Why study French?

[FrisianDude]

Aargh, we were at times pestered to death with that ghastly "comme d'habitude."

 

[Brestos]

French invasion sucessful!

 

[Kleidophoros]

I can not get my head around french numbers.

 

[FrisianDude]

Beh, I think they're pretty easy, if a bit unwieldy at times.

 

[Kleidophoros]

How do you say 80 in french?

 

[Winterz]

quatre vingt

(4 twenties)

 

[FrisianDude]

Exactly. That's what I meant with unwieldy. Not as bad as quatre-vingt-dix-neuf, of course.
The Walloons are slightly more efficient. Huitante for eighty, if I recall correctly.

 

[Kleidophoros]

quatre vingt

(4 twenties)

Exactly. But I don't call it unwieldy, I call it dumb.

 

[Ambalon]

Exactly. That's what I meant with unwieldy. Not as bad as quatre-vingt-dix-neuf, of course.
The Walloons are slightly more efficient. Huitante for eighty, if I recall correctly.

Indeed. Who the **** says "Four Twenties and [one] Nineteen"? D:

 

[FrisianDude]

Frenchlings.

 

[Austupaio]

Wow. Why don't they just just say 'Many lots' and be done with it.

 

[Winterz]

Because they are french.

 

[Ludial]

said unwieldiness has been pointed out to me by a French speaker as a significant factor in learning difficulties kids have in french-speaking countries. I could see that with my little brother learning numbers.

the problem with French is it's unnecessarily complicated. Hence so many Francophones don't even speak it properly, as they try to simplify it. We're talking to the point of tenses that nobody uses anymore because they wind like a mountain path and can only be found in fairy tales.

 

[gamerwiz09]

They say Frenchmen go bloody apes on you if you mispronounce in French.

Yes, if you learn French, learn it well, merci!

But... The French have already butchered their own language For example, when the real sentence goes "Je ne parle pas francais", instead they say "Je parle pas francais", or was it "Je ne parle francais". One of those. Point is theyre effectively eating their own language into oblivion. Heh, theres even a certain amount of French music the radio stations have to play, or they have to pay some sort of a fine

Warning - while you were typing 6 new replies have been posted. You may wish to review your post.

It's probably just because, like me, you have a hard time hearing French spoken, since when spoken by a fluent speaker, everything sounds mushed together. It doesn't help that pronunciation of various tenses are virtually unchanged because of this stupid 'you don't pronounce consonants at the end of a word' rule and other stupid ****.

 

[Wolfang]

Exactly. That's what I meant with unwieldy. Not as bad as quatre-vingt-dix-neuf, of course.
The Walloons are slightly more efficient. Huitante for eighty, if I recall correctly.

In belgium it's still quatre vingts
we do say septante (instead of soixante dix)
and nonante (instead of quatrevingtsdix)

huitante doesn't exist, the only simplification for quatrevingt is ochante, and it is used mostly in switzerland AFAIK

 

[FrisianDude]

Ow, ****, I chose the wrong example.

 

[Wolfang]

**** happens.

 

[Winterz]

...Twice.

Exactly. That's what I meant with unwieldy. Not as bad as quatre-vingt-dix-neuf, of course.
The Walloons are slightly more efficient. Huitante for eighty, if I recall correctly.

In belgium it's still quatre vingts
we do say septante (instead of soixante dix)
and nonante (instead of quatrevingtsdix)

Really didn't knew the belgians had such word derivations from latin...

Here we say noventa(nonante) and setenta(septante)..

 

[Pharaoh Llandy]

Clearly this is the reason more people should study English.

Our numbers make sense, and are clearly labelled!

 

[Brestos]

No! English is the evil language of the NWO, of the Antichrist!! All speak French, eat camembert drink wine and survive the apocalypse! Vive la France!