I am trying to learn as much French as possible for my upcoming trip. I already know around 200 words and am getting a decent handle on the accent. <BR><BR>I am curious though about what is customary as far as addressing people formally vs. informally. Also, how often do people really address others using sir or maam? In the US we use so much slang! Are the French really that polite? <BR><BR>I'm going to Paris, do not know anyone there, and although I hear most poeple speak English I would rather try to do my best to get along &quot;French style&quot;.<BR>Any tips would be greatly appreciated. <BR>FYI -I am using just about every available method and try to spend 2 hours each day learning this new language. It will be tough at first, I'm sure, as I'm a little shy and my husband is usually the socializer. <BR>

Do I smell a troll???????

What are you talking about Hugo? I've been posting here asking questions for my upcoming trip for a couple of weeks now. <BR>What about this question seems odd?

In general, the French reserve the &quot;vous&quot; for most near anyone but a friend or family member. <BR><BR>In Spanish, it's now more relaxed, and it's possible to tutear your way across a country with no problem. However, you should still mind your &quot;usteds&quot;, when they are appropriate and necessary.<BR><BR>Is that what you meant? Quelques unes/uns, alguno/as otros? <BR><BR>Kalena

On the whole, the more polite you are (i.e. formal), the better reception and service you are likely to get!! Though when chatting informally, many people use slang or colloquialisms, you are unlikely to come across these in your dealings with service staff, shop keepers, etc. <BR>A few basics: when entering a shop, you will probably be greeted by the shopkeeper with a &quot;bonjour&quot;, to which you should reply. On leaving, whether or not you have bought anything, they will usually bid you goodbye (&quot;au revoir&quot. Some people will say &quot;bonjour monsieur&quot;, although it is not rude to omit the monsieur/madame part. If you want to ask a stranger a question (directions, etc), start with &quot;Excusez-moi Monsieur/madame&quot;.<BR>A more polite version of &quot;merci&quot; is &quot;je vous remercie&quot;. <BR>If you are aware of these basics, and say it all with a smile, I'm sure you'll get a great reception from the supposedly frosty Parisians!

I love the expression 'je suis desole' (doesn't look right without the accents): it means 'I'm very sorry' (as in 'I'm very sorry, but it's not possible' rather than 'I'm very sorry I stepped on your foot'), but to English-speakers it feels like 'I am desolate' which is a wonderfully dramatic way of expressing remorse.

&gt; dramatic way of expressing ...<BR><BR>I thought of another basic expression &quot;J'ai faim&quot; (I'm hungry). Faim reminds me of famine (obviously of the same origine). I couldn't undestand at first why you can say &quot;J'ai TRES faim&quot; (I'm VERY hungry.). For me &quot;faim&quot; is a noun and cannot be modified by an adverb &quot;tres&quot;. The same goes with &quot;J'ai soif&quot;(I'm thirsty), etc. This is an analogy from my basic understanding of English (I'm an Asian). If I had leaned French first, possibly I would have found many English expressions funny.<BR><BR>Sorry Quinty, this was rather off topic.

You will find older French people, on entering a room full of other people (ie strangers) will say &quot;messieurs dames&quot; (gentlemen and ladies). It's just an old fashioned courtesy, an acknowledgement of the other people.

Just came to my mind. Try the following expression if you gets an occasion at e.g. a brasserie. &quot;J'ai une faim de loup&quot;, literally meaning I have hunger of wolf or &quot;Je creve de faim&quot;, I'm dying of hunger. Figurative expressions that you might use, of course if you are really hungry - or want to be humoristic.

Another usefull expression is &quot;s'il vous plait, repetez plus lentement&quot; = please repeat more slowly. Most of the time you can make yourself understood, it's the understanding the response,especially when said quickly, that is the problem. Also, unless things have changed, it is considered impolite to &quot;share&quot; or just order an hors d'oeuvre in a full menu restaurant.

Greetings--Plan on using the vous form exclusively at this stage of the game, unless you are speaking to children. Also the expressions involving hunger are not ones I would suggest for use in a restaurant with a 200 word vocabulary--they are more informally conversational--Parisian waiters tend to be on the all business side.<BR><BR>Add &quot;Vous etes gentille&quot; to your list and every time a French person helps you in any way, add it after your merci--they do appreciate being appreciated.<BR><BR>Have a great trip--I think you will be quite pleased to have prepared yourself for the language--it adds so much to the experience.<BR><BR>Bon sejour.<BR>Robyn France

Make sure you address whomever you do business with as a person first before getting to the transaction. Always open with a &quot;Bonjour Madame&quot; for example. When I had been there only a few days this simple courtesy seemed so natural that it really stood out when I was waiting in line for tickets behind a man who approached the counter and simply said &quot;deux billets&quot;, although I am certain he didn't mean to be rude, it did seem abrupt.

