#head full of nouns and conjugations

[bieups]

Langblr Reactivation Challenge: Week 3 Day 6 - Grammar Explanation

Warning: long post ahead! Tumblr mobile refuses to let me add a read more cut ㅠㅠ

Today let’s learn about:

Noun Modifiers: ~ㄴ/은 & ~는 & ~ㄹ/을

Now, you might be thinking I already know the particles 은/는 & 을. But this post is not about topic or object markers. Those particles are attached to a noun (the topic or object of the sentence…who could’ve guessed) while these modifiers are attached to a verb or adjective stem to create an adnominal phrase. They just happen to look the same. Also these modifiers appear in lots of grammar patterns, such as ~을 거예요, ~는 것 같다, etc. so you might’ve already been using them!

An adnominal phrase (aka noun modifier) adds more information or details about a noun. For example, “The cute cat scratched me.” or “I saw a man wearing a yellow shirt steal a bicycle.” It can be a single adjective or a longer phrase with a verb.

Adnominal Phrases in Korean

In Korean, we place the modifier before the noun, even when it’s a whole phrase. So instead of the English style “a man wearing a yellow shirt,” the word order is more like “a yellow-shirt-wearing man”.

Also keep in mind that noun modifiers do not create complete sentences! To finish the sentence, you need to follow your modifier with a noun + an appropriate ending. However, leaving off the ending verb is pretty common in informal settings (like saying “a yellow-shirt-wearing man” could make sense in some contexts, even though it’s not a full sentence).

And to really mix it up from English, there are multiple forms:

~ㄴ/은 is for adjectives

~ㄴ/은 is also for past tense verbs

~는 is for present tense verbs

~ㄹ/을 is for future tense verbs

(bonus) ~이다 + ~ㄴ is for nouns

Adjectives + ~ㄴ/은

Take the adjective stem and add ~ㄴ if it ends with a vowel or ~은 if it ends with a consonant:

예쁘다 >> 예쁜

작다 >> 작은

Heads up, I’m not including irregular conjugations here because this post is already too long. Irregulars follow their usual patterns for meeting ㅇ, similar to basic present tense conjugation.

Use this pattern to put adjectives in front of a noun and make longer, more detailed sentences!

따뜻한 라떼 한 잔 주세요. // Please give me a hot latte.

Note: 있다 & 없다 (and other adj. ending with 있다/없다) take ~는 instead of ~은.

맛있는 빵을 먹었어요~ // I ate delicious bread.

Past Tense Verbs + ~ㄴ/은

Look at the verb stem and add ~ㄴ if it ends with a vowel or ~은 if it ends with a consonant:

하다 >> 한

남다 >> 남은

This is for past tense verbs, so the action describing the noun happened in the past, but the main verb of the sentence could be a different tense. And remember that Korean is different from English, so verbs may be used differently (입다 “to wear” comes to mind…).

어제 산 양말 어디 있어요?// Where are the socks I bought yesterday?

저 긴팔 셔츠를 입은 남자 너무 잘 새겼어요~ // That man wearing a long-sleeved shirt is really good looking~

Present Tense Verbs + ~는

With this one, there’s just the one form. (Irregulars follow their patterns for meeting ㄴ)

하다 >> 하는

찍다 >> 찍는

Use this pattern when the action is either happening now or is a general reoccurring action.

주말에 같이 한국어를 공부하는 친구들이랑 영화를 봤어요. // On the weekend, I saw a movie with my friends who I’m studying Korean with.

여자친구의 웃는 모습이 아주 예뻐요. // My girlfriend’s smile (smiling appearance) is very pretty.

Future Tense + ~ㄹ/을

Look at the verb stem, add ~ㄹ if it ends with a vowel or ~을 if it ends with a consonant: (irregulars follow their patterns for meeting ㅇ/ㄹ)

하다 >> 할

먹다 >> 먹을

이사갈 집은 복층 오피스텔이에요. // The house I’m moving to is a loft officetel. [복층 means it has an upstairs area, not a one-level apartment, and an officetel is a common type of housing in Seoul…do an image search to see what they usually look like!]

언니가 갈아입을 옷이 없다고 했어요 // She said she doesn’t have clothes to change into.

Nouns + ~이다 + ~ㄴ

Sometimes you might want to use a noun to modify another noun. This is common with ~적 nouns (the ending for characteristic). First we add the “to be” ending ~이다, then drop the 다 and add the modifier ~ㄴ to get ~인:

감동적 >> 감동적인

열심히 일하는 외향적인 사람을 좋아요. // I like extroverted people who work hard.

모범생인 동생과 달리 저는 고등학교를 그만뒀어요 // Unlike my model student brother, I dropped out of high school.

+ 것

This is probably the most common way you’ll encounter this grammar. 것 means thing, so instead of a more specific noun, people use [verb/adj] + ~는/은/을 + 것 sort of how we use “[verb] ~ing” in English. Also, 것 usually gets contracted to 거/걸/게 when speaking or texting.

너 자는 거야? // Are you sleeping?

아침에 식사하는 게 귀찮아요. // Eating a meal in the morning is bothersome. [것 + 이 = 게]

2차 갈 사람 손~! // People going to 2nd round, (raise your) hands~! [when out, especially for drinking, each place is a different “round,” so maybe 1차 is 삼겹살, 2차 is a pub, 3차 is 노래방…but some members of the group might not stay for every round]

언어 배우는 걸 좋아하세요? // Do you like learning languages? [것 + 을 = 걸]

연습실에서 핸드폰 놓고 가신 분 찾습니다 // I’m looking for the person who left their cell phone in the practice room.

Wrap Up

So remember 1. use the proper form for your context and 2. your modifier needs to be followed by a noun.

한국어를 공부하는 사람들 화이팅~!

#langblr #studyblr #language learning #korean #한국어 #langblr reactivation challenge #learn Korean #Korean grammar #grammar #한국어 공부하기

[somethingclevermahogony]

Identity and Gender in the Green Sea Part 1: An Introduction

Pictured Above: Priestesses of the Goddess Fokisa whose grandest temple is located in the Korithian city of Atamis, at any given time and for the majority of the temple’s 400 year history upwards of 18% of the order’s priestess were trans. Read further below.

Note: This is Part 2 of a post that I made some time ago addressing sexuality and the nature of some queer sexual orientations in the Green Sea. To see that post please click here.

Kobani is a world of hundreds of lands, cultures, and religions, as such the nature of identity and how gender and sex is thought of, and what is acceptable varies wildly from region to region, even from house to house. Attempting to provide a cohesive and comprehensive description of the intricate nature of gender in the myriad of cultures which exist in Kobani would be as arduous as doing the same for our own world. For this reason this post will be limited to the areas of the Eastern Green Sea, namely the cultures of  Kishetal, Apuna, Korithia, and Ikopesh. The examples given are in no way meant to represent the full scope of gender identity in these regions but to supply some small examples of Gender Queerness as it exists on a cultural or societal level in these regions. 

Sections: 

1. Terms and Language/The Basics of Gender and Sex

2. Trans People and Their Roles

3. Gender Fluidity

4.  Non-Binary and Agender People

Terms and Language/ The Basics

The role and function of gender and its precise relationship with biological sex varies from region to region. It should be noted that with the exception of Ikopesh, and some Forest Folk communities which possess an unusually egalitarian view of gender roles, the lands of the Green Sea are predominantly patriarchal. However, the form and function of this patriarchy are not immediately comparable between cultures and certainly not with our own. 

Kishetal

The Kishic understanding of gender primarily maps onto a binary with masculine and feminine being the primary elements. Kishic language in its designation of terms is unique in its language family for the use of four distinct genders used in conjugation, these being masculine, feminine, neutral, and omnigender, that is to say, a conjugation which may be used to simultaneously refer to all three of the previous genders. This form is typically used when the precise gender of a person, thing, place, or action is unknown, and is also used to describe certain deities, spiritual entities, and the clerical figures of specific cultic orders. 

There are four terms primarily used to designate the gender of individuals in Kishic culture. 

Unu: Man 

Ma: Woman

Bishiah: Fluid or Non-Binary

Nakaz: Agender

When describing an individual typically each of these terms is used in the form of a compound noun i.e. kiunu: masculine identifying child, kima: feminine identifying child, kibishiah: a child who is genderfluid or nonbinary (rarely used), zunu: old man, zuma: old woman, zunakaz: old agender, ekiun: horseman, kiframa: priestess (Kifra:Deity), kifranu: priest, etc.

Women

Note: Kishic women blessing beer meant as an offering to the Grain Deity, Fepaha.

Gender roles are largely dependent on region and economic status. In almost all cases men are expected to work and function outside of the home, working and arranging agreements with other families such as marriage, whereas women are charged with the running of the home itself, following a fairly typical patriarchal system. However, in most households, women are the financial and spiritual head, responsible not only for the use and preservation of money but also for the practice of religious rituals. It is considered a sign of poor quality in a wife if she allows her husband to go to market without either herself there or else a slave sent in her place. Similarly, it is believed that a man should not come into contact with sacrificial materials. Women are in general viewed as being closer to the divine, which stems from the fact that women are approximately 20% more likely to be able to practice sagecraft than men. As a direct result of this, the ratio of feminine priestesses, plantbrews, and other mystical and religious functionaries to their masculine or agender/non-binary peers is approximately 2 to 1. Women sages are almost always expected to join a temple and may be forced to by family or law, with the exception of seers. Men are not typically expected to do the same. Thus, though women are more likely to develop sagecraft abilities, they are less likely to be acknowledged as sages or scholars.

While women are typically expected to work in the house performing domestic duties alongside ventures such as weaving, there are exceptions. It is not unusual to see women in the fields or sailing on riverboats in the central regions of Kishetal. Throughout Kishetal, beer has traditionally been brewed by women both in and out of the house. This beer may be for household consumption or to be sold. Labisaj alone has 19 taverns or beer halls run by women. If a husband is unable to provide his wife with the ingredients to make beer, this is often seen as grounds for divorce. Because of this connection between women and beer, wine is viewed as a traditionally masculine beverage in Kishetal. 

Marriage Marriage is typically determined between the heads of families, being in most cases, arranged. Most girls are wed between the ages of 17 and 24. It is considered taboo for a girl to be wed to a man over ten years her senior. As such most pairings are made for men between the ages of 16 and 34. Cultural traditions in the Mountainous Eastern regions believe that children should be born no less than one year after marriage. As such for the first three months of an Eastern Kishic marriage, it is not unusual for a cousin, parent, or sibling to stay with the newlywed couple to ensure that no accidents happen. This period is referred to as “Tilling the Field.” The day when intercourse is finally permitted is often the subject of much celebration, almost acting as a second wedding in and of itself. Such practices do not appear in other regions of Kishetal and are often the subject of ridicule.

Men

Warfare is almost entirely the purview of men in Kishic culture. The practice of including women as warriors and raiders as seen in surrounding cultures such as the Macur and Ikopesh is seen as barbaric. Despite this, the Macurian heroine, Seha, companion of the Founding King, Tamel, is a beloved figure in Kishic folklore. 

Boys are expected to start working with their fathers outside of the house starting around the age of 6. Depending on their father’s work what these children are expected to do can vary wildly. Boys will typically only begin to receive pay for their labor around the age of 13, around this same time a boy may be sent to work for another family or business such as a ship maker, potter, or in special cases, a scribe. Such arrangements may also in time form the  the basis for marriages between families.

Formal schooling for boys and girls alike is not present. Most children are taught by their parents, grandparents, and older siblings. In wealthier families, slaves from regions such as Apuna and Korithia may be purchased for the express purpose of teaching children languages, mathematics, and the natural sciences. The wealthiest families may hire scholars to teach their children, primarily boys, to read and write. Poetry halls are spaces designated for the reading of poetry and other scholarly and artistic pursuits. Fathers will bring their children to such places to listen to the scholars and may even pay through barter or service to have the scholars address their children directly. 

Starting around the age of 15, commoner boys are added to conscription records and if ordered, are expected to take part in warfare both on land and at sea as members of levees or else as members of a city guard. Weapons and armor are expected to be supplied by the family, as such many boys receive arms and armor as fifteenth birthday presents. Men may be exempt from military service due to a number of reasons, namely disability, religious service, and age with men being taken off of royal conscription records between the ages of 50 and 60. Nobility and commanders may stay on far longer with the legendary, Uridush the Gray, serving until the age of 104.

NEXT POST: The Basics of Gender in Apuna and Korithia

#fantasy #fantasy world #Fantasy Writing #fantasy worldbuilding #queer fantasy #worldbuilding #world building #Kobani Narul Kishetal #TestamentsoftheGreenSea #sorry its been so long #there's gonna be alot of parts to this #PLEASE ASK QUESTIONS

[stevensbf]

Everybody shut up, woo! Everyone listen up! Hey, hey, hey, uh Hey, hey, hey If you can't write in the proper way If you don't know how to conjugate Maybe you flunked that class And maybe now you find That people mock you online Okay, now here's the deal I'll try to educate ya Gonna familiarize You with the nomenclature You'll learn the definitions Of nouns and prepositions Literacy's your mission And that's why I think it's a Good time To learn some grammar Now, did I stammer Work on that grammar You should know when It's "less" or it's "fewer" Like people who were Never raised in a sewer I hate these word crimes Like I could care less That means you do care At least a little Don't be a moron You'd better slow down And use the right pronoun Show the world you're no clown Everybody wise up! Say you got an "I","T" Followed by apostrophe, "s" Now what does that mean? You would not use "it's" in this case As a possessive It's a contraction What's a contraction? Well, it's the shortening of a word, or a group of words By the omission of a sound or letter Okay, now here's some notes Syntax you're always mangling No "x" in "espresso" Your participle's danglin' But I don't want your drama If you really wanna Leave out that Oxford comma Just keep in mind That "be", "see", "are", "you" Are words, not letters Get it together Use your spellchecker You should never Write words using numbers Unless you're seven Or your name is Prince I hate these word crimes You really need a Full time proofreader You dumb mouth-breather Well, you should hire Some cunning linguist To help you distinguish What is proper English One thing I ask of you Time to learn your homophones is past due Learn to diagram a sentence too Always say "to whom" Don't ever say "to who" And listen up when I tell you this I hope you never use quotation marks for emphasis You finished second grade I hope you can tell If you're doing good or doing well About better figure out the difference Irony is not coincidence And I thought that you'd gotten it through your skull What's figurative and what's literal Oh but, just now, you said You literally couldn't get out of bed That really makes me want to literally Smack a crowbar upside your stupid head I read your e-mail It's quite apparent Your grammar's errant You're incoherent Saw your blog post It's really fantastic That was sarcastic (Oh, psych!) 'Cause you write like a spastic I hate these Word Crimes Your prose is dopey Think you should only Write in emoji Oh, you're a lost cause Go back to pre-school Get out of the gene pool Try your best to not drool Never mind I give up Really now I give up Hey, hey, hey Hey, hey, hey Go away!

#📖 ;; posts #weird al #lyrics #weird al yankovic

[moved-please-leave-me-alone]

Everybody shut up, woo! Everyone listen up! Hey, hey, hey, uh Hey, hey, hey

If you can't write in the proper way If you don't know how to conjugate Maybe you flunked that class And maybe now you find That people mock you online

Okay, now here's the deal I'll try to educate ya Gonna familiarize You with the nomenclature You'll learn the definitions Of nouns and prepositions Literacy's your mission And that's why I think it's a

Good time To learn some grammar Now, did I stammer Work on that grammar You should know when It's "less" or it's "fewer" Like people who were Never raised in a sewer

I hate these word crimes Like I could care less That means you do care At least a little Don't be a moron You'd better slow down And use the right pronoun Show the world you're no clown Everybody wise up!

