Reading French: Well Shit This Might As Well Be English I Can Read This Quickly And With 100% Understanding

📱📱📱SMS en Français📱📱📱

Here are some shorthand abbreviations of common words in French that you might see or would like to use when texting:

Slt (salut) - Hi

Pk (pourquoi) - why

Bcp (beaucoup) - a lot

Stp (s’il te plâit) - please

Tkt (ne t'inquiète pas) - no worries

à tte (à toute) - see you, bye

Mdr (mort de rire) - lol

Ptdr (pété de rire) - lmao

Dsl (desolée) - sorry

Three words you probably don't know #2

A whisk: un fouet

The white part of bread: la mie de pain

A tissue: un mouchoir

Expressing Your Opinion IN FRENCH - update with indications of subjunctive use

Expressing thoughts…

Je pense que + indicative – I think that

Je ne pense pas que + subjonctif - I don’t think that

Je crois que + indicatif – I think that

Je ne crois pas que + subjonctif - I don’t think that

À mon avis – in my opinion

D’après moi – in my view

J’ai l’impression que + indicatif (in the negative [je n’ai pas l’impression que] it uses the subjunctive) – I have the feeling that

Il me semble que + indicatif (in the negative it uses the subjunctive) – it seems to me that

Je suis d’avis que + indicatif (mostly) – I’m of the opinion that

Je trouve que + indicatif (in the negative it uses the subjunctive) – I find that

Personnellement – personally

Pour ma part – for my part

Pour moi – for me

Supporting an opinion

On dit que + indicatif (in the negative it uses the subjunctive) – they say that

J’ai entendu dire que + indicatif – I heard that

J’ai entendu parler de + nom – I heard about

Par exemple – for example

Staying neutral

Cela dépend de + indicatif (unless que is used) – that depends on

C'est une question de point de vue – It all depends on your point of view.

Il est / C'est difficile de – It’s hard to

Il m'est impossible de donner un avis (définitif) sur – I can’t express a (definite) opinion on

Je n'ai jamais vraiment réfléchi à – I have never really thought about

Je n'ai pas d'opinion bien précise à / arrêtée sur – I don’t have strong feelings about

Je ne me le suis jamais demandé – I’ve never wondered about it

J’ignore tout de – I don’t know anything about

I think I got a lot of these from a particular website, maybe about.com, I can’t remember because I got it from a sheet I made for a student a while ago.

-If there are any questions or corrections lemme know:)

French Classical Mythology Vocab

Correct me if anything’s wrong~

mythologie - mythology

une dryade - dryad

une nymphe - nymph

une naïade - naiad

une sirène - siren

un(e) centaure(sse) - centaur

un(e) satyre(sse) - satyre

un faune - faun

les olympiens - the Olympians

un héros - hero

un dieu - god

une déesse - goddess

un demi-dieu - demigod

un mortel - mortal

un monstre - monster

cornes - hornes

une hydre - a hydra

un griffon - griffin

un messager - messenger

une harpe - harp

une légende - legend

le labyrinthe - the labyrinth

céleste - celestial

la prophétie - prophecy

l'aventure - adventure

la mer - sea

un navire - ship

la rivière - river

les bois/forêts - woods/forests

une île - island

la guerre - war

Japanese starter pack

SO you’ve finally said okay, I want to learn Japanese. If you’ve never learned a language before then it can seem daunting but it’s a very rewarding experience! I’m gonna lay out what helped me start and stuff that I think would’ve been helpful for me even early on! But I still recommend doing your own research and trying lots of different methods bc language learning especially by yourself is a very personal experience! This is also meant for absolute beginners just looking to get started so I will try to keep it simple. 

