Learn some French vocabulary related to furniture, appliances, and home furnishings.
More: French vocabulary
French vocabulary: Furniture originally appeared on About.com French Language on Tuesday, August 31st, 2010 at 12:00:04.
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French vocabulary: Furniture
Sep
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No accents! Chanel! Prizes!
Ce poste sera quelque chose de toute nouvelle. Je ne suis pas sur mon ordinateur, mais l’ordinateur d’un ami. (I’m not on my computer, but the computer of a friend.) Et cet ordi (compy, so to speak) n’a pas d’accents. Ou bien, les accents ne fonctionnent pas. (The accents don’t work). Donc, je ne vais pas en utiliser: I will not use any.
It’s a little like the time mon clavier (my keyboard) didn’t have a C key, and for two days I wrote no words with C. Essayez-le (try it), c’est pas facile. Par exemple, le dimanshe, on mange du brunsh. (On Sundays, we have brunsh.) Le lundi, les kours rekommencent (on Monday, klasses rekommence.) C’est pas facile… mais enfin c’est bien amusant. (But not ‘very’ fun, because that would require un accent!)
Qu’est-ce qu’on peut discuter sans utiliser des accents? Je voulais vous parler de la maison de Chanel (I wanted to talk about Chanel), alors voyons si on peut le faire (let’s see if we can do it). Pour vrai dire, j’aime pas trop Chanel (to tell the truth, I don’t much like Chanel). I know, all French cred just went out the window (or the door, since I can say la porte but not la fen….). The clothes are moches (ugly), chers (expensive) and chers. And diaboliquement chers (diabolically expensive. Not to be confused with un diabolo, which is my favorite drink and which in fact I aime beaucoup).
Cependant, I love Chanel for what it represents; it is as French as Ralph Lauren’s polo horsies are American. (RL’s not that great either, except that his real name is Lifshitz. Triple points.) Everyone knows the fabulous, the overbearing, the regally overwound Gabrielle Chanel, dite ‘Coco.’
Click here to view the embedded video.
But I love Chanel even more after this clip:
Click here to view the embedded video.
…qui est adorable. Tu n’as pas maintenant envie d’aller t’habiller tout en Chanel? Or at least to dress yourself completey in Chanel No.5, and rien d’autre (nothing else)? Mais si…. ;).
Eh bien, pour ce qui est le concours de la semaine avant celle-ci (for the competition for the week before this one)- j’ai voulu savoir ce que vous vouliez explorer sur ce blog (I wanted to know what you wanted to explore on this blog)- mais vous n’avez presque rien dit! Since you said hardly anything (la honte! The shame!) je salue MK et Jennifer Baracho, who left lovely comments.
Je pourrais annuler le prix pour le si malheureux taux de participation (I could cancel the prize for the so-unfortunate rate of participation) mais je veux vraiment remercier MK et Jennifer de leur si gentille participation. So the little prize, to say thank you for their kind participation, is not much mais c’est du coeur- et direct de ma part! Directly from me, a postcard from France, sent directly to your adresse, quoiqu’elles soient (whatever they are). Juste pour dire merci et un petit coucou personnel. (Just to say thank you and a little personal hello.)
Envoyez-moi vos adresses, chers MK et Jennifer! C”est jennie.transparentfrench@gmail.com. I won’t use them for anything else, obviously. Merci encore de vos opinions! Aux autres (to the others), c’est pas trop tard… it’s not too late.
Gros bisous et, MK et Jennifer, j’attends vos mails (I’m waiting for your emails)! Bon soir pour vous tous!
