I love how there"s even a difference between French French and Belgian French where Belgium's like nah, septant and nonante, but let's keep the quatre-vingt haha
Damn. For me it's kind off the opposite. My reading skills are worse than my oral skills. But maybe's that's because I watch too many shows in french and also watch too much french youtube...
It's totally ok to be confused about your language. People of your nationality feel the same. Take your time and don't be pressured into choosing right away.
Even if i'm italian, I've realized learning french from english is easier than italian. Maybe, this works only in my case. Perhaps, it's because english is a more neutral language. In italian there are so many differences. I think it's the same in spanish too.
Wow same except I do English->Hindi->French because grammar rules are closer to Hindi than English! (Whhhaaat you mean the only thing they have in common are some roots and faux-amis? Yes.)
Creo que es bueno aprender francés desde ambos idiomas. El francés es como una combinación entonces se hace más llevadera la experiencia. Hay unas palabras que se parecen al inglés, y otras al español así que es un poquito menos difícil :)
Since I am learning NOTHING from french classes right not can this pleassssee be a series???? Living for your French videos!!! OR OR OR OR can you give tips on how we can improve/maintain our french??? Books that aren't too difficult, but still interesting, TV shows, movie, idkkkkk
Bon courage à vous ! Exemple de bon(ne) et bien ( qui donne mal à la tête pour les étrangers xD ) : " ça sonne bien la bonne grosse motivation pour bien comprendre le bon français malgré toute la bonne volonté. Bien qu'il faudra bien se faire du bien parfois avec les bonnes vidéos de de notre bon et beau Damon, on vous souhaite la bienvenue " Hint : Bon = adjectif Bien = adverbe Next lesson : learn about this letter "ç" xD
We could all be living happy lives, but instead we're over here deliberating if it's le or lui, qui or que, de/de la/de l'/du/or des, bon or bien? Oh and do NOT get me started on tu and vous. 🙅🏼♂️🤚🏼🤦🏼♂️
for all of y'all trying to learn French and feeling bad: this shit is so complicated we (natives) still have basic grammar lessons (the kind that you would see in a beginner's textbook) in high school. Good luck to you guys and remember we don't got a clue what's going on either
@@nathaliang9227 no, us frenxh are so complicated : 70= soixante-dix = "sixty-ten" 80= quatre-vingt = "four-twenty" 90= quatre-vingt dix = "four-twenty ten" Its literal maths, when belgium and swertzerland are so much smarter just septante, huitante and neunante which radical ACTUALLY LOOK LIKE the original number
It’s fascinating as a French to see that I don’t even think about all of it but I get why it is so difficult for English speakers to learn French. Damn we love to complicate things
BlackJack29 Your English is really great, but “un Français/une Française” is not “a French” in English. You have to say a French person. You can also say a Frenchman / Frenchwoman but it sounds a bit old fashioned.
Huitante sounds stupid because the diphtongue is illogical with long syllables in Latin which is where we have diphtongues in French. It should be octante to respect French rules. You don't say "neuvante" then why would we use "huitante?"
@@hugobourgon198 This logical follows french numbers, and not latin numbers : we do not say "quadrante", "quinquante" or "sexante" ;) If I follow your logical, we should say "novante" and not nonante, which sounds strange !
I guess most of French people don't even remember those rules, if it "sounds wrong" it just probably is 😂 Same goes for numbers, total bullcrap I agree. Ask anyone to write down "97" with letters... They'll probably get it wrong. And when we hear "quatre-vingt", we don't think about it being "four-twenties", it's like its a word of its own, "quatrevin"... Oh and when someone gives you their phone number slowly they're like "quatre...vingt..." you start writing 8 and then they go "... douze" and DAMN it was 92 😂😂 Btw, Belgians have "septante" for 70 and "nonante" for 90 but... They still use quatre-vingt for 80 🤪 Switzerland has "huitante"
As non-native French speakers, it's a real thing to actively get a phone number that has no number above 70. So-sorry, was that quatre-vingt? or Quatre...Vingt? Was that Soixante-Dix...or soixante then dix? *NOPE.*
@@damondominique (native french speaker) You made me say a few numbers out loud lol :D I'd say the difference between 80 and 4 20 would be that I say 80 as one word, with no pause (something like "quatr'vin") and 4 20 with a tiny tiny pause between quatre and vingt (as in, hum "quatreuh, vin"). Not so easy to catch though, and even for us native speakers it's sometimes difficult to get it and we have to actually ask for precision "tu veux dire 80 ou 4 puis 20?".
It really isn't, it's just that it's not well explained here. Probably because he wasn't taught grammar in English, and crap grammar in French. Also, comparing grammar of 2 different languages can be confusing because sometimes, there's just no explanation as to why they do the same thing differently.
@@miyounova not badly explained here just explained in a way to relate it back to English in a way that will catch rather than just slip past. We don't speak proper English day to day and it's hard when you think about it. He's over emphasising things in English and it helps.