First I just want to say I think your first goal should be “I want to be able to read and write kana fluently” because even just that will open so many doors and send you well on your way, but most importantly because: romaji will not be there for you. At all. And to be able to learn to read efficiently you need to read! Just like when you first learned the alphabet you must try to read everything, try to read tweets, posts, articles from NHK news easy, candy packaging, anything! You don’t have to understand what you’re reading at all, you just have to be able to read it right. And learn this with all the sources I will list in the post don’t try to learn it completely in isolation. Some tofugu kana resources to get you started/supplement other resources: Hiragana guide, Katakana guide, kana charts

Getting started immediately with apps There’s lots of language apps to pick and try out but I think the 2 best options right away are Duolingo and Lingodeer. Duolingo has improved its japanese course so much since I first did it in 2017, finally more lessons so you can use it beyond the beginner stage, separate lessons for katakana finally, and it uses more kanji to really give you a headstart on that front! Its still kind of inefficient in isolation but its so good for getting you started. If you’re fine with spending some subscription money then Lingodeer, a recently paywalled app specially made for asian languages like Japanese, Chinese, and Korean is worth giving a try! Here’s a video review of it by Miku Real Japanese

Textbooks The most famous textbook used in classrooms is Genki! A good book, its concise, streamlined, and efficient! but it’s not really designed for you to study by yourself. Its designed for the classroom and doesn’t really include a lot of content to help you become fluent in reading kana and some kanji. This can make starting feel more daunting and overwhelming for some so a lot self learners myself included recommend starting with Japanese from Zero! Specially designed for self learners and does a slow and thorough approach with an incorporated workbook section! There’s lots more options to explore tho and cough cough pdf versions to check out before you have to settle with a purchase

Youtube  There are so many good youtube channels both old and new to help you at every step! If you need to hear someone explain things for you bc you want to practice listening/pronunciation, you just like lectures, written explanations didn’t help then youtube is a great asset! Japanese Ammo has lessons starting with absolute beginners, if you want to try your hand at doing lessons with no english at all, then Sambonjuku’s basics can help. Japanesepod101′s youtube is also a great place for beginners! This is just a tiny sample of the many youtube channels dedicated to teaching you japanese so if none of these clicked with you then there’s many more channels to try! All linked channels also have videos on kana! 

In summary simply getting started is the first step and when you conquer kana then that’s already big progress! These are the basic tools that helped me simply start so I hope at least one of them can be helpful, and if not then there must be some tool or resource out there that will work for you! And quick note: a book I’m reading right now that I also want to recommend as supplemental reading is Fluent Forever by Gabriel Wyner. Its really good advice on how to approach and start language learning and I agree with everything I’ve read so far, and its just a really encouraging book! I also recommend checking out Tofugu.com which has a lot of great reviews, articles, advice, and resource roundups for you to explore. also shoutout to my fav langblr on here @ohitoyoshi just because. and if anyone reading want to share what helped them get stared then feel free to add on!

French Prepositions

and how else they can be used

I don’t know about y’all, but prepositions are the WORST. They hardly ever directly translate between languages and when they do, there are so many exceptions it doesn’t even matter. So, I’ve done some research and I’ll try to make the list as comprehensive as possible :) 

OKAY ! So here is the most basic “to and from” list. 

But as you know, French is not that easy. You will also see de and à frequently interspersed between verbs and even used as adverbs and adjectives. Below I have listed a few verbs that take these prepositions. 

Verbs that require the preposition à

Aider (quelqu'un) à (to help someone to)

S’amuser à (to amuse oneself)

Avoir à (to have to)

Apprendre à (to learn how to)

Avoir de la peine à (to have difficulty)

Commencer à

Continuer à

The preposition à can also be used to indicate place, time, manner or possession

À droite (on the right)

À loisir (at leisure)

À la compagne (in the mountains)

À la française ([in] the french way)

Cette voiture est à toi? (This car is yours?)

