boney sample - boney french · page 2 of 5 boney french instead, applying the first principle of...

BONEY

f r e n c h

How to say almost anything you want

in 85% accurate French in 8 days or 8 weeks.

SAMPLE

BONEY

FRENCH

HOW TO SAY ALMOST ANYTHING

YOU WANT IN 85% ACCURATE

FRENCH IN

8 DAYS OR 8 WEEKS

Adapted from the method used by Napoleon Bonaparte and

updated for modern usage

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Published by Boney French www.boneyfrench.com

Contact [email protected]

© Roger Ayling 2017

All rights reserved

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a

retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means

– electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or

otherwise – without the prior permission of the author. SAMPLE

http://www.boneyfrench.com/

mailto:[email protected]

Boney French

BONEY FRENCH – How to say almost anything you want in

85% accurate French in 8 days or 8 weeks!

CONTENTSC

NTS1 1. FOREWORD

2. INTRODUCTION

3. PLANNERS

3.1 8 DAY PLANNER

3.2 8 WEEK PLANNER

4. PROGRAMME

4.1 PRONOUNCIATION

4.2 WORDS AND PHRASES WHICH MUST BE LEARNT

4.3 WORDS – HOW TO GET OUT OF TROUBLE

4.4 GENDER

4.5 REVIEW 1

4.6 ADJECTIVES

4.7 SIMPLIFYING VERBS

4.8 SIMPLIFYING VERBS – WHAT ABOUT THE TENSE?

4.9 SIMPLIFYING VERBS – TWO OR MORE VERBS TOGETHER

4.10 REVIEW 2

4.11 SIMPLIFYING VERBS – NEGATIVES

4.12 SIMPLIFYING VERBS – COMMANDS

4.13 SIMPLIFYING VERBS – USING “ON”

4.14 SIMPLIFYING VERBS – DOING THINGS TO YOURSELF

4.15 REVIEW 3

4.16 WATCH OUT FOR THESE WORDS

4.17 HOW TO ASK QUESTIONS

4.18 N’EST CE PAS?

4.19 HOW TO SAY YOU WANT SOMEONE TO DO SOMETHING

4.20 REVIEW 4

4.21 MUST, HAVE TO, GOT TO, HAVE GOT TO, NEED

4.22 MY, YOUR, HIS, HER, OUR, THEIR etc.

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4.23 WITH ME, WITHOUT HIM, AFTER THEM etc.

4.24 WHICH

4.25 REVIEW 5

4.26 WHO, WHOM, THAT, WHICH

4.27 WHAT – WHEN IT’S NOT A QUESTION

4.28 ME, YOU, HIM, HER etc.

4.29 WHAT TO TALK ABOUT

4.30 REVIEW 6

4.31 SOME, FROM THE, OF THE etc.

4.32 TO, TO THE

4.33 THIS, THAT, THESE, THOSE

4.34 SOME REALLY USEFUL PHRASES 1

4.35 REVIEW 7

4.36 SOME REALLY USEFUL PHRASES 2

4.37 ALL, SO, TRANSLATE A NOUN BY A VERB, FOR

4.38 HOW TO HAVE SOMETHING DONE

4.39 FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

4.40 REVIEW 8

5. APPENDIX

5.1 CINDERELLA – AS NAPOLEAN MIGHT HAVE TOLD IT

5.2 NUMBERS

5.3 TIME

5.4 DAYS OF THE WEEK, MONTHS OF THE YEAR

5.5 LETTERS OF THE ALPHABET, THE WEATHER

5.6 FAMILY MEMBERS, COLOURS

5.7 VERBS YOU MAY CONSIDER LEARNING

5.8 LAST OFFICES

------------------------------------------

---------)))))))

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Page 1 of 3 Boney French

1. FOREWORD

I went to school in the UK in the late 50s early 60s and, like many of my fellow

pupils, sat daydreaming through most of my French lessons. As silly as it

sounds today, I never thought I’d need to use French because I believed I’d got

as much chance of going to France as I had of playing for my beloved West

Bromwich Albion.