Say you got an "I", "T" Followed by apostrophe, "s" Now what does that mean? You would not use "it's" in this case As a possessive It's a contraction What's a contraction? Well, it's the shortening of a word, or a group of words By the omission of a sound or letter

Okay, now here's some notes Syntax you're always mangling No "x" in "espresso" Your participle's danglin' But I don't want your drama If you really wanna Leave out that Oxford comma Just keep in mind

That "be", "see", "are", "you" Are words, not letters Get it together Use your spellchecker You should never Write words using numbers Unless you're seven Or your name is Prince

I hate these word crimes You really need a Full time proofreader You dumb mouth-breather Well, you should hire Some cunning linguist To help you distinguish What is proper English

One thing I ask of you Time to learn your homophones is past due Learn to diagram a sentence too Always say "to whom" Don't ever say "to who" And listen up when I tell you this I hope you never use quotation marks for emphasis You finished second grade I hope you can tell If you're doing good or doing well About better figure out the difference Irony is not coincidence And I thought that you'd gotten it through your skull What's figurative and what's literal Oh but, just now, you said You literally couldn't get out of bed That really makes me want to literally Smack a crowbar upside your stupid head

I read your e-mail It's quite apparent Your grammar's errant You're incoherent Saw your blog post It's really fantastic That was sarcastic (Oh, psych!) 'Cause you write like a spastic

I hate these Word Crimes Your prose is dopey Think you should only Write in emoji Oh, you're a lost cause Go back to pre-school Get out of the gene pool Try your best to not drool

Never mind I give up Really now I give up Hey, hey, hey Hey, hey, hey Go away!

IS MY GRAMMAR SO BAD THAT I NEED TO BE SENT WORD CRIMES………. OR ARE YOU SIMPLY CONTRIBUTING TO THE AUTISM

#EITHER WAY THANK YOU #jimmy.txt #we got a letter! #anon mail!

[tarantula-hawk-wasp]

i hate classical archaeology bc its 4 am and im reading a review in french of an italian exhibit bc i can’t find the italian book bc i want to look at the goddamn pictures bc it was referenced in the english book that i read and in far too few hours im gonna be in german class and I just  classics is just like buy 2 languages get 3 free.  bc u have to do latin and ancient greek but then for PhD programs they want you to do 2 out of 3 italian, german, or french so you can read more international scholarship and like 

#head full of nouns and conjugations #tbh i've been learning languages for 8 years now and im not gonna stop i'm just gonna have to keep practicing and adding more bc this is #my lifestyle now just nouns and verbs and grammar

[a-pop-of-korean]

K-Pop Breakdown: Colde - “A Song Nobody Knows”

안녕하세요 여러분! Hey everyone! I got yet another request for a breakdown! If you have a song you’d like to see broken down, let me know! I linked my full-length lessons about the featured grammar points throughout as well in case you want to learn more about them!

I translated all these lyrics myself, but I did refer to this lyric video and Naver Dictionary to help me out :) Let’s start!

나를 스쳐가는 그대 / 내 말을 들어줘 / 걸음을 멈추고 / 내 노랠 들어줘

You brush against me / Listen to what I have to say / Stop in your tracks / And listen to my song

나를 = me 

나 is the informal way to say “I,” while -를 is an object particle. More about particles here!

스쳐가다 = to brush against; to pass by

그대 = you -> This is a poetic/romantic way to say “you” and isn’t really used in everyday spoken Korean.

[verb stem] + 는 allows you to describe nouns with that verb. 나를 스쳐가는 그대 literally means “you who brushes against me.”

내 = my (informal)

말 = words

듣다 = to listen; to hear

듣다’s stem ends in ㄷ, so it becomes 들어줘 when conjugated.

[verb stem] + 아/어주다 means that a verb is done for somebody and can be used when pleading that someone do something for you. In this case, he’s commanding that you listen to him. 

Literally, this line means “listen to my words.”

걸음 = step(s) -> from the verb 걷다, meaning “to walk”

멈추다 = to stop

-고 is a connector that means “and.” This line means “stop in your tracks and...”

노래 = song

축 처진 고개들과 / 비틀거리는 그림자 / 그렇게 나는 불청객이 돼 / 아무도 모르는 yeah / 노래를 부르며 yeah

Among the drooping heads / And staggering shadows / I become an uninvited guest / While I sing a song / That nobody knows

축 처지다 = droop; hang; sag

고개 = head

Attach -들 to nouns to make them plural

[verb stem] + ㄴ/은 allows you to describe a noun with that verb in the past tense. So 축 처진 고개들 literally means “heads that drooped.”

과/와 is attached to nouns to mean “and” or “with.” 과 is attached to nouns ending in a consonant, while 와 is attached to those ending in a vowel. 

비틀거리다 = stagger; stumble; falter; totter

그림자 = shadow(s) (it can still be implied that a noun is plural without the -들 depending on the context!

그렇게 = like that

불챙객 = uninvited guest

되다 = to become

These lines were a little tricky to translate, but I think it essentially means “the drooping heads and staggering shadows, like that, I become an uninvited guest” as if he is an uninvited guest because the drooping heads and staggering shadows make him one. 

아무도 = nobody

모르다 = to not know

아무도 모르다 sounds like a double negative -- nobody doesn’t know. But in Korean, this is the correct way to say “nobody knows”! When using indefinite pronouns like 아무것도, 아무데도, (nothing, nowhere), etc., you need to use a negative verb like so.

부르다 -> when paired with 노래, means “to sing.”

[verb stem] + (으)며 means “while [verb]” and is used when two actions are happening at the same time.

아무도 모르는 / 노래를 부를래 / 지나가는 너의 / 마음을 붙잡을 수 있길 바라며

I’ll sing a song / That nobody knows / Hoping that I can grasp your heart / As it passes

[verb stem] + ㄹ/을래(요) means “I will [verb]” or “I want to [verb].” It expresses a strong intention to do something.

지나가다 = pass; go by

너의 = your (informal)

너 means “you” (informal), and -의 is a possessive marker.

마음 = hear

붙잡다 = grasp; grab; hold

[verb stem] + ㄹ/을 수 있다 = can [verb]

[verb stem] + 기를 바라다 = to hope that [verb]

Those last two lines literally mean “while hoping I can grasp your passing heart.”

That’s about it for this breakdown! Hope it was helpful :) See you in the next lesson! 화이팅!

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#kpop breakdown #kpop #kpop lyrics #colde #a song nobody knows #colde a song nobody knows #콜드 #아무도 모르는 노래 #lyrics #가사 #케이팝 #케이팝 가사 #korean #korean language #hangul #korean langblr #langblr #korean grammar #korean vocab #korean vocabulary #하국어 #한국어 공부하기 #한국어 배우기 #한국어 문법 #한국어 어휘 #한국말 #한글 #한국말 공부하기 #한국말 배우기

[gingerbreadart1]

Ginger ramble about your irken conlang pleeaaaseee it's so cooool (I know you have on discord before but I want a Tumblr Post for Tumblr Reblogs okay? Okay.)

Omg!!!!! Oh gosh, I don't know where to start! I made a little inforgraphic explaining some stuff, it's a little outdated tho but for now I'll link it here

Anyway,,, I guess I can explain some stuff a bit more thoroughly? Ramble below :P

SO..... First of all, the language is called Irketsi/Irkib, depending on whether or not you want it to be more grammatically correct or cool (Hint-Irkib is grammatically correct) And as of this writing, I think I have about 4,100 words!!! Full disclosure, a lot of those were intially generated.... butttt I have put hours and weeks and months worth of time perfecting and fine tuning and editing and adding words of my own. Anyway.

Grammar Stuffs Irketsi is a SVO language (subject-verb-object), meaning a sentence like "Can I have an apple" would be "Can I apple have." Adjetives are post-positive, like in french (iirc), so for example, "the red rose" becomes "the rose red". Most verbs are regular, and the tenses are as follows:

Write : Gip

Past: written gipoízh

Remote Past: written (long ago) gipa'e

Perfect: have written gipuch

Future: will write gipítai

Nouns are gendered, with masculine, feminine, or neuter genders depending on word. this is important when it comes to conjugating plurals, because each gender has a different way of making a word a plural. Take the word 'broom' (dajeíp) it is a masculine noun, so it should be dajeípeích, but if it was a feminine word, it would be dajeípeí, and if neuter, dajeípa. Um,,,, head empty so now I'm gonna post some pronunciation samples, and a lil song I wrote. Mipta kaí 'akh thayvaonsí vaí rith? (Can I have hot chocolate please?)

Kaí khoweích ao. (I like languages.)

And the song demo

Hope you enjoyed! If you have specific questions, feel free to ask!!!!

#invader zim #conlang #constructed language #invaderzim #iz #irketsi #irkib #song #my stuff #ginger speak #asks #my asks #lanuage #lingustics #ramble

[redbeanboi]

How different is Sicilian, Neapolitan and regular Italian? I don’t know much of any dialect so I’m guessing it’s probably the spelling and pronounciation? 🧐

HNNGbdhhs there are so many things..... you are about to unleash the knowledge I have accumulated in the past 22 months for my writing—

Disclaimer: I’m not a native speaker. Just learning! I’m including some notes/charts I’ve made for myself.

All three languages share Latin origins. Standard Italian is readily available to study so I won’t focus on that too much. Neapolitan, on the other hand has Greek, Spanish, and French influences, etc. Sicilian has massive influences of Ancient Greek, Spanish, Arabic, Catalan and French. That being said they are all rather different from one another, not only with pronunciation but grammar too! 

Anyway I could go on and on about the differences for like years. I’ll just point out a few things I’ve noticed and learned as I’ve (sort of) independently studied these languages.

You most likely won’t encounter full-on Sicilian unless you go into the smaller villages or rural areas. Cities generally use Standard Italian at work, etc., though it will definitely be spoken with a Sicilian accent. Same goes for Neapolitan: people won’t really speak it outside of social settings and will not speak it to a tourist/”foreigner.”

Neapolitan 

Word endings are usually cut off (usually a vowel), so you’ll get stuff like omm’ a merd’ (’man of shit,’ if you’ve read BBP Ch. 8) or a phrase like Ssì brutt’ quant’ 'o ddébbit’ (meaning ‘you’re as ugly as debt/you’re ugly’). 

Non-stressed vowels → “uh.” These vowels take on the schwa sound that you see pretty often in English. Capa, or head, is pronounced with this schwa sound, so it sounds less like the “Kah-pah” you’d hear in Standard Italian and more like “Kah-puh.” 

“Gi” → “J.” So giornata becomes jornata, and because j’s sound like “y,” you would pronounce it “Yor-nata.” ( I like to think Don Elio pronounces “Giorno” as “Jorno” instead, just to be extra rude. )

Plural forms are pretty much the same for nouns, regardless of their gender. (’a and ‘o endings → ‘e)

Pronouns are different:

The same goes for conjugations! Very different. I’ll use the present indicative tense for the verb èssere (“to be”)

Some of my favoriteeee Neapolitan phrases/sayings include:

“Stongo chino ‘e suonno” — literally “I’m full of sleep” which I think is cute

“Ttiene ‘a capa ppè spartere ‘e rrecchie“ — literally “he/she [only] has a head to keep his/her ears apart,” i.e. very rude way to call someone stupid. Can be considered a funny way of telling a friend to be careful.

Sicilian

This one’s got a lot of interesting little things I’ve noticed as I’ve (attempted) to learn it.

Same non-stressed vowel rule applies (see above). Stressed “a” will make an “ah” sound and an unstressed “a” will make an “uh” sound.

Sicilian has some consonant sounds that do not occur in Italiano or Napulitano, the most famous example being the double D or “dd.” Generally this occurs when there is a double L in Italiano. One of the many retroflex consonants unique to Siciliano (there’s more in the Phonology section on this page if you’re interested!) 

Example: bello and cavallo → beddu and cavaddu

There are a number of Greek and Arabic influences on specific vocabulary, including: sciàbaca or sciabachèju, (“fishing net”) from sabaka (Arabic). Likewise, the Sicilian word for ram is “crastu,” from the Greek kràstos and cufinu (basket) comes from kophynos. There’s plenty more but if I kept going I wouldn’t be able to stop. Wikipedia actually has an extensive list of Sicilian words by their origin.^^

Again, Pronouns are different from Italiano:

Same goes for conjugations; for the purposes of comparing to both Italiano and Napulitano, I’ll show the conjugations (present tense) for essiri (”to be”):

Some of my favorite Sicilian phrases include:

Chiù nniuri ri mezzannotte nun pò fari — “It can’t get any darker than midnight”

Vidi Palermu e gori, vidi Napuli e poi mori — “See Palermo and enjoy it, see Naples then die” (lol I feel like this is something everyone in the Signora’s family would say before the events of BBP)

That’s really just the tip of the iceberg, but I hope this was helpful!! I’m enjoying every second I spend trying to learn these three, and getting to make a little post about it was very fun lol.

There’s actually more where that came from so please dm if you’re looking to sprinkle this into your VA fics and want a study buddy

#anon #answered #this got long but uhhhhh yeah #thank you for sending this in!! #I like talking about these things :-) #research.notes #lowkey nice to have this all in one place lmao i have not been good at keeping my notes on this together.... #my italian notebook is a mESS #one page is standard italian #then two pages later is neapolitan #and then the next page is sicilian lmao #this is very handy for me and i hope its interesting to read... if youre bored or anything lmao #i might self rb this again tomorrow bcos.... whoA language stuff !! #v neat #lol but in all seriousness you guys seem to really enjoy the little nods i give to these three diff languages in the fic so :-D #hope you enjoyed getting a peek at my notes ! #fic:notes #notes

[hd-learns-korean]

Musical Monday: Week 5!

Hey all! I hope everyone is doing Ok. Today I’m back with another musical Monday. This song is another recommendation and I think it’s great! Thank you so much for the fab song choice! 🥳

Song: New by Yves (Loona) 

Genre: Definite K-pop

My thoughts on the song: What a great summer bop is all I can say! Just the jam I was looking for. (God I sound so old!🤦‍♀️ )

 Just a note: I’ve used a few more Naver dictionary examples in this post  - Reason for this is because I know that I’m a langblr and I’m not a native speaker of Korean, so for study posts I wanna make sure that I at least get a couple of things right. Also you will be able to spot my own example sentences A MILE OFF! I mean I think if I said my own examples in real life I’d for sure get laughed at! 😅 

So if you spots any mistakes lemme know so I can fix ‘em! Thanks guys! 

Ok everybody Lets get this study train started! Hoot Hoot! 

👀뜨다 – 1.)To open one’s eyes/ to be awakened 2.) to hear/ to catch/ to understand

🎁Present Tense:  떠, 떠요, 뜹니다

⏰Past Tense: 떴어, 떴어요, 떴습니다

🔮Future Tense: 뜰 거야, 뜰 거예요, 뜰 겁니다

👀👀바라보다 1.) to look/ to watch/ to stare 2.) to hope

🎁Present Tense: 바라봐, 바라봐요, 바라봅니다

⏰Past Tense: 바라봤어, 바라봤어요, 바라봤습니다

🔮Future Tense: 바라볼 거야, 바라볼 거예요, 바라볼 겁니다

하늘을 바라보다 to look up at the sky

✨😎눈부시다 1.) dazzling/ glaring/ blinding 2.) be brilliant/ be gorgeous

🎁Present Tense:  눈부십니다,  눈부셔요, 눈부셔, 

⏰Past Tense: 눈부셨어, 눈부셨어요, 눈부셨습니다

🔮Future Tense: 눈부시겠어,  눈부시겠어요,  눈부시겠습니다

Examples from Naver:

눈부신 태양 the glaring sun

눈부신 재능 splendid talents

🚶‍♀️🚶‍♂️다가가다 to approach/ to go near 2.) to get close/ to become close

🎁Present Tense: 다가가, 다가가요, 다가갑니다

⏰Past Tense: 다가갔어, 다가갔어요, 다가갔습니다

🔮Future Tense: 다가갈 거야, 다가갈 거예요, 다가갈 겁니다

Examples I found on Naver: 

다가가 말하다 approach and speak

창가로 다가가다 approach the window seat

💫되다 1.) to become 2.) to change into 3.) to reach/ attain/ pass 4.) measure/ total/ amount to 5.) be done/ be completed 6.) consist of/ be composed of 7.) be enough/ be sufficient 8.) run out of 9.) grow

🎁Present Tense: 돼, 돼요, 됩니다

⏰Past Tense: 됐어, 됐어요, 됐습니다

🔮Future Tense: 될 거야, 될 거예요, 될 겁니다

Examples: I found these on Naver

2에 3을 더하면 5가 된다 two and three makes five

요리가 다 되었다 cooking is done

물질은 원자로 되어 있다 matter is composed of atoms

백 원만 있으면 됩니다 a hundred won will be enough

연료가 다 되었다 the gasoline (fuel) has run out

버릇이 되다 grow into a habit

부자가 되다 become rich

봄이 되었다 spring has come

🎨물들다 – 1.) to be dyed/ to be tinged 2.) to be influenced/ to be affected

Examples I found on Naver: 

그녀의 두 뺨이 붉게 물들었다 her cheeks turned red.