No accents! Chanel! Prizes! is a post from: French Blog
Aug
31
2010
31
2010
La Burrasca di Ferragosto È in Arrivo
If historic weather patterns hold true to form, Italy will experience la burrasca di Ferragosto over the next few days. The storm typically occurs in the last week of August, after the Ferragosto holiday, during which an intense rainstorm that lasts a few days is followed by lower temperatures and fresh air, breaking the hot, humid days of summer. According to the Italian news agency ANSA, in: Caldo: la ‘rottura’ dell’estate, tra domenica e lunedì…
Aug
31
2010
31
2010
La Burrasca di Ferragosto È in Arrivo
If historic weather patterns hold true to form, Italy will experience la burrasca di Ferragosto over the next few days. The storm typically occurs in the last week of August, after the Ferragosto holiday, during which an intense rainstorm that lasts a few days is followed by lower temperatures and fresh air, breaking the hot, humid days of summer. According to the Italian news agency ANSA, in: Caldo: la ‘rottura’ dell’estate, tra domenica e lunedì…
Aug
31
2010
31
2010
Should, Could, Would ? – part 2
I wrote the first part of this blog in reply to a question from Jeannet about the use of the conditional: http://www.transparent.com/italian/should-could-would/
Here is another reader’s question that follows the same theme. I think that once again the reply will be useful to share with everyone:
Hi Serena,
My name is Ureder and I’m a Spanish teacher who is learning Italian. I follow your blog quite regularly and it has helped me to understand the Italian grammar better.
I would appreciate if you could translate the following sentences into Italian. I think in some of these examples the Spanish translation is more similar to the English sentence than the Italian translation. That’s why I sometimes get confused with ‘il condizionale’.
1. a) […], I would have more money.
1. b) […], I would have had more money.
1. c) […], I would be richer.
1. d) […], I would have been richer.
2. a) […], I could have more money.
2. b) […], I could have had more money.
2. c) […], I could be richer.
2. d) […], I could have been richer.
3. a) […], I should (or I would have to) have more money.
3. b) […], I should (or I would have to) have had more money.
3. c) […], I should (or I would have to) be richer.
3. d) […], I should (or I would have to) have been richer.
4. a) […], I would like to have more money.
4. b) […], I would have liked to have (or to have had) more money.
4. c) […], I would like to be richer.
4. d) […], I would have liked to be (or to have been) richer.
Grazie mille!
Allora, andiamo avanti …
| 1 | |
| I would have more money. | avrei più soldi |
| I would have had more money | avrei avuto più soldi |
| I would be richer | sarei più ricca/o |
| I would have been richer | sarei stata/o più ricca/o |
| 2 | |
| I could have more money | potrei avere più soldi |
| I could have had more money | avrei potuto avere più soldi |
| I could be richer | potrei essere più ricca/o |
| I could have been richer | sarei potuta/o essere più ricca/o |
| 3 | |
| I should have more money | dovrei avere più soldi |
| I should have had more money | avrei dovuto avere più soldi |
| I should be richer | dovrei essere più ricca/o |
| I should have been richer | sarei dovuta/o essere più ricca/o |
| 4 | |
| I would like to have more money | mi piacerebbe avere più soldi |
| I would have liked to have more money | mi sarebbe piaciuto avere più soldi |
| I would like to be richer | mi piacerebbe essere più ricca/o |
| I would have liked to be richer | mi sarebbe piaciuto essere più ricca/o |
N.B. as I mentioned in part one, in colloquial Italian we often use avrei instead of sarei when speaking in the conditional, e.g.:
| I could have been richer | sarei potuta/o essere più ricca/o avrei potuto essere più ricca/o |
| I should have been richer | sarei dovuta/o essere più ricca/o avrei dovuto essere più ricca/o |
You will also notice that because we use essere with ricco i.e. ‘to be rich’, the past participle changes gender and number accordingly e.g.:
| I should have been richer (feminine) I should have been richer (masculine) we should have been richer (masculine plural) |
sarei dovuta essere più ricca sarei dovuto essere più ricco saremmo dovuti essere più ricchi |
I would be interested to hear from Ureder (who posted this question) whether the conditional is more, or less complicated in Spanish. It’s hard to imagine that it could be more difficult than the Italian!