Well, I was at least right about one thing; I was never anywhere near good

enough to play a decent standard of football. But I did get to visit France;

many times in fact. And during those visits my wife and I fell in love with

France and eventually bought a small place in a sleepy village nestling in the

vineyards of the Languedoc.

How I’ve regretted now not paying attention in those classes all those years

ago. It’s one thing managing to order a drink and something to eat in a café

but quite something else to have a simple conversation with my neighbours

or the old fellows whiling away the afternoon under the shade of the plane

trees in the village square.

Oh believe me, I’ve tried to learn. Over the years, I’ve enrolled in night

school classes, bought text books, tapes and DVDs as well as trying courses

on the internet. But I always seemed to get bogged down with the grammar.

How to conjugate a verb, what’s the infinitive or the pluperfect? It was all a

mystery to me. I just wanted to be able to converse simply with people, not

pass exams or write a best seller in French.

Then one day someone introduced me to a book called Bony’s French by

Roger Soufrant. I was immediately hooked. The book explained in simple

terms how to converse in a way that was not always 100% technically correct

but would ALWAYS be clearly understood.

The trouble was the book was out of print and try as I might I couldn’t track

down a copy. However, after much detective work I traced the author even

though he’d used a nom de plume (Soufrant : Ayling – if you don’t immediately

get it try your dictionary!). We eventually met and found that we got on

really well together; so much so that we agreed to relaunch the book as a

teaching manual.

The manual is formatted to guide the user in a structured way to acquire the

confidence to converse in French at a reasonable level and to continue

learning through practice; just as we did when we learnt English in our

childhood.

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So this manual is for those who..

• have a little knowledge of French

• have forgotten most of what little French they knew 30 years ago

• may only need French for a couple of weeks a year

…or who may be moving to, or living in, France and have never really got

around to learning it or, if they have, seem to be making little progress in spite

of trying hard and paying for expensive lessons.

It will be especially useful for those of a certain age whose memory is not

what it was and who are discouraged by the complexities of the grammar and

yet who really want to communicate.

It is not really suitable for public examinations but the standard of your

spoken French after following the ideas of Boney French will not be very far

short of an above average grade in the public exam taken by pupils at the end

of Year 11 - which, remember, is a five-year course of about 1.5 to 2 hours a

week. Many French teachers would be delighted if their pupils could

communicate as well as you will be able to after a couple of hours with this

manual.

However, if you want to speak really good grammatical French in all

situations -

Then don’t buy this manual

Do Advanced Level French and then a degree. Then spend at least a year

living and working in France and go back often to keep it up.

But maybe that’s not your cup of tea!

So, I sincerely hope that like me, you’ll enjoy the humour and the good,

practical, common sense approach to language learning that Roger has

created.

Finally, we should point out that whilst it’s perfectly true that Napoleon 1

didn’t have a complete mastery of French, some of the passages attributed

to him owe a little to poetic licence. We hope that you’ll find though that

they reinforce our mantra that the most important thing is to try, regardless

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of how many mistakes you might initially make.

Bonne lecture!

Steve Cooper November 2017

…and naturally, a final word from the author

I too went to school in the Fifties and Sixties and, along with everyone else,

ground my way through five years of French. Not good enough to do other,

more glamorous subjects at A level, I took French and English, and went on

to take a degree in both. I did a year in a French teacher training college in

Tours - where they speak with no regional accent - then a Certificate of

Education.

The next 28 years saw me serving time in a comprehensive school, teaching

all levels from First Years to university entrance, including children who

thought the Common Market was just north of Walsall. In 1974, we bought

our first house in France (cost - £3,000) and spent every holiday there.

Retirement brought a better house and six months in France and six in the

U.K.

I started to help the local English community with their conversational French

and gained an insight into the problems they had: worrying over things that

really don't matter, agonising over those wretched verbs (never really

mastered) and generally lacking in confidence. I drew on several years’

experience and produced a little book, selling nearly 1,000 copies. There

were many requests to make it available online so -- here it is.

