do you speak french?

[boredofironing]

if so, can I ask a question please?
I am learning (or rather trying to) french via duo lingo.

I keep getting confused between de la, de le, des, and du.
What would happen if I was in France and said de la, rather than des? Would people still understand? Or would they laugh at me?!!!
Thank you.

Assuming your pronunciation is okay, I think at worst, it would only cause a slight comprehension delay for a native speaker. Their ear is attuned to hear 'du pain' not 'de la pain' but they would get it in context and make allowances for a non-native speaker. Think of all the mangled English you make the effort to understand without difficulty when a non-native speaker is trying to communicate with you and relax and keep up the good work.

Yes, we'd get it! Jane Birkin has been living in France for longer than I have been alive and still gets it wrong. It's a question of gender: du = de+le ie: du pain / de la = féminine singular/ des = plural regardless of gender (de+les)/ de l' for all singulars starting with a vowel or h regardless of gender.
Hope that helps.

Nothing would happen.
You'd sound like a foreigner getting to learn French and getting it wrong.
It would be like a British person using bad grammar when speaking English eg "I done it" instead of "I did it"

Thanks all.
So when would you use 'du' and when would you use de le/de la?
My head has built up a real wall about this! I'm sure it's much simpler than I'm making it.

Du is “de le” - you can’t say “de le”!

Ah. ok. but can you say 'de la'?

Yes, de la is fine.

This might be helpful - she gives some examples:

m.youtube.com/watch?v=6edld_vN7VA

Gotcha. Thank you. So….
masc singular = du
fem singular = de la
plural = des
??

Yes. You say "de la" when you are talking about a female person/animal or a feminine object:

e.g. La couleur de la table

You don't ever say "de le". That is "du".

e.g. La couleur du stylo

You say "des" regardless of feminine or masculine, when you are talking about more than one person, animal, or object.

e.g. La couleur des tables et la couleur des stylos. Les cheveux des hommes et les cheveux des femmes.

Yup

It is how French people say "some".
There is a masculine version, a feminin version and a plural version.

Du pain = some bread (bread / pain is masculin in French).

De la farine = some flour (flour / farine is feminin in French.

Des pommes = some apples (apples / pommes is plural).

If you get it wrong people will still understand you though.

mainly used with 'uncountable' nouns
de la + feminine noun e.g de la confiture - some jam
du + masculine noun e.g du beurre - some butter
de l' for nouns beginning with a vowel sound e.g de l'eau - some water
des + plural 'countable' nouns e.g. des croissants - some croissants

Thanks all.
Off to do my next lesson now, and I shall hopefully get it all right now.

Tip: buy a French newspaper every now and then and read it cover to cover while thinking the words and phrases out loud in your head. It's really helpful.

I'm learning French. I am totally crap at English grammar. And trying to get my head round grammar in another language was hard work. Made my head hurt.

Then I realised that I speak English very well and have an above average vocabulary without knowing what a subjunctive clause is or how to define the passive voice because I learned English as I child - by being surrounded by people who spoke English, watched English language TV and read books written in English. I wasn't taught it it. I didn't teach myself it. I just learned it.

So now I am learning French. I spend a lot of time listening to French Talk Radio:

radio.garden/listen/franceculture/sM7TMdOw

and watching French TV

revoir.tv5monde.com/?utm_source=tv5monde&utm_medium=metanav&utm_campaign=programmes_revoir-nos-programmes

And listening to French Podcasts

innerfrench.com/

And reading French comic books and kids' books. (currently a Harry Potter I found in charity shop.)

The guy who does the Innerfrench Podcast gave a couple of bits of advice which I thought were genius. Change your phone's settings to to French. And buy a French dictionary. Not a French/English - English/French Dictionary but a French dictionary in which the definitions are in French. Now when I hit a word I need to look up I am not only learning that word but reading French and absorbing other words a phrases as I do so.

(I have a translating dictionary as a back-up but when I do use it after failing to understand the French definition I'll go back to the French dictionary and read the definition there again.)

It's even weirder when you're taking about a town such as Le Mans, or Le Havre.
I come from Le Havre would be
Je viens du Havre.

Je viens de Le Havre is wrong.

TheSandman - great ideas, thank you. I'm going to tune my car radio to a French station.
MrsFin - I would not have considered that!

Try RFI’s journal en francais facile - daily news podcasts at a slightly slower pace than usual, I’m pretty sure you can access the transcripts too which is really useful for checking what topics/facts you picked up. They were hugely helpful when I was starting out learning French. podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cucmZpLmZyL2ZyL3BvZGNhc3RzL2pvdXJuYWwtZnJhbiVDMyVBN2Fpcy1mYWNpbGUvcG9kY2FzdA/episode/MTA4YmQ5MzItOWUyNy0xMWViLWE1NmQtMDA1MDU2YmZmNGE4?hl=en-FR&ved=2ahUKEwiy-5-h8YXwAhVIVhoKHTdlCqMQjrkEegQIChAF&ep=6

I think one of most difficult things for English speaking people learning French is being faced with what seems like a torrent of incomprehensible sounds ie it seems impossible to sort out where one word ends and another begins. It takes a long time and lots of listening to native speakers to get over this.

I think one of the problems is the difference in intonation between English and `French ie in English you put emphasis on different syllables of a word but in French it just sounds like an undifferentiated stream of sound - a bit like a machine gun.

One of the more useful things is to be absolutely strict with yourself when learning new words / phrases ie get the French pronunciation right so that you will recognise it when spoken by a native.

English people have great difficulty not only with French 'r's but any word that looks like an English one eg le car ( coach ). It is not pronounced like car in English! `English people are very poor at getting French vowels right, particularly in combination with 'r'. ( And don't get me started on the horrors of grenouilIe ( frog). I guess you could record yourself repeating a phrase after a native says it and then play it back. This does demand great honesty and sound sensitivity though.

I heard somewhere it takes hearing a word/phrase 30 times before you've learnt it. I recommend pacing up and down while you recite. It's much more difficult than you think because your mind will wander.

Little and often is the rule of language learning ( ie a little new everyday not a lot once a week), plus repetition , repetition, repetition.

Has anyone learnt using Duo lingo? Do you think it's ok?

It's my dream to retire to the South West of France (if you can still do that due to Brexit).

Little and often is the rule of language learning ( ie a little new everyday not a lot once a week), plus repetition , repetition, repetition.

Ha ha! I am a musician! So I totally get that!!

There is some french on the open uni free course site, open learn. I haven't done it myself but it could be helpful

Duolingo worked well for me as a kickstart before proper classes (A2 to B1) ahead of moving to France. But I combined with lots of French radio, papers and a bit of TV/ films (I fell hard for Spiral / Engrenages though characters in dark cop dramas definately dont enunciate in a clear way for beginners). Then I started formal classes and On the side of classes bought dual language books and translated to/from French, checking against the text. But I was preparing to work in French so probably more than you need (I am C1/C2 level now). Though to retire to SW France do check out minimal income needs for residency..

I don't like Duolingo for absolute beginners because of its emphasis on writing/reading, which makes it difficult for Anglophones to learn French pronunciation. It's great for vocabulary once you have the basics of a language, though.