악에 물들다 be infatuated with evil

습관에 물들다 fall into a habit.

🥤채우다 1.) to fill up/ pack up 2/) serve out/ meet/ make/ fulfil

🎁Present Tense: 채워, 채워요, 채웁니다

⏰Past Tense: 채웠어, 채웠어여, 채웠습니다

🔮Future Tense: 채울 거야, 채울 거예요, 채울 겁니다 

Examples I found on Naver:

병에 물을 채우다 fill up a bottle with water

빈칸을 채우다 fill in the blanks

계약 기간을 채우다 see one’s contract through

🙅‍♀️🙅‍♂️💰초라하다 to be shabby/ poor/ humble 2.) to be insignificant/ pathetic

Examples I found on Naver

초라한 옷 shabby clothes

초라하게 살다 to be badly off

🍨달콤하다 1.) sweet 2.) honeyed/ sugared

Examples I found on Naver: 

맛이 달콤하다 to taste sweet

달콤한 말 sweet talk

달콤하게 말하다 talk in a wheedling tone

달콤한 말에 넘어가다 fall for somebody’s sweet talk

달콤한 미소 a sweet smile

🌺🌼🌻피어나다 1.) To bloom 2.) to rekindle, burn again 3.) come back to life 4.) Get better

Examples I found on naver: 

꽃이 피어나다 flowers bloom

My example: 봄과 여름에서 꽃이 피어나다. Flowers bloom in spring and summer.

⬅➡다르다 different/ dissimilar

Examples I found on naver: 

다른 방법은 없다 there’s no other choice

약간 다르다 slightly different/ somewhat different

완전히 다르다 completely different

다른 different, dissimilar, unlike anything else

🔦비추다 1.) shine a light 2.) reflected 3.) compare with/ check with 4.) drop a hint

🎁Present Tense:비춰, 비춰요, 비춥니다

⏰Past Tense: 비췄어, 비췄어요, 비췄습니다

🔮Future Tense: 비출 거야, 비출 거예요, 비출 겁니다

Examples I found on Naver: 

불빛이 비추다 the light shines

햇볕이 비추다 the sun shines

촛불을 비추다 light a candle

속마음을 비추다 show one’s innermost thoughts

🤷‍♀️묻다 1.) ask/inquire 2.) blame

🎁Present Tense: 물어/ 묻어, 물어요/묻어요, 묻습니다

⏰Past Tense: 물었어/ 묻었어, 물었어요/ 묻었어요, 물었습니다/ 묻었습니다

🔮Future Tense: 물을 거야/ 묻을 거야, 물을 거예요/ 묻을 거예요, 물을 겁니다/ 묻을 겁니다. 

Side note grammar form: ~에게 묻다 ask me ….

My own examples:

미나 씨, 도움이 필요하면 저에게 물어보세요. Mina if you need any help, ask me.

🥶차갑다 1.)cold/ chilly/ icy 2.) be cold- hearted

🎁Present Tense: 차가워, 차가워요, 차갑습니다

⏰Past Tense: 차가웠어, 차가웠어요, 차가웠습니다 

🔮Future Tense: 차가울 거야, 차가울 거예요, 차가울 겁니다

Examples I found on Naver: 

커피가 차갑게 식었다 the coffee has turned cold

그는 나의 질문에 차갑게 대답했다 he answered my questions coldly

얼음처럼 차가운 as cold as ice

차가운 눈으로 쳐다보다 look at a person coldly

날씨가 차갑다 the weather is cold

차갑게 굴다 behave coldly

🏃‍♀️🏃‍♂️뛰다 1.) run/ dash 2.) Jump/ skip/ hop 3.) soar/ skyrocket

🎁Present Tense: 뛰어, 뛰어요, 뜁니다

⏰Past Tense: 뛰었어, 뛰었어요, 뛰었습니다

🔮Future Tense: 뛸 거야, 뛸 거예여, 뛸 겁니다

Examples I found on Naver: 

전속력으로 뛰다 run as fast as one can go

최근에 휘발유 가격이 많이 뛰었다 The price of petrol has shot up recently.

기뻐서 뛰다 jump for joy

🤝닿다 1.) touch/ reach/ brush 2.) arrive/ get 3.) connections with a person

🎁Present Tense: 닿아, 닿아요, 닿습니다

⏰Past Tense: 닿았어, 닿았어요, 닿았습니다

🔮Future Tense: 닿을 거야, 닿을 거예요, 닿을 겁니다

Examples I found on Naver: 

천장에 닿다 reach to the ceiling

서울에 닿다 arrive in Seoul

손에 닿다 reach one’s hand

표면에 닿다 touch a surface

🤸‍♀️🤸‍♂️뻗다 1.) Reach 2.) stretch 3.) expand 4.) informal meaning ‘knocked out’ / sprawl out

🎁Present Tense: 뻗어, 뻗어요, 뻗습니다

⏰Past Tense: 뻗었어, 뻗었어요, 뻗었습니다

🔮Future Tense: 뻗을 거야, 뻗을 거예요, 뻗을 겁니다

다들 술에 취해 뻗어 있었다 Everyone was drunk and out of it/ everyone was sprawled out drunk. (Sounds like a good old English work party then?!) 

하늘로 뻗다 stretch out into the sky.

🥰맘 1.) personality 2.) mind 3. )feeling

Examples I found on Naver

맘이 넓다. Have a broad heart

맘이 좋다 I feel good

고운 맘 a tender heart

미안한 맘 feeling sorry

맘이 무겁다 to have a heavy heart

맘이 불안하다 to feel uneasy

맘을 가라앉히다 settle one’s mind

맘을 풀다. Blow one’s mind

My own examples:

‘부장님의 말 듣기후에, 저는 맘이 불안했습니다.’ After listening to the manager, I felt uneasy.

좋은 뉴스를 듣기후에, 저는 지금 맘을 가라앉히 수 있어요. After listening to the good news, I can calm down now.

내 남자친구는 고운 맘 있어요. My boyfriend has a sweet heart.

🤏겨우 1.) barely/ narrowly 2.) only, just, nearly, no more, at most

Examples I found on Naver:

겨우겨우 살아가다 barely make ends meet/ keep the wolf from the door

이제 겨우 7시다 it’s only seven o’clock

겨우 달아나다 barely escape

겨우 달래다. Barely appease

😘😏유혹 Temptation/ lure/ allurement

Examples I found on Naver: 

유혹적인 제의 an inviting/ seductive offer

유혹을 견디다 resist temptation

유혹에서 벗어나다 free oneself from temptation

🖐👏🤟짓 1.) act 2.) motion/ wave/ gesture

Examples I found on Naver: 

바보 같은 짓 하지 마라 don’t act like a fool

손짓 a wave

눈짓 a look

🔝위 1.)  top 2.) superior authority

Examples I found on Naver: 

위를 보세요 look above (you)

그 책은 선반 위에 있다 the book is on the shelf

저는 위에서 시키는 대로 했을 뿐입니다 I only follow orders from above/ I just did what they told me to do.

위에 above/ over

맨 위의 the uppermost

🤏🤏점점 gradually/ increasingly

Examples I found on Naver:

점점 더 워지다 be getting hotter

길은 점점 험해졌다 the road became steeper and steeper

점점 희미해지다 fade away

⏰그때 1.) that time/ those days 2.) at the time

Examples I found on Naver: 

좋아요, 그럼 그때 봐요 okay, I’ll see you then.

마침 그때 just at the moment

그때까지 by that time/ theretofore

처럼 like/ as though/ as if

I found these examples on Naver

돈을 물처럼 쓰다 spend money like water

평소처럼 as usual

그는 억만장자나 된 것처럼 말한다 he talks as if he’s a billionaire

너처럼 just like you

🤷‍♀️🤷‍♂️듯 – a  noun that indicates the speakers guess

I found these examples on Naver

알 듯 말 듯 like I know or not

사실인 듯 이야기하다 speak as if it were true

할 듯 말 듯 like it’s going to do

공기 1.) air 2.) atmosphere

Examples I found on Naver: 

공기를 들이마시다 breathe in/ inhale

공기의 aerial

상큼한 공기 cool crisp air

오염된 공기 polluted air

💖심장 1.) heart 2.) nerve/ cheek/ guts

Examples I found on Naver: 

심장이 빠르게 뛰었다 my heart was pounding

심장의 cardiac

심장이 강하다 be bold/ be cheeky

심장이 약하다 be timid/ faint-hearted

👸🤴당당히 1.) fairly, squarely, grandly, bravely 2.) in a dignified manner/ with pomp and glory

당당히 행동하다 act with confidence

기세가 당당하다 be in high – spirits

⏰순간 A moment / an instant

Examples I found on Naver: 

감동적인 순간 a touching moment

겁나는 순간 a scary moment

긴장된 순간 a tense moment

재미있는 순간 a funny moment

짧은 순간 a brief moment

순간적인 momentary

🌞태양 the sun

태양의 solar

🌋🔥타버린 burnt – out

🧭새벽녘 around dawn/ towards dawn

🔍거울 mirror

Examples I found on Naver:

손거울 hand mirror

전신거울 full-size mirror

백미러 rearview mirror

거울을 보다 Look into a mirror

My examples: 오늘은 시장에서 예쁜 손거울이 샀어요. I bought a pretty hand mirror at the market today.

😁얼굴 Face

Example I found on Naver: 

얼굴을 씻다 wash own face

얼굴을 찡그리다 grimace/ frown/scowl

각진 얼굴 angular shaped face

계란형 얼굴 oval shaped face

둥근 얼굴 round shaped face

My examples: 그 배우는 정말 각진 얼굴이 있지! 그는 광대뼈들은 칼 같아요!   The actor has such an angular face! His cheekbones are like knives! (Sorry, sorry I know my examples are kinda out there...but daymn this imaginary actor sounds SHARP!) 

🤷‍♀️🤷‍♂️누구 1.) who 2.) somebody’s 3.) I

Examples I found on Naver: 

누구 차례입니까? Whose turn is it?

누구 놀리니? Are you kidding me?

누구 앞에서 함부로 입을 놀려? You have no idea who you're talking to (A little bit of a sass mouth *snap snap*)

There we go guys another weeks study list completed! I hope you guys had fun reading it and find it helpful for studying with. Just a heads up though, I’m still a beginner so my translations may be a little rusty! Thank God for Naver dictionary and it’s plentiful examples! Also for all the words I break down here, I recommend searching for them on the Naver dictionary cos there a ton more examples and example sentences. 

I have also used Verbix to help find the verb conjugations. 

Right I’m off now to sing this song again  into my wooden spoon and pretend I’m in a 노래방. (I’m so sorry neighbours! Please forgive me for my horrendous singing!) 😅

Happy Studying! x 

Gifs: are not created by me. All credit should go to the original creators. I just found the gifs on tumblr. 

#koreanblr #langblr #studyblr #kpop #koreanstudygram #korean studyblr

[asplashoftea-n-mildliners]

안녕~ 긴 하루였어요. ㅠㅠ

🆕 긴 하루다 = a long [an endless] day

>> (-였어요 past tense form)

I’m hoping next week since I will start on a full weekend I will be on a better schedule than this week. I will spend the next day reviewing the material I learned this week. 😊

TTMIK Level 2: Lesson 2

Here’s some stuff I learned today about particles (there is some bonus material that I researched today included that I heard within a sentence example in the audio version)

(I will provide examples from the lesson and some of my own!)

Also, I apologize if this post is a little too long, just was trying to explain the material well for you guys! ✨

Object Marker Particles

을 - used after a noun ending in a consonant

를 - used after a noun ending in a vowel

create a relation to the verb in the sentence

Verbs are divided into transitive (verbs that need a direct object) and intransitive (verbs that don’t require a direct object)

Example from Lesson: (English is used for better understanding)

Person A: “Did you find your wallet?”

Person B: “Yes I found it.”

(Transitive: found & find; direct object: wallet and it)

In Korean: The use of a direct object in the second sentence is not needed. (Why? Because Person A already knows what Person B is talking about).

Ex:

Person A: “집갑 찾았어요?”

>(Literal Meaning: “wallet found?”)

Person B: “네, 찾았어요.”

>(Literal Meaning: “Yes, found.” )

What Do Particles Do?

Particles help to clarify what is the direct verb in the sentence that is receiving the action.

Example in English:

- “An apple” without any thing following the noun the listener/speaker has no idea what’s going on with the apple (is it being eaten, picked, etc).

In Korean: the use of an object marker particle (을/를) helps to predict that an action will happen to the direct object.

Example From Text:

-> 사과를 먹었어요? (Did you eat an apple?)

🔅사과 = 🍎 (Apple)

-를 is used because 사과 ends in a vowel is the direct object receiving the action (eat)

🔅먹다 = to eat

-었어요 past tense

Example from me:

-> 물을 맛였어요.

🔅물 = water

-을 is used because 물 ends in a consonant and it is also the direct object receiving the action (drank)

🔅마시다 = to drink

How Particles are Dropped

Particles are necessary for clarifying the meaning of a sentence

Particles aren’t always needed if the meaning of the sentence is clearly understood.

Example From Text:

사과를 사요? vs 사과 사요? (Did you buy apples?)

-> -> both of these examples mean the same thing even with omitting the particle.

🔅사다 = to buy

When Do I Need To Use Object or Subject Marking Particles?

They are needed to clarify the relationship between the object and subject verb

When the object or subject is closer to the verb, omitting or using a particle doesn’t make a difference (even if it was announced a sentence earlier)

❗️When sentences are longer, there are more elements ( and the word order changes this will have the object or subject more far from the verb)

Ex:

만났어요 = I met. // 만났어요? = Did you meet?

🔅만나다 = to meet

(No use of particles because the sentence is short)

어제 여기에서 누구(를) 만나어요? = Who did you meet here yesterday?

vs

어제 누구를 여기에서 만나었어요? = WHO did you meet here yesterday?

🔅어제 = yesterday

🔅누구 = who

🔅여기 = here

(-에서 is a location attachment for “in, at, from” it is used to show a location where an action takes place. // in this case location = “here” and the action would probably be “meeting”.)

——————————————————————————

Bonus:

Adding -가 as a (subject marking particle) to a noun (for example: 사과 🍎) it becomes the SUBJECT of the sentence (사과가)

-> -> the verb will be about 사과 there will be NO ACTION directely done to the noun (사과)

* easier to predict the verb or adjective (“descriptive verb”)

Ex: 이 사과가 맛있어요 = The apple is delicious.

(I think for the most part if the verb is describing the noun it’ll use “가” as long as it is the main subject).

Adding -는 (topic marker particle) to 사과 (사과는) the reader/listener knows that 사과 will be COMPARED to something else

Also -는 is used when 사과 (or a noun in general) is brought up in a conversation for the first time

Ex from Me:

눈은 머리보다 작아요.

🆕 작다 = to be small

🔅눈 = 👁 eye

(this word can also mean snow so pay attention to the context!)

-은 subject marker particle

~ 보다 is used as a comparative attachment meaning “more than”. Makes a comparison between something specifically

-> (usually connected to the second noun you’re comparing the first thing to)

🔅머리 = Head

Ex from Audio:

사과는 딸기보다 커요.