Cordialement!

Roger Ayling November 2017

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2. INTRODUCTION

Why Boney French?

Documents* which came to light in the French Archives in 1994 throw light on

the struggle that Napoleon had to speak French. Born and brought up in Corsica,

he was always uncomfortable with the French language and he never mastered

the complexities of its grammar. His thick peasant accent was something he never

eradicated and, together with his clumsy attempts to speak correctly in his

adopted language, attracted life-long derision from his enemies (“The Corsican

Upstart” "The little Corporal")

It appears that Napoleon developed a simplified form of French which enabled

him to make himself clearly understood. Perhaps this way of speaking accounts

for his popularity with the common soldiers who saw in this little general, with

his straightforward manner of expressing himself, someone like themselves - a

welcome change from the affected aristocrats with their foppish, over

complicated language.

Napoleon would often say that, as a simple man, he only had the “bones” of the

French language which he used for the greater part of his speech. This gave rise

to the nickname “Part Bone”, at first intended to be mocking but quickly adopted

by the populace to show their affection and support, a turn of events totally

unforeseen by those who first bestowed it. Perhaps to show his contempt for

his detractors, Napoleon added the name to his own, although he reversed the

two elements and gave it a Corsican spelling - Bonaparte - calculated to annoy

the sneerers even more.

Perhaps the most well-known instance of Boney French, so well known, in fact,

that it has entered the British stock of universally known phrases, along with his

wry excuse "Pardon my French", came about in the following way. According to

his aide-de-camp, Count Henri Bertrand, Napoleon wanted to say something like

the following to his wife:

“My dearest, how pleased I am to see you again. I trust you are well. I have to admit

that I’m rather tired. It’s been an exhausting day - Wellington has been a little

troublesome. So much noise and smoke. You know I want to but I really just want to go

to bed to sleep. I know how disappointed you must be but there’s always tomorrow”

*ref: AF 1789/ NB/ Diff Parl Fr, and others

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Instead, applying the first principle of Boney French, which is to keep things

simple, he famously said:

“Pas ce soir, Josephine”

I have researched Boney method of speaking French from his speeches and from

the contemporary accounts left by those - cooks, grooms, valets etc. - who

worked closely with him. Adapting it for use by English speakers has been fairly

straightforward but I have changed a somewhat military vocabulary (trunnions,

fodder, limbers etc.) for one which should be of more use to today’s speaker.

The Hudson Lowe Papers (ADD MSS 20115 - 20229) in the British Library,

London are an invaluable source of material on Napoleon’s life on St Helena.

THE THINKING BEHIND BONEY FRENCH

• TO GET THE MAXIMUM UNDERSTANDING FROM YOUR LISTENER

WITH THE MINIMUM EFFORT FROM YOU

(Let's call the listener "Jacques" to save ink)

• TO REPLACE THE ERRORS YOU WOULD MAKE ANYWAY - EVEN

AFTER A GREAT DEAL OF STUDY - BY

DELIBERATE CONTROLLED MISTAKES

WHICH ARE NO MORE SERIOUS, AND OFTEN LESS SO, THAN THE ONES

MADE EVERY DAY BY PEOPLE STRUGGLING TO SPEAK FRENCH

It therefore follows that

• JACQUES, NOT YOU, DOES THE WORK

Over the years of teaching French, I've found that many people, both young and

old, feel inhibited about speaking it because they are frightened of making a

mistake. Unless they can be sure they are completely right, they prefer to say

nothing, thinking that they will be laughed at.

This is the wrong attitude, not only to speaking French, but to Life

itself.

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Look at the mistakes we've all made; cake burnt on one side; no tea bags in pot;

hole drilled in wrong place; dates and times confused; vital ingredient forgotten.

I tried to phone my bank using the TV remote. We don’t agonise over these

mistakes - why should it be different when speaking French which is much harder

than any of the above?

The Boney French Speaker knows he is making mistakes but is aware

that he is thereby getting his meaning across. He doesn’t worry about

this but bashes on, gaining Jacques’ understanding and admiration.

