Showing posts with label Jane Eyre. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jane Eyre. Show all posts

Saturday, June 18, 2022

French Subjunctive Irregular Verbs

 I have a 785 day streak in Duolingo French and I have just hit the subjective. Regular subjunctive I think have mastered, but irregular verbs? Yikes.


The grammatical explanation included with the lessons is not very helpful, may I add. Luckily I discovered Lawless French some time ago.

But I am actually learning French! Dr. Skull and I are listening to Jane Eyre while we drive to and from Fayetteville, and we've reached the part where Jane is acting as governess for Adele, who speaks only French, so that Jane and Adele have long conversations in French every few pages, and I can understand most of it. 

“Et cela doit signifier,” said she, “qu’il y aura là dedans un cadeau pour moi, et peut-être pour vous aussi, mademoiselle. Monsieur a parlé de vous: il m’a demandé le nom de ma gouvernante, et si elle n’était pas une petite personne, assez mince et un peu pâle. J’ai dit qu’oui: car c’est vrai, n’est-ce pas, mademoiselle?”

(My translation: "And that means," she said, "that there will be a present for me inside, and maybe for you, miss. Sir talked about you: he asked me the name of my governess, and if she wasn't a little person, skinny and a little pale. I said yes, because it's true, isn't it, miss?")