French Project Ideas

By now, you're halfway into your Easter break and no doubt bored (not having any homework and all). Here are some French project ideas you can work on during your break. They will be due April 24th. Bonne fêtes!

Stress Pronouns

They're calling them Stress Pronouns these days. I think we just called them object pronouns when I took high school French. In any case, they are used to replace the subject pronouns in the following situations (courtesy Cliff Notes):

• To stress the subject: Moi, je suis vraiment indépendant. (Me, I'm really independent.)

• When the pronoun has no verb: Qui veut partir? (Who wants to leave?) Moi. (Me.)

• After prepositions to refer to a person or persons: Allons chez elle.

  (Let's go to her house.)

• After c'est: C'est moi qui pars. (I'm leaving.)

• After the following verbs:

  • avoir affaire à (to have dealings with)

  • être à (to belong to)

  • faire attention à (to pay attention to)

  • penser à (to think about [of)])

  • se fier à (to trust)

  • s'intéresser à (to be interested in)

  • Ceci est à moi. (This belongs to me.)

• In compound subjects:

  • Lui et moi allons au restaurant. (He and I are going to the restaurant.)

  • Sylvie et toi dînez chez Marie. (Sylvia and you are dining at Marie's.)

  If moi is one of the stress pronouns in a compound subject, the subject pronoun nous is used in summary (someone + me = we) and the conjugated verb must agree with nous. If toi is one of the stress pronouns in a compound subject, the subject prounoun vous is used in summary (someone + you [singular] = you [plural]) and the conjugated verb must agree with the vous. Neither nous nor vous has to appear in the sentence.

• With - même(s) to reinforce the subject: Je suis allé au concert moi-même. (I went to the concert by myself.)

  
  

  
  

Ici, on parle un français impeccable!

As a French teacher, I am often asked, "Where is the most perfect French spoken?". The general consensus is in Tours, France. Certainly, it is a fine French they speak there, but Tours has that distinction more because it's French has no distinction (little or no distinct accent). Like the Midwest to the rest of the USA, Tours (centrally located in the France) is where things are just plain and simple. 

It is the capital city of the spectacular Loire River valley and its chateaux, but Tours, as a city, is not overly impressive. A few half-timbered houses in the older city section, a solid albeit rather plain chateau, an attractive hotel de ville, and a river setting that is fetching are about what it has to offer the tourist. It is primarily a gateway to a great region. Did I mention that they speak a pretty good French there? 

La Fête du Roi

La Fête du Roi is called Twelfth Night in England. In many Catholic countries (eg. France) this religious holiday, commemorating the visit of the Magi to the baby Jesus, is adoringly celebrated. It falls on the 5th or 6th of January. It also begins the carnaval season that ends with Mardi Gras.

The French honor the day with a special cake that is baked with two beans, or santons (small clay figurines), hidden inside. The man and woman that get the pieces with the fèves (beans) are crowned king and queen for the day! Usually the cake is made of some kind of frangipane or almond flavored ingredient. 

Oh, by the way, Logan and Airel were king and queen for the day in French class. Stacie made the crowns. Mr. Boulanger (Baker) spoke only French the whole day. You should have seen all the "lost" looks on the students faces!

Les Maths

In France, you don't study Math (singular) you study Les Mathématiques (plural). In honor of pi week (3-14), we are including a few translations of Math terms:

Pi: le pi 

Circle: le cercle

Circumference: la circonférence

Radius: le rayon

Diameter: le diamètre

Irrational: irrationnel

Never-ending: interminable

Infinity: l'inifini

Area: la surface, la superficie

Volume: le volume

Diameter: le diamètre

Formula: la formule

Length: la longeur

Width: la largeur

Height: la hauteur

Depth: la profondeur

Le pi équivaut à environ 3,14. (Pi is equal to approximately 3.14). Notice that a decimal point in French is a comma and a comma is a decimal point! Three thousand forty nine dollars and 9o cents is written: ($3.049,90). Now who's got it backwards... us or them?

Paris - "Ville Lumineuse"

Paris has earned the title "City of Lights" so many times that not even Las Vegas dares plagiarize the nickname. The lights of Paris are not gaudy or showy for the most part. They simply give it a look and splendor that daytime sunshine cannot. The nuanced shadows, famous silhouettes, and spectacularly lit monuments raise the "glam" level a notch at night. You feel inspired, free to express yourself in a way not possible in the work-a-day bustle of daytime Paris.

It was not always so in this most important European city. Not until the advent of electricity did the "City of Lights" fully live up to its name. Medieval Paris was a rough place. Even the gaslit, 19th century Paris of Haussmann (as portrayed by Renoir and others) had its dark side. Today's Paris is by most measures fully gentrified. Crime is low, commerce and tourism is booming and the indomitable pessimism of the Parisian is just as charming as ever.

PPT for Paris Project Download HERE

Les Noms et Les Articles

Nouns and articles in French are different than in English. French grammar is much more rigid and demanding in the use of these sometimes overlooked elements of speech. For example, you can't say "Girls have more fun than boys" in French. You have to say: Les filles s'amusent plus que les garçons (The girls have more fun than the boys). So then, you must be talking about a specific group of girls or boys? Nope, girls and boys in general... You have to to include the article. One exception would be with parler and a language: It is permissible to say, je parle français, but not j'apprend français. You have to say, j'apprend le français.

Here's a good web page on French Articles.