🔅딸기 = 🍓 strawberry (strawberries)

~보다 is a comparative attachment (in this case apples are bigger than strawberries.)

🆕 크다 = to be big

‼️ Irregular Conjugation for “Irregular ㅡ”

크다 -> eliminate the ~다 -> eliminate ㅡ -> add the present tense ~어요 (어 because the vowel isn’t an ㅏ or ㅗ) = 커요.

#mildliners korean #langblr korean #self learning korean #learn korean #talk to me in korean #korean with ri 🔮✨ #learning korean #new vocabulary 📚✨ #ttmik level 2 #ttmik #creating my own korean sentences #practicing korean sentences #selflearning #korean #beginner korean #korean beginner #studyblr korean #study notes #korean notes #korean irregulars #korean comparatives

[gwenchana-hwaiting]

#13 Using Adjectives

I am back! Did you miss me? Yeah, me neither ;)

Alright, we did a bit of a layover and some practice, so let’s get on to the next part! We are going to learn how to use adjectives!

Let’s go! 가자!

Alright, so first let us recall what an adjective is. Believe it or not, but that will help to identify what we are going to do. Here’s the quote from my Sentence Structure post in which we talked about definitions.

Adjective

Adjectives were confusing to me until I went through it again. It basically is nothing but a descriptor for the noun, which can be subject or object. My mother buys tasty cookies. My beautiful mother buys cookies.

We have also learned that Korean sentences must end in a verb or adjective. Sentences can have both of course as you can see in the examples, so if that happens, where does the adjective go? Where will the verb be? Which of them is at the end of the sentence? We’ll talk about all of that in this post.

First of all, when we look at dictionaries we can see that all verbs and adjectives end in 다 but that’s only the dictionary form, it’s going to be changed to be used in a sentence. First, you drop 다 and then add something to the stem, like particles or conjugation.

There are two ways to use adjectives.

a small boy

The boy is small

Both are handled differently in Korean.

Let’s look at 1. When you simply want to describe a noun as in the first example, you drop the 다 and add ~ㄴ after vowels or 은 after consonants to the stem. The stem is the part without the 다.

Examples:

big boat: 큰 배

big: 크다 -> 크 -> 큰

boat: 배 

expensive food: 비싼 음식

expensive:  비싸다 ->  비싸 -> 비싼

food: 음식

good son: 좋은 아들

good: 좋다 -> 좋 -> 좋은

son: 아들

I want a big boat:

wrong: 저는 크다 배를 원하다

right: 저는 큰 배를 원하다

Remember we are not conjugating verbs yet, so the ending still remains 다. We only look at the adjectives in this post. As you can see above the wrong sentence uses the 다 dictionary version for the adjective, that’s not correct. Make sure to drop the 다 and attach  ~ㄴ/ 은.

Now you may wonder how to know which way to use adjectives you may need to use and how to recognize them. That is pretty easy. Let’s take another example that shows the difference:

The food is expensive: 음는 비싸다 (not conjugated)

expensive food: 비싼 음식

1 is a legit sentence it works as is. You are not using ~ㄴ/ 은 for those. 2 is not a full sentence it needs more to make a sentence like a verb or adjective. This kind of case uses ~ㄴ/ 은. For example:

I eat expensive food: 저는 비싼 음식을 먹다 (not conjugated)

Expensive food is delicious: 비싼 음식을 맛있다 (not conjugated)

Remember that the 2nd case (that uses ~ㄴ/ 은) does need at least a verb that acts on the object the adjectives describes. “I small house” doesn’t make any sense, but “I have a small house” is a full sentence. “I big burger” makes no sense but “I eat a small burger” is perfectly fine.

But if you say “The burger is small” you don’t need the ~ㄴ/ 은. (See example 1)

Note: There are some adjectives that end in 있다 like for example 맛있다 (to be delicious). Those adjectives do not use ~ㄴor 은 but 는.

delicious: 맛있다 -> 맛있는

I eat delicious food: 저는 맛있는 음식을 먹다

Head spinning? Confusion wrapped around your head? No worries, I felt the same. But all you have to remember is that when you need to use ~ㄴ/은 compared to not, and that adjectives ending in 있다 use 는.

If you got questions, comments, corrections or concerns, hit me up and I’ll try to help, though I’m clearly not an expert. We’ll have an easy quicky again next time, so you got time to practice adjectives :)

Until then, stay awesome! 화이팅!

#korean #learning korean #korean grammar #korean learning #Korean langblr #language #langblr #studyblr

[wilstudies]

Get a grade 9 in a language GCSE!

Please note:

1. These tips are almost entirely applicable to any AQA language at GCSE. 2. Modern Foreign Languages at GCSE Level is anywhere from A2 to B1 (dependant on the tier and grade) on the CEFR scale, but, there is no official equivalent.

In November 2018, whilst in Year 10, my teacher saw that I was excelling in French, with my extensive knowledge of tenses and idioms. So, she proposed that I’d do the January mocks, alongside Year 11, despite not knowing more than half of the subject content. Then we’d see where I’d go from there.

I followed the AQA exam board, higher paper. Specification. You can find the Kerboodle textbook I used, here.  

Here’s what I did:

Throughout the year, I was also studying the Year 10 content (Theme 1 - Identity and culture) in class.

In my own time, each month I’d cover one or two units, completing the more challenging activities on each page of the textbook. Luckily, each unit was only 4 double-page spreads long.

In January I completed my mocks. This was the first time I had ever sat in an exam hall, so it was really daunting to be doing it with a bunch of kids who were older than me, even though I knew I had enough knowledge. Overall, I got a secure grade 8, in my mocks, despite not knowing half of the course content.

I also did “pre-exam mocks”, two weeks before each exam. These consisted of specimen papers which are notoriously harder, so my results looked almost exactly the same as past papers, which was upsetting as I couldn’t see that I’d actually improved. But practice is practice!

MY ACTUAL GCSE RESULT: 

With a lot of work. I managed to achieve a grade 9 (the top mark, higher than an A*), which was insane. I’m so, so proud of myself, and grateful for all of the teachers that supported me!!!

^Edit from 25/08/2019.

LISTENING

In my opinion, listening is based purely on practice and knowing the exam technique that works for you.

To practice: 

frenchpod101 intermediate listening comprehension

Going through every specimen track and listening activity I could find - pausing it after each sentence, saying it once in French, then translating it into English. I’d do this in the shower, on the way to school, wherever.

Know your vocab!

My exam technique:

In the 5 minutes reading time: underline keywords and themes in the questions. This time goes very quickly, but I’d also try to jot down a few synonyms in the French section too.

Multiple choice questions: the process of elimination; key vocab; negative and positive tonality and opinion words - watch out for negative structures!

Completing the sentences: note down words said in French or translate each sentence into English in your head, then remember it when it comes to writing it down.

French section: fill each sentence with key French words that you hear. Don’t worry about accents, unless it helps you determine the word.

Remember each track plays twice.

READING

The January Mock: I didn’t know much of the course content, so I struggled with the translation. I also circled and placed a question mark near any words I didn’t know, as it was a mock and my teacher would be able to note down any translations for me. I think what boosted my grade, to a 9 for this paper, was knowledge of grammar.

T/F/NM questions are usually a gamble. Just look for explicit information and know your negative formations.

Texts change their minds often: look out for counter-arguments and opposing exclamations

Use the method of elimination for multiple choice: rule out if there’s no mention. Be wary that a text can mention an option, but say it wasn’t that.

Texts often refer to things mentioned prior.

If you know a certain type of texts are your kryptonite (it was the classical stories with dialogue, for me), then download as many of that genre as you can. Understand the way speech and dialogue works, and the structure, before you tackle the vocab.

Many say skim read and don’t read the whole thing, but I found it easier to translate big chunks in my head as I went along and lightly annotate each text, which just comes with practice.

WRITING

Top tip: don’t go any more than 10% over word limits!!!!!!! Teachers say they have to mark all of it - no they don’t. If you do double the word limit, your last few bullet points could come after the cut-off point, cutting off access to half of the marks!!! 

90 WORD - 99 words maximum! About 20-25 words per bullet point.

150 WORD - 165 words maximum! About 75 words per bullet point.

Which brings me to mention, that you must cover every bullet point: those are your content marks, which cover about half the marks of each question.

90 WORD Question (16 marks)

Content - 10 marks: Making sure your writing covers each bullet point enough.

Quality of Language - 6 marks: Using interesting vocabulary, such as “malheureusement”.

Stick to about one page.

If you’re giving an opinion, great, just stop there. If you explain it too much, you risk going over your word limit.

150 WORD Question (32 marks)

Content - 15 marks: Every. Bullet. Point. Detailed.

Range of Language - 12 marks: get in those adjectives, idioms and grammatical structures!

Accuracy - 5 marks: correct basic tense conjugations (present, past, future simple/future proche)

In order to hit all of these I came up with a mnemonic checklist, and it scored me full marks in a specimen paper I did for my teacher! And I made it into a cute phone background, so I’d start to remember it, I still can now, hehe! You can find it here. If that doesn’t work, then download it here.

SPEAKING

Know your question words! (x)

For the roleplay and photocard, my teacher printed off me a load of practice cards in bulk and annotated two or three every day, using the planning techniques mentioned below.

Roleplay - 2 minutes; can be any theme. 

When planning, try to avoid writing out answers, but just keywords and gaps for you to fill in with pronouns or articles etc.

Keep it brief, one sentence per bullet point, but cover each part of each bullet point. 

Photo card - 3 minutes (aim to speak for at least 2). 

Plan with a small spider-diagram of nouns, opinions, anecdotes etc. for each known question. 

Use one or two prepped anecdotes for the prepared questions - e.g. where you went last year, who with, what you did. 

For the unknown questions, keep it short and sweet and fill up any time with opinions and reasoning.

General conversation - 5-7 minutes. 

Lie and make up stories! Be creative and use the words and structures you know.

I was a little extra and I prepared every theme as flashcards. You can’t get away with only revising your chosen theme! 

I made flashcards that could cover several types of questions: I had bullet points of topics and keywords on one side and a sample paragraph on the other. 

Pretty sure I made about 80 flashcards oops.

I also went through the mark scheme and see which areas I could secure marks in and which areas I needed to improve.

VOCAB

Learning vocab is SO important!

I started by making spreadsheets of jumbled word lists from the specification and doing a colour-coded match up. 

You can access a pdf of all of the vocab grids here. There might be the odd word missing due to copy-pasting errors, but if so, don’t stress, just look it up in a dictionary and note it down - sorry in advance!!!

Then with the vocab that I had to look up in a dictionary, I added to a Quizlet and wrestled it into my noggin. 

You can find the Quizlet here.

Remember that:

sauf - except

puisque - since

presque - almost

GRAMMAR

To me, learning tenses was like learning formulae for maths. So find a way to learn rules like that, if it’s easier for you.

e.g. Conditional Tense = subject + (future/conditional stem + imperfect ending)*

*note that future stems are the same as conditional stems.

Know your DRMRSPVANDERTRAMP verbs, and their past participles. These verbs go with ÊTRE and always agree with the subject.

Know your auxiliary and irregular verbs.

MUST KNOW: avoir, être, aller, faire, vouloir

HELPFUL: devoir, pouvoir, vivre, boire, voir, dire, savoir

OTHERS: mettre, prendre, venir, écrire, lire, recevoir

I learnt these by making flashcards, and then brain dumping them on paper over and over again until they stuck - my teacher thought I was insane, madly scribbling away.

Memorise some key structures that can be used in writing and speaking. 

If you want 7+ structures, find them here.

MISC TIPS

Always write notes about improvements and errors in practice papers and mocks.

Find a native french internet friend.

In my opinion, music, movies and TV shows aren’t great for revision. However, if you begin to understand them, they are a great confidence boost.

I highly recommend the Skam France series, which you can find with and without les sous-titres (subtitles) here.

And here’s my french music playlist on Spotify.

MORE ASSISTANCE

I’m happy to offer my assistance to anybody who needs it, pop me a dm or an ask if you think others will find it useful too. 

Here’s some ways I could help:

Finding some resources about a certain topic (videos, worksheets, mindmaps) - I have them all backed up hehe

Sending you some of my past answers

Sending you pdf of my general conversation/irregular verb table flashcards

Marking practice answers

Talking to you in french

Etc. etc.

Thank you for reading! Please reblog to help any others that might find this useful. If any of the links are faulty, please pop me a dm, and I’ll get them sorted asap!! 🥐

-Wil x

#french #gcse #langblr #studyblr #study #gcses #french language #lovelybluepanda #wilstudies #studies #etudier #francais #emmastudies #a level #b2 #b1 #cefr #masterpost #masterlist #advice #a2

[senzacaponecoda]

(res conlangii)

Waiting on data to come in for schoolwork so I kind of doodled a plan for the syntactic evolution of Góoreta which is probably as good as it’ll get and the new draft for what will be Tantapty 2.0, which would be like Pa3aty 4.0 or something by now. 5.0, 6.

1.

Góoreta is ancestral, and was modeled as pretty much a prototypical Nubian language; based on Old Nubian directly.

Góoreta is mixed SOVT/SVTO. T and V are generally fused (i.e. auxiliaries are rare) but SOV is slightly more primary and it’s reflected in how the verb is marked.

So the maximal noun phase is something like {en}  {adjunct} {adjective phrase} root.stem-{sg/pl/col}-{nom/dir/gen/cop/abs} {adjective phrase} {adjunct}, {en} being an optional semantically empty determiner (syntactically it helps clue the listener in to a complex NP), {sg/pl/col} being the East Sudanic singulative/plural/collective number markers, the dir case being a combined accusative-dative, cop being the copulatory case, basically the marker for the more topical half of a copula phrase (as opposed to the part traditionally called a predicate, which is confusing when you’re talking about languages that don’t use a verb to express it). Leftward adjuncts and adjective phrases tend to be alienable, rightward tend to be inalienable/attributive. Compounds are thus backwards for an OV lang: manfire, not fireman. Possession is always marked rightwardly.  Supplementation common.

Adpositions are chiefly prepositions, but adpositions that were promoted to conjunctions before Góoreta are postpositive.

The maximal verb is {adv} root.stem-{caus}-{pret}-{inch}-{pass/recip/mid}-{neg}-{admir}-{modal}-{fut}-[PNG]-{subj}

Already pluractionals would be lexicalized. Moods not happening in the morphology would be adverbial or like CP level or something. Verbs are mostly regular, with no supplemental stems coming to mind. Verbs however can be compounded, and a passive-perfective participle phrase WITH (adv) verb-POS tends to deliver stative sentence structures.

So a kind of overview of the whole sentence I got from a book on Egyptian might look like

(C) S-O-A-s-o-d-V.T (C) or (C) S-s-(í) V.T-o-d-O-A (C)

where d is indirect object and A is adjuncts. Small is pronomial arguments and caps is lexically full. Cs are not mutually exclusive.

2.

It seems that it’s necessary to have both a post-Góoreta NS creole and a pre-Tantafty Afroasiatic creole of the creole in order to “marry” it into the family as my goal originally was.

AA was probably already VSO~VOS, and probably ergative-absolutative. This initial hybridization would actually be crown to actual Afroasiatic, maybe being more of a hybridization with a Pre-Afroasiatic.

T would then be broken from V, and the cross-linguistic tendency for creoles to trend SVO (although this is maybe a European bias error since creoles tend to be half IE due to colonialism) is a compromise.

So new syntactic structure is C-S-s-T-V-o-d-O-A It basically follows Góoreta’s SVO style syntax. The new NP is {en} root.stem-{sg/pl/col} {adjective phrase} {adjunct}

Which loses the Nubian case system.

The new VP is

{aux=V-TA-M-Neg} root.stem.{inch/caus} {other mood} POS

Everything outside the domain of the inchoative broke off. The tense system would probably revolve around the now inherently unaccusative perfect i-VERB-POS forms and an un-i’d form derived from that. Maybe from núu (at) such as what forms a progressive in many languages. This has an advantage of preparing the verbal system for a harmony derived Front/Back ablaut.

