Play
"The Name Game"
Discover the French you already know
One
of the essential elements of the Accelerated Learning foreign
language system is the "Name Game" which quickly shows you
that you already know many more words of French than you
thought you knew.
It
challenges you to work out for yourself (with a little help)
the many ways in which French and English are similar: they
both have common roots in Latin.
Understanding
the similarities is a tremendous motivator–because
you come to realize that there are thousands of French words
you can immediately identify through applying a few simple
principles.
For
example, if you spoke no French whatsoever you would still
almost certainly be able to translate the following sentences.
Le
professeur est intelligent. = The professor is intelligent.
La
duchesse est élégante. = The duchess is elegant.
These
little sentences have a surprising amount of information
packed in them for you.
(a)
'Le,' as you may well know, is a way of say 'the,' So
is 'la.' In common with almost every European language,
other than English, French has masculine and feminine
words, i.e. gender. It is surprising how fast you can
remember to relate which is which–but the main aim
of accelerated learning is to get you communicating. Saying
'le' occasionally when you should say 'a' is hardly a
major crime when you're just beginning to learn.
(b)
est = is. From this you will see that the English and
the French construct sentences in a very similar way.
Of
course, while the words may be identical on paper they are
not necessarily, or even often, pronounced the same. However,
this section of the Accelerated Learning course is desigfned
to get you familiar with the sight of French.
Still
other words are identical because they actually are French
words which we have borrowed in the same way as the French
have borrowed from English, e.g. ler weekend and le marketing.
Some
other simple principles taken from the course.
Principle
5.
To
put something into the plural in French you normally add
an "s."
For
example:
Les
maisons sont grandes = The houses are large.
Les tables sont noires. = The tables are black
An
'x' in French can associate very pricisely with 'c' in English
For
instance:
Prix
= price
Choix = choice
Voix = voice
These
are just a few of the many principles to kick-start your
learning of French and to show you that learning French
can be fun–not intimidating. You'll have even more
fun with the radio play and the games that form essential
parts of the Accelerated Learning course.
