We're having a quiet day in today as Lisbeth is a little the worse for wear following a late night last night at a party. She was also out on Friday night for a meal, but said that that wasn't relevant when I mentioned it this morning! I think because I mentioned the fact that she's been out to eat three days in a row, she has reminded me about my Formal Talking Practice this week, so here goes..............
Mlle Paris is learning to sing an English carol and has been round to clarify some of the finer points of English pronunciation. Her first question was to do with the word 'the'. Why, she asked, do you say 'the cat', but pronounce the 'the' differently when used in conjunction the the word 'angel' - i.e. 'thee angel'? Lisbeth explained that we do change the pronunciation in circumstances such as these because it sounds better. (In actual fact, Mlle Paris said 'ze cat' and 'zee angel' and I thought it sounded very charming and I don't care if she says 'ze' or 'zee': they both sound really sexy!)
Anyway - the second question involved the letter 'y' called Y grec in French. She wanted to know why the letter 'y' is a consonant in English. Lisbeth hadn't really thought about this before and was interested to learn that in French, 'y' is considered to be a vowel. Ooh isn't language fascinating!
Well that's it for my formal practice. I have no more to report, because the French/English exchange didn't take all that long, moving swiftly on to aperitifs, nibbles and other topics of interest. Although Lisbeth has just said that I didn't need to tell you that, as it isn't part of this Formal Talking Practice session. Mmmm......
Mlle Paris is learning to sing an English carol and has been round to clarify some of the finer points of English pronunciation. Her first question was to do with the word 'the'. Why, she asked, do you say 'the cat', but pronounce the 'the' differently when used in conjunction the the word 'angel' - i.e. 'thee angel'? Lisbeth explained that we do change the pronunciation in circumstances such as these because it sounds better. (In actual fact, Mlle Paris said 'ze cat' and 'zee angel' and I thought it sounded very charming and I don't care if she says 'ze' or 'zee': they both sound really sexy!)
Anyway - the second question involved the letter 'y' called Y grec in French. She wanted to know why the letter 'y' is a consonant in English. Lisbeth hadn't really thought about this before and was interested to learn that in French, 'y' is considered to be a vowel. Ooh isn't language fascinating!
Well that's it for my formal practice. I have no more to report, because the French/English exchange didn't take all that long, moving swiftly on to aperitifs, nibbles and other topics of interest. Although Lisbeth has just said that I didn't need to tell you that, as it isn't part of this Formal Talking Practice session. Mmmm......
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