Unfortunately Tantafty retaining an admirative mood seems unlikely.

3.

This is when the Afroasiatic elements become dominate, and the stage of the language borrowed is roughly sister to the non-Ethiopian type Afroasiatic languages.

New syntax overform is like S-T-V-s-d-o-O-A. V-s tend to form a unit.

Despite Egyptian losing it, verbs inherit the prefixing conjugation as it assists the Ca1a22a3 unmarked form of present tenses (though, maybe, really, it should lose it, the same way Egyptian did.)

New NP is

{en}-cl.ABS root.stem.{sg/pl/col}-cl.ABS {(a) complement} {adjective phrase}-cl.ABS {adjunct}

Agreement is normalized. Number is lexicalized. Class is introduced. All nouns inherit the PAA absolutative case (-a), although case is not a feature of the syntax. Old nominative -u occasionally used, grammaticalized into something of focalized case. New number system starts to arise from dragging {pl} suffix with -cl.ABS irregularly. (a) represents a connective element, like {of}

New VP would be

{aux} {caus}-root.{inch}.stem-{modal}-[PNG]

Auxiliaries handle most issues. The new causative from AA supplants NS’s productively, the inchoative is detectable but fossilized, like English -Cle in words like rattle, dabble, nipple, etc. Some new modals have attached themselves between the verb and the PNG markers, from the possessive markers, at least in the perfect aspect. Old modals provide at least a new subjunctive.

4. ~ 5. (split as legit branch, then future Amizightization/Arabization)

Language eventually shifts into VSO syntax preferably. Old focalizing case used for SVO word order subject.

Word order is T-V.s.d.o-S-O-A

NP is

{D}(-case?)-[N][S]stem[S]

or

[N][S]stem[S](-case?)

where S is state derived from the connector/absolutative case. 

Every draft of Tantafty/Pa3atic thus far has had case but I’m not entirely sure why it would even arise at this stage.

The nisbe could give rise to a kind of genitive-dative. But an earlier stage is likely to have had an et-ha-qadoyshim kind of accusative preposition. By now I want {en} to have become {lá} so it might be something that looks like l-á~an-á or something. The genitive-dative would probably have to go - l>r is what the negative for NPs is going to end up as, and ní would end up declining for something that governs it instead of what it governs. I could be silly and use d~ð, which looks both Imazighen-y and Modern South Arabian-y at the same time. I like the idea of German-style case-on-the-article-ness though.

Nouns would thus be VCCVC in form preferentially I guess. Irregular forms would be the main vestige of Nilo-Saharan - supplemental singulative-collective-plural forms.

For VP I guess that means a form like

{AUX} {caus}.stem.{modal}-[PNG] {adv}

The causative would be partially fossilized into the verb. The auxiliary would handle most of the weight, but probably as preverbs like in Egyptian or Nahuatl or so on as a VSO correlate. Although preverb-auxiliary-verb is likely too. Morphological moods I guess would be heavily reduced, compared to, say, Arabic or something.

The perfective/imperfective system should break into a new stative (like the present perfect), new preterite, new imperfect, and new “cursive” system, where cursive is habitual, gnomic, or the like. That’s taken from an Amazight language but kind of nicely lines up with how English distinguishes present perfect, the past tenses, the progressive, and the simple present. Auxiliaries from “come” and “go” add tense to the paradigm. New moods to be determined, probably areally based on Siwi and Arabic. Voice probably has to be grammaticalized from a verb/preposition instead of an Afroasiatic-y one. Likely a good place for stand? “He stands damaged by battle.”

It would probably be realistic for Tantafty to gain a prefixing conjugation from a suffixing conjugation Coptic style. The Amazight languages do interesting things to their prefixing and suffixing conjugations though and I might want to base whatever I do about the yaCvCCvC present forms on something like that, however. It might be that the whole present form from PAA collapses into just a gender distinction of the subject, which I’m leaning towards. Then PN agreement happens in the suffixes.

Vestiges of NS would then mainly be pluractional vs singulative verbs. I might be able to fit an honorific/emphatic mood in akin to Góoreta’s admirative, which I really wanted, but it can’t really be a direct descendant.

I like the idea of Tantafty having serial verb constructions (which it’s had for years now) and I like the idea of the creoles having compound verbs. Something like an atelic verb head and a stative resultative verb pattern might be doable for a lot of verb nuances, and end up with some weird compounds on the way.  A random bit of what looks like Mandarin syntax I guess. This would be, like, the cut-break compounds.

[huge-hangoolies-fan]

Learning Korean Step by Step

COMPLETE BEGINNER

Hangeul

Time to do away with romanization once and for all. Pick one of the below youtube playlists, and watch it to the end. If you really want to cement your basics, it’s better if you complete all three youtube series.

Seemile Korean

Go! Billy Korean

Talk To Me In Korean 

Practice writing with hangeul so you know you’ve really got it down. Try writing your name and random words you already know in Korean. Don’t worry about proper spelling or grammar, or writing very neat or fancy. You can work on that in time.

Stroke Order: trevarr’s pic, consonants1, consonants2, vowels

Practice Sheets: withexample, blank

Other Helpful Charts: names, combinations1, combinations2

Getting Started

Once you’ve familiarized yourself with hangeul, choose one of the following spaced repetition systems (SRS):

Anki (pros: free for android and windows, highly customizable, available offline, the popular pick; cons: $25 for iOS users, difficult to navigate at first)

Memrise (pros: gamified, visually appealing; cons: paywall, games can be distracting)

Quizlet (pros: simple to use, available offline (with pro); cons: does not have automated spaced repetition feature)

Set up your own deck. You can make just one and name it “Korean”, or make several decks and divide them by category (ie Hangeul, Nouns, Verbs, Grammar, etc). As you go about learning Korean, put every new word you learn into your deck and review some of them at the end of every day.

You can also download someone else’s deck. The most popular decks are: HTSK (Memrise), TTMIK (Memrise), and Evita (Anki)

The next step is finding words to go into your deck. Choose one of the following beginner-friendly learning apps (you can also skip this step and go to online courses instead)

Lingodeer (pros: made by Korean teachers, free, great “learning tips” you can view during exercises, built-in spaced repetition review feature, every word is clickable for pronunciation and audio can be slowed down, ongoing updates with new material; cons: pro version has a paywall, the spacing in certain exercises can be confusing, lessons are repetitive, some errors have yet to be fixed)

Sejong Korean (left to right: vocabulary, speaking, grammar) (pros: made by the Korean ministry of culture and tourism, completely free, very focused to-the-point lessons, you can pick and choose lessons, vocab app has a built in dictionary, feature where you can ask questions; cons: divided into vocab, grammar and speaking apps, the English explanations can be awkward, the exercises and games are a bit limited, the questions feature is largely useless)

Both are great for getting the basics down. Feel free to check all of them out and choose the ones you prefer.

Bookmark the following dictionary pages:

Naver Dictionary (Google/itunes)

Korean-English Learner’s Dictionary

If you must use a translator, Naver’s Papago seems to be slightly more accurate with text while Google Translate is vastly superior with voice and picture recognition.

If you’re on android, download Rieul Korean. It’s very handy for learning and referring back to conjugation and pronunciation rules, and even has a number of other features.

Finally, join the Let’s Learn Korean discord server. There are mentors, natives and other learners that can answer your questions, hold group study activities or just be your practice buddy.

“Newbie” stage can last anywhere from a week to a month or two depending on your head start and how much time you invest daily.

BEGINNER~INTERMEDIATE

Online Courses

The following are some of the best free online courses available online. You don’t have to complete one of the apps to move on to this step, but if you have then you can safely skip the first couple lessons here. (In brackets are my recommended courses):

Talk To Me In Korean (Korean Grammar 1~9, Iyagi)

How To Study Korean (Units 1~6)

Sogang Korean (Novice Korean 1~3, Intermediate Korean 1~3) (open in IE with compatibility view)

Talk To Me In Korean is the popular pick and has other paid and free lessons on their site. How To Study Korean receives some criticism for errors but has a better structured course. Sogang Korean is great but who wants to use IE in 2019, come on.

Supplementary Lessons

Additional and alternative resources for the above courses.

Cyber University of Korea (courses)

King Sejong Institute (courses, apps)

Seemile Korean (apps, youtube, lessons)

Go! Billy Korean (textbooks, courses, youtube, live lessons, discord)

Talk To Me In Korean (textbooks, courses, youtube, test)

Motivate Korean (lessons, youtube, podcast, app)

Conversational Korean (youtube)

LP’s Korean Language Learning (lessons)

It can take up to a year, but by the time you’ve finished one of the above online courses you will finally be past the beginner level. Congratulations, you’re a full-fledged intermediate learner!

INTERMEDIATE+

Intermediate Resources

The intermediate stage is tough. You will experience the valley of despair. Your progress has slowed but you’re not quite self sufficient enough to learn just from watching k-dramas yet.

Here are some great free online resources for the intermediate learner:

Online Intermediate College Korean (a legitimate course. reading material with audio, clickable words with vocab notes and lists, grammar notes, exercises, and homework, it’s great)

WiseInit Korean (has great posts comparing often confused words that I still refer back to as an advanced learner. has audio explanations for every post)

Oh My Korean! (covers everything from beginner to intermediate, vocab to grammar, organized neatly. but the site is mostly in Korean)

Say Hi Korean (fantastic site with lessons, grammar, reading material, and Korean culture. also has some beginner-friendly material.)

Textbooks

While textbooks are available from a beginner level, there’s enough free resources that it’s not necessary. Starting with a textbook and sticking with it to the end has the benefit that you won’t run into as many things you already learned elsewhere, while using free resources first has the advantage of not costing you an arm and a leg.

The following are some well-reviewed intermediate and advanced textbooks. Before purchasing a textbook, take care to find reviews and check you are getting the right book for your learning level.

Integrated Korean (Intermediate 1~2, Advanced Intermediate 1~2)

Korean Grammar In Use (Intermediate, Advanced)

Sogang Korean (3A~5B)

Ehwa Korean (4~6)

Yonsei Korean (4~6)

TOPIK Essential Grammar For Advanced Learners

TOPIK

You don’t need to complete textbooks to take the TOPIK, but advanced textbooks will be around TOPIK II level 6 level. A great way to know if you’ve survived through the valley of despair would be scoring well on the TOPIK. I’ll post about the test more in-depth later.

Advanced Learning

Once you’ve gotten this far, you should be at at least a B2 level in Korean. It will have been a multiple year journey. This is when you can finally kick back, open a novel or tune into a k-drama and take notes. Note down every new word into your trusty SRS. You may have graduated textbooks but there’s still learning to be done.

Find material where you can understand 70~90% of the words, and log every word you don’t know. At an advanced level you’ll encounter new vocab more often than new grammar, so it’s just about building up your vocabulary from there.

Learn 한자. Not just 한자 words, but how to write them in all their stroke order  and 사자성어 glory. Watch the news and read the papers. Write essays and poems. Re-learn things like philosophy and world history from a Korean point of view. Find Korean communities you enjoy, learn their slang and jargon, make Korean friends. This is where the real fun begins.

#korean #langblr #step by step #resources #masterpost #courses #textbooks #hangeul #youtube #apps #lessons #faq

[thepencilnerd]

𝐉𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐁𝐲 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 || 𝐦.𝐲.𝐠.

coup de fou·dre- noun; derived from the French word for a strike of lightning, it describes a sudden unforeseen event, often in reference to love at first sight

➳ Pairing: Min Yoongi x Reader

➳ Summary: Love at first sight didn’t exist. To you, this was a fact. Living in the city of love and lights, therefore, couldn’t have been more ironic. Paris wasn’t just the destination for hopeless romantics and tourists alike, but it was also home to hundreds of hidden treasures that were nestled around ecah street corner. Fate and destiny weren’t exactly concepts that you ever believed in, but how many times does it take for a chance encounter to turn into something even the universe couldn’t explain? 

➳ Genre: AU! Fluff, star-crossed encounters, barely a soulmate AU 

➳ Word Count: 9.5k

a/n: a few phrases in French but they will be translated in italics, and my French is very extremely rusty so please forgive me 

Waking up to the Parisian sun was one of the many things you cherished about living in the city. The open balcony window allowed an ambient breeze to blow into your studio apartment as sunlight streaked through the untied curtains. 

Reluctant to part from your disheveled bed sheets and scattered comforters, you took a glimpse at your alarm clock that read 8h47. Forcing yourself to come to terms with the fact that you had to get out of bed sooner or later, you threw your legs over the edge of the bed and hauled yourself up.  

It was a lazy Saturday in your quiet apartment, but the impending doom of going back to work on Monday motivated you to enjoy as much of your weekend as possible. When you applied for your university’s Study Abroad for a Summer program, you never imagined that you’d end up transferring to and graduating from Sorbonne, let alone living in Paris to this day. California never really had anything for you to begin with, and you’d lost contact with your parents after you moved out at 18. 

From infancy into adolescence, your family began falling apart at the seams. Your mom was barely home, and instead found more pleasure in placing bets and melting the plastic off of her credit card at casino resorts, while your dad couldn’t deal with the stress he got from watching her ruin their entire bank account. He didn’t care much about her livelihood, but when money was thrown into the equation, he went manic. 

Being on the dean’s list actually paid off in helping you form close relationships with your counselors and teachers; ones that your parents could never give you. As they had grown well aware of your situation at home, they made sure to take your work ethic and mediocre grades into account when you handed them your transfer application forms. Putting in a good word for you, they helped you realize that family wasn’t confined to blood relations, but rather the extensive bonds that you formed with those around you.

When the opportunity to move out presented itself on a silver platter, you took it without a single ounce of hesitation. Life was hell with or without your family, so why not just get away from it all together? 

It was no secret that France was a timeless country. While cities around the world began to construct office buildings and fall into the trend of modern sky-high architecture, France itself was a living and breathing historical artifact. Most buildings had been left untouched and undemolished since the Renaissance era, and they were constantly being maintained and restored like fine artwork.

Passing through each and every street, there wasn’t a single spot exempt from being anything but breathtaking. Even the street art was a sight to see. One of your favorite “touristy” spots was the Parc du Champ de Mars. The first few weeks into spring was when the flora in the park was at its peak. Nestled just behind the Eiffel Tower, the long field was a hotspot for tourists, families, friends, and couples all the like. Throughout the entire week, the park was full of vibrant and lively energy as people gathered to celebrate in the lush green grass. 

The Eiffel Tower was unquestionably your favorite place. Nestled in the 7th arrondissement, or sector of Paris, the Tour Eiffel was an icon in and of itself. Known as a culturally recognizable historic monument around the world, it wasn’t just all talk. Although the climb up the tower was grueling and enough to meet your monthly exercise requirements, the view from the highest observation deck was unrivaled. 

From the top, you could feel the clean air coursing through your lungs as you took in the view. The Arc de Triomphe was at the heart of the city, with the arch being the center median for twelve streets that ran through it. On the rare occasion in that you’d take the lift up to the deck at night, the whole city came to life as lights that beamed from lampposts, streetlights, and cars illuminated the entire heart of Paris. To describe the sight in words was impossible, and it made you feel like a tourist in your own city. 

Every morning before you left the house, especially on days that you didn’t feel like doing anything, you prayed silently and reminded yourself to be grateful for the opportunity to live in a country that some would sell their left kidney just to visit. Thankful for waking up to breathe another day in this reverie of a city, you trudged to the bathroom and washed up. 

Once you had settled into the city and stabilized living like a somewhat put-together adult, you had made it your goal to explore as much of the city as possible through any means possible. Most of the time, however, it involved stopping by at the most tourist clustered destinations. Although there were hundreds, if not thousands, of hidden treasures like restaurants and rustic flea markets, you found much more joy in hopping on the metro and letting it fate decide where it took you. 