Verbs that require the preposition de

S’arreter de

Cesser de

Choisir de

Décider de

Se dépêcher de (to be in a hurry

Essayer de

Finir de

Oublier de

Refuser de

Verbs that can be followed by both

Conseiller à (quelqu’un) de (faire quelque chose)

Défendre à… de

Demander à…de

Dire à… de

Offrir à … de

Permettre à… de

Promettre à… de

Proposer à… de

Suggérer à…de

Hope this helps !!

random french phrases i learned in class

c’est pas enorme: it’s not much

s’est mal passée: did not go well

il se trouve que: it just so happened

nous allons en rester là: agree to disagree

pire que tout: worst of all

encore moins: let alone

dans l’heure: within the hour

accro du boulot: attached to work (workaholic)

en vouloir: to hold a grudge

faire bonne figure: put up a front

à froid: in cold blood

The reality about spoken french

We don’t use the negation ne. We say Je sais pas (I don’t know) or On a pas à le faire (we don’t have to do it),

Speaking of which, we prefer using on rather than the pompous nous : On est arrivé-es (we’ve arrived), On y va? (shall we go)

Speaking of which, our questions are often affirmative sentences ending with a question mark (i.e. : a high-pitched tone) : Tu viens? (are you coming), T’en veux un-e? (do you want one).

Speaking of which, we chew words. When followed by words starting with a consonant, personal pronouns can lose their final letter : J’te l’dis! rather than Je te le dis (I’m telling you).

Speaking of which, we’re lazy : Je can be Che (chais pas), Il can be Y (r’garde, y’a un chat!) and grunt : many euh (uh), ah, bah (hum), ben (well), hein (tf?) and rhooo/rhaaa (ffs). We often start sentences with but : Mais tu saoules! (you’re annoying) to express displeasure.

Speaking of which, on top of dropping négations, we drop pronouns : You’re being a pain in my ass should be Tu me fais chier but can be Tu fais chier - maybe to make it universal or dramatic.

Speaking of which, we thrive on sarcasm and irony. To someone who’s babbling, we’ll answer It makes my leg look good.

Speaking of which, we repeat (personal) pronouns at the beginning or end of sentences. We’re likely to ask Qu’est-ce qu’il en dit, lui? and answer Moi, je veux bien (tonic pronouns, careful!).

Speaking of which, we like to use the conditional mode to indicate a wish or hypothesis : lots of Si j’avais su, j’aurais dit oui (had i known, i’d have said yes), J’aimerais bien pouvoir- (I wish I could-), etc.

Speaking of which, we add useless words : Bien (j’irais bien), Petit (un petit peu), Très (très vrai), Trop (je ne sais pas trop), ça (C’est quoi, ça?)…

Speaking of which, let’s stop before you all get disgusted and unfollow me. Remember this is spoken, private french and doesn’t apply to formal situations!

French Witchy Vocabulary

Tell me if anything is wrong!

La sorcellerie - The witchcraft

Les éléments - The elements (M)

La terre - The earth

L’eau - The water (F)

L’air - The air (M)

Le feu - The fire

L’esprit - The spirit (M)

La baguette magique - The wand

L’épée - The sword (F)

La tasse - The cup

Le pentacle - The pentacle

La lune - The moon

Le soleil - The sun

Le cercle - The circle

Le sel - The salt

La bougie - The candle

La pierre - The stone

Le cristal - The crystal

La plume - The feather

Le grimoire - The grimoire

Le sortilège - The spell

La prière - The prayer

La malédiction - The curse

L’autel - The altar (M)

Le sanctuaire - The shrine

La magie - The magick

La nature - The nature

Le culte - The coven/cult

Le panthéon - The pantheon

La sorcière - The witch

Ancien/ne - Ancient

Magique - Magical

Pur - Pure

Blanc/he - White

Noir/e - Black

Gris/e - Grey

Spirituel/le - Spiritual

Religieux/se - Religious

Naturel/le - Natural

Mystique - Mystical

Prier - To pray

Maudire - To curse

Danser - To dance

Chanter - To sing

Guérir - To heal

Croire - To believe

Invoquer - To invoke

Ensorceler - To enchant/spellbind

Écrire - To write

Consacrer - To devote