French
Preface

This section is not a textbook. Here instead are a few tips on setting out without a textbook. We dedicate these tips, and especially the interlinear Readings which are included in this section, to Champollion, the great master of the interlinear text.

Friends. Many French words resemble English words, but do not have the same meaning. The fashion is to call them False Friends. No; the two have merely diverged over time. We call them Former Friends, and mark them with an FF in the Dictionnaire entries.

Grammar. Many French words, including the commonest, are irregular, meaning that a table of their variant forms cannot conveniently be given. This saves a lot of learning of tables. Just get used to them. As an aid to getting used to them without getting confused by them, we enter the common variant forms in the Dictionnaire, with the base or dictionary form in [brackets].

Here are some common words, many of them irregular, which you should remember without having to look them up. We will not help you with them in the reading selections. Learn them now.

Definite Article (la, le, les, l')
la présente étude ~ "the present study"
les neiges d'antan ~ the snows of yesteryear (Villon)
Les Plaisirs et Les Jours ~ Pleasures and Days (Marcel Proust, 1896)
l'État, c'est moi ~ The State is myself (Louis XIV)

Indefinite Article (un, une, etc)
un de mes collègues ~ one of my colleagues
une autre hypothèse ~ another hypothesis
une loi du monde ~ a universal law (De Maistre)

First Personal Pronoun (je, me, mes, moi)
Je me souviens ~ I remember
En paradis qu'ai-je à faire? ~ What would I do in Paradise? (Aucassin)
J'accuse ~ I accuse (Zola)
un de mes collègues ~ one of my colleagues
l'État, c'est moi ~ The State is myself (Louis XIV)

Third Personal Pronoun (il, elle)
Ils ne passeront pas ~ They shall not pass (Robert Nivelle, June 1916)

"Of, From" (de, du, des, d')
un de mes collègues ~ "one of my colleagues"
Du sublime au ridicule ~ from the sublime to the ridiculous (Napoleon)
l'époque des Royaumes Combattants ~ the Era of the Warring States
les neiges d'antan ~ the snows of yesteryear (Villon)

"In, To" (en, dans, à, au)
En Blanc et Noir ~ In Black and White (piano piece by Debussy)
En paradis qu'ai-je à faire? ~ What would I do in Paradise? (Aucassin)
Reflets dans l'Eau ~ Reflections on the Water (piano piece by Debussy)
Qui pendra la sonnette au chat? ~ Who will bell the cat? (Deschamps)
(hang the bell on the cat)
Du sublime au ridicule ~ from the sublime to the ridiculous (Napoleon)

"To Be" (est, été, étant, être; suis, sont)
l'État, c'est moi ~ The State is myself (Louis XIV)

Relative/Interrogative (que "which," qui "who," quoi "what," qu')
Qui pendra la sonnette au chat? ~ Who will bell the cat? (Deschamps)
De quoi s'agit-il? ~ What exactly is the problem? (Clemenceau)
(About what does it concern itself?)
En paradis qu'ai-je à faire? ~ What would I do in Paradise? (Aucassin)

Negative (ne, non, n', and the outlier pas)
Ils ne passeront pas ~ They shall not pass (Robert Nivelle, June 1916)
La science n'a pas de patrie ~ Science has no country (Pasteur)

Reflexive (se, s')
[French likes reflexive expressions, even where the subject is vague]
De quoi s'agit-il? ~ What exactly is the problem? (Clemenceau)
(About what does it concern itself?)

Pronunciation. Now we tell you. But French is like Mandarin, it has no ru-shvng. Avoid, therefore, pronouncing final consonants ("tabac" is pronoumced "taba"), though if your eye remembers them for etymological purposes, you will be none the worse off.

Envoi. One last word of advice. French and American culture differ at a number of points, from main themes and emphases to details of style. Some of these differences can be irksome. Among details that can bother newcomers are the periphrastic style of French prose, the centralization of French intellectual life, the habit of putting the table of contents at the back of the book. Large divergences or small, don't distract yourself by getting annoyed at them. Keep to the point.

The point is this: The book is there, and you will learn more from it if you read it, than if you don't. No?

Consider also this: If you work at philology in America, it does not matter what feats of brilliance you may accomplish, you will never be honored in your own country as Champollion, the decipherer of the Egyptian script, is honored in the courtyard of the Collège de France. The very tradition in which you work was partly defined by the French scholarship of past centuries. If you, in your turn, are remembered at all in time to come, France will be one of the places.

So treat it patiently. In a sense, it is your home.

10 Dec 2005 / Contact The Project / Exit to Reference Page