Wrapping a scarf around your neck, a necessity when the spring air was still in its early beginnings, you gathered your remaining things into your bag and hurried out the door into the awaiting city outside. 

Weekends typically started off late, as you had formed a habit of sleeping in on Saturdays and crashing early to wake up early on Sunday, but your morning routine always consisted of some kind of coffee to jump-start the day. Your cozy apartment building nestled in the 7th arrondissement of Paris was not only home to the Tour Eiffel but was also a hotspot for trendy cafés and restaurants all-the-like. On almost every street corner and turn of the road, a bistro or eatery occupied the lot, and outdoor seating made them all the more inviting. With a warm and homey atmosphere, even admiring the happy customers was a delightful experience. 

About a block or two from your flat building was one such café– Maison de Raphaël. You had heard stories of the original owner, Raphaël Beaumont, had fallen in love and met his wife at a café and was inspired to start his own business with her; a sign of their new journey as lovers and partners until their passing. The business was then inherited by his children and his children’s children to carry on, a constant reminder of how cooperation, understanding, patience, and hard work had the ability to build something magical. 

The familiar ring of the chimes on the door was like music to your ears as the scent of freshly ground coffee and steaming hot baked goods rushed to flood your senses. Not to mention the bustling customers, golden colored hanging lights, and rustic feel that made the place feel like a second home. 

Distracted by the hectic atmosphere, you tripped on your footing as you bumped into a random person. “Sorry!” Ducking your head and murmuring a quick apology, you immediately that your English slipped out accidentally. Before you could get a chance to rephrase your sentence, you found yourself at the front of the counter in the presence of your best friend. 

“Y/N!” Amélie shouted, reaching over the counter to envelop you a bear hug. “Quoi de neuf? / What’s up?”

You couldn’t help but smile in return at her constantly vibrant and bright personality. “Rien de nouveau / Nothing new,”  you shrugged. 

“Mademoiselle?” another voice rung from the kitchen. A nickname you had earned your first visit to the café as the “lost American,” you craned your neck to the buzzing kitchen, quickly waving to Amélie’s uncle, Pierre, as he gave you a toothy grin before resuming his cooking. 

“Still learning English?” you asked intuitively. 

Clearing her throat meekly, she stood with her chest puffed out and chin held high as she began speaking in English with a faint accent. “The weather is quite nice today, wouldn’t you say?” 

“Very nice,” you complimented her choice of sentence topic. “Je parle pas francais, désolé / I don’t speak French, sorry.” Holding your hands up jokingly, she giggled kindly at your submission to the French language. 

In the years that you had lived in France, you were still in middle school level and more than uneasy with verb conjugations. You were also eternally grateful that your job didn’t require that much face-to-face conversation, as everything in this age was done digitally, therefore, virtually. 

“Come on,” she scoffed. “You’re fluent enough.” Scrunching your nose at her unbearably kind nature, her French accent still laced her words as she spoke English, but it was one of those things that non-French speakers swooned over. 

“Whoever invented verb conjugation is the devil,” you groaned. “Can I have—”

“One café au lait coming right up,” she hummed, knowing your order by heart. Zipping around the tiny back bar like a dancing fairy, her quick hands crafted an award-worthy latte within minutes. Signaling you to find a spot on the swivel stools that lined the window, you maneuvered through the crowded groups of people waiting in line and met her halfway. “L'heure du déjeuner! / Lunch hour/break!” she shouted, her voice ringing through the back kitchen.

Sitting comfortably on the vintage seats, the sunlight hit your skin softly as light from outside peeked through the glass. A tray with two large cups was placed on the table as the scent of fresh coffee and steamed milk immediately found its way to your waiting nose and eager mouth. However, you always took the time to admire the steamed foam artwork that Amélie meticulously painted. Every day was a different masterpiece; some days were tulips and vines, while other days were cats and feathers. Today, it was a perfectly swirled and classic rosetta. 

Plopping herself down on the stool and raising it to meet your taller stature, you giggled lightly as you lowered yours, helping her in her efforts. Patting her frizzy curls down, she swept the bangs from her eyes and gave you a sheepish grin. 

You had met Amélie almost as soon as you had moved to France all those years ago. A quiet and bashful girl, your coffee addiction was fed by none other than the great-granddaughter of Raphaël Beaumont himself. In a flurry of terrible French and broken English, the two of you quickly bonded after your first turmoil of an encounter, sharing common interests in the world of fashion and cultures from your respective birthplaces. While she helped you pick up French, you began to teach her English and fuel her dream to move to New York to start her own clothing line; a dream she had apparently had since preschool. 

“Don’t tell me,” you hummed, quirking your lips into a smirk and knitting your eyebrows as you gestured to her vibrant red top. “New fabrics from the flea market?”

Nodding proudly, she smoothed out the lace overlay that decorated the bodice and patted it appreciatively. “I couldn’t help myself. As soon as I saw them laid out, I had to make a new blouse.”

“Prototypes are supposed to be a rough outline, not perfect products. If your mother were working a shift today, she might snatch it right off of you.” Tracing your fingers over the delicate blossoms and her impeccable handiwork with stitches, her talent never ceased to amaze you. “What am I going to do without your coffee when you leave?” 

“You’ll have your boyfriend to keep you company of course,” she retorted, flipping her hair back in an exaggerated manner. “But I won’t be going for a while, so don’t get your—how do you say it again? Panties in a twist?” 

“Oh my god, please never say that ever again,” you gawked, trying not to blush out of embarrassment. “Where did you even learn that?”

Shrugging nonchalantly, she raised her cup and took an indulgent sip. You also couldn’t wait any longer and snapped a picture before reluctantly ruining the beautiful artwork. Sighing in relief at the bitter taste that coated your tongue, nothing at that moment felt better than this. 

“Anything on la carte / the menu for you today, mademoiselle?” she asked thoughtfully, the nickname that her mother gave on your first visit to the café sticking like tree sap and rosin. 

Swirling the already half empty cup, you furrowed your eyebrows. “I might take the metro to the Notre-Dame. Maybe make a wish at Point Zéro and pray for a good workload this month?”  

She facepalmed and rolled her eyes at your dull response. “Mon dieu / oh my god, live your life a little. If I had today off, I’d go with you to wish for your boyfriend to come along already.” 

The legends of Point Zéro had been spread few and far between standing there with a loved one or paying pilgrimage to the journey in the city, but mostly revolved around the tale that if you stood on the brass plate in front of the cathedral and made a wish, it would come true.  

“Come on,” you snorted. “You know I don’t believe in any of that ‘coup de foudre’ stuff.” 

The term which literally meant “lightning strike” was an expression often used to describe a fated or unexpected occurrence such as love at first sight. Both of which you didn’t exactly believe in. 

“It’s not ‘stuff,’” she mocked your tone. “C’est vrai! / It’s true! You live in the city of love, for goodness sake. Stop killing yourself with your job and enjoy life.” 

Swallowing the last of your cold coffee, you propped up your elbow and rested your chin on your hand, studying the small potted plant that was placed on the wood table. “Love is stupid,” you huffed under your breath. “Everyone’s just desperate for a partner who’ll give them everything and not ask for anything in return. What kind of love is that?” 

“The stupid kind,” she jeered, flicking your forehead with her index finger to snap you out of your negative thoughts. “There’s someone out there for you. It’s just a matter of having to wait for the right time to roll around.”

After chatting about the upcoming spring fashion walks in New York and getting scolded by her uncle, you agreed to visit her after her shift so you could hang out at your place for the weekend. Bidding Amélie and her family goodbye, you returned to the bustling streets that awaited you. 

Despite the sometimes overhyped atmosphere of Paris, it was a sin to deny the fact that the city was a glimmering gem. Aboard the ferry that passed across the River Seine, you were currently en route to the Cathédral Notre-Dame. Resting your elbow on the metal rail, the cool breeze glided across your face, making your sigh in contempt. Weekends were truly the best. 

The usually crowded boat was relatively empty today, especially considering it was a weekend. Although there were a few families and tourist groups here and there, the entirety of the boat was overall calm. Drifting off into the vast scenery of antique architecture and busy streets, you noticed that you were just coming up to Pont Alexandre III, a monument bridge that connected the Les Invalides buildings with the Champs-Élysées. Adorned with bronze statues of nymphs and gilded phemes, they stood to represent the arts, agriculture, commerce, and war; the concrete foundation and rich values on which the country was built on. It never failed to make you feel honored to live here.

Pulling your phone out to snap a picture (as per your routine ritual whenever you passed by the bridge), you noticed a white beanie stand out in the photo and in the crowd. Although the weather could be considered chilly enough for extra outerwear, you noticed that out of the people that you had walked past in the last hour or two, this person was the first to don a fuzzy knit cap. Grinning to yourself, you ignored the silly thought as the ferry came to its stop. 

The cathedral was busy as always. With the line of entry starting from the inside trailing all the way to the middle of the sidewalk, you were lucky if you could waddle through the crowds. Trying to navigate through the swarm of people, you found yourself a relatively empty spot around the brass plate that officially marked the exact center of the city. Throughout the years, the words and engraved patterns on the plate had worn off, but the central 8-pointed star was still mildly visible.

Standing beside the plate that was centered perfectly with the front of the cathedral, you admired every little detail that your eyes could drink in; the rose windows that were arranged in concentric circles, the stone statues of biblical figures, and the timeless gothic architecture that formed the entirety of the epochal construction. 

You didn’t plan on lighting a candle inside today, and the number of people that were pouring outside proved your point. Maybe next week? Staring down at the timeworn brass plate, you shoved your hands inside your pockets and closed your eyes to make a wish. 

“Live your life a little. There’s someone out there for you. It’s just a matter of having to wait for the right time to roll around,” Amélie’s words echoed loud and clear in your head. 

Huffing out in slight frustration, you pressed your eyes shut and wished for the one thing you had worked so hard for all your life. 

I just want to be happy.

Silently praying and repeating the mantra to yourself for a few seconds, you were snapped out of your daze by a kid running headfirst into your thigh and toppling over like a Jenga tower. Gasping in shock, you immediately crouched down to help the little boy up and brush off the dirt from his plaid sweater. 

“Désolé! / Sorry!” you cringed, tensing your face into an expression that screamed guilt. “Est-ce que ça va? / Are you okay?” 

The seemingly unaffected boy simply nodded, making you find it odd that he wasn’t crying or wailing. Instead, he chortled as if nothing were wrong in the world. “Est-ce que ça va, mademoiselle? / Are you alright, miss?” 

Smiling endearingly at his mannerism with a hint of worry knit in your brows, you gently brushed over his wavy tresses and double-checked to make sure he hadn’t scraped anything. 

Pressing up onto his tippy toes to raise himself to your height, the boy whispered in your ear. “On ne voit bien qu'avec le cœur. L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux. / It is only with the heart that one can see rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eyes.” Before you got a chance to reply, he skipped off and disappeared into the crowd. 

You stood frozen as you tried to think about the words a random child had just re-iterated to you. You had no problem recognizing the quote from your favorite book of all time; Le Petit Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Trying to think of all the possible reasons why a stranger, let alone a child, would reference that particular quote out of nowhere, you ignored it and settled on the fact that maybe he had been reading too many fantasy books for his own good. Even though the boy had run off somewhere, worry overcame you as you realized you hadn’t even asked him if he was lost. 

Squinting your eyes as you scanned the herd of people to see if you could spot him, you were able to make out his tiny plaid sweater amongst the generally darkly clothed adults. He was standing in the entrance line with an older woman you assumed was his mother.  The boy turned to the man behind him and tugged on the edge of his beige coat, pointing his finger to somewhere in the crowd. Your eyes began trailing up the tall figure whose back was turned towards you, but you recognized the white beanie from earlier like a red wine stain on linen. 

He must have gotten off at the same stop as me. 

Unable to see his face from your angle, the man crouched down and ruffled the boy’s hair as a toothy grin appeared on the child’s face. Lightly chuckling to yourself, you quickly snapped a picture, reminding yourself to tell Amélie all about it when you went to visit her later. Checking your watch, the hands read 12:57 and meant that lunch was just around the corner. Glancing at the eroded star once more, you turned to the spot that the boy was standing, only to find that he and his mother were already walking inside, and the man from earlier was now nowhere to be seen. 

As with most major city, restaurants in urban districts could be found scattered around every block like street signs. After walking across the Pont Notre-Dame to find the nearest bistro, you stumbled upon a crêperie just short of the Tour Saint-Jacques; another landmark that was the only remaining structure of a 16th-century church that was destroyed during the revolution.

Entering the small and cozy eatery, you were greeted by the friendly hostess behind the bar, currently occupied with wiping down the glasses and silverware. Sitting down by the window booth, she brought you a menu and a glass of water to start. Ordering their special, strawberry creme crêpes with a café au lait, you sat patiently as your stomach began to growl from the long walk. Years in the city and you still hadn’t gotten used to the daily on-foot commute. 

Gazing outside the window, you always found yourself magnetized by the most insignificant details about this city. Sometimes, you even found yourself staring at the cracks of old brick walls until a person tapped you on the shoulder asking you if you were alright. If that wasn’t embarrassing enough, you were the type of person who found joy in strolling around flea markets for hours without boredom. 

After a few minutes, a plate of freshly flipped crêpes made its way to your table, the thinly sliced strawberries and fluffy whipped cream seeping at the edges practically begging to be devoured. Bordering the edge of drooling, you cut a bite-sized portion but couldn’t bring yourself to eat at a normal pace for the fear that it would all be gone too soon. This might be your new favorite place, which didn’t bode well for your old faithful crêperie two blocks down from your apartment. 

Taking time to savor the light and airy texture of the filling, you paced yourself in between bites and sips, reminding yourself to eat as slow as you could to make the experience all the more worthwhile. Once you downed your last mouthful and a final sip of coffee, you handed the waitress the check as she returned to go get your receipt. 

Drawn to the light outside the once more, you saw that the sun was still shining bright, remembering that it was still early spring and the sunset didn’t come until around dinnertime. Shifting your gaze to the crowded patio seats, you couldn’t help but draw your attention to a couple sat in a pair beside the rose bushes that lined the seating area. 

They appeared to be in their late thirties and were bantering back and forth while eating, letting a few giggles slip here and there. It’s not that dating or commitment scared you, but it was the idea of giving yourself completely into a relationship and not knowing if the other person might leave you at any moment that seemed—vulnerable. You despised nothing more than being blinded by love, and half of the time, the romance that books and movies talked about wasn’t even real love; it was just lust. Libido-driven physical one-sided lust. Still, you couldn’t help the wishful gaze that began to form. 

Would you ever find a love that was even half as passionate as what they had? 

Receiving the receipt from the waitress, you quickly thanked her and slung your bag over your shoulder as you got ready to leave. However, before you stood up, a familiar figure was sat two booths down from you. The same back-turned position, white beanie, beige coat, and this time, you could make out the edge of an ivory-colored scarf that was wrapped around his neck. Blinking to make sure that your contacts weren’t just drying up, you shrugged it off as the first coincidence of the day. 

You paced yourself out the door and convinced yourself that it was just that; a coincidence.

Venturing down to the 1st arrondissement in a spontaneous act of curiosity, you were drawn to the petite floral shop that was a few blocks from the bus stop. Marveling at the newly made arrangements and bundles of in-season vines that lined the floors and shelves, the kind elderly lady of the store instantly sparked a friendly conversation with you about the meanings of different flowers. 

As the conversation carried on with her effortless French and you struggling to decipher her quick tempo, you understood the gist of her speech but still blanked on a couple verbs and idioms here and there. Roses were tokens of love and devotion, calla lilies symbolized beauty and purity, and lilacs represented innocence and confidence. Nodding your head to make sure that you didn’t show how clueless you were in between her complicated sentences, she gave you a heartwarming smile before clasping her hands over her mouth with a gasp, scrambling to reach for something under her workspace. 

Ducking down her counter and shuffling through floral wires, foam, and a few cardholders, she found a small cylindrical glass vial necklace and handed it to you tenderly. Looking at it up close, you saw that it was a burgundy rosebud encapsulated in a clear resin of some sort.