@@miyounova Well I personnaly though that everything he said made sense, I just never though of it before since I'm a native and used to it being intutive
a way that i differentiate between qui and que: qui is typically followed by a conjugated verb. "les femmes qui aiment les mecs" "les enfants qui vont à l'école" and que is normally followed by a subject. les femmes que je déteste. hang in there guys. it makes sense eventually lol...oh french. :)
MooMoo Squiggles exactly! ☺️that’s another way i thought about it originally but as the years have gone by i try not to think of it in terms of english translation.
"Les enfants à qui j'enseigne" though, because you say "j'enseigne quelque chose à quelqu'un". "Les enfants" here are the indirect object of the sentence. On the other hand, you can say "La matière que j'enseigne est le français" where "La matière" is the direct object of the sentence, hence "que".
21:00 "Moral of the story of this episode is to ask yourself: Who's doing the thing and if you ain't doing the thing then who's doing the thing for you? And that's a life lesson! That goes beyond French!" LOL
Hey, I don't know if this is completely correct, but when I'm deciding qui vs que I always think about the word that comes after it. If it's a verb, I use qui, and if it's a subject I use que. For example: Je trouve la grenouille qui danse intéressante. La grenouille que je vois est en train de danser. hope this helps :)
Not always as in: La grenouille que regarde ma mère. (My mom is watching the frog...) La grenouille que regardaient mes parents S‘est mise à sauter, .... et ils l‘ont attrapée. !!! Attrapé with a Second E for the frog and because frog is before the verb anyway...
For direct and indirect objects is actually easier to remember it like this: if the verb goes with an "à" (écrire à qn) it has an indirect object (J'écris à Paul -> Je lui écris) if the verb doesn't have an "à" (choisir qc) it has a direct object (Je choisis la baguette -> Je la choisis) Hope this can help :)
@@robertlevy7530 Yes you're right, it goes for other prepositions as well. I just learned it like that in school :) I guess because "à" is the most common preposition, but thank you for the addition!
As an italian, it's so intresting to see that you find difficult things that to me are absolutely natural because they are the same in italian and you find easy things that I only understood because I could compare them to english!
I'm French, and i've never understood some of the French grammar rules when i was a kid. Luckily for me, i was reading a lot! Je suis contente d'être française juste pour ça! ahah
sweetie you’re teaching French better than any French courses I’ve ever taken. Haven’t studied it in over 20 years but now I’m relearning it and your videos have helped me understand it better than any lessons I’ve had in the past!
When French is your 1st language, it seems so logic but I can’t imagine how difficult it is to learn this language as a foreigner language because that would be so horrible and also because even for natives, it’s unfortunately not an easy language. By the way, you made a little mistake at 2:08 : the accent (for "acheté") is on the last E :)) I really appreciate all your videos, you’re such a funny person and watching you talk about French is even funnier, I hope to « meet you one day » in Paris !!
The French = the people of France French = the language. ;) Quand il y a deux syllabes et moins, comme «funny», tu dois utiliser le suffixe (-er) pour créer le superlatif relatif. Ici, on aurait «funnier». Les adjectifs de trois syllabes et plus s'utilisen avec «more + adjectif». I do not write that to annoy you, but to help you. I hope it helps! :)
TAKEme TOtheMORGUE Excuse-moi, je n’avais pas vu ton commentaire plus tôt. Merci beaucoup pour ces précieuses corrections (et indications). Ne t’inquiètes pas, ça ne me « m’agace » ou dérange pas, ta réponse part d’une bonne intention et m’est très utile :)
Greek-Spanish-Italians-Arabs that I've met knew different structures and everything easily just made sense. But for English speakers... e ve ry thing language related seems a struggle🙄
I guess it is harder for anglo-saxon laguages speaker to learn, because like i'm from Romania and most of the things make sense.. A lot with the grammar part also because we learn that in school at a young age so like anything about indirect and direct objects, the verbs, the articles are common sense to us Romanians
If it helps for all you learning to speak French people, a lot of these things are common across all the Romance (Latin-based) languages, so once you speak one you can speak them all! Also, so glad that as a native Spanish speaker we have to do “análisis sintáctico” where we properly learn to analyze the function of the different elements of a sentence, really helps with new languages later on!
These are things I've always struggled with and none of my french teachers ever taught them as clearly as you just did??! I'm resigning from my french class
alexandra m thank you! It was alright. There was a conversational piece I legitimately could not understand, but I did well on the presentational speaking piece!
As a German speaker, the first one is really entertainig, seeing as we have both concepts (marking the object's and the owner's gender) mashed into one: seine Pflanze vs. sein Hut vs. ihre Pflanze vs. ihr Hut.
right ! so now we have to know both the gender of the object (and you guys got one more with neutral haha) and remember it doesn't matter when it's her/his..!
I learned French in school (mandatory in Switzerland)..but only when I became an Au-pair it got grammatically correct..because then I knew what sounded right or wrong..
Omg, Damon! You’re freaking amazing French teacher. You’ve made dead boring and complicated French grammar so funny and interesting! You need to make this a series on your channel! Thanks so much for this video!
