La structure de la langue Française

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I'm bilingual from Montreal. My own theory about learning to speak French is as follows:

there is only one tense, the present.
words indicating time can be added to the verb, e.g. I go to the store tomorrow. I go to the store yesterday.

there is no concordance for your first year of learning.

there is no tu/vous distinction; use vous for everybody.

that tricky vowel sound (e.g. feu) is made like this: make your mouth into an O and say E.

The thing is, you've got to get off the ground. People try to be perfect before they start.

Um, if you're going to be reading only, on the receiving end only as it were, then yes, the rules come first.

I'm not authorized to teach, I just live in a place where people learn French all the time.

Also, my favourite quote:

"To learn something you must make 10,000 mistakes; you may begin."

Something I said in another thread:

I think French is an inefficient language, I recall I bought once two Harry Potter for two little cousins - same book, one in French and one in English, and the French one was larger.

Also:
Les misérables in English is 560,391 words.
Les misérables in French is 655,478 words. ---> A proof of French inefficiency compared to English.

English is richer and more efficient while French stretches the same sentence.

Arabic is way more efficient than French as well.

For example:

In English: "I miss you". - three words, direct and simple!

In classic Arabic (dialects even make sentences shorter) : أنا اشتقت اليك - literally means "I miss you"; three words, direct and simple!

In French..... "Tu me manques" - Literally means "YOU are lacking to me" which kinda means 'your presence is lacking for me' - seriously french civilization?? Despite all your greatness yet you couldn't invent a more direct expression? lol Couldn't you simply invent the verb "To miss" so you can say "Je te <non-existent-verb>?


Things even get more complicated in indirect person.

In English: "My mom misses me" - three words, direct and simple!

In classic Arabic: "أمي مشتاقة الي" - three words, same literal meaning of English, direct and simple!

In French: "Je manque à ma maman" - literally means " *I* am lacking to mom" or "I am missed by mom" - LOL

Another example:

In English: "I trust you" - SIMPLE!

In classic Arabic: أنا اثق بك - same literal meaning of English and same word count- direct and simple!

In French however...: "J'ai confiance en toi" - literally means "I have confidence in you" or "je te fais confiance" (I give you my trust) - or "je compte sur toi (I count on you).


Not only the french language adds word count to the sentence but it also tends to be indirect in its meaning - like catching the left ear with the right hand from upper head.

Let me don't start on the use of y and en.

^
Yeah..........Damn it.

Should I give up?

je me
nous nous

tu te
vous vous

il le lui
ils les leur

elle la lui
elles se

YOU REALLY NEED COFFEE

We dont say Je te manque for I miss you, this is a common beginner mistake, on dit TU me manques

I miss you = Tu me manques

In reverse,
Tu me manques doesnt mean you miss me, It means I miss you.

Also She misses me = je lui manque, not elle me manque , also we can say Je manque à elle hence je manque à ma mère in my example....
In your wrong correction, Maman me manque means I miss my mom.

at least this how it is in my Lycéen French, I dunno if Canadian french follows different rules.

Honestly I was like What the ...?

Apologies accepted, but if you wanna be a grammar nazi next time at least do it after coffee.

^^ Yes, but it's confusing for beginners because it's not a straightforward as English.

"I miss you" is direct, like "I love you".

In french "I love you" is straightforward "Je t'aime" but there's no such direct thing for "I miss you" in french.

The exact English equivalent of "Tu me manques" is "you are lacking for me" / "you are being missed by me".

^ Aw...French

me, te, se before reflexive verbs

je me
nous nous

tu te
vous vous

il se
ils se

elle se
elles se