For Francophiles, the word "Bastille" is likely to conjure up memories (or dreams) of fireworks and military parades, because the idea of la Bastille is inherently linked to 14 July - at least for English speakers. Chez les Français, not so much. Here are 7 things you should know about la Bastille: the holiday, the prison, and the word itself.
The French prefix a- is added to adjectives and nouns to create their antonyms; it's sometimes called the "alpha privative" (a privatif). The most common English equivalents are a- and non-.
Some French accents offer pronunciation clues, others refer back to old spellings, and still others differentiate between otherwise identically spelled words. For all of these reasons, accents matter and must be included when writing (or typing) in French - especially in the case of words that have different meanings with and without accents.
Acronyms and initialisms are abbreviations created by stringing together the first initial of each word in a phrase. Learning some common French acronyms and initialisms can help you make sense of news, political discussions, administration, and more.
One of the confusing things for beginning French students is that age is expressed with avoir (to have), rather than être (to be). French also has nouns and adjectives for a person whose age falls within a specific decade.
If there's anything worse than having to spend time at the airport, it's having to spend time at the airport when you don't speak the local language. Sure, most airport employees speak another language or two, but you'll still be better off if you have these key French words and phrases in your pocket. Bon voyage !
Vocabulaire
Unlike other French suffixes, -ci does not create new words, but rather adds additional meaning to the nouns and pronouns it's attached to.
For Francophiles, the word "Bastille" is likely to conjure up memories (or dreams) of fireworks and military parades, because the idea of la Bastille is inherently linked to 14 July - at least for English speakers. Chez les Français, not so much. Here are 7 things you should know about la Bastille: the holiday, the prison, and the word itself.