"Pour votre aimé / For your loved one." Clasping her hands around yours, she gave you a firm look of sincerity, bordering on the verge of urgency

"Non, s'il te plaît, / No, please," you urged, trying to hand it back to her but receiving a pouted lip and a wagging finger in return. Shaking your hands embarrassingly, you denied her conclusion as quickly as the words had left her mouth. “Je n'ai pas d'amant. / I don’t have a lover.” 

“Pas encore, mais bientôt, / Not yet, but soon,” she emphasized her words, laughing at your blank and confused face before waving her hands and telling you to get home early. 

When you tried to hand her a few euros in exchange, she nearly bit your head off and ushered you to take off and come back again. Sighing in defeat and surrendering to her persistent nature, you thanked her once more before leaving the shop with a jingle of the windchimes sounding behind you. 

Pausing to open your clutched hand and inspected the perfectly preserved bud,  completely in awe at how intact and still life-like it was. Frowning slightly, you wondered why she had suddenly been struck with the idea of giving a rather pricey looking necklace to a random customer; mind you, you hadn’t paid for it either.

Feeling guilty for not at least buying a small bouquet or desk succulent, you bit your lip and debated whether you had time to go back inside and buy something before the next bus came. Scanning over the buckets that bordered the outside of the shop, you tried to see if there were any small buds you could bundle together yourself or a small cactus you could quickly buy, but it was a fruitless effort, as most of the displays and pre-made potted plants were too large for you to carry home. 

Exhaling in slight annoyance you decided that it was better to come back tomorrow and catch the bus, but not before taking a quick snapshot of the colorful row of blooming petals. Examining the picture you had just taken on your phone, your eyes widened at an all too recognizable figure at the edge of the picture. Wearing that same white beanie, ivory scarf, beige coat, black jeans, and with his back still turned to you, the same man from earlier today was currently standing over the array of flowers. 

Looking up, he was still facing away from you in a way that you couldn’t make out his appearance, but you could clearly hear the shutter of a camera going off as he gazed at the freshly blossomed roses. Pondering over the possibility that this was just another coincidence, you reminded yourself that you would just come back tomorrow and buy a full-size arrangement instead. 

Returning back to the direction of the bus stop, you almost screamed when you read the time. Nearing dinner time, you dashed down the street as if your life depended on it and tried to catch the last bus home. 

The good news was that you ran faster than you had in your entire life and could probably skip cardio for the next few months. The bad news was that you missed your bus and were out of breath, freezing, and hungry. 

Your watch read 4:40, making you groan as reality struck. Internally facepalming yourself and saying a prayer to your bank account, you swallowed your pride and told yourself that this was a foreboding from the high heavens as motivation to work harder. A white lie never every once in a while never hurt anyone, right? 

Stumbling across a somewhat affordable diner combined brasserie, the enticing smell of roast beef and freshly baked dinner rolls wafted you inside. Since it was a peak hour for early diners, you were lucky to find yourself a spot in the back patio seating. Eyeing the rather empty area oddly, it clicked when you pieced together how full the front and indoor seating area was. Following the waiter to your table, you sighed in relief when your legs came in contact with the leather cushions. With tired legs finally being able to leisure and be limp on the ground, your tired out-of-shape muscles bid you a wordless thank you. 

Gulping down the jug of water the kind server had brought you, he chuckled before giving you a break to catch your breath, clearly noticing your exhaustion as you struggled to form proper sentences. If your day to day French was awful, imagine what it sounded like when you were fatigued beyond words. 

Deciding on a bowl of bœuf bourguignon with pommes frites / beef stew with fried potatoes, the waiter jotted down your order and excused himself. Closing your eyes and trying to control your growing hunger, you almost fainted when you rolled your head back and turned to two seats down to your right. 

“Beanie boy?!” you shrieked, widening your eyes and cupping your hand over your mouth when you realized how loud you had just shouted. The same boy from earlier jolted from his seat, dropping his pasta entwined fork and yelping as well. Coughing to clear his throat from his near-choking experience, you couldn’t believe your eyes. How did he get here?

“Pardon?” he choked, grabbing his napkin to wipe his mouth. Noticing his choice of English, you raised your finger shakily and pointed to him as if he were a zombie that had risen from the dead.  “You speak English?” you asked with your jaw agape. He simply blinked and nodded. 

Right before you could continue, the waiter walked into the seating area and looked at both of you with bulging eyes before hastily setting your food down on your table and scurrying off. 

“Have you—do you—have you been following me?” you mumbled. Your mouth was still agape in shock, periodically opening and closing like a fish out of water. 

Cocking his head and furrowing his eyebrow softly, his lower lip jutted in a pout and he shook his head. “I could ask you the same thing.” 

Jaw dropping entirely, you blinked harshly and checked once more if your contacts were dried out, but gulped anxiously when he was still in front of you. “No. No, I’m not, I just—how?”

“May I sit?” he peeped politely, his extroverted statement contrasting with his outwardly introverted appearance. Nodding unconsciously for the fear that you’d be an awful person if you denied someone eating dinner alone a companion, he got up and shuffled through the chairs and sat down in front of you. 

The dim light now illuminated his features, making his face thoroughly visible. Under his knit cap was coarse dark brown hair that framed his round yet angular face. His soft eyebrows drew attention to his brown eyes, while his lips seemed to be formed a perpetual pout.  

“I guess this is all just one big coincidence, right?” you forced out an awkward laugh in order to diffuse some of the tension and pry your staring eyes off of him. Maybe it was all in your own head.

Pressing his lips into a thin line, it looked as if he were holding back a laugh. Barely narrowing your eyes to try and analyze his micro expressions, he resumed speaking. 

“If you want to call it that,” he chuckled lightly, his voice now emphasized crystal clear. “I’ve had a pretty weird day today.”

Feeling yourself relax at his ability to make casual talk with a stranger like yourself, you felt a grin tug at the edges of your mouth. “I’ll raise you on that bet.”

Eyebrow lifting at your challenge, you raised your eyebrows at him tauntingly, a sudden surge of confidence rushing over you that you had never felt before. He eyed you wearily before raising his fork to his mouth and poking his chin with it, his aim inadvertently ruined by your locked stare. You coughed to hide a snort. 

“So what brings you to the 1st arrondissement on this fine Saturday night?” he asked speculatively, deep-set eyes never leaving yours as you replied. 

Chewing slowly to think of an answer, you shrugged shyly and gave him your honest answer. “Just another boring Saturday, I guess...” He nodded understandingly, seeming to accept your plain response. “What about you?”

It was his turn to shrug. “I didn’t feel like sitting around in my living room again was the most productive way to spend the weekend, so I thought it’d be a good idea to work on my portfolio.”

Holding your spoon as it came halfway to your mouth, you set it back down and grew interested in his occupation. “Photography major?” 

“Photographer, actually,” he smirked playfully, emphasizing the last syllable ever so slightly. “But I’m glad I wasn’t the only one who got mistaken as a student.” 

“You thought I was a post-grad?” you scoffed, amazed and flattered that you could still pass off as a woman in her very early twenties. 

He grinned widely at your surprise, showing off a gummy smile that made your stomach feel weird. Did they cook the meat all the way through? you thought. 

“I guess we have more than one thing in common,” he remarked, winding another mouthful of pasta around his fork neatly before engulfing it like a child.

“You mean ferry rides and flower shops?” you joked. 

“Don’t forget cathedrals and cafés,” he reminded, shooting you a cheeky wink. 

Shaking your head at his bold nature, the two of you broke into giggles, unable to hold back the recollection of strange concurrences that had occurred in the single day alone. The waiter stopped by the table to refill the water jug, making you both shift in your seats and try to tone your laughter down. Whispering something in the waiter’s ear, he shuffled his hand under the tablecloth, but you assumed your eyes were just deceiving you again. 

“So you’re a photographer, are you?” 

Quirking the edge of his lip and a brow into a pondering expression, he couldn’t give you a definitive answer. “It depends—am I still a professional if I don’t think my work is particularly that good?” 

“Touché,” you hummed. “May I be the judge of that?” 

His eyes ducked down timidly, indicating that he was genuinely unconfident in his work. “How about we make a deal of some sort?” he offered.

Jutting your chin down and pressing him to continue, he smiled coyly. “Let me spend the evening with you as reimbursement for dinner, and I’ll show you my portfolio.” 

“Is that a euphemism for something I don’t want to know?” your mind urged you to ask apprehensively, noting the kind tone that laced his voice.

“No, I promise,” he raised his hands in defense. 

“What do you mean ‘reimbursement for dinner?’” you air-quoted, still not sure of what his intention was. 

“Considering I already slipped the waiter my card,” he whipped out a piece of paper from his back pocket. “—and I’ve already signed the receipt, I’d say that this boring Saturday just turned into a spur of the moment hang out between new acquaintances.” 

Suppressing a scoff at his daring personality that emitted sheer confidence and shamelessness, you caved in and agreed. This was considered a “blind date,” right?

Continuing our discussion and jumping randomly from topic to topic, the flow of the conversation never stopped, continuing along effortlessly as hours seemed to pass by like seconds. The playful banter was exchanged with teasing comments and jokes, making the rumbling of passing streetcars become drowned out by the combination of your hearty laughter; a sound that you had unintentionally begun to memorize note by note in your mind. 

Before you knew it, the sun had already begun to set and was falling fast. A mutual look of understanding crossed your faces when you checked your watch again, the dreaded hands that you had grown to dislike throughout the day clearly reading 8:05. 

“I live in the 7th arrondissement. Is it alright I walk you home?” he asked softly, a tone of reluctance lacing his quiet voice. 

Blinking your eyes rapidly and coming back to your senses, you nodded, wondering for a split second how he knew which district you lived in, but remembered that he boarded the same ferry as you this morning. Telling yourself that nothing lasted forever and that the night had to come to an end eventually, the two of you rose from your seats and slowly dragged your feet to the exit.

The view from the Pont Alexander III bridge was beautiful during the daytime, but the lampposts that illuminated the pathway at night was an entirely different experience. The ornate and extravagant bridge that you had seen glimmering during the daytime was now toned down, making the statues appear to be asleep. 

Considered the golden hour by many, you understood why the lavish name had been given to the spot at this time. The line of the sunset followed the arch of the bridge, skimming it lightly as the sun itself disappeared beneath the skyline. The pastel blue, warm orange, and vibrant red-yellow gradient skies were accentuated by the very golden street lamps, making it the perfect destination to stop by before the end the evening. 

“Do I get to see those pictures yet or was this all just a grand scheme to spend the evening with me?” you remarked coyly, biting the inside of your cheek to hold back a grin when you saw a light blush fan across his cheeks. Darting his tongue out to wet his lower lip, he still seemed a bit nervous. 

“I promise you that my pictures are worse,” you assured. “You looked pretty professional around the roses though, so I wouldn’t really worry.” 

Face surrendering into his grin, he pulled out his camera from his satchel and stood beside you, both of you resting your elbows behind you on the rail of the bridge. Handing him your phone and exchanging it with his camera, you each began scrolling through the gallery pictures. You were absolutely spellbound. 

He had managed to capture each setting of the landmarks in Paris perfectly. From the Louvre to the Museé d’Orsay and the Arc de Triomphe all the way up to the view from the top of the Eiffel Tower, his shots were somehow able to encapture the pure essence and splendor of the city. 

“These are—” you gaped. “I don’t—”

“They’re pretty mediocre,” he admitted guiltily as his hand began rubbing the back of his neck instinctively. 

“No!” you defended. “They’re just—wow. They’re amazing...”

“Thanks,”  he blushed at your compliment. “Your pictures are pretty good, too.”

Rolling your eyes at his makeshift compliment, you accepted it nonetheless. “They’re mediocre,” you mimicked.

He ruffled your hair jocularly, taking your mind back to when you saw him at the cathedral. “Did I mention that I make a great model?”

Your head tilted in confusion at his query but your eyes widened when it dawned on you; he had seen the pictures you’d taken of him. Showing you your phone, he began swiping across the screen, exposing the few pictures that you had snapped of him covertly. 

“Oh—” you stuttered. “Those were just—I thought it—I thought it would be a funny story to tell my friend. My best friend. She loves movie-plot stuff like this. Coincidental situations, accidental encounters, you know. Stuff like that?”

Hoping he would understand and look past your rambling mess of words, he burst into a fit of laughter as he showed off his gummy smile again; one you had already begun to grow fond of a little too quickly for your liking. 

“Keep scrolling,” he giggled, pointing to his camera in your hand. Following his directions, your eyes nearly popped out of their sockets as they caught images of the places you had visited earlier today—with you as the central subject of the pictures.

The first was of the ferry ride; you were holding your chin up from your elbow on the rail and gazing across the river with a serene and tranquil expression. The second was of you standing on point zero; your eyes were shut tight and concentrated firmly on the brass plate, making you remember your wish that you had prayed for. The third was of you at the crêperie; your mind flashed back to the moment when you were staring out the window at the lovely couple. In the captured photo, your wistful gaze conveyed the definition loneliness. 

The fourth one at the flower shop was the one that stood out from the rest. 

In the other ones, you seemed like you were lost in the haze of your mind and constantly living out of the moment; whether it was thinking about your past or the future, this one was one of pure joy as you were gazing at the beautiful colors and delicate scents of the flora. A repressed grin slipped past your lips, turning into a full-blown expression of awe. 

“Do you mind if I take another one?” he asked delicately, rubbing the back of his neck again, a habit you deciphered as one that stemmed from nervousness. Nodding your head as warmth flushed your cheeks, you handed him the camera and panicked, unable to think of a pose. 

“Just relax and smile,” he encouraged, giving you a heartfelt grin as he adjusted the lens. 

Narrowing your eyes at the ground for a brief second, you retreated to your accustomed position of propping your elbow up and resting your chin on your hand. You looked out across the rippling river and now dark sky as the once bright colors had grown dusky and dim. The shutter clicked once, making you turn to him and click again. 

“Aimer, ce n'est pas se regarder l'un l'autre, c'est regarder ensemble dans la même direction. / Love doesn’t consist of gazing at each other, but in looking together in the same direction.” He spoke in a near whisper to himself as he repeated another quote from Saint-Exupéry, making it the second one today. 

Taken aback by his words, you struggled to find words yourself. “Did a boy—a little boy tell you that, by any chance?” 

He looked up from his camera display and at you with widened eyes. “I told you today was a weird day,” he stared at you in disbelief. Feeling at ease around his amusing reaction, you shook your head and let out a nasal snort, staring thoughtfully at the river.  

"I’m guessing you’re an Exupéry fan too?” you added. Fiddling with his hands, he simply nodded, the edges of his lips curling into a carefree grin. 

“Le Petit Prince is a classic tragedy,” he sighed. “I cried for days when my mom explained the ending to me.” 

Patting his back and comforting his pouty face, you accidentally let out a giggle. “I thought I was the only one.” 

Standing beside each other and glancing at the rippling waves below, you found your eyes drift to a couple on the street that bordered the bridge. Oddly enough, they seemed to mirror the pair of you with their similar taste of clothing and friendly bond.

“Do you think the rose was selfish?” you wondered aloud, not expecting a response from him. It had been an odd question that plagued your very existence ever since you had read the book as a child. 

“No,” he replied without an ounce of hesitation. “They were so blinded by love, they didn’t understand what it even meant. Would you still call that love?” he pondered, his voice coming out just shy of a whisper. 

Your head shifted to him, studying his features as he continued to look across the water. Changing his position to mirror you, his lips relaxed before forming a sympathetic smile. 

“Love is easy to find if you look hard enough, especially in a big city like this— but it’s the good kind; the wholehearted, selfless, and genuine devotion that makes everything worthwhile. That’s the one that’s almost impossible to find.” 

Feeling his eyes pierce through you, you shyly averted your gaze away and returned to the view of the sky, which was now completely enveloped in darkness as the day was finally at its end. 

