8 things that you should not do in France

Have you ever had this feeling when you travelled somewhere and you were confused? For example, you did or you said a thing that nobody appreciated. Whereas in your country it is definitely natural? In this video, I will tell you 8 things that you shouldn't do if you want to be peaceful in France.

• Do not ask the wage to someone that you talk to French

French people don't appreciate being asked how much they earn. It's indiscreet and you'll be perceived as curious.

• Open and serve yourself in the fridge to someone else

Most French people don't like their visitors opening and serving themselves in the fridge or in the cupboards without being told to do it. They think that's disrespectful.

Ok if there is someone who spends several days; that's ok they are allowed to grab food in the fridge.

• Do not write in red and green

These colours call for correction, the message being illegible to read, it requires more concentration to read it. Some people think that's impolite.

• Do not say “tu” to people that you don’t know, above all those who work in the institutions like (administration, police, school…) and elderly people. 

That's definitely disrespectful. You must use “vous”.

• Swim and fish in unauthorised places

When you want to fish or to swim, you can’t practise wherever you want. Some ponds, parts of the lake are forbidden because that can be dangerous for having a bath. About fishing this could cause an imbalance in the living environment of species living in the water.

• Do not make noise at a party or for other reasons from 22:00

Between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m, if you make noise; this will be considered night noise. It is the same for major work done in a dwelling or outside.

• Do not criticise French culture and food

The French are quite chauvinistic when it comes to food and culture. If you say that French cuisine is bad as well as their culture and their tradition, you risk offending more than one person and making enemies.

• Do not leave without saying thank you and goodbye to the cashier In England, when you say thank you at the cashier that implies you say goodbye. I may seem silly to say this but in France, saying "merci" and "au revoir" (or "à bientôt") are two things to say when you say goodbye to the person who served you at the checkout.

Did you do something, out of ignorance, that was not done in France?

Adjectives: After this article, this problem will be solved!

To describe the characteristics or a state of a person or thing, we need to use adjectives. We will tell you all the aspects of the adjective. 

• How to agree an adjective
• Where to place it 
• Irregular adjectives….. Ah yes, without these, that wouldn’t be French! 

Adjectives

1 - Agreement

Adjectives agree in gender and number with the noun they describe.

Example: les grands volets verts grincent. The big green shutters squeak.

This sentence contains a common noun in the plural, so the adjectives "big" and "green" take an "s" because these 2 adjectives describe the shutters. 
Other examples: Ils achètent cette petite maison. They bought this little house.
Cette maison est petite. This house is small.

Here, we add "e" to "petit" because "maison" is a feminine noun and it refers to "maison". 
Adjectives ending by “e”, is the same in the feminine
Un pantalon rouge (red trousers)
Une robe rouge (a red dress)

2 - The place of the adjectives

It can be difficult to place adjectives correctly and how confusing it can be to find that some are in front of the noun and some are after it.

What are the types of adjectives placed after a noun?

• Long adjectives

Examples:

 Une vie confortable. A comfortable life.

Un homme généreux. A generous man.

• colours 

  
  
  

Examples:

Un papillon bleu. A blue butterfly.

Des fleurs violettes. Purple flowers.

• Nationalities

  Examples:

Un plat italien.

       An Italian dish.

La boxe française.
French boxing.

• Present participles as adjectives

Examples:

Le personnel navigant. flight crew.

Un travail fatigant. A tiring work.

Did you notice that we write “fatigant” without u after the g when it comes to the adjective and “fatiguant” with gu when it comes to the present participle.

• Past participles as adjectives

Examples:

Une limonade glacée. An iced limonade.

Du café moulu. Grind coffee.

Short adjectives are placed before or after the noun. 

Examples:

Une vieille voiture. An old car. 

Une histoire courte. A short story.

However, the same adjective changes its meaning depending on the place it occupies before or behind the noun.

Examples:

Une grande femme. A great woman.

Une femme grande. A tall woman.

Here, “grand” doesn’t have the same meaning before and after the noun.

Irregular adjectives

All adjectives take “e” for feminine and “s” for plural.

But some adjectives agree differently:

Adjectives ending by:

• ial/iaux - al/aux (case: plural) un message vocal → des messages vocaux

• if /ve (case: feminine) Un homme actif  → une femme active

• eux/se  (case: feminine) Un garçon heureux → une fille heureuse

• el/le (case: feminine) Un secteur industriel  → une filière industrielle

• ien/ne (case: feminine) Mon professeur est italien → ma professeure est italienne

• on/ne (case: feminine) Ce gâteau est bon → cette confiture est bonne.

Other adjective that the form changes radically:

Vieux / vieille (old)

You wish to watch the video about adjectives?

https://youtu.be/SEYUrvkhlFQ

The comparative and the superlative - Les comparatifs et les superlatifs

Every human can't help making a comparison or tell this group of person, this person, this animal or this thing is the best or the nicest...
So to make it these, we have to use equality, comparative or superlative.