Hi Hike,<BR><BR>I really am no expert but in the spirit of helping to clear up your confusion, I don't think hungry or thirsty are nouns. Because I was interested, I did some research on the internet, and I think in your example happy is a predicate adjective. It is normally an adjective, as in &quot;the happy girl,&quot; but when it follows a linking verb such as &quot;am&quot; and describes the subject ('I&quot it is called a predicate adjective. I know I should get a life, and I definetly should not be an accountant!

&gt;..the expressions involving hunger are not ones I would suggest for use in a restaurant with a 200 word vocabulary..<BR><BR>I understand what Robyn means but from another thread, I understand Quinty will be visiting France in 2006! (if I'm not mistaken.) In 4 years, her vocaburary will be, what? 2000 or 4000? in any case, it is interesting to know these (funny to me) expressions when you are learning a language.<BR><BR>&gt; Vous etes &quot;gentille&quot;<BR>Gentille is a feminin form so if the helper is a man you can't say that except you say it on purpose . You would have to tell him &quot;vous etes gentil&quot; and the pronouciation isn't the same. An alternative : &quot;C'est gentil&quot;. This is neutral hence can be used for both.

For fun, my friend told me to learn this: &quot;La seule phrase que je peut dire en francais est celle-ci.&quot; (&quot;The only phrase I can say in French is this one&quot. Probably not perfect grammar, but whatthehey, just a joke.<BR><BR>Strongly recommend, Quinty, that you find a native French speaker for your 2 hrs. a day and talk with her/him -- maybe a student. Even if the person is Canadian or Haitian, you'll pick up a little fluency in HEARING spoken French, which is much harder than learning to SPEAK French. <BR><BR>The first hurdle is to get used to hearing French and scrambling to put together a sentence with what you know (you almost never get to use a sentence you've actually memorized). After that, refinements like accent and politesse are much easier to pick up. <BR><BR>If you can find a French speaker, you might want to write out a couple of situations you expect to encounter and then ask her/him to &quot;role play&quot; with you, improvising in French.<BR><BR>Having said that, everyone's comments that you should stick to &quot;Vous&quot; forms and stay away from &quot;tu/toi&quot; forms are absolutely accurate. Unless you have a lot of time, I wouldn't confuse myself with learning 2nd person singular/familiar at all. Too easy to make a mistake. And yes, use &quot;monsieur, madame, m'd'moiselle&quot; whenever possible.<BR>

I had to laugh at Je suis desole. On my visit to France and Switzerland two years ago, I think I said that phrase 5 times a day. On one occasion, I think it kept us from being kicked out of a restaurant in Switzerland. It was one of the buffet style restaurants where your food price is based on weight. My 11 year old daughter saw people helping themselves and she took a heaping plate full of semi frozen raspberries. I didn't know what to do. She couldn't eat them all,nor could we if we tried. It probably would have cost $20 for the plate. I put the plate down, and looked around for help. A waitress came to me very angry. I don't know too much french, but said &quot;Je suis desole&quot; and pointed to my daughter. She took the plate and said okay.

&gt;&quot;La seule phrase que je peut dire en francais est celle-ci.&quot; .. Probably not perfect grammar..<BR><BR>I'm learning French (+English). Maybe that's why I want to have this sentence correctly. This should probably be said &quot;..que je PUISSE dire ..&quot;, &quot;La seul&quot; making the superative. Perhaps I'm wrong. Somebody can confirm ?<BR><BR>BTW, I agree with MMP and others about sticking with Vous form.

Je suis desole. I messed up. Quinty is not the person who will visit France in 2006. Anyway I thought it could be fun to know these expressions after I said about faim – hungry.<BR><BR>Ellie, thanks for your concern. I don’t feel offended at all. I think I did’t explain myself well. When I said faim is a noun, I meant the French word faim (noun)and not the english word hungry which is an adjective . French J’ai faim is literally I have hunger(meaning I’m hungry). And when they say J’ai tres faim, for me it’s saying I have very hunger . Sounds funny because very (an adverb) can be put before an adjective or another adverb but not before a noun in English.) . Oh well, again this doesn’t seem clear once I put them down in words.<BR>

Hike:<BR><BR>There is no need to resort to &quot;c'est gentil,&quot; which could be quite vague and confusing, as &quot;gentil&quot; and &quot;gentille&quot; are not pronounced differently except that one might linger just a tad on the last syllable of &quot;gentille.&quot; But if you were thinking it was pronounced like &quot;ville,&quot; that's not the case.

Hi Quinty,<BR> My wife says that if you need to find the ladies' room ask &quot;ici?&quot;. Someone will point the way.<BR><BR> Also, &quot;ca va&quot; (sah vah) is very useful. It means whatever you want it to mean - &quot;excuse me&quot;, &quot;is that right?&quot;, &quot;over there?&quot;, etc.<BR><BR>