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    Instant! French
    Instant! French
    Instant! French
    Ebook293 pages1 hour

    Instant! French

    By Nick Theobald & Denis La Touche

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    About this ebook

    Instant! French is a practical, street-wise and witty English-French phrase book. It's the phonetic phrase book that's got the world talking.
    With Instant! French, what you see is what you say.
    Speak French in seconds with Instant! French.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublishereBookIt.com
    Release dateApr 26, 2016
    ISBN9781456600235
    Instant! French

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      Book preview

      Instant! French - Nick Theobald & Denis La Touche

      1956-2009.

      Speak French in seconds

      This little book is your passport to speaking French.

      Instant! French contains thousands of practical, street-wise and occasionally risqué phrases and words.

      Everything from Don’t step in that dog shit, to Hello, I’d like to join the French Foreign Legion.

      Millions of us studied le français at school, so why not re-discover this beautiful language?

      When you are in France, speaking French is not only polite, it’s important from a business and social perspective: you may just get better snails too.

      Many phrase books require a degree in linguistics to pronounce their words and phrases - we use simple phonetics.

      Thanks for buying our book. One author fancies a chateau on the Loire, while

      the other one needs more conflict- free diamonds to grace his imaginary girlfriends’ fingers.

      How Instant! phonetics work

      With Instant! French, what you see is what you say.

      English: I love you.

      French: Je t’aime.

      Phonetics: Je tame.

      Je - as in the first sound of Zhivago.

      tame - my dog is tame.

      English: After you.

      French: Après vous.

      Phonetics: Ah-pray voo.

      Ah - as in Ah-choo!

      pray - what you do in church.

      voo - as in the voo of voodoo.

      English: Thank you very much.

      French: Merci beaucoup.

      Phonetics: Mair-see bow-coo.

      Mair - sounds like fair.

      see - see what we mean.

      bow - bow & arrows.

      coo - what pigeons say.

      English: Excuse me.

      French: Excusez moi.

      Phonetics: Excuse-zay mwa.

      Excuse - as in excuse me.

      zay - same sound as say.

      mwa - the sound humans make when air-kissing.

      English: I’ve got a hangover.

      French: J’ai une gueule de bois.

      Phonetics: Zhay oon girl de bwa.

      Zhay - the Zh of Zhivago plus an ay (same as say).

      oon - like moon.

      girl - as in girl.

      de - the de of department.

      bwa - the air-kissing mwa with a b.

      English: She’s not here.

      French: Elle n’est pas là.

      Phonetics: Elle nay pa la.

      Elle - as in the magazine ‘Elle’.

      nay - that’s right, ‘nay’.

      pa - the pa of ‘papa’.

      la - same sound as pa.

      The Le & La of French: It’s a gender thing

      Like many languages, French contains masculine and feminine words.

      (That’s right! The masculine words are rough ‘n tough and the feminine words display a better attitude towards personal grooming. Or vice versa.)

      The definite article The and the indefinite article A are identified as follows:

      The masculine The is written as Le.

      The feminine The is written as La.

      The masculine A is written as Un.

      The feminine A is written as Une.

      Class dismissed.

      Please read these bits care-full-lee

      Our phrase book uses phonetics to ensure correct pronunciation.

      We’ve hyphen-a-ted the phonetics of most words of more than one syllable, to make them easier to pro-nounce.

      Phrase books and phonetics will never give you perfect vowel sounds, intonation, stress, length of words, emphasis, etc.

      However…I’ve found that if someone hears you’re at least trying to speak their language, in most cases you’ll achieve Instant! respect.

      If you get a word wrong, most people will correct your pronunciation. Dialogue begins, barriers come down, smiles reign and phonetic pennies may even fall from heaven.

      The Top 10 Instant! French phrases

      Hello.

      Bonjour.

      Bon-zhoor.

      How are you?

      Ça va?

      Sar vah?

      Goodbye.

      Au revoir.

      Oh rev-wah.

      Yes.

      Oui.

      Wee.

      No.

      Non.

      Non.

      Please.

      S’il vous plaît.

      See voo play.

      Thank you.

      Merci.

      Mair-see.

      Sorry, I don’t speak French well.

      Désolé, je ne parle pas bien le français.

      Day-so-lay, je ne parl pa bee-en le fron-say.

      I would like…

      Je voudrais…

      Je voo-dray…

      Excuse me.

      Excusez moi.

      Excuse-zay mwa.

      Good-natured phrases

      How’s it going, mate?

      Comment ça va, mon pote?

      Com-mon sar va, mon poat?

      What’s new?

      Quoi de neuf?

      Kwa de nerf?

      Take it easy.

      Du calme.

      Doo calm.

      Look after yourself.

      Prends soin de toi.

      Prond swan de twa. (not exactly swan)

      You feel me? (meaning: You understand me?)

      Tu me suis?

      Too me swee?

      Know what I mean?

      Tu sais ce que je veux dire?

      Too say se ke je vurr dear?

      Everything’s cool.

      Tout est cool.

      Toot ay cool.

      No worries.

      Pas de problème.

      Pa de prob-lem.

      Everything’s fine mate.

      Tout va bien mon pote.

      Too var bee-en mon poat.

      A Room With a View

      Can I get a quiet room?

      Je voudrais une chambre tranquille?

      Je voo-dray oon shombre tron-keel?

      Is there any construction going on in the hotel?

      Est-ce qu’il y a des rénovations en cours dans l’hôtel?

      Ess-keel-ee-ya day ray-no-vass-ee-yon on core don low-tel?

      The above phrase, in one author’s experience, is the world’s best question to ask when making a booking. Ask this question and you will avoid that depressing noise at 8am as the jackhammers start - on the floor above you.

      A room with a view please.

      Une chambre avec vue s’il vous plaît.

      Oon shombre ah-veck voo see voo play.

      My room has got bedbugs.

      Il y a des punaises dans ma chambre.

      Eel-ee-ya day poo-nayse don ma shombre.

      A room NOT near the lift (elevator) please.

      Une chambre qui n’est pas proche de l’ascenseur s’il vous plaît.

      Oon shombre key nay pa prosh de la-son-sir see voo play.

      The people next door are too noisy.

      Les gens à côté sont trop bruyants.

      Lay zhon a coat-ay son tro brewy-yon.

      Can I/we get a late check-out please? Est-ce que je peux/nous pouvons quitter la chambre plus tard?

      Ess-ke je purr/noo poo-von key-tay la shombre ploo tar?

      How do I say this in French?

      What’s this called in French?

      Comment ça s’appele en français?

      Com-mon sar sa-pell on fron-say?

      How do I say this in French?

      Comment dit-on ça en français?

      Com-mon dee-tonn sar on fron-say?

      Accommodation

      Hotel.

      L’hôtel.

      Low-tell.

      3 star hotel.

      L’hôtel trois étoiles.

      Low-tell trwaz ay-twarl.

      Boarding house.

      La pension.

      La pon-see-yon.

      Bed and breakfast.

      La chambre d’hôte.

      La shombre doat.

      Guest house.

      La maison d’hôte.

      La may-zon doat.

      B & B with 3 ears of corn.

      La chambre d’hôte trois épis.

      La shombre doat trwaz ay-pee.

      (B&Bs in France are rated with ears of corn, not stars as for hotels. The more ears the better.)

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