The bon / bien conandrum : When you say "Un bon lit", you use an adjective. Bien is not an adjective. There is no feminine form (bienne) or plural (biens). In the sentence "Le film est bien", you answer the question "Comment est le film ?" which is here answered by an adverb ("what way is the film being ?", kinda). Usually, "être" is not followed by adverbs. You don't say "Le train est lentement" but "le train est lent". That's actually where bien is confusing. It's an adverb. Adverbs specify how the action is done (like calmly, suddently, sadly, gentiment, rapidement, sincèrement). Bien can specify how the action "to be" is done. But here is where it gets easier: it's the same difference as between "good" and "well" ! "the weather is well" is ok to say (even though not really used) but you wouldn't say "It's a well weather". Same in French!
@@chloephilippe4893 Knew it (; ! It's weird to speak English to a fellow Frenchie on the internet but FLE forever ❤️ ! I also teach French in the Netherlands (': (or I'm trying to get the accreditation at least) ! I'd be really happy to stay in touch to share resources, anecdotes and tips if that could interest you (': !
thank you for this explanation! But it made me wonder, how come you can't say "le film est bon" or can you? since you can say "le temps est bon" 😂I also don't know when to say "c'est bon" vs "c'est bien" as a reaction to something
@@IdentitySelection You can say both "Le film est bon." or "Le film est bien." It's a regional preference. I'm from Quebec and we say both but it doesn't have exactly the same meaning. "Le film est bon." would means that the movie is good. "Le film est bien." would means that the movie is fine. If my boyfriend answers me "C'est bien." while commenting the dinner I made. I could ask him : " C'est bon ou c'est bien?" because his answer implies that my dinner could have been better.
I'm not even learning French, I'm learning german. But this is all making sense, so when I do start French I know where to go! Are you still learning Deutsch? If so I'd love a similar vid to this!
German is my native language, (from Switzerland), and I think it's a lot easier to learn french when you already know German because we have the indirect and direct thing as well. I think there's a RUclips called Evan Dinger who's learning German as well!
@@louismart Because we don't count in scores, haha. Each number we use has its own name, not a math equation. The only occasion I've heard "score" used for numbers is from the Gettysburg Address from the 1800s, it's not very common at all.
Eryn Dye „The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.“ Psalms 90:10 KJV www.bible.com/1/psa.90.10.kjv It may be old fashioned, but it is better English than many texts we read nowadays. Twentytwo is an equation too, btw.
Thank you damon! I've been studying french during quarantine! I've been trying to read Harry Potter et la Chambre des Secrets and its been challenging but fun. The direct objects and indirect objects have tripped me up and i've been doing exercises to practice it. I love your videos. These vids are helpful and entertaining! Studying french has been keeping me sane! One day when travel bans are lifted I'll visit Paris
I'm reading the last one in french. this is amazing for vocabulary. it's so rich. it will get easier! for me I read it on the kindle app so I can highlight phrases certain grammar or lookup things easily on the internet . and beaxue really the style of writing never change you get in a rhythm and see the same patterns. Happy reading!
I love that you’re posting these kind of videos because I’m trying to learn French at the moment. Merci beaucoup! I am using Memrise and Duolingo. I’m ranked 6th for the month so far.
It's so funny being french and watching those videos. At the beginning of every new chapter i thought "well thats not going to be that complicated right?" And then you realise how crazy this langage is 😂We are so use to the sound of it we don't really think about it
Yes, especially if you translate "some" back into French, you get "J'ai quelques chats", with "quelques" actually meaning literaly "some". Which proves "des" is untranslatable into English xD
@@markhathaway9456 I use "des" when I can make the same sentence in English without "some" in it. "I ate fries" = "j'ai mangé des frites" VS "I ate some fries" = "j'ai mangé quelques frites". But it's more like a feeling whether you should translate with "des" or not. Which is why I said there was no equivalent for it in English 😉
Now imagine being formated to gender everything and then you try to learn german and all the genders are mixed up and they add a neutral to fuck shit up yaaay
(actually this is Nia, Nate's wife lol) PLEASSEE DO MORE OF THESE oh man your french videos are awesome. I've been watching either you and jo's videos or just yours for the last 6 years! Favorite youtuber
As I learned french at such a young age, now I just know a sentence is right or wrong , I never know why x) This is nonetheless super interesting and is cracking me up !
bro do u know how helpful this would’ve been this past semester omg this would’ve saved me so much stress,,, i’m definitely forwarding this to some friends who will need it. thank u for clearing some of this stuff up!!
Why are there not more of these magical videos! UGH, SO HELPFUL. For the life of me, I always got confused with genders (sa/son) and counting above 80!!! Now I finally understand!!! Merci Damon!!!
