1 English idioms

For each petal on the shamrock this brings a wish your way. Good health, good luck, and happiness for today and every day.

if you can't think straight, you are not thinking calmly and clearly about something I

Over the past 400 years, the form of the language used in the Americas—especially in the United States—and that used in the United Kingdom have diverged in a few minor ways, leading to the versions now occasionally referred to as American English and British English. Differences between the two include pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary (lexis), spelling, punctuation, idioms, and formatting of dates and numbers, although the differences in written and most spoken grammar structure tend to be much less than those of other aspects of the language in terms of mutual intelligibility. A small number of words have completely different meanings in the two versions or are even unknown or not used in one of the versions.

Some key differences between English and French punctuation

Although French and English use nearly all of the same punctuation marks, some of their uses in the two languages are considerably different. Rather than an explanation of the rules of French and English punctuation, here is a simple summary of how French punctuation differs from English.

One-part punctuation marks These are very similar in French and English, with a few exceptions.
. le point full stop period dot
	1.	In French, the period is not used after abbreviations of measurement:  25 m (mètres), 12 min (minutes), etc.
	2.	It can be used to separate the elements of a date:  10 septembre 1973 = 10.9.1973
	3.	When writing numbers, either a period or a space may be used to separate every three digits (where a comma would be used in English):  1,000,000 (English) = 1.000.000 or 1 000 000
	4.	It's not used to indicate a decimal point (see virgule 1 below)
, la virgule comma
	1.	In French, the comma is used as a decimal point:  2.5 (English) = 2,5 (French)
	2.	Not used to separate three digits (see point 3 above)
	3.	Whereas in English, the serial comma (the one before "and" in a list) is optional, it cannot be used in French:  J'ai acheté un livre, deux stylos et du papier. Not J'ai acheté un livre, deux stylos, et du papier.
Note: When writing numerals, the period and comma are opposites in the two languages:
		French	English
oh la la take care!		2,5 (deux virgule cinq) 2.500 (deux mille cinq cents)	2.5 (two point five) 2,500 (two thousand five hundred)
Two-part punctuation marks In French, a space is required both before and after all two- (or more) part punctuation marks and symbols, including : ; « » ! ? % $ #
: les deux-points colon	The colon is much more common in French than in English. It may introduce direct speech ; a citation; or the explanation, conclusion, summary, etc. of whatever precedes it. Jean a dit : « Je veux le faire. » Ce film est très intéressant : c'est un classique.
« »   les guillemets   et   —   le tiret   et   ... les points de suspension	The quotation marks (inverted commas) " " don't exist in French; the guillemets « » are used.
	Guillemets are usually used only at the beginning and end of an entire conversation. Unlike in English, where any non-speech is found outside of the quotation marks, in French guillemets do not end when an incidental clause (he said, she smiled, etc.) is added. To indicate that a new person is speaking, a tiret (m-dash) is added.
	In English, an interruption or trailing off of speech can be indicated with either a tiret or des points de suspension (ellipsis). In French only the latter is used.
		« Salut Jeanne ! dit Pierre. Comment vas-tu ? — Ah, salut Pierre ! crie Jeanne. — As-tu passé un bon weekend ? — Oui, merci, répond-elle. Mais... — Attends, je dois te dire quelque chose d'important ».	"Hi Jeanne!" Pierre says. "How are you?" "Oh, hi Pierre!" shouts Jeanne. "Did you have a nice weekend?" "Yes, thanks," she responds. "But—" "Wait, I have to tell you something important."
	The tiret can also be used like parentheses — to indicate or emphasize a comment: Paul — mon meilleur ami — va arriver demain.
le point-virgule ; le point d'exclamation ! le point d'intérrogation ?		The semi colon   the exclamation mark   and the question mark are all used similarly in the two languages.           (Adapted from about.com: French Language)

 

MurielB a écrit:...
I congratulate you on you success. I will try to use that sentence as soon as I can because I would have used the incorrect one.

COMPOUND ADJECTIVES         Adjective / noun +  adjective a dark-blue uniform     adj.  adj.   a navy - blue hat    nom     adj.         Adjective, adverb or noun  +  present participle  an old - looking building      adj.   part. présent   a fast - running horse    adv.   part. présent   a heart - breaking story    nom     part. présent         Adjective, adverb or noun  +  past participle   an old - established tradition       adj.   part. passé   a well - known actor    adv.    part. Passé   a home - made cake    nom       part. passé   Adjective  +  noun + ED         – a green - eyed boy – a red - roofed house – a blue - uniformed soldier – a bad - tempered man     Other a drive - in restaurant a four - letter word a fifteen - year - old boy the 9.45 train a one - way street a second - hand car

MurielB a écrit:some of these contractions look strange don't they ?