What do you think? (French)

Okay, I haven't studied French properly since March/April, and I'm just getting back into it.

The way I'm trying to do this is learning through context, atm I've been studying the difference bien and bon, and also came across what might be an interesting point.

Take, for example:

il est bon etudiant

and

j'ai passe une bonne soiree

(excuse lack of accents)

if you translate them, the latter almost perfectly slots into english, wheras the first doesn't.

Is this because the first has already specified what the subject is, which is 'il', as in he is the subject of the conversation, so they don't need to include 'un' to specify this further like we would in english.

contrast this to the latter sentence and there is an 'une', but before you didn't know whether it was multiple evenings or not.

Obviously you do know because it's in singular, but can someone see what i'm getting at?

To conclude, my thinking is along the lines of the french only specify the main subject of the topic once every sentence.

correct or pointless observation?

cheers

Reply 1

quintsy

Unfortunately the rule of not having an article before a noun indicating a profession etc. only works when it is unmodified. In this case you've used the premodifier "bon" to adjust the meaning of "étudiant" slightly, which means you have to say: "C'est un bon étudiant" instead.

Reply 2

Constante

of course, my theory was wrong, I remember the profession rule now.

i actually got the example of about.com haha.

cheers buddy

Reply 3

Constante

although, could i ask you the difference between c'est and il est?

when is it appropriate to use them?

thank you

Reply 4

Constante

wes

C'est is generally used when you have referred to the thing just beforehand, whereas "il est" is usually used when it is less clear what you are referring to.

would these work as examples:

il est la

vendredi, c'est un beau jour

Reply 5

Constante

wes

Yes, I think so, but it's easier to tell in a big block of text.

Okay, cheers buddy.

I should probably post in a new topic, but don't want to spam the place up.

How would you say is the best way to learn French out of class? Just going through something tv5.fr and reading everything, trying to work out the words through context etc and watch tv, just try to immerse yourself basically, but without doing much grammar or vocab memorisation.

or go through sites like about.com and learn each grammar topic?

or do a program like pimsleur?

cheers

Reply 6

Constante

wes

Hmm, I never really learnt French out of class until I lived here, so I'm not the best person to ask :p:

I'd say that doing a lot of reading is great for getting a sense of style and grammar, though less good for speaking, clearly. I have no idea what pimsleur is i'm afraid.

ah well, thanks anyway buddy. i'll go about reading more, i agree that is a really good way to learn things.

Reply 7

generalebriety

Pimsleur is useless for learning a language past a level of low-medium fluency and moderate knowledge of useful vocabulary, which I'm sure you'll achieve by the end of A-level. Once you've got to a certain stage, there's nothing really very efficient left but to go to the target country.