Yes but not always you have to pay attention to what come after the verb: Le gâteau que mangeait mon père était empoisonné. La fenêtre que réparait mon père était très ancienne... Etc etc
@@eleonorer.6861 I try to stay away from sentences such as those in English or French. They're a bit ambiguous. Communication is difficult without adding to the problem.
not quite right. Que or Qui in questions (Que veux-tu ? or Qui es-tu ?) are what we call "Pronom interrogatif". A pronoun means it replace something in the sentence, in questions --> the answer you're expecting. And in those cases, "Qui" is for people and "Que" is for objects. and when it's not in question it is called "Pronom relatif" it begins what we call a "proposition relative" which is a phrase that explains a part of the main sentence. If the function of the pronoun in the relative part of the sentence is the subject of the verb, we use "QUI" and if it's the direct object, we use "QUE" ie : la phrase que j'écris est belle. (the sentence I'm writing is beautiful) "que" is referring to "la phrase" it's like an adjective that defines the noun in the main sentence. And in french it's like "la phrase est belle" and "que j'écris" are different sentences. In this example, we use "que" because the function of the "pronom relatif" (it replaces la phrase in this part of the sentence) is a COD (it's not the subject of the verb but the direct object of the verb). In that case, whatever it's a object or a person, we use "QUE". ie: la voiture, qui est rouge, vient de démarrer. (the car that is red just started). In that case, "qui" is the subject of the relative sentence "qui est rouge". We use "qui" even it's not a person.
I've can only speak English atm but have just started learning French, and this video was beyond useful! The way you explain stuff is so good and there were multiple moments watching this that my brain exploded because it suddenly just clicked! Please please please continue this series, c'est très bien!
The number thing is a really good trick, we were taught like that in college. Also, why wasn't this uploaded before my sems exam ughhh T_T Please upload some more, it'd be great help for tests
Something I noticed! (Lose examples for demonstration) In french Qu'est-ce que literally translates to "what is it that" so french people will ask, for example: "'What is it that' you love about France?" Questions will be answered in a similar fashion to the question: "'It's that' I can go for walks in the mornings" "Est-ce que" is "Is it that" so: "'Is it that' Paris is your favorite thing about France?" "'It's that' Paris is my favorite thing about France. And 'it's that' the cafes are great." Sounds really strange in English but I've noticed this pattern and thought it would be good to point it out. I'm not a teacher or anything (please correct me if I'm wrong!), but when I looked at it like this it made more sense to me. Happy learning!
wasn’t even this early to my own birth lol and ughh i wish u made these video sooner! I lived in Paris last year for like 6 months and I’m telling you i was strugglingggg anyway I absolutely adore your video and you inspire me every day to keep on working on my own channel!
@@abcxyz4653 Most or many Indoeuropean languages do it, you better get used to it. For non natives, English orthography is a huge thing. It is erratic. Irregular verbs are athing, too. And tenses. So, every language jas their own thing ad it is what makes them colorful and interesting.
My god, I've never imagined my native language could be so difficult. It's so difficult that you still make mistakes after explaining it : "Je LUI ai fait croire que je l'aimais" and not "l'"
I love these videos about comparison French and English. As I am not native speaker and I am learning English and as I want to remind basics and get new knowledge in French, this really helps me to understand both.
For real your video helped me understand indirect and direct objects for my Spanish cuz I've been getting them wrong and I've been learning Spanish for six years and speak it fluently at the Spanish restaurant i work at. THANK YOU
@@AntoinePelissier French is too general. Canadian French IS French just as any other version of French. You imposed your way into a whole language, I said it wasn't mandatory to do so in French language. In France's French it may be different, but French has more than one grammar. 💁♀️
As an intermediate French learner, the way that Damon explains some of these concepts are enough for me to totally close the chapters of confusion that prevented me from having an advanced understanding-in other words, this series is a game changer and PLEASE KEEP THEM COMING.
“90 is just a continuation of the 80 formula” MIND BLOWN WHAAAAAAAA WHY HAS IT NOT BEEN EXPLAINED LIKE THAT TO ME BEFORE 🤯🤯🤯🤯 14:37
TRUE
I love how there"s even a difference between French French and Belgian French where Belgium's like nah, septant and nonante, but let's keep the quatre-vingt haha
Same!!!!! Genious!
Same haha, I already know all this stuff
👏👏👏👏👏
Me reading French: A fluent genius. Me hearing French: Unintelligible sounds.
Because it's a different (and long !) process : reading is related to speaking and understanding to listening. So listen more :)
thats me with english
I feel you! I'm from Canada and we have to take french but I can honestly only read it when I hear it I'm at a complete loss :/
Oml sameeeee
Damn. For me it's kind off the opposite. My reading skills are worse than my oral skills. But maybe's that's because I watch too many shows in french and also watch too much french youtube...
Petition for this to be a series s'il vous plait 🙌🏻
Seconded!
YAS!!!!!
Ouiiii
Agreed! Damon- these are some of your best current content. Please consider a regular series. Thanks!
yes!
me, a native French speaker: je le vois
Damon: Je le vois
Me: yeeeeeeessss I got iiiiit!
Hahaha
Totally me lmao
SAMEEEE
Right ? I'm so proud of myself too
Literally me I was questioning myself XD
Most languages: "rules must be followed"
French: "l'eXcePtIoN fAiT La rÈGle" (the exception makes the rule [exist] )
The worst part about french language is that exceptions have exceptions 😂
@@CaptainDrakh so true 🤣
Oml so trueeee
Exceptions: check out "verb preposition infinitive". There literally are no rules. Period. Memorize which preposition (if any) go between.
Tellement vrai x) pi ont déteste aussi hahaha 😘
"Or we could just get rid of gender and then everyone would be okay!"
Me shouting at my screen after I ran out of lives on Duolinguo.
