1. The word “garçon” means boy, but also is the word for waiter

1. The word “garçon” means boy, but also is the word for waiter. Never try to get a waiter’s attention by calling him
“garçon,” it’s insulting. Use monsieur, madame or mademoiselle. The tip is included in bill in France. Do not tip more.
2. the word “fille” means girl, but also is the word for daughter.
3. French have three levels of friendship – closest is ami/amie (lifelong and inner circle, invited into home), then copain,
copine (hang out with outside of work or school, not yet an inner circle friend) and camarade (friend from work, school,
organization/association or club, don’t hang out with them outside of that setting). Americans are considered very open
and friendly, but shallow because we invite people in to our inner circle quickly, but do not work to maintain the
relationship
4. Un père is papa for dad(dy), and une mère is maman for mom(my)
5. Family (une famille) is considered a unit (just like in English), so when you refer to it , use pronoun “elle”
6. Une jeune fille translates literally as a young girl, but un jeune homme translates literally as a young man
7. Un fleuve is a river which flows into a large body of water (sea, gulf, ocean) Une rivière is a river which flows into
another river or not.
8. tout le monde means everyone
9. When we studied colors, we identified 4 categories of adjectives –
1) adjectives which end in –e and can be either masculine or feminine
jaune, rose, rouge
(add –s for plural)
2) adjectives which end in a letter other than –e and have to add an –e when used with a feminine noun
noir / noire, vert / verte, argenté / argentée
(add –s for plural)
3) adjectives which are irregular and forms must be memorized
violet / violette, blanc / blanche
(add –s for plural)
4) invariable adjectives which have only one form for masculine, feminine and plural
marron, orange
10. Adjectives normally go behind the noun they describe. Some go in front - Remember - B-A-N-G-S
B for beauty (beau, belle, joli)
A for age (jeune, vieux-old, nouveau-new)
N for numbers (un, deux, troisième, quatrième, etc.),
G for good or bad (bon-good, mauvais-bad, meilleur-better)
S for size (grand, petit, haut, long, court)
11. The word for the sound - knock, knock in French is toc, toc. A student asked what about a clock sound, it’s tic-tac.
12. Strange pronounciations –
LL make a “y” sound sometimes
pays – “pay yay” (2 syllables)
nord is “nor” but sud is “sue d” (pronounce the d)
est - est (pronounce all letters)