LKL's Blog

My favorite French radio station is Le Mouv’. I started listening to it when I lived in Toulouse, and before I left I managed to find it on the internet. It’s a fairly good mix of music, mainly alternative rock (which they call indé, an apocope of indépendant), about half in French and half in English, with the occasional song in another language. Unfortunately, the connection can be a bit spotty.

I tend to put Le Mouv’ on in the morning while doing a mots fléchés, which I’ve become addicted to – I have to do one every morning – and then keep listening while doing non-work stuff.

According to a Mexican friend of mine, murciélago (bat) is the only Spanish word with all five vowels.

In English, we have facetiously, which has all 5½ vowels (y is the half) in alphabetical order. I also like the words vacuum and aardvark for the unusual double vowels.

The coolest may be the French word jouaient (third person plural imperfect of jouer – to play), which has all five vowels in a row! And créée (the feminine past participle of créer – to create) with its triple E.

Any other vowel-laden words?

Reading the menu in a French restaurant can be a little tricky, and not just due to language difficulties. There may be important differences between restaurants in France and in your own country, including what food is offered and how it is prepared. Here are some terms and tips to help you read a French menu.

We all knew that Zidane’s head butt during the World Cup Final would go down in history, but did you ever think about the marketing aspects? A French song parodying the event is breaking records (ha ha) in France, and there are several ringtones you can purchase too, all from La Plage Records

I’m not going to translate the whole song, but here’s the chorus:

Zidane il l’a frappé, Zidane il l’a tapé (Coup de boule!)
Zidane he hit him, Zidane he slapped him (Head butt!)

There are all kinds of reasons to learn a foreign language in general, and French in particular: communication, cultural understanding, better test scores… Why learn French?

If your head spins when people start talking about even basic grammar (the way mine does when I hear talk of engines and power tools), this very basic lesson on sentences, including sentence parts and the four different types of sentences, will help. It’s on my French site, but it’s written in English and the basic concepts are the same in both languages. (I have a lesson on parts of speech, too.)

Tomorrow, the whole world (almost) will be watching France face Italy in the 2006 World Cup Finals. Isn’t it funny how American kids grow up playing soccer, the roads are filled with soccer Moms, yet the US is virtually the only country that doesn’t care about the World Cup – the ultimate soccer match and one of the world’s greatest sporting events? I don’t watch or play any sports, yet every four years I find myself watching the last few World Cup matches. It’s actually fun to watch, as opposed to sports like football and baseball, which have so many time-outs and commercials that you’re stuck in front of the TV for 3 or 4 hours.

By the way, “les Bleus” refers to the French soccer team – French soccer vocabulary.

If you love French wine but hate ordering it, here’s a page that can help. This list of French wines and related vocabulary includes sound files to help you pronounce the names of French wines.

Ever notice a certain je ne sais quoi about certain expressions in English? Become au fait about them – a rendez-vous with this article gives you carte blanche to learn some of the de rigueur French expressions scattered throughout English. Once they’re déjà vu, it’ll be a fait accompli… bon voyage! French terms in English

My latest book is out – get a signed copy: The Everything French Grammar Book.