“I have always known that the pursuit of excellence is a

lethal habit”

‘The World According to Garp’

WHY JACQUES WILL UNDERSTAND YOU

Consider the following passage:

Hallo. Me speaks English fine. Yesterday, me goes see Buckingham Place - house of

His Majesty Queen. Very smashing. Ask big red soldier if me soldier can be. Him say

no and tell I not climb railing again. Never minds. Me got gooder job - me now

announcer with World Service of BBC. Starts to-night. You listens me? Bye bye.

It would be hard to find a more mangled piece of English yet it’s perfectly

understandable. I have to say at once that if this passage were put into Boney

French, it would be much more accurate; you'll never, ever be anywhere as poor

as this. But would it really matter if you were?

The French have borders with six countries, former colonies in central Africa

and the Far East, islands in the West Indies which count as being part of France

and a sizable population of immigrants from North Africa - quite a large

proportion of the older ones speaking a French which is far from correct. And

then there's Canada. Add to this the wide variety of local accents and words -

some people from the north of France claim to find it hard to understand those

from the south - and you can see that they are USED TO HEARING AND

UNDERSTANDING LESS THAN PERFECT FRENCH. In fact, your Boney

French will be far and away better than many speakers which the French hear

every day.

I have used Boney French on a whole range of French speakers and, without

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exception, THEY ALL UNDERSTOOD COMPLETELY what I said, just as

Napoleon's soldiers understood him, confirming it by telling me, in their correct

French, what I had said. By listening to the correct version, you are getting

a free French lesson and, as it comes to you in the field, you are more likely

to remember it than if you'd heard it at night school on a wet Wednesday night

in November.

HOW TO USE THIS MANUAL

Whenever anyone starts a new project, it’s always best to have a plan and, just as

importantly, to stick to it. However, we recognize that people have different time

constraints so we’ve constructed two alternative plans; an 8 day plan for those

who are able to dedicate up to 2 hours a day or an 8 week plan for those who

prefer to proceed at a more leisurely pace. Both plans use exactly the same

course material.

Whichever plan you chose, try to put aside a convenient time each day when

you can concentrate undisturbed.

Planner sheets are provided as part of the manual and list each of the sections

of the course. Try to enter a target date for each of the sections and do your

very best to stick to the plan ticking the boxes as you go along. It’s OK to take

the weekend off though!

In each section, all French words and phrases are shown in blue or should I say

bleu. And at the end of most (not all) sections there’ll be something called ON

GOINGS. This will contain questions to test your understanding of what you’ve

just learnt in the section. Look up words you don’t know so that you learn from

the exercise. Answers can be found immediately after or alongside the questions.

Try to cover them though until you’ve completed your answer.

At the beginning of the course there’ll also be space for you to form sentences

that have particular relevance to you – you may be renovating a house, or

planning to buy a TV or travelling somewhere for instance. Use your new-found

knowledge and your dictionary to complete these.

After each group of 4 sections there’ll be a further review with a few questions

covering the topics in the preceding sections. Always try to write your answers

down – it helps retention. Again, answers can be found immediately after the

questions.

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It also helps if you try to say aloud the French words and sentences. It aids

retention and the practice helps you get used to the sound and feel of the

language.

If you have the time (up to 2 hours per day) and the discipline, it’s good to start

with the 8 Day Plan. Then use the 8 Week Plan as a follow-up to help imbed

your learning, referencing the Appendix as you go along. You’ll be surprised how

quickly your knowledge and confidence grows.

Now let's start on the language itself - by 10 o'clock tonight, you'll have entered

into the spirit of Boney French and will be well on your way to say almost

anything you want.

Bonne chance!

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3.1 - BONEY FRENCH - How to say almost anything you want in 85% accurate French in 8 days!

