Get your past participles right!

We read that certain school teachers of the French language are calling for a change to the way some past participles are formed.
As we all know when a verb is conjugated with "être" its past participle agrees with the subject in gender and number - eg "les femmes sont allées". But normally when the verb is conjugated with "avoir"  there is no need to make the pp agree.
Except when the object precedes the pp. So not "les crèpes que j'ai mangé", but "les crèpes que j'ai mangées". Obviously "j'ai mangé les crèpes" is correct because the object comes after the verb conjugated with "avoir".
It seems that this polemic will continue as there is no  suggestion that either the Academie Francaise or its Belgian equivalent are about to embrace the change and simplify this aspect of French orthography. But next time you do a "dictée" watch out for it, it's a common trap.
Sadly we at Taglines were not aware of this arcane usage and must have committed so many errors over the years. 0/20.
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Pain au chocolat?

There has been much discussion about what the viennoiserie many of us eat with our morning coffee is called: "pain au chocolat", "chocolatine" or some other regional variety. Now an enquiry has been carried out by a group of linguists to nap the various usages. Of course such regional debates are just as common in the UK - what do you think a "tea-cake" is, or a bap?
As expected it depends on where you live what you ask for, and we in the south west of France will commonly ask for a chocolatine. The linguists published a map of regional usage which shows just how confined the use of chocolatine is.

Personally we at MdS prefer croissants or occasionally a "torsade" - a kind of twisted pain au chocolat.
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To change the subject..

A letter from a French friend overseas included the line " vous êtes trop attachés à votre petit paradis ...très bien.
Comment vont les ânes? Désolé , d'où l'expression :, " je passe du coq à l'âne "...

So from commenting on our decision to stay here to asking about the donkeys was an abrupt change of subject, which is expressed aptly by "du coq à l'âne".
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Take heart - even the profs get it wrong

Recent discussions on Taglines about correct French grammar and usage seem to be a bit like "la recherche aux poux" (nit picking) compared the results posted in the annual teachers' exams in the Grenoble academie - school authority.
At a time when general standards of literacy and handwriting are thought to be in decline, often attributed to the widespread use of social media such as Twitter and text messages which demand abbreviations to keep costs down or meet restrictions, it is discouraging to see the examiners reporting that up to one paper in three had basic grammar faults. Indeed some papers would have failed maths exams simply a result of bad spelling or grammar.
Those of you using social media may well have come across what is often described as the "grammar police", those people (sub editor included) who bristle at abuse of the language - to say nothing of straightforward abuse - but do we not think that when everyone wants to be a writer we should at least use the language correctly? But if the teachers are just as bad, what hope.. (end of sub editor's rant)
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Falling into the trap

Reading this morning about the only topic the French media is reporting I came across a phrase new to us. "Tomber dans le panneau" means "to fall into the trap". Perhaps it stems from concentrating on the roadside panels and running off the road. The actual article warns of not believing all the conspiracy theories being raised on the internet with regard to the terrorist attack.
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Hide your nose

Reading a weather forecast for today it advised to keep your "cache nez" (literally nose hider) close at hand as it will be cold throughout the day. A cache nez is a long woollen scarf which you can wrap around your face. Good advice on a day when the temperature in the area is not likely to exceed 8C.
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Citizenship and integration

Dear Val

Luckily for us, a fellow TAG reader said that if we were over 60 we did not have to pass the formal French exam just an interview where we will be asked basic questions based around a rather verbose pamphlet sent to all 18 year olds on the rights and responsibilities of citizenship. These range from recognising the colours of the French flag, to the duty to voting and the responsibility to send children to school to the age of 16. Disabled people are also exempt from the language exam.

Having read the recent debate in TAG on integration and the ability to speak French all of this rather intrigues me. You, Val, very kindly think that we are a good example of people who are integrated. We are surprised to hear this every time we read it. We basically moved here because neither of us wanted to get dragged back into consultancy when we retired. Ross does things in the village because there are so few of us here and if he gets sufficiently irritated by weeds or something else he does something about it. I think I am integrated by going to a Patchwork group for my own pleasure. Now is this integration or behaving as we would have in the UK? Doing what we like? Similarly trying to restore the church is something we are doing for our own pleasure. We love the reward of the concert, the sound and giving people pleasure and we cope with the brickbats, fatigue and effort.

