/r/conlangs Chat Network Relay Game - Learn a Lang Natlang Relay 7

⇐ Previous step (Sranan Tongo) | Full Relay | Next step (Brazilian Portuguese) ⇒

	European French	English
#3	European French by Aimely
	Ah, cette ville ! La chanson des fleurs, La honte et la beauté la couvre. Encore je la traversai comme j'étais dans un rêve De la nuit multicolore, quand les feus brûlaient Dans l'obscurité, je vis des masques brillants. « S'il vous plaît, s'il vous plaît! Voici ces biens, combien valent-ils? » Dans l'obscurité, les visages comme un beau conte de fée Promènent, sourient, et achètent! Les soldats fiers marchent facilement. Les flûtes sourient, les basses gémissent. Un gamin vêtu de chiffon, se cachant dans la nuit, Vole doucement comme une jeune chauve-souris; Une fille en blanc le manipule comme de la pâte. Au-dessus les chansons jouent Comme dans le nid d'araignée; Les gens des tourbillons disparaissent.	Ah, this city! The song of flowers, Shame and its beauty cover it. Again I went through it like I was in a dream Of the multicolored night, when the fires burned. In the darkness, I saw shiny masks. "Please, please!" "These goods here, how much are they worth?" In the darkness, the faces like in a beautiful fairy tale Walk by, smile, and buy! The proud soldiers walk easily The flutes smile, the basses groan. A tattered child hiding in the night Flies softly like a bat; A girl in white handles it like dough. Overhead, the songs play Like in the big nest of the spider; The people of the eddies disappear.

DICTIONARY

-ment	suffix	(transforms adjectives into adverbs)
acheter	vb.	to buy
ah	interj.	Ah!
araignée	n-fem.	spider
au-dessus	adv.	overhead
basse	n-masc.	bass (all senses)
beau	adj-irr.	beautiful
beauté	n-fem.	beauty
bien	n-masc.	good, property, commodity, possession
blanc	adj.	white
brillant	adj.	shiny
brûler	vb.	to burn
ce	det.	this
chanson	n-fem.	song
chauve-souris	n-fem.	bat (the animal)
chiffon	n-fem.	rag
combien	prn-interr.	how much
comme	conj.	as, like
conte	n-masc.	story
couvre	vb-irr.	3rd person singular present of 'couvrir'
couvrir	vb-irr.	to cover
dans	prep.	in
de	prep.	of
des		contraction of 'de les'
disparaissent	vb-irr.	3rd person plural present of 'disparaître'
disparaître	vb-irr.	to disappear
douce	adj-irr.	feminine of 'doux'
doux	adj-irr.	soft
en	prep.	in
et	conj.	and
étais	vb-irr.	1st person singular imperfect of 'être'
facile	adj.	easy
feu	n-masc.	fire
fier	adj.	proud
fille	n-fem.	girl
fleur	n-fem.	flower
flûte	n-fem.	flute
fée	n-fem.	fairy
gamin	n-masc.	(slang) kid, child
gen	n-masc.	person
gémir	vb.	to moan, to groan
honte	n-fem.	shame
jouer	vb.	to play
manipuler	vb.	to manipulate
masque	n-masc.	mask
multicolore	adj.	multicolored
nid	n-masc.	nest, web
nuit	n-fem.	night
obscurité	n-fem.	darkness, obscurity
promener	vb.	to walk (around, by); to take a walk
pâte	n-fem.	paste, dough
quand	conj.	when
rêve	n-masc.	dream
s'il vous plaît	part.	please
se cacher	vb.	to hide
soldat	n-masc.	soldier
sourient	vb-irr.	3rd person singular present of 'sourire'
sourire	vb-irr.	to smile
tourbillon	n-fem.	eddy, whirlpool
traverser	vb.	to cross
valent	vb-irr.	3rd person plural present of 'valoir'
valoir	vb-irr.	to be worth
vetir	vb-irr.	to clothe
ville	n-fem.	city
vis	vb-irr.	1st person singular past of 'voir'
visage	n-masc.	face
voici	vb-irr.	here is' (defective singular present tense)
voir	vb-irr.	to see
voler	vb.	to fly, to steal
vêtu	vb-irr.	past participle of 'vetir'; clothed

GRAMMAR

Word Order

French is mainly SVO, with one exception:

if a personal pronoun is in the object position, the order is SOV.

Adjectives generally come after head words. The general noun phrase order is preposition + article + noun + adjective(s).

Besides this, French syntax is more or less similar to English.

Nouns

Two noun genders exist, masculine and feminine.

Adjectives and articles agree with their nouns.

Only two adjectival gender suffixes are attested in this text:

-e [feminine]
-Ø [feminine]

Two numbers exist, singular and plural. Again, adjectives and articles agree with their nouns.

Only one plural suffix is attested in this text:

Plural suffixes come after gender suffixes.

Verbs

In French, verbs agree with the person and number of the subject of the sentence. The pronoun 'je' is 1st person singular; the pronouns 'il' and 'elle' are 3rd person singular. All other nouns in this passage are 3rd person singular or plural.

All verbs in the passage are in the indicative mood.

The past tense is formed using an auxiliary verb. Most verbs use the auxiliary verb avoir, while reflexive verbs, as well as certain verbs of motion, use the verb être. After this, the past participle of the verb appears.

Below is a (simplified) verb conjugation table. The first column represents a regular verb 'verber.' The other columns represent common irregular verbs.

Inf	verb-er	verb-ir	être	avoir
1s	verb-e	verb-is	suis	ai
2s	verb-es	verb-is	es	as
3s	verb-e	verb-it	est	a
1pl	verb-ons	verb-issons	sommes	avons
2pl	verb-ez	verb-issez	êtes	avez
3pl	verb-ent	verb-issent	sont	ont
Gerund	verb-ant	verb-issant	étant	ayant

The 3rd-person plural imperfect tense suffix marker -aient appears in this passage. This is a kind of continuous past tense.

The 3rd-person singular historic past tense suffix marker -ai appears in this passage. This is a completed perfect past tense.

One reflexive verb appears. This verb requires a reflexive pronoun in the object position, which agrees with the subject of the verb. See "Pronouns" for more details.

Pronouns

	1p	3p sing. masc.	3p sing. fem.
nom.	je	il	elle
acc.	me	le	la
dat.	me	lui	lui
refl.	me	se	se

Articles

	masc.	fem.	plural
indef.	un	une	(N/A)
def.	le	la	les
part.	du	de la	des

The partitive article exists as a construction; it is formed by combining the preposition 'de' and definite article. It has the meaning of 'some of' or 'various.'

Contractions

Certain short words ending in the vowel -e lose their vowel before vowels, contracting their final -e to an apostrophe. No spaces appear after these short words.