Me, a french speaker, who's still gonna watch the vid because damon is such a funny and interesting person
haha i feel you, i don't speak french at all
Mdrr
Me too 😂
Same ! Sitting here like I already learnt this in school but Damon's face!!
Trop vrai 😂
Y’all... He rearranged his room again...
True....true.
I’m French and now I’m confused about my own language
Surtout pour c'est que et c'est qui
Pareil
je suis francophone de Suisse et même moi je suis sur le cul !
It's totally ok to be confused about your language. People of your nationality feel the same. Take your time and don't be pressured into choosing right away.
Offensive Username bahahhhaha
Me: Learning Japanese
Damon: uploads a french related video
Me: oui
I cackled 😂
I just realised... Why am I trying to learn French from English when I can learn it from Spanish and it's even more similar?
Even if i'm italian, I've realized learning french from english is easier than italian. Maybe, this works only in my case.
Perhaps, it's because english is a more neutral language. In italian there are so many differences.
I think it's the same in spanish too.
I use both 😂
Wow same except I do English->Hindi->French because grammar rules are closer to Hindi than English! (Whhhaaat you mean the only thing they have in common are some roots and faux-amis? Yes.)
Creo que es bueno aprender francés desde ambos idiomas. El francés es como una combinación entonces se hace más llevadera la experiencia. Hay unas palabras que se parecen al inglés, y otras al español así que es un poquito menos difícil :)
Gabriel Burzacchini though the French grammar is extremely similar to the Italian one. I find your perspective quite interesting
Since I am learning NOTHING from french classes right not can this pleassssee be a series???? Living for your French videos!!! OR OR OR OR can you give tips on how we can improve/maintain our french??? Books that aren't too difficult, but still interesting, TV shows, movie, idkkkkk
Yess seriously I learned more from him in this video alone than I have in my French class 😫😫
@@onwards.and.upwards did you find his lesson easy ? lol
Amen. I'm down for that
Bon courage à vous !
Exemple de bon(ne) et bien ( qui donne mal à la tête pour les étrangers xD ) :
" ça sonne bien la bonne grosse motivation pour bien comprendre le bon français malgré toute la bonne volonté. Bien qu'il faudra bien se faire du bien parfois avec les bonnes vidéos de de notre bon et beau Damon, on vous souhaite la bienvenue "
Hint :
Bon = adjectif
Bien = adverbe
Next lesson : learn about this letter "ç" xD
@@Terre314 je veux un traduction stp.
Pourquoi c'est "bon et beau Damon"
How would you say it in English pls?
We could all be living happy lives, but instead we're over here deliberating if it's le or lui, qui or que, de/de la/de l'/du/or des, bon or bien? Oh and do NOT get me started on tu and vous. 🙅🏼♂️🤚🏼🤦🏼♂️
Damon Dominique “vous” means “you”, “tu” actually used to cognate “thou”, which is why you can use “you”
as a singular and plural second person
sometimes i m so tired i mix between tu and vous in the same conversation with the same person hahaha :D
I love how you say that French doesn't make sense when English is just as messed up 😅
Its funny cause in Urdu language we also have genders for objects and also formal and informal way of saying “you” just like french
Même les français/e galèrent avec le "tu" et le "vous".
I'm so glad i was born in France, i feel like i could have never learned french otherwise
^^
I feel the same way about spanish lol
@@vickysc1458 same jajaja
I'm learning French right now from Duolingo. Hope to start reading French books and watching French movies after completing the course.
for all of y'all trying to learn French and feeling bad: this shit is so complicated we (natives) still have basic grammar lessons (the kind that you would see in a beginner's textbook) in high school. Good luck to you guys and remember we don't got a clue what's going on either
So do we English natives.
Love this series! I’m a French teacher in the USA and my students look at me like I live on another planet when I try and describe how French works.
Belgium & Switzerland:
70 - septante
80 - huitante
90 - nonante
Wow, this makes so much more sense
We say quatre-vingt in Belgium tho
@@OhDearHoney but most of people say septante
huitante
nonente no ?
@@nathaliang9227
Belgium :
70 - septante
80 - quatre-vingt
90 - nonante
Switzerland:
70 - septante
80 - huitante
90 - nonante
@@nathaliang9227 no, us frenxh are so complicated :
70= soixante-dix = "sixty-ten"
80= quatre-vingt = "four-twenty"
90= quatre-vingt dix = "four-twenty ten"
Its literal maths, when belgium and swertzerland are so much smarter just septante, huitante and neunante which radical ACTUALLY LOOK LIKE the original number
damon you're the best french teacher i never had.
what a bloody legend
Damon: « Everybody breathe »
Me: *breathes*
Damon: « Everybody breathe »
Me: *breathes*
Damon: « Everybody breathe »
Me: Thanks for helping me meditate damon🤣🙏
I'm french
I've watched this
And now, I don't understand french anymore
I think there is a problem
Que = before pronoun/subject/object
Qui = before verb
That’s what helps me remember 🙈
It’s fascinating as a French to see that I don’t even think about all of it but I get why it is so difficult for English speakers to learn French. Damn we love to complicate things
Ça dépend
j'avais même pas remarqué à quel point des trucs banals sont compliqués pour eux
Mais tellement ! Par exemple pour mon école j'avais jamais fais attention que c'etait pas le genre de l'objet mais la liaison !