8 DAY PLANNER

Day

1 Topic Date

Day 5 Topic Date

4.1 Pronunciation 4.21 Must, have to, got to, have got to, need

4.2 Words and phrases which must be learnt 4.22 My, your, his, her, our, their (and also mine, yours etc.)

4.3 Words - How to get out of trouble 4.23 With me, without him, after them etc.

4.4 Gender 4.24 Which

4.5 Day 1 review 4.25 Day 5 review

Day

2 Topic Date

Day 6 Topic Date

4.6 Adjectives 4.26 Who, whom, that, which, - or nothing at all

4.7 Simplifying verbs 4.27 What - when it's not a question

4.8 Simplifying verbs - what about the tense? 4.28 Me, you, him, her, it, us, them

4.9 Simplifying verbs - two or more verbs together 4.29 What to talk about


Day

3 Topic Date

Day 7 Topic Date

4.11 Simplifying verbs - negatives 4.31 Some, from the, of the, etc.

4.12 Simplifying verbs - commands 4.32 To, to the

4.13 Simplifying verbs - using 'ON' 4.33 This, that, these, those

4.14 Doing things to yourself 4.34 Some really useful phrases 1


Day

4 Topic Date

Day 8 Topic Date

4.16 Watch out for these words 4.36 Some really useful phrases 2

4.17 How to ask questions 4.37 All, so, verbs instead of nouns, for

4.18 N'est-ce pas? 4.38 How to have something done

4.19 How to say you want someone to do something 4.39 Frequently asked questions


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3.2 - BONEY FRENCH - How to say almost anything you want in 85% accurate French in 8 weeks!

8 WEEK PLANNER

Week

1 Topic Date

Week 5 Topic Date

4.1 Pronunciation 4.21 Must, have to, got to, have got to, need

4.2 Words and phrases which must be learnt 4.22 My, your, his, her, our, their (and also mine, yours etc.)

4.3 Words - How to get out of trouble 4.23 With me, without him, after them etc.

4.4 Gender 4.24 Which

4.5 Week 1 review 4.25 Week 5 review

Week

2 Topic Date

Week 6 Topic Date

4.6 Adjectives 4.26 Who, whom, that, which, - or nothing at all

4.7 Simplifying verbs 4.27 What - when it's not a question

4.8 Simplifying verbs - what about the tense? 4.28 Me, you, him, her, it, us, them

4.9 Simplifying verbs - two or more verbs together 4.29 What to talk about


Week

3 Topic Date

Week 7 Topic Date

4.11 Simplifying verbs - negatives 4.31 Some, from the, of the, etc.

4.12 Simplifying verbs - commands 4.32 To, to the

4.13 Simplifying verbs - using 'ON' 4.33 This, that, these, those

4.14 Doing things to yourself 4.34 Some really useful phrases 1


Week

4 Topic Date

Week 8 Topic Date

4.16 Watch out for these words 4.36 Some really useful phrases 2

4.17 How to ask questions 4.37 All, so, verbs instead of nouns, for

4.18 N'est-ce pas? 4.38 How to have something done

4.19 How to say you want someone to do something 4.39 Frequently asked questions


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4.7


4.7 SIMPLIFYING VERBS

This is the section where Boney French will save you weeks, months or even

years of work, worry and errors.

A verb is a "doing word" - it tells you what is taking place and when it happened.

Before we start to get verbs by the scruff of their nasty little necks, consider the

following passage:

Yesterday, we to Narbonne - beautiful cathedral with superb tower. Afterwards, lunch

in smart restaurant by the side of the canal, good but a bit expensive. Then by car to

mother-in-law's - difficult woman but quite a good cook so not too bad. Home about

10 pm and straight to bed. Tomorrow, I to market for oysters and cheese, Janie in

kitchen all day for evening meal here with friends. Not a bad life!

Quite understandable, isn't it? Some people write their diaries in this way. YET

THERE ISN'T A VERB IN IT. Makes you wonder why we bother to learn them.

However, we want to do better than this with our Boney French so we'll use

them but in a simplified way - which is what B.F. is all about.

The people who can "do" verbs are:

je - I

il/elle - he/she (and sometimes "it" although "ce" is more common)

nous - we

vous - you (singular and plural)

ils/elles - they (same pronunciation as "il/elle." Crazy, isn't it?)

