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Questions about some basic French vocab | ||
Tags: Vocabulary learning | French | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Spinchäeb Ape Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 4472 days ago 146 posts - 180 votes  Speaks: English*, German | Message 1 of 11 27 September 2012 at 7:53pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I just started studying French. One of my study materials is a recording of some French vocab. It's old and we don't have the workbook if there ever was one. It's simple. The man says the word in English and then the woman says the corresponding one in French. I didn't want to just know how to say the French words. I wanted to know how to write them. I therefore created an OpenOffice Writer file with both the English and the French word (including definite article). I did so by just typing the English word into Google Translate. In almost every case, I got the same word said in the recording. However, not all.
When the man on the tape said, “The exit,” Google Translate came up with “la sortie.” However, on the recording it didn't sound anything like that. There was a distortion and then it sounded like you heard a little of the mans' voice and then the woman said something that sounded something like, “le ze-pin-a.” I have no idea how it's spelled, but that's how sounds phonetically pronounced to me. I do know that “la sortie” is correct for “the exit,” but what I don't know is if the recording used a different correct word for it or if the recording was damaged and “ze-pin-a” is a word for something different. I tried a few guess spellings in Google Translate without any luck. I'm very new to French. If anyone knowledgeable of French has an idea of what this “ze-pin-a” word is, I'd appreciate some clarification. There are some other words that didn't come up the same in Google Translate, but I think I got them right via an online English/French dictionary: the ice cream …. la glacée the purse ….. le porte-monnaie the bill …. l'addition the spring …. le printemps 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
 emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5534 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 2 of 11 27 September 2012 at 8:49pm | IP Logged | |||||
Huh, that's a weird one, and you can probably ignore it. I just did a web search, and found a big database of French pronunciations that might be useful. And you can quickly check definitions at WordReference and Linguee. You might also want to look for some less frustrating recordings. :-) 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Spiderkat Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5814 days ago 175 posts - 248 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Russian | Message 3 of 11 27 September 2012 at 9:11pm | IP Logged | |||||
What came first to my mind is les épinards which sounds close enough to “ze-pin-a”. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4846 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 4 of 11 27 September 2012 at 9:53pm | IP Logged | |||||
Haha, same here! :D 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Spinchäeb Ape Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 4472 days ago 146 posts - 180 votes Speaks: English*, German | Message 5 of 11 27 September 2012 at 11:51pm | IP Logged | |||||
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| LittleBoy Diglot Groupie United Kingdom Joined 5312 days ago 84 posts - 100 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German, Spanish, Mandarin, Esperanto | Message 6 of 11 30 September 2012 at 1:53am | IP Logged | |||||
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What dictionary did you use? I thought that "ice cream" was "la glace".
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| Homogenik Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4826 days ago 314 posts - 407 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Polish, Mandarin | Message 7 of 11 30 September 2012 at 6:22pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Ice cream is "une glace" or "la glace" or "la crème glacée", but "glace" really means "ice". Its "ice cream" meaning is
more like a euphemism. I have no idea what the zepina sound is. Exit really is "la sortie". And a purse is generally more "le sac à main" or "la sacoche" for women rather than "le porte-monnaie" or "le porte- feuille" which is a wallet. The bill can also mean "la facture" which is a more general word for l'addition (that one's for restaurants). 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Spinchäeb Ape Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 4472 days ago 146 posts - 180 votes Speaks: English*, German | Message 8 of 11 01 October 2012 at 2:06am | IP Logged | |||||
Okay, thanks. I derived what I have from "la crème glacée," but I was used to what they say in German language Switzerland (where they mix French and German) "eine glace." So "la glace" it is. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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