“That kind of love isn’t something you find; it’s something that comes to you,” he iterated softly, his captivated eyes never leaving you. “But I couldn’t agree more.” 

“On ne voit bien qu'avec le cœur, / It is only with the heart that one can see rightly,” you started, curious to see if he were as passionate and borderline obsessed with the children’s fable as you were. 

“L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux, / What is essential is invisible to the eyes,” he continued, completing the second half of the quote. 

Diverting your attention back to the streets below, you swore you felt your heart hiccup. 

Within the few hours that you had spent together, you felt as if you’d known each other all your life. There was some kind of connection, a bond, that neither of you could explain. Whether it was your mutual inarticulate French speaking skills or the fact that you had delved deep into the past circumstances that resulted in moving to Paris, time didn’t seem to exist when he spoke to you. To say that you felt comfortable around him was an understatement; you felt like you were home.

Thankfully, Maison de Raphaël was just around the corner from the bridge. You didn’t notice how much time had passed until you checked the time again; it was already 9:30, meaning Amélie would be off work soon.

“I guess this is my stop,” you exhaled, trying not to show your discomfort from all the walking you had done today. Even though the sky was now a deep navy blue, flecks of light constellations began to peek through the dim clouds.

“Time flew by too quickly,” he noted, his hands instinctively returning to stroke the nape of his neck.

Puffing your cheeks to stifle a cheesy grin, you could only nod curtly in agreement. “Way too quickly.”

A few awkward seconds passed before each of you found the courage to speak.

“I—” he started.

“Do you—” you tried to ask.

Cutting off each other’s words, he gestured kindly for you to start first. “You should get home,” you insisted, feeling the guilt grow inside you the longer you kept him here.

He blinked a couple times, opening then closing his mouth as he tried to form a response. 

Why oh why of all the things to say did you have to say that stupid sentence, you groaned silently, mentally scolding yourself for being so brusque.

“Oh—yeah. Of course,” he replied while forcing out a cough. “Thanks for tonight.” 

Laughing warmly, he couldn’t help but look at you with that same gummy smile you had already known by heart. “Will I get to see you again?” you asked, worried for a second that you might’ve sounded too hopeful. 

He considered the realistic possibilities. “It’s a pretty big neighborhood, but judging from the day we’ve spent and the places we both like to visit, I would say the odds are in our favor.”

Holding his hand out, you shook it tenderly, afraid that if you let go too quickly, the universe would find a way to make sure that you’d never see him again. It’s not like you ever believed in fictional concepts like the power of the universe or romantic deities, but it was better to be safe than sorry. The air around you grew cold with melancholy, the two of you more than clearly able to feel the tension as you were forced to accept the reality of parting ways. 

Not even a few seconds after walking in the opposite direction, you turned around and bid him one more but hopefully not last farewell. 

“Get home safely!” you shouted through cupped hands. He hadn’t moved far from the previous spot he was standing in. Only when you were at the entrance of the café and saw his still unmoved distant figure did you understand that he waited there to make sure that you arrived at your destination safely. Peering through the glass pane, you saw him give you a final wave before his shadow faded into the night.  

“So you just left?!” Amélie’s jaw dropped to the ground. “And you didn’t even get his phone number?”

“Yes!” you groaned, burying your face in your hands and slamming them down onto the counter by the cash register. “Don’t rub it in.” Somehow, you had managed to compress in your entire day’s worth of events into a five-minute rant. Breathless at the end of your makeshift speech and in a fugue state, she brought you a glass of water, still gawking at you as you chugged it in four gulps. 

“Punaise... / Damn...” she whispered. “Are you alright?” Sniffling slightly, you didn’t realize that tears had begun to flood your eyes until her hands rubbed your back soothingly. 

Why were you crying? 

“You two must have really had something special going on,” she sighed, still stroking your shoulders tenderly.

“Don’t start with that fate and destiny crap—” you whined but were cut off by her abrupt hush.

“Do you know how starstruck both of you would have been to not even ask for each other’s names?” she dragged out the last word, craning her neck and raising her eyebrows so high they looked animated.

Tears pricked your eyes again as the lump in your throat returned. You broke into full sobs now. “I didn’t even get his name!” Tangling your hands into your hair, you wondered if all those years studying for school actually grew your practical intelligence or just made you dumber. 

“Amélie!” Pierre hollered from the empty kitchen. “Un café au lait!” 

“On est fermé! / We’re closed!” she groaned, rubbing her temple as she tried to think of a solution to your predicament. 

“Vingt minutes! / Twenty minutes!” he barked back. 

“Who in their right mind orders coffee at night...” she grumbled a few profanities. You shot her a quick smile and shooed her off to quickly finish her shift so that the two of you could go back to your place. Sleepovers were more fun as adults, especially when champagne was added to the equation. 

With your head buried underneath your scarf and crossed arms, you could barely hear the muffled exclamation of Amélie’s cheer as she greeted the last customer of the night, judging by the tone of her voice to come to the conclusion that they were also a regular.  

You didn’t even know his name. You didn’t even get his stupid freaking name and you were beating yourself up over how absurd the entire situation was. It’s not like you really knew each other, right? You were appalled at your own desperation. You couldn’t believe actually crying over some random guy. 

It was just a fun day with some random stranger. A random stranger who you just happened to click with. A stranger who you coincidentally ran into multiple times, just as luck would have it. An unknown guy who shared the same interests as you and admired the beauty in little things. 

A person who you were wholeheartedly and completely mesmerized by right down to the last bit of fluff that was stuck on his beanie. 

“Love at first sight my ass—” your obscenity was interrupted by a forceful cough that belonged to none other than your best friend. 

“Last time I checked, you were the ‘innocent’ one of us two?” she hummed, raising her brow in a comical manner. Rolling your eyes and wiping the edges of your eyes, your tears finally started to come to a slow. All that remained was a pink flush on your cheeks and a red nose Rudolph would be jealous of. 

Noticing the plate of coffee in her hand, you eyed her skeptically and asked her what she was doing watching you cry like an infant instead of serving the last customer so you could go home to your emergency ice cream stash. 

Clicking her tongue mischievously, she set the porcelain cup down in front of you. “Pour vous, / For you,” she bowed dramatically. 

“What?” you hiccuped. 

“Special occasion?” her lips formed into a quirky grin. Nudging her head to the design she had etched into the cup, it was a new pattern. The base was a classic rosetta, but rather than have the buds of the leaves extend and thin out at the tip, she had drawn a plump heart. It was unusual. Out of all the different designs she had drawn on hundreds of cups, you’d never seen her draw a real heart, counting the number of times she had remarked how “cheesy” and “cliché” it was. 

“I didn’t order a—” you stammered.

“I guess we have more than a few things in common...” a soft-spoken voice trailed from behind you. 

Feeling your breath hitch in your throat, you felt your entire body tense up in shock, too anxious to turn around. Slowly turning your chair to the source of the voice, you were met with a pair of deep brown eyes and a beaming smile. 

“I forgot to ask you if you wanted to get a cup of coffee with me,” he grinned. 

In a heartbeat, you found yourself throwing yourself into in his arms as they enveloped you in a tight embrace. Fitting like two pieces of a puzzle, you nestled your head into his chest as he held you close. It was the first heart fluttering hug you’d felt in years. 

“I could’ve sworn I recognized the person I bumped into this morning,” he chuckled deeply. 

Your eyes widened to the size of flying saucers. 

“You didn’t tell me you knew Y/N, Yoongi” Amélie peeped from the counter, ogling the both of you while waggling her eyebrows impishly. 

“Y/N,” he repeated slowly, your name rolling off of his tongue like honey.

“Yoongi,” you greeted with a giggle. His name felt like words you had been waiting an eternity to say. 

Amélie read your facial expressions, making hers contort into one that resembled Munch’s painting of The Scream. “You have got to be kidding me,” she drawled out with her hand cupped over her mouth. 

Yoongi’s hands wrapped around your waist and pressed you closer into him, sighing in content at the feeling of fulfillment that washed over both of you. 

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Y/N,” he looked down at you, introducing himself formally and taking the opportunity to accentuate your name once more. 

“The pleasure is all mine,” you beamed, never feeling more at home than in the arms of Yoongi in this exact present moment. 

Maybe this whole coup de foudre thing wasn’t a total fairy tale after all.

#min yoongi #suga #min yoongi imagine #min yoongi fic #suga imagine #suga fluff #suga imagines #bts suga #bts yoongi #yoongi imagine #yoongi #yoongi imagines #yoongi fanfic #bts imagine #bts imagines #suga scenario #bts au #bts min yoongi #yoongi scenario #bts yoongi imagines #yoongi fluff #min yoongi au #yoongi scenarios #min yoongi imagines #yoongi soulmate au #bts soulmate au #min yoongi angst #bts fluff #bangtan network #barely a soulmate au series

[miraculous-french-learning]

Getting started: A masterpost of French basics

Bonjour, mes chers miraculeurs! Are you interested in learning French, but you’ve never spoken a lick of it? Well then you’re in luck because this post has been specially made for you!

In this masterpost, you will be introduced to 4 concepts that you will need to start forming basic sentences in French. Included in it will be my basic rundowns, the nitty-gritty of what you need to know, along with links to videos and other resources that will explain things more in-depth. I highly advise looking through all the links, as there is a lot of nuance that my quick charts will not explain. So, those 4 concepts are:

Personal pronouns

Regular “-er” verbs

The verbs “être” and “avoir”

Definite and indefinite articles

Note that this post is subject to be edited if I decide that I want to further elaborate on anything, add more links and resources, or add more concepts.

Alors, commençons! So, let’s begin!

1. Personal pronouns

Before we can even look at verbs, we need to know our personal pronouns. In English, these would be things like I, you, he, she, we, & they.

In French, we have:

je - I tu - you (informal, singular) il/elle/on - he/she/one nous - we vous - you (formal or plural) ils/elles - they

Here is a video that explains the use of each of these.

Pay particular attention to the differentiation between tu and vous, as this is something that flat-out does not exist in modern English. If you ever took a foreign language class in school for another Romance or perhaps a Germanic language, you may already be familiar with the concept. It’s quite common, in fact, and is called the T-V distinction. Old and Middle English even used it to have it an extent! That’s your fun fact for the day.

One thing that this video does not discuss fully is the difference in usage between ils and elles to mean they. It says that “There are two words for they, since the things you’re referring to could be masculine or feminine.” There is, of course, a little bit more to it than that.

Let’s imagine a room full of 20 women. To refer to all of them, you would use elles, because all of them are feminine. If, however, one man walks in, you would now use ils to refer to the entire group. Elles can only be used when all things in the group are feminine!

This goes for non-humans as well. All nouns have grammatical gender, and it works the same way if you’re referring to a bunch of feminine nouns with one masculine noun mixed in. Some examples:

La coccinelle (the ladybug, feminine) et le chat (the cat, masculine), ils sont génials! (they are amazing!)

La table (the table, feminine) et la chaise (the chair, feminine), elles sont en bois. (they are wooden.)

Keep this in mind, as the same rules apply in many other aspects of grammar. But now that you know your personal pronouns, we can move on to the next concept!

2. Regular “-er” verbs

Regular “-er” verbs are the most common type of verbs in French. They are called regular because the conjugation follows a regular pattern no matter the verb. They’re called regular “-er” verbs because, in their infinitive form, they end in the letters “-er”.

Some examples of regular “-er” verbs are:

parler - to talk manger - to eat transformer - to transform aimer - to like or to love donner - to give jouer - to play

I’ll leave this video to do most of the explaining here, as it covers basically everything you need to know about conjugating regular “-er” verbs in the present tense. I really don’t have anything to add here, other than a little chart I made for you because I couldn’t find any online that had this two column layout, which is personally what I prefer because it’s what I was taught with and the setup makes sense, with the rows being 1st person, 2nd person, then 3rd person, and the columns being singular and plural.

There’s really no shortcut to learning conjugations, unfortunately. It’s really just a matter of drilling it over and over and over until it becomes second nature. This will take a while, especially as you’re trying to memorize a few irregular verbs as well… (this is a transition oooooh foreshadowing)

3. The verbs “être” and “avoir”

These verbs are your lifeline. Meet them, know them, befriend them, love them. They are the two main auxiliary verbs in French, and their present tense forms are used to form the perfect past tense, or passé composé. We’re not touching the passé composé here, but if you plan on continuing learning French, that lesson isn’t terribly far down the road.

Unfortunately, être and avoir are irregular verbs, meaning their conjugations don’t follow a nice pattern like our friends, the regular “-er” verbs up there. There is no rhyme or reason to their conjugation, and you have to memorize that whole chart for both of them. Except this time, each chart is only for one verb, not hundreds.

Here are your conjugation charts:

And a video demonstrating the pronunciation of the conjugations of être and avoir. 

And I hate to be the breaker of bad news, but many of the most common verbs are also irregular. English is like this as well, as are many languages, in fact, as common verbs tend to stay erratic due to their frequency of use. So I’ve included a blank conjugation chart for you as well for you to have fun drilling with.

Or just grab a notebook and make your own chart and fill it out again and again and again until you can recite your conjugations in your sleep. Trust me on this. Test yourself by trying to fill it out without any reference. Try not to look at a chart when forming sentences. You see somebody walking by with a dog? Think of how you would say “He has a dog” in French without looking at the avoir chart. Try to exercise your brain on a daily basis like this, try to think simple sentences in French once you get the hang of a few verbs and nouns. This is exactly the sort of thing you’d be doing in a classroom, and it might suck at first because memorization isn’t exactly fun, but if you keep at it for long enough I promise that it will pay off.

Anyhow, after that little rant about “practice makes perfect” and what have you, let’s move on to the last concept. It’ll be shorter, I promise.

4. Definite and Indefinite articles

“What the heck is an article?” you may ask. My answer is that you just used both a definite and indefinite article in your question. An article is a part of speech that introduces a noun. The definite article in English is “the”, and the indefinite articles are “a” and “an”. What’s the difference? It’s exactly as their names say, “the” denotes a specific example of the noun. “A” or “an” denotes just any example of the noun.

If your friend has a bushel of apples, you can ask them for “an apple,” meaning any apple from the bushel. You might see a green apple and begin talking about it with your friend because you are such conversationalists, and then ask for “the apple,” implying the specific apple you were just talking about.

The definite articles in French are:

le - singular masculine la - singular feminine l’ - singular before a vowel sound les - plural, masculine or feminine

I will send you with Pascal here to explain further, although he goes into a bit about voiced and unvoiced Hs a bit more than I think necessary.

The indefinite articles in French are:

un - singular masculine une - singular feminine des - plural, masculine or feminine

Again, here’s Pascal, and again, he goes into a bit more complex things at around the 5:30 mark. For our purposes today, I’d skip the rest of the video after that, it’s more advanced than just learning the bare essentials.

I don’t have much more to say on the topic other than 1) start memorizing nouns’ genders and 2) note that French requires articles in a lot of places that English does not. Pascal gives the example of des voitures, which is the equivalent of just saying “cars” in English. English doesn’t require and article in this case, though you could say “some cars” if you felt like it and it would be the same. This is just a little something to keep in the back of your mind as you continue your learning.

So you made it to the end of this post. Félicitations! Congratulations! You can now form basic sentences, even if they are admittedly very simple. But the foundations have been set and now you can begin building on that, hopefully until you have a lovely sculpture of the French language dancing in your head, or on pages, or in the air. You should be proud of that! It’s really quite an accomplishment, even if it doesn’t seem like much. You took the first step in learning a new language, and that can be a very daunting task. Give yourself a pat on the back for that.

Anyway, I hope I can help you build up your beautiful lingual sculptures by providing vocabulary lists and general discussion of the language. Feel free to ask any questions you may have. I’m here to help and love doing so. And I’m Cool and Down With The Kids and am just as much of a nerd for this show as you are. And don’t forget to drill your conjugation charts! :p

#miraculous ladybug #miraculous: tales of ladybug and cat noir #miraculous: les aventures de ladybug et chat noir #langblr #masterpost #references #resources