Tellement ! Bon par contre le coup des COI et COD, ça nous gave aussi depuis le CM2 haha
BlackJack29 Your English is really great, but “un Français/une Française” is not “a French” in English. You have to say a French person. You can also say a Frenchman / Frenchwoman but it sounds a bit old fashioned.
It is why Swiss-French numbers are way cooler than french numbers : septante, huitante, nonante ... the dream !
Lol same in Belgium, but i still count with the french numbers
Huitante sounds stupid because the diphtongue is illogical with long syllables in Latin which is where we have diphtongues in French. It should be octante to respect French rules. You don't say "neuvante" then why would we use "huitante?"
@@hugobourgon198 This logical follows french numbers, and not latin numbers : we do not say "quadrante", "quinquante" or "sexante" ;) If I follow your logical, we should say "novante" and not nonante, which sounds strange !
don’t we say octante?
@@claramezoued7641 In a part of Switzerland, we use "huitante". Octante was in use in other parts of the world, but not anymore !
me: speaks french since i was a child
also me: watching damon's videos about teaching french things
Moi aussi
X3
I've learnt so much French grammar in this 22 minute video than I ever have in my 6 years of IB high school French classes
I guess most of French people don't even remember those rules, if it "sounds wrong" it just probably is 😂
Same goes for numbers, total bullcrap I agree. Ask anyone to write down "97" with letters... They'll probably get it wrong.
And when we hear "quatre-vingt", we don't think about it being "four-twenties", it's like its a word of its own, "quatrevin"... Oh and when someone gives you their phone number slowly they're like "quatre...vingt..." you start writing 8 and then they go "... douze" and DAMN it was 92 😂😂
Btw, Belgians have "septante" for 70 and "nonante" for 90 but... They still use quatre-vingt for 80 🤪 Switzerland has "huitante"
As non-native French speakers, it's a real thing to actively get a phone number that has no number above 70. So-sorry, was that quatre-vingt? or Quatre...Vingt? Was that Soixante-Dix...or soixante then dix? *NOPE.*
I'm swiss-german and i study in the french part of switzerland. Being able to say huitante, septante and all that has saved me so many times.
@@damondominique (native french speaker) You made me say a few numbers out loud lol :D
I'd say the difference between 80 and 4 20 would be that I say 80 as one word, with no pause (something like "quatr'vin") and 4 20 with a tiny tiny pause between quatre and vingt (as in, hum "quatreuh, vin"). Not so easy to catch though, and even for us native speakers it's sometimes difficult to get it and we have to actually ask for precision "tu veux dire 80 ou 4 puis 20?".
IL FAIT QUOI ICI NOTRE EXPERIMENTBOY?!
Mec t'es le meilleur, le côté chaotique de ta chaîne et intellectuel ici. En tout les cas ya des explosions 😂
I'm starting to realize how hard French is...
As a French native speaker lol
It really isn't, it's just that it's not well explained here. Probably because he wasn't taught grammar in English, and crap grammar in French. Also, comparing grammar of 2 different languages can be confusing because sometimes, there's just no explanation as to why they do the same thing differently.
@@miyounova not badly explained here just explained in a way to relate it back to English in a way that will catch rather than just slip past. We don't speak proper English day to day and it's hard when you think about it. He's over emphasising things in English and it helps.
@@naughtscrossstitches Still badly explained (for reference, I teach French to English speakers who've never done any grammar)
@@miyounova Well I personnaly though that everything he said made sense, I just never though of it before since I'm a native and used to it being intutive
@@miyounova He wasn't teaching grammar. He was point out trouble spots.
a way that i differentiate between qui and que:
qui is typically followed by a conjugated verb.
"les femmes qui aiment les mecs"
"les enfants qui vont à l'école"
and que is normally followed by a subject.
les femmes que je déteste.
hang in there guys. it makes sense eventually lol...oh french. :)
Lol I noticed this trick in a french class last semester and it genuinely changed four years of confusion
Qui is who/whom/whose and que is legit 'that'
MooMoo Squiggles exactly! ☺️that’s another way i thought about it originally but as the years have gone by i try not to think of it in terms of english translation.
Rosie Beveridge don’t you just love/hate those moments of realization. like yay i got there but couldn’t someone have told me this sooner lol
"Les enfants à qui j'enseigne" though, because you say "j'enseigne quelque chose à quelqu'un". "Les enfants" here are the indirect object of the sentence. On the other hand, you can say "La matière que j'enseigne est le français" where "La matière" is the direct object of the sentence, hence "que".
21:00 "Moral of the story of this episode is to ask yourself: Who's doing the thing and if you ain't doing the thing then who's doing the thing for you? And that's a life lesson! That goes beyond French!" LOL
Hey, I don't know if this is completely correct, but when I'm deciding qui vs que I always think about the word that comes after it. If it's a verb, I use qui, and if it's a subject I use que.
For example:
Je trouve la grenouille qui danse intéressante.
La grenouille que je vois est en train de danser.
hope this helps :)
Not always as in:
La grenouille que regarde ma mère. (My mom is watching the frog...)