However the ability to speak French is another issue. As someone who is dyslexic the very idea of an exam filled me with such fear that I would have played the disability card had it included a written section. I cannot spell in English and French is an absolute nightmare. When British people talk about reading the language I think they must have come from a land of geniuses. Hazel was so right when she said we all have different abilities and have come from differing educational opportunities and different levels of confidence. Every time I ask a British person with poor French, how they got on in hospital or at a restaurant, the reply always is that they didn't need to because the French wanted to speak English to them.Finally we should all remember that while some of us may be shaken by Mr Farrage, the country we are so keen to become integrated in is much more racist and anti-semitic than the UK and if Marine Le Pen becomes an even stronger political force after the next elections we may have become integrated in a country we no longer wish to be part of.Ginny

Val says a reasoned post without resorting to intemperate language.

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Lucy has a limp, elle boite

The first time in 6 years we will need the vet to look at poor limping Lucy. Yesterday I noticed her not standing on her right front sabot so tied her up and cleaned out the hoof. There was a small stone which came out but this morning she is still limping quite markedly. Limping in French is the verb boiter, elle boite, I think if  I had not put the " e" elle boit, it would mean she drinks. So complicated the French language!
I will let you know how she progresses.
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Montalbanais de souche

 «Montalbanais de souche>> Just noticed this expression in the Depeche

 Montalbanais to their roots. 

Lovely when you learn a French expression, see it used and recognise it. My french teacher told me her partner was a " campagnard de souche" Rooted in the countryside.

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Canadians on "political tourism"

The Parti Quebecois, a Canadian French speaking separatist party suffered a heavy defeat in elections earlier this year. Several friends and acquaintances living in Quebec have told us that the party is almost fanatical in its insistence on the use of French and its pursuit of independence, and now some of its leaders have come to Scotland to observe and help the Yes campaign. One leader observed that the campaigners on both sides have been quite free to advance whatever arguments they wished, whereas the PQ is very centralised, with a strict party line to be followed. Does that seem very French?
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Un bon descent

We live on the top of a hill as you all know by now, did I hear a yawn?
Last night as guests were leaving Malc heard one lady say to a Frenchman  "un bon descent Monsieur"
Malc and the Frenchman laughed as in French "un bon descent" means someone who can knock it back a bit. "hollow legs" perhaps. Strangely going through my French notes we had spotted that saying a few days earlier. In case any gendarmes are reading this nobody leaves Mas del Sol having had a bon descent.
For others do not worry we always have plenty in to drink!
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I've got rhythm, well actually I have not and that is my problem

Yesterday I was assessed and found to be wanting.
Wanting a clip around the ear many might say but actually it's my rhythm. Not my dancing although that to be fair is rubbish. My rhythm of speaking the French language and that is why French people find me so difficult to understand.
 Apparently the end of the sentence should go up and be stressed more powerfully and I am not doing that, thus confusing French speakers as I start the sentence. That look of fear I get from certain French men is not because I am a sexual predator but because they are scared they won't understand me... and I talk a lot in English or French.
Julia my French teacher has a friend staying with her ( 2 young people at Verfeil)   she is on holiday from Alsace, where she teaches French and prepares  amongst other things etrangers to pass the nationality test. Julia asked her to listen in to my progress and I was found wanting on the accent side... so continue with the lessons, listen to  French radio and TV and in the end I will get there.
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Malc says: I think that the inflection rises at the end of subordinate clauses and falls at the end of a sentence.
Quand je vais a Toulouse, (rising inflection) je prends le train. (falling inflection). It also seems that French has no particular stressed syllables, so each syllable in a word is equally stressed, unlike other languages.
Val says I am now totally confused. Malc remembers he was  taught about rhythm at University but the  French teacher did give me a wavy line showing stresses and said "go up at the end"
A very complicated language French ( or is that as you get older)
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