French articles help!

I've got to write a 250 word letter in class (next week) as part of my assessment for Intermediate (A Level) French and OMG it feels like there's so much to remember!! Accents, spelling, grammar, if the words you use are regular/irregular, articles, plurals, exceptions to rules, politeness etc....!

Anyone know any good revision sites for French (equiv. to A Level/AS Level)? I tried BBC Bitesize for GCSE and it's not that interactive so I'm not learning much.

Also, if you want to say in French 'Do you like music?' you have to say 'the music' ie: you have to use the article 'la' before the music word.

But how do you say 'Do you like the music?' (eg: if you're at a party and are asking someone if the like the particular music that is on at that moment as opposed to music in general)....is it the same as saying 'do you like music?'..??

Thank you!!!!!

Reply 1

Languages Nutter

Original post by PhysicsGal

...

I found Tex et Tammy really useful: it's an interactive grammar website designed for first- and second-year undergraduates, but is also good for A-Level students. It also has the advantage of being primarily about talking armadillos.

As for your articles question ... you're quite right that, in French, you'd say tu aimes la musique*? to ask 'do you like music?'. Or, in grammar terms, French uses the definite article for abstract nouns, whereas English doesn't. If you were talking about a specific piece of music, you could say tu aimes cette musique*? (i.e. 'this music'), or perhaps ce genre de musique ('this kind of music').

Hope this helps!

Reply 2

PhysicsGal

OP

18

Original post by Languages Nutter

I found Tex et Tammy really useful: it's an interactive grammar website designed for first- and second-year undergraduates, but is also good for A-Level students. It also has the advantage of being primarily about talking armadillos.

As for your articles question ... you're quite right that, in French, you'd say tu aimes la musique*? to ask 'do you like music?'. Or, in grammar terms, French uses the definite article for abstract nouns, whereas English doesn't. If you were talking about a specific piece of music, you could say tu aimes cette musique*? (i.e. 'this music'), or perhaps ce genre de musique ('this kind of music').

Hope this helps!

Just seeing that I'd been quoted by someone with such a name as 'Languages Nutter' reassured me in itself :P

Thank you for the tips - I hadn't thought of using 'cette' :smile:

So would you omit articles if you wanted to use 'cette'? (as in, you wouldn't say cette la musique?)

That site looks pretty useful, it's kinda strange to navigate but it does look useful so I'll use that a bit a see how it goes, merci!

Reply 3

Languages Nutter

Original post by PhysicsGal

So would you omit articles if you wanted to use 'cette'? (as in, you wouldn't say cette la musique?)

Indeed you would! J'aime cette musique is correct, whereas *j'aime cette la musique is not. Try this exercise for some practice. Glad to help!

Reply 4

PhysicsGal

OP

18

Original post by Languages Nutter

Indeed you would! J'aime cette musique is correct, whereas *j'aime cette la musique is not. Try this exercise for some practice. Glad to help!

That article helped tonnes & I'm doing better at this than I thought I would, thank you ^^

One last (possibly) question:

Why is it grammatically correct to say:
Ce bassin, c'est Barton Springs.

But not Ce bassin est Barton Springs.

??

The first one kind of sounds like 'this pool, it is Barton Springs' as opposed to 'this pool is Barton Springs' to me!

Reply 5

thefrenchstudent

3

I'm french and I could say that when you want to introduce someone you can say "cette personne est ma mère" but when it comes to objects or places we don't usually say it, maybe it sounds strange, as if you were talking about someone. But it's not very shocking if you're speaking orally.

Reply 6

Nathellie

7

U say j’adore la musique probablt like there’s no other way of saying it ; u can post your essay and I can correct it for u if u want I’m fluent in French (: so I can help u X

Reply 7

PhysicsGal

OP

18

Original post by Nathellie

U say j’adore la musique probablt like there’s no other way of saying it ; u can post your essay and I can correct it for u if u want I’m fluent in French (: so I can help u X

That's really sweet of you, but this is a 4 year old post 😅🙈 I ended up doing well in that module after all, even if I have forgotten everything now :frown:

ahah

French articles help!

Quick Reply

Related discussions

Latest

Trending

Trending

Articles for you