👀  If you prefer to watch the same topic as a video, here is the link: https://youtu.be/SzvMju0SXUM

Comparative

You use two locutions when two items are equal.

Aussi...que, Autant...que

Aussi...que is used when you compare someone or something in a level of equality.

Julie est aussi serviable que Marie.
Julie is as helpful as Marie. Here, these girls are both helpful.

Léa court aussi rapidement qu'avant.
Léa runs as fast as before.

Autant...que is used when you use the verb "avoir" (to have) to compare.

Julien a autant de mérite que sa soeur.
Julien deserves as much as his sister.

When you want to compare 2 or several persons or items, you use moins...que (less...than) and plus...que (more...than).

For example you see 2 persons, one is tall and the other is small:

- Jean is tall, (Jean est grand)
- Pierre is small. (Pierre est petit)

Let's make a comparison between them.

Plus...que

If you want to mean that Jean is taller, clever or more confident than Pierre, you use plus...que.

Jean est plus grand que Pierre.
Pierre est plus petit que Jean.

Moins...que

Let's give another exemple:

Jean is less clever than Pierre. You will say:
Jean est moins intelligent que Pierre.

Some adjectives become irregular when they compare one item to another.

Bien, bon = mieux

Mal, mauvais = pire

Moins que, plus que

For some situations, you don't need to place a verb, an adjective or an adverb between these locutions.

For example

Ce n'est qu'un moins que rien. That's less than nothing.

Il ne mange plus que de raison. He eats more than necessary.

Superlative

You employ superlative when you want to express a superior quality of the highest degree for someone or for something.

Le plus...

Imagine Jean is in a group and he is the tallest.
Jean est le plus grand du groupe.

Le moins... 

Imagine Pierre is not the tallest of the group.
Pierre est le moins grand du groupe.

Notice

Irregular adjectives:

Bon, bien = Le meilleur (M -S)

The adjective "bon" agrees with the gender and the number whereas “bien” doesn’t change.

Bonne = la meilleure (F-S),

Bons = les meilleurs (M-P),

Bonnes = les meilleures (F-P),

Example: Nathalie est la meilleure de sa classe.

Mal, mauvais= le pire  (M-S), 

Mauvaise = la pire (F-S),

Mauvais = les pires (M-P),

Mauvaises = les pires (F-P),

“Mauvais” agrees with the gender and the number whereas “mal” doesn’t change because it is an adverb.

Example: cet homme est le pire de tous.

A few expressions with mieux- meilleur - pire

A qui mieux mieux : by looking for doing better than others

De mieux en mieux : that goes better and better.

De mal en pis : (pis is an old word that means "pire"), that goes worse and worse.

👀 Want to watch this topic as a video, here is the link: 

https://youtu.be/SzvMju0SXUM

If you know this, it's easy to conjugate this verb.

Do you know how to conjugate the verb "venir"? If not, that's the verb that you should know. From this, there are many verbs that are formed. You will find out some later in the video. First we are going to see how to conjugate this verb in the present tense.

Look at this verb the way it is formed. With the singular part :

With "je" "tu" "il" "elle" venir has the same sound and shape. The lonely difference is with the couple "je / tu", you add s and with the couple "il / elle", the ending is t.

If you look at the plural part :

ils and elles ; venir has almost the same shape but not the same sound Because the body of venr has double n and the ending is e.n.t.

Here, the shape of "venir" changes when 

it is conjugated with those personal pronouns "nous" and "vous".

For the other tense in indicative, the roots are the same for each personal pronoun. 

If you notice the simple past and the future have the same roots.

That’s also the case for conditional present tense.

Venir has several uses.

• Venir :

You can simply use this verb without preposition: Je viens manger à la maison.

• Venir de :

Employ it to mean an origin:

Paul vient de Suisse.

When the origin comes from someone or something

From someone Cette initiative vient de moi. This initiative comes from me.

From something Cette odeur vient de la cuisine. This smell comes from the kitchen.

Venir de : to express something, an event has just happened:

Elles viennent de finir leurs devoirs (they have just to finish their homeworks).

In the introduction, I told you that If you know how to conjugate the verb “venir”, you can conjugate all verbs with the suffix “venir”.

advenir, convenir, devenir, intervenir, revenir, se souvenir, prévenir, provenir, parvenir, subvenir, survenir...

Je me souviens du chien de ma grand-mère.

Le ciel devient bleu après la tempête.

Exercise

1- Je _______________________ des courses. (revenir)

2- Nous nous ____________________________ de nos conjugaisons; (souvenir)

3- Les chenilles ______________________ des papillons. (devenir)

4- Cet emploi du temps me ________________________________. (convenir)

If you want to watch the video, click on it.