"Ils" for all masc "they"; "elles" for all fem "they". Mixed group? Sorry girls - you

use "ils." Most of the time groups are mixed (family, friends etc.) so "ils" is by far

the more commonly used.

There is also "tu" for someone you know quite well but you can forget it. If

someone starts calling you "tu", you can respond but wait until they make the

move. Use it, though, for a child - if you really want to talk to a child - and an

animal.

Another section (4.13) will deal with "On", another verb doer and a very useful

one, too.

Of course, others can "do" the verb:

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The man next door + VERB

My wife and her sister + VERB

Those horrible little brats in the hall + VERB

Peter, Candy and I + VERB

To make a verb work, you have to make it agree with whoever is "doing" it by

using the correct ending and anything else needed for the TENSE (i.e. Past,

Present, Future) you want. There are getting on for 10 tenses in French (and

English, too) for God's sake. This is full of pitfalls and is the hardest thing in

French to learn - and remember.

Verbs in French are Regular (learn one and the rest go the same) or Irregular

(one off jobs which are a law unto themselves). My dictionary lists over 60

irregular verbs but you would need perhaps a dozen for everyday use which you

would have to learn in, say, four or five tenses. Enough work for several months

at one hour a week.

However, BF does away with all this at a stroke - and here's how to do

it.

When you look up a verb in the dictionary, it is always given in the infinitive,

that's to say, the "to" form e.g. to meet, to go out, to marry, to fall out, to divorce.

So, if you want to say "I went", you'll have to look up "to go" from where it

derives. "She bought"? Look up "to buy". "They spoke"? Look up "to speak".

"We were"? Look up "to be". "It had not been greatly sought after". Look up

"to seek"

The infinitive doesn't tell you who does the action or the tense, just the

"meaning". As you have seen above, it's up to you manipulate the infinitive to

agree with who's doing it and when they did it. That's when the problems start

and are never mastered by a large number of learners. But....

THE BF SPEAKER USES THE INFINITIVE FOR ALL PERSONS AND

ALL TENSES

e.g. L'homme venir à midi The man is coming at 12

Nous peindre la maison We're painting the house (peindre is a

difficult verb!)

Les chiens courir dans les rues The dogs are running about in the streets

No need to learn how any verb goes (but worth learning "avoir" and "être" as

already mentioned) if you do it this way. You can look up the most awkward,

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misshapen verbs in the dico and use them straight away. How about "acquérir"

to acquire; "mouvoir" (basically, to move); "vaincre" to overcome? Not every

day words but then there are other irregular verbs you'll need all the time: "faire"

to do; "aller" to go; "mettre" to put; "voir" to see; "prendre" to take etc. See

section 5.6.

Of course, you may already know how some verbs go so there is no need to use

this method for them. But I bet you don't know all the essential irregular verbs

and can use them without hesitating in most of the tenses you'll need. If you do,

then you shouldn't have bought this manual.

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4.13


4.13 SIMPLIFYING VERBS – USING “ON”

A very useful doer of a verb

Pronunciation: Ongar (nose)

The basic meaning of "on" is "one" in such sentences as:

"One does one's best but one always seems to forget how to make the Perfect

Tense."

"Where does one leave one's coat?"

"Just what is one supposed to do in such a situation?"

"Does one need a visa to go to Scotland?"

"Can one park one's corgi here, officer?"

There are royalist and pretentious overtones to the use of “one”- most of us would

use “you” in the above examples. However, this is not the case in French; “on” is

used by everyone, dozens of times a day.