La grenouille que regardaient mes parents S‘est mise à sauter, .... et ils l‘ont attrapée. !!! Attrapé with a Second E for the frog and because frog is before the verb anyway...
« Qui » is the subject of the subordinate phrase (= phrase subordonnée) where « que » is the verb complement (= complément de verbe)
For direct and indirect objects is actually easier to remember it like this:
if the verb goes with an "à" (écrire à qn) it has an indirect object (J'écris à Paul -> Je lui écris)
if the verb doesn't have an "à" (choisir qc) it has a direct object (Je choisis la baguette -> Je la choisis)
Hope this can help :)
@@robertlevy7530 Yes you're right, it goes for other prepositions as well. I just learned it like that in school :) I guess because "à" is the most common preposition, but thank you for the addition!
very helpful! it's always good to have an example in your head
i swear most european languages are like this 😂
that's why we find english an easy language
Andrea Pendrea English lacks logic and good English isn’t easy at all.
Exactly. I find English to be hard when it comes to advanced topics , but most of the topics mentioned here are easy in English
louismart lacks logic? What do you mean?
@MaybeThisIsMark Mainly the spelling. Partly the hybrid vocabulary , but this is a richness in the same time.
louismart oh yeah. As a native English speaker, I HATE how some words are spelled
As an italian, it's so intresting to see that you find difficult things that to me are absolutely natural because they are the same in italian and you find easy things that I only understood because I could compare them to english!
I'm French, and i've never understood some of the French grammar rules when i was a kid. Luckily for me, i was reading a lot! Je suis contente d'être française juste pour ça! ahah
sweetie you’re teaching French better than any French courses I’ve ever taken. Haven’t studied it in over 20 years but now I’m relearning it and your videos have helped me understand it better than any lessons I’ve had in the past!
Damn even the French language has an attitude
Finally we Spanish speakers have an advantage lol. It’s so similar to French.
Is there an equivalent for que vs qui in spanish though? If there is I can't think of it :/
@@lulaarias4150 I would say lo que Is the qui equivalent and que Is the que equivalent.
SAME
Roman languages power :D
@@lulaarias4150 No there isn't but it comes naturally how to diference them i think idk
When French is your 1st language, it seems so logic but I can’t imagine how difficult it is to learn this language as a foreigner language because that would be so horrible and also because even for natives, it’s unfortunately not an easy language. By the way, you made a little mistake at 2:08 : the accent (for "acheté") is on the last E :)) I really appreciate all your videos, you’re such a funny person and watching you talk about French is even funnier, I hope to « meet you one day » in Paris !!
The French = the people of France
French = the language. ;)
Quand il y a deux syllabes et moins, comme «funny», tu dois utiliser le suffixe (-er) pour créer le superlatif relatif. Ici, on aurait «funnier». Les adjectifs de trois syllabes et plus s'utilisen avec «more + adjectif».
I do not write that to annoy you, but to help you. I hope it helps! :)
@@TAKEmeTOtheMORGUE merci! même si ça ne m'était pas destiné (the difference between "The French" & "French")
TAKEme TOtheMORGUE Excuse-moi, je n’avais pas vu ton commentaire plus tôt. Merci beaucoup pour ces précieuses corrections (et indications). Ne t’inquiètes pas, ça ne me « m’agace » ou dérange pas, ta réponse part d’une bonne intention et m’est très utile :)
Greek-Spanish-Italians-Arabs that I've met knew different structures and everything easily just made sense. But for English speakers...
e ve ry thing language related seems a struggle🙄
I guess it is harder for anglo-saxon laguages speaker to learn, because like i'm from Romania and most of the things make sense.. A lot with the grammar part also because we learn that in school at a young age so like anything about indirect and direct objects, the verbs, the articles are common sense to us Romanians
I'm glad you've mastered those concepts so well, Damon, because they're gonna help you a lot when you resume your Russian studies! :)
If it helps for all you learning to speak French people, a lot of these things are common across all the Romance (Latin-based) languages, so once you speak one you can speak them all! Also, so glad that as a native Spanish speaker we have to do “análisis sintáctico” where we properly learn to analyze the function of the different elements of a sentence, really helps with new languages later on!
As someone who studies french online rn I am SO excited for you to SNAP ON THIS LANGUAGE (jk I love it)
When i started learning french numbers i just wrote a note that said “90s is like 80s, but with steroids” lmao
These are things I've always struggled with and none of my french teachers ever taught them as clearly as you just did??! I'm resigning from my french class
Like... how are you teaching me in 20min what my french teacher has tried to do for 2 years! This definitely needs to be a series. Soooo good
oh HOW im in love with your whole personality damon d. please post more of french lecture like this!!
This is a God sent bc the AP French examen is today
Hope it went well!!!~
alexandra m thank you! It was alright. There was a conversational piece I legitimately could not understand, but I did well on the presentational speaking piece!
My Belgian ass is listening to this, laughing my ass off, knowing damn well that 99% of the people lost you at 'gender'.
