Jan

I lerned French for some years and for me the system of counting is still crazy. It is logical after some time but it is hard to remember all these rules all time...

juchu!

I was surprized at reading the messages following mine... I didn't suspect that my thread would arouse such an attention...
well, first and foremost, septante means soixante-dix (70), and not quatre-vingt-dix (90), which is said nonante in Belgium and Switzerland. For instance, ask any French speaker to read "1999" : if he or she answers you "mille neuf cent nonante-neuf" you can be sure that he/ she comes from Belgium or Switzerland. That was for Yau.

French used to be an élite language which was spoken in all the European courts, so that the whole diplomacy (letters, treaties) was written in French. I have a nice story to tell you about that. You certainly know that as well as in Spanish, adjectives are declinated according to the noun they are linked to. The rule is the same concerning the past participle. And sometimes the rule is quite difficult to obey. All actually depends on the position of the direct object.

E.g.

Ils se sont regardés - They have looked at each other.
What have they looked at? themselves, thus one writes regardé with an s.

Ils se sont serré la main - They have shaken hands with each other.
What have they shaken ? hands, in french la main(which is located after serré), thus serré remains so.

Now, a more difficult one :

Les années se sont succédé. - Years passed by (actually"Years have followed themselves")
Here, "se" stands for "years" too, and as a consequence, the participle should bear "es", for années is a feminine plural. In French, however, one says "succéder à quelque chose", and not "succéder quelque chose" like the English "to follow something", so that the rule isn't true there....


Now the question is : who is the foolish cretin who decided one day that we have to write so???
Answer : an assembly, called l'Académie Française, that stated in the early 18th century on the matter. Still, simultaneously, an other assembly decided to completely simplify the English conjugation rules in Oxford. One used to say "I have, thou hast, he hath, we haven, you havt, they haven", but now, there're just two forms, "have" and "has", in the simple present, and "thou" isn't used any longer...

The point of my message is that while the English people (no, actually rather its leaders) were simplifying their grammar, the French were complicating theirs. No wonder that more and more states like Mauritius or Senegal are thinking about definitively abandoning French in favour of English as their sole official tongue. As a Frenchman, I can only deplore it, but as a person, I find it rather logical. Last, but not least, the UK gathers funds every year to create or finance schools in which English is taught (in Greece, Romania, Cyprus, Ghana, Benin, Viet Nam....). Has the French government ever imitated its English counterparts in order to cushion the spreading of English??? Not by a long shot... In Greece, before the WWII, any French person could find his way out by speaking French and using some Greek words ; now it's completely over. By the same token, the use of French in countries where it used to have a proeminent role (like in Romania or Viet Nam) has virtually become inexistant, whereas English is more and more used over there. Ask any Romanian or Viet Namese, he/she woud tell you the same as me.

DigitaL MasteR

I like that number system, I fine it cool, it's like every number is Math formula, it's just fun!

@juchu!
Thanks for the info, and yeah Emglish is way much easier than French

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Because true friendship exists to remain and progress.
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DigitaL MasteR: Alex

te_iubesc_minuata

i find the French language very interested and easy but the number system very hard and is so with all the rules @juchu your information was useful and great

greets
Adriana
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ce-o mai vrea? la multi ani FD

nigaude

Please remember that in the United States, people once spoke in terms of 4 and 20 (English poem "blackbirds baked in a pie" and Lincoln's Gettysburg Address begins Four score and 7 years ago. A score was 20, so he was saying 4x20 and 7 years ago)