned a decent amount of French in those few hours which I spread through a month of slowly listening.

Some things I've learned through this & Paul Noble Courses:

- Present Tense for the regular and most common irregular verbs
- Future Tense for basic verbs
- Passé composé (Paul Noble) - but I already need a review of it
- subject pronouns, stress pronouns, direct and indirect object pronouns
- posesive adjectives
- definite/indefinite articles
- negations
- basic question words and asking questions (who, what, where, is it that)
- around 40 basic verbs
- basic expressions of time (aujourd'hui, hier, demain, matin, soir, après midi, heure, le jour, la semaine, à quelle heure)

plus:
- I went through most of the sounds and vowels, thanks to some great youtube channels

My next step is to go through the Michel Thomas Advanced course and also to make a drill of basic 100 verbs in context to make them really stick.

[mastrinka]

This last month I've completed MT French Advanced Course and also MT French Builder.
I think I have understood and learned most of the tenses and moods, and also "semi-tenses" as causatif and Passé Récent (venir de + inf).

I'd need to go through the MT French Builder one more time (at least) since the Builder course is not so repetitive as other MT courses, so many things from it haven't yet stick.

So, plan for the next month is to go through:
- MT French Advanced Review
- MT French Builder (one more time)
- try to catch up some basic vocabulary like things around the house, basic food/drinks, professions, activities, city objects, etc.

[mastrinka]

Today I have listened /read and undertood this text Les villes françaises: https://www.podcastfrancaisfacile.com/podcast/villes-francaises.html

It was pretty easy to understand it, took me about half an hour to go through it.

[mastrinka]

Today I have listened and read this text about daily routines Raconter sa journée https://www.podcastfrancaisfacile.com/p ... esent.html.
There are some new verbs I didn't knew, but all in all it was good, I've understood it all in the end.

[emk]

Today I have listened and read this text about daily routines Raconter sa journée https://www.podcastfrancaisfacile.com/p ... esent.html.
There are some new verbs I didn't knew, but all in all it was good, I've understood it all in the end.

Ah, that's a nice text! It's not too hard, and it's full of useful day-to-day vocabulary.

There's a particularly useful bit here:

Elle en prend un chaque soir. Elle y reste pendant une heure.

Here, "en" and "y" are the famous "clitic pronouns" in French. I'm not sure whether Michel Thomas really covered these or not, but they're really common and very useful at your level. Just in case you haven't seen them, here's some more info.

These are basically "attached" to the following verb, and "en + verb" should not be mistaken for the preposition "en"! These translate as "takes one (of them)" and "stays (in the bath)".

Good explanations can be found here and here. Don't worry about memorizing all the rules right away! But do look at the examples. Also, keep an eye out for "en" and "y" in French texts, and watch how they're used. They're sneaky and they tend to trip up students at your level. And as you get more advanced, you'll see them appear in a lot of idiomatic French phrases.

Actually, there's a famous and fun example that shows off a lot of these idiomatic French tricks. You probably won't understand this right now! But it makes a good challenge for the future: Parler pour ne rien dire and the text. There's some word play and puns in there. But there are tons of good example of "en", in particular. Save this and try it again a year from now, and you'll be able to see how much better your French has gotten.

[mastrinka]

Ah, that's a nice text! It's not too hard, and it's full of useful day-to-day vocabulary.

There's a particularly useful bit here:

Elle en prend un chaque soir. Elle y reste pendant une heure.

Here, "en" and "y" are the famous "clitic pronouns" in French. I'm not sure whether Michel Thomas really covered these or not, but they're really common and very useful at your level. Just in case you haven't seen them, here's some more info.

These are basically "attached" to the following verb, and "en + verb" should not be mistaken for the preposition "en"! These translate as "takes one (of them)" and "stays (in the bath)".

Good explanations can be found here and here. Don't worry about memorizing all the rules right away! But do look at the examples. Also, keep an eye out for "en" and "y" in French texts, and watch how they're used. They're sneaky and they tend to trip up students at your level. And as you get more advanced, you'll see them appear in a lot of idiomatic French phrases.

Actually, there's a famous and fun example that shows off a lot of these idiomatic French tricks. You probably won't understand this right now! But it makes a good challenge for the future: Parler pour ne rien dire and the text. There's some word play and puns in there. But there are tons of good example of "en", in particular. Save this and try it again a year from now, and you'll be able to see how much better your French has gotten.

Thank you, for support and for pointing out an important grammar point!
It's very helpful! I think I do understand the "y", for some reason it's usage feels very natural. I was struggling though with the "en" pronoun, now it's a bit more clear when I went through the linked explanation.
Would it be correct to approximate "en" as a pointer to a partitive/quantitive expression?

Thank you for the linked video! I understood only parts of it, but I would be happy to come back to it latter.

[mastrinka]

Yesterday and today I went through Marché de Noël de Strasbourg https://www.podcastfrancaisfacile.com/texte/marche-de-noel-de-strasbourg.html.

It was relatively easy, the only one expression I don't really understand is:
"C’est d’ailleurs en fin d’après-midi, lorsque la ville s’illumine que le marché est le plus agréable."

[Maiwenn]

D'ailleurs can be a bit like "speaking of which" or "for that matter" in English.
In the text, "C’est d’ailleurs en fin d’après-midi, lorsque la ville s’illumine que le marché est le plus agréable." means "Speaking of which (which = les illuminations), it's at the end of the afternoon when the city lights up that the market is the most agreeable."
And that is true.

[mastrinka]

D'ailleurs can be a bit like "speaking of which" or "for that matter" in English.
In the text, "C’est d’ailleurs en fin d’après-midi, lorsque la ville s’illumine que le marché est le plus agréable." means "Speaking of which (which = les illuminations), it's at the end of the afternoon when the city lights up that the market is the most agreeable."
And that is true.

Thanks a lot!
Yes, it sounds magical, I hope to see it one day!