You can use "On" in the following ways: (or, One can use "On" in the following

ways :)

• When it means "one" = general "you", as above:

D'habitude, quand on dîner chez des amis, on offrir des fleurs

When you go to dinner with friends, you usually take flowers

("offrir" - to offer - is more polite than "donner" - to give)

Dans ce collège, si on finir avant 17 heures, on a le droit d'aller à la plage

In this school, if you finish before 5 o'clock, you can go to the beach

(= "has the right to go" - useful phrase - learn it)

On laisser la voiture ici, pas dans le parking

You leave the car here, not in the car park

• When it means the mysterious "They" - whoever they are:

Hier, on fermer la route à cause des inondations

They closed the road yesterday because of the flooding

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4.13


Demain, on venir réparer le pont

They're coming to repair the bridge tomorrow

Dans ce village, on nettoyer les rues tous les jours

In this village, they clean the streets every day

On dit que la situation est pire

They say the situation is worse (useful phrase; "on me dit" - "I've been told")

On changer le système de payer la retraite

They're changing the way pensions are paid for

• "On" is very often used to mean "we":

Il y a deux ans, on décider acheter une maison en France

A couple of years ago, we decided to buy a house in France

On jouer au foot?

Shall we play footie?

Les enfants arriver demain, puis on aller à la piscine

The children are coming tomorrow then we're off to the swimming pool

On ne manger pas de* viande (*See 4.31 for why it's "de")

We don't eat meat (Well, you won't get much joy in France, then)

On prendre le menu à 20 euros

We'll have the 20 euro menu

• In English, we're very fond of saying something is being/has been/will be done

without saying who is doing/did/will do it (it's called the Passive)

The windows have been broken

The house has been sold

A tree is being planted in the square

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4.13


I think the trip will be cancelled

The French prefer to supply the perpetrator of such deeds - our old friend “on”:

(Hier) on casser les fenêtres

(Il y a une semaine) on vendre la maison

(You’ll need Tensers in these examples to show the action has happened or Jacques

may understand:

The windows are being broken/They’re breaking the windows

The house is being sold/They’re selling the house

On planter un arbre dans la place

Je crois qu’on supprimer le voyage

• It can also mean “people” or “someone”:

On frapper à la porte On rire de Pierre

Someone’s knocking at the door People laugh at Peter

I’ve made this section fairly detailed as you’ll hear “on” all the time. Your best use

of it, I think, would be when it means “we” and the general “they”.

Remember, whatever you want it to mean, "on" always takes the same part of the

verb as "il"- just as "one" is the same as "he". This will only matter when you use

the "Phrases you should learn" since you'll be using the infinitive for most of the

time.

* Many words and phrases which we shall meet, have a "basic meaning" and, by

extension, other ways of being translated which are perhaps far more useful in a

more familiar way. For example, although "on" means "one", we nearly always

prefer to use "you etc.". As already mentioned, "arriver" could also mean "to turn

up"; "nous manger au restaurant" is better translated as "we're eating out"; "je ne

manger jamais à midi" could be "I never have lunch" while "Tim est à la maison?" is

better as "Is Tim in/at home?"

SAMPLE

4.13


ON GOINGS

Say the following in French:

1. I've been told that she's coming tomorrow

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2. The square is being decorated for Christmas

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3. A big green tree is being put up

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4. We saw a lovely film last night

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5. You speak French when you're in France

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6. They drink a lot of wine in the South of France

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7. We drink too much beer in England

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8. The museum will be opened in ten minutes

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1. On me dit qu'elle venir demain

2. On décorer la place pour Noel

3. On dresser un grand arbre vert

4. On (or nous) voir un film super hier soir

5. On parler français quand on est en France

6. On boire beaucoup de vin dans le Midi

7. On boire trop de bière en Angleterre

8. On ouvrir le musée dans dix minutes

SAMPLE

4.13


Now using what you’ve learnt, construct some sentences in French that have some

relevance to you

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We really hope that you’ve enjoyed looking through our Boney French

Sample and that it’s given you a taste of how this innovative language

learning method could help speak French with confidence. If you wish

to proceed to purchasing the full course, just return to our website,

www.boneyfrench.com and follow the link

on the Home page.

The course is available in two versions; as a digital interactive PDF,

primarily designed for PCs and laptops, and a printed A5 size wire bound

manual. Both versions have exactly the same content.

With a little bit of effort and determination, a future of enjoyable French

conversation awaits you.

Download FULL Course SAMPLE

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