Heather McCoy - Easy French Phrase Book NEW EDITION: Over 700 Phrases for Everyday Use (Dover Language Guides French)

EASY

FRENCH

PHRASE

BOOK

NEW EDITION

Over 700 Phrases

for Everyday Use

Heather McCoy, Ph.D.

DOVER PUBLICATIONS, INC.

Mineola, New York

Copyright

Copyright 2012 by Dover Publications, Inc.

Text copyright 2010 by Heather McCoy

All rights reserved.

Bibliographical Note

Easy French Phrase Book NEW EDITION: Over 700 Phrases for Everyday Use, first published by Dover Publications, Inc., in 2012, is a new selection of material from 1001 Easy French Phrases, published in 2010 by Dover Publications, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

McCoy, Heather.

Easy French phrase book : new edition : over 700 phrases for everyday use / Heather McCoy. New ed.

p. cm.

Text in English and French.

ISBN-13: 978-0-486-49902-4

ISBN-10: 0-486-49902-2

1. French languageConversation and phrase booksEnglish. I. Title.

PC2121.M55 2012

448.3'421dc23

2012019698

Manufactured in the United States by Courier Corporation

49902201

www.doverpublications.com

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION

French Pronunciation

Scheme of Pronunciation

Chapter 1: Greetings and Everyday Expressions

Greetings, Introductions, and Social Conversation

Making Yourself Understood

Useful Words and Expressions

Describing Yourself and Others

Difficulties

Numbers and Telling Time

Talking about Days of the Week and Months

Talking about the Weather and Seasons

Chapter 2: Travel

Travel: General Vocabulary and Expressions

Tickets

Traveling by Car

Air Travel

Customs and Baggage

Traveling by Train

Taking the Bus

Taxi!

Taking the Subway

Traveling on Two Wheels

Going on Foot

At the Hotel

Chapter 3: Mealtimes

Talking about Mealtimes and Eating: General Expressions

Dining Out

Menu: General Items

Breakfast

Appetizers, Lunch Items, and Salad

Main Course

Fruits and Vegetables

Dessert

Beverages

Chapter 4: Leisure Activities

Sightseeing

Interests and Hobbies

Sports

Houses of Worship

Chapter 5: Shopping

Banking and Money

Shopping

Measurements

Colors

Chapter 6: Health and Well-being

At the Pharmacy

Seeing a Doctor

Seeing a Dentist

Chapter 7: Communications

The Post Office

The Telephone

The Internet and Computers

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

INDEX

Introduction

This book is designed for the traveler or casual user of French who is looking for a handy and manageable guide to basic French phrases. The phrases included in this convenient volume are some of the basic tools for communication and comprehension that you are likely to need in a variety of French-speaking contexts.

The primary focus of Easy French Phrase Book NEW EDITION is daily communication. You will find linguistic structures that focus on describing yourself and others; asking simple questions that one might need when traveling; and interacting in a variety of situations. The phrases have been organized thematically so that you can easily find vocabulary and sentence structures that apply to a specific context. Special attention has been paid to organizing phrases so that you can substitute the vocabulary you need in order to create your own meaning, such as in the following example:

Je voudrais prendre (I'd like to have )

une bire (a beer)

un caf (a coffee)

You will be able to use this book in a variety of ways, either by preparing for a trip by reading a few sections a day, or by using it on-the-spot by flipping to the section that is most pertinent at that moment. Our hope is that you will find the phrases useful and flexible, enabling you to effectively create your own meanings.

French Pronunciation

Easy French Phrase Book NEW EDITION uses a phonetic transcription as an aid to correct pronunciation. (See Scheme of Pronunciation, below.) This transcription is located directly beneath the French entry in the text. Here are some general principles of pronunciation:

Nasalization

In French, a vowel is nasalized when it is followed by a single m or n in the same syllable. The transcription of these nasalized vowels appears as:

-an, -am, -em, -en - > ahn, ehn

-in, -im - > ihn, ihm

-on, -om - > ohn, ohm

-um, -un - > uhn

To produce a nasalized vowel, quickly pass the air through both the nose and the mouth at the same time. The m or n isn't pronounced after the nasal vowel, as follows:

franais - > frahn-say; temps - > tahn

pain - > pihn; printemps - > prihn-tehn

bon - > bohn

quelqu'un - > kell-kuhn

Silent Final Consonants

In French, most consonants at the end of a word are silent, although there are exceptions to this rule: c, f , and l . The consonant r also is pronounced, but is silent when occurring in the endings -er and -ier.

The French r

The French r can be one of the most challenging sounds for English speakers to pronounce. Pronunciation of the r will depend upon the region of the French-speaking world that you are visiting. In some areas, the French r can resemble the Italian or Spanish r produced by rolling it on the tip of the tongue. The Parisian r is a more gutteral sound: it's helpful to imagine the sound being produced in the back of the throat, the same place that produces the h in ahoy. The r is voiced, meaning that there is a slight vibration of the vocal cords.

The Plural s

As mentioned above, consonants at the end of words normally are not pronounced. Make special note of this when pronouncing the s that denotes the plural:

Le chat - > luh-shah

Les chats - > lay-shah

Notice how the pronunciation of the noun chat does not change between the singular and the plural. This is quite different from English, and is important for English speakers to remember.

Liaison

A final consonant that is normally silent is pronounced when it comes before a vowel or h . This phenomenon is called liaison . Note the following change:

A final s before a consonant: des livres - > day-leev-ruh

A final s before a vowel: des animaux - > daze-ehn-ee-moh

The rules for liaison can be somewhat complex, so simply pay attention to the phonetic transcriptions in order to get a feel for when its usage is appropriate.

Stress

The last syllable of a French word is usually stressed:

Beaucoup - > boh- koo

However, when the last syllable is an unstressed e ( uh in the transcription used here), the next-to-the-last syllable receives the stress:

Formidable - > for-mee- dah -bluh

You will also notice that in addition to the stress at the end of a word, there also is stress at the end of a phrase:

Je suis amricain et travaille au muse d'art contemporain. - > zhuh swee za -mary- kihn ay tra-vy oh moo- zay dar cohn- tehn -por- ihn .

Scheme of Pronunciation

EASY

FRENCH

PHRASE

BOOK

NEW EDITION

Chapter 1