Gurl! How did you know?😂
My Belgian ass is laughing at how French people say the equivalent of sixty eleven instead of just using septante
As a German speaker, the first one is really entertainig, seeing as we have both concepts (marking the object's and the owner's gender) mashed into one: seine Pflanze vs. sein Hut vs. ihre Pflanze vs. ihr Hut.
right ! so now we have to know both the gender of the object (and you guys got one more with neutral haha) and remember it doesn't matter when it's her/his..!
I learned French in school (mandatory in Switzerland)..but only when I became an Au-pair it got grammatically correct..because then I knew what sounded right or wrong..
That actually makes so much sense now that I think about it!
Omg, Damon! You’re freaking amazing French teacher. You’ve made dead boring and complicated French grammar so funny and interesting! You need to make this a series on your channel! Thanks so much for this video!
The bon / bien conandrum :
When you say "Un bon lit", you use an adjective. Bien is not an adjective. There is no feminine form (bienne) or plural (biens).
In the sentence "Le film est bien", you answer the question "Comment est le film ?" which is here answered by an adverb ("what way is the film being ?", kinda).
Usually, "être" is not followed by adverbs. You don't say "Le train est lentement" but "le train est lent". That's actually where bien is confusing. It's an adverb. Adverbs specify how the action is done (like calmly, suddently, sadly, gentiment, rapidement, sincèrement).
Bien can specify how the action "to be" is done.
But here is where it gets easier: it's the same difference as between "good" and "well" ! "the weather is well" is ok to say (even though not really used) but you wouldn't say "It's a well weather". Same in French!
That's excellent (': ! Do you teach by any chance?
@@Blullaby haha yes :)
@@chloephilippe4893
Knew it (; ! It's weird to speak English to a fellow Frenchie on the internet but FLE forever ❤️ ! I also teach French in the Netherlands (': (or I'm trying to get the accreditation at least) !
I'd be really happy to stay in touch to share resources, anecdotes and tips if that could interest you (': !
thank you for this explanation! But it made me wonder, how come you can't say "le film est bon" or can you? since you can say "le temps est bon" 😂I also don't know when to say "c'est bon" vs "c'est bien" as a reaction to something
@@IdentitySelection You can say both "Le film est bon." or "Le film est bien." It's a regional preference. I'm from Quebec and we say both but it doesn't have exactly the same meaning. "Le film est bon." would means that the movie is good. "Le film est bien." would means that the movie is fine. If my boyfriend answers me "C'est bien." while commenting the dinner I made. I could ask him : " C'est bon ou c'est bien?" because his answer implies that my dinner could have been better.
Damon’s the best French teacher I’ve ever had
I took French classes for 16 years and I still don’t understand French grammar lol
7 years and all I know how to say is Bonjour lmao
@@delrey111 I see this joke everywhere...
@@Wee.low1 im sorry i just use it way too often so now i say it everywhere lmao :/
@@delrey111 you don't need to apologise lool, I just see it everywhere and I'm like 😑.
French grammar is just a bunch of exceptions who have themselves exceptions...
If you were a French professor I'd be on dat sign-up sheet ASAP 😂👏
I've taken years of french classes and your videos are some of the best explanations and content that I've ever seen.
PLEASE CONTINUE wowowow
Dude these are so perfect!!! Please keep making more, I literally go and grab my notebook to take notes
I'm not even learning French, I'm learning german. But this is all making sense, so when I do start French I know where to go!
Are you still learning Deutsch? If so I'd love a similar vid to this!
I'm on the same path! do you know any youtuber like Damon but who's studying Deutsch? I'm looking for recommendations :(
Efoy_Ivy Hund ja bitte, bitte!
@@ignaorell Easy German has simple videos on german grammar and such
German is my native language, (from Switzerland), and I think it's a lot easier to learn french when you already know German because we have the indirect and direct thing as well.
I think there's a RUclips called Evan Dinger who's learning German as well!
Noxa I’ll check it out! danke schön
everyone: quatre-vingt-dix
me, an intellectual: nonante
Shirou97 you a Romand
Why do English complain about quatre-vingt? They have four score!
@@louismart I'm Belgian
@@louismart Because we don't count in scores, haha. Each number we use has its own name, not a math equation. The only occasion I've heard "score" used for numbers is from the Gettysburg Address from the 1800s, it's not very common at all.
Eryn Dye „The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.“
Psalms 90:10 KJV
www.bible.com/1/psa.90.10.kjv It may be old fashioned, but it is better English than many texts we read nowadays.
Twentytwo is an equation too, btw.
Thank you damon! I've been studying french during quarantine! I've been trying to read Harry Potter et la Chambre des Secrets and its been challenging but fun. The direct objects and indirect objects have tripped me up and i've been doing exercises to practice it. I love your videos. These vids are helpful and entertaining! Studying french has been keeping me sane! One day when travel bans are lifted I'll visit Paris
Are you in the US ?
I'm reading the last one in french. this is amazing for vocabulary. it's so rich. it will get easier! for me I read it on the kindle app so I can highlight phrases certain grammar or lookup things easily on the internet . and beaxue really the style of writing never change you get in a rhythm and see the same patterns. Happy reading!
@@amberlache92 I hope you enjoy how the English puns have been translated into French :)
I love that you’re posting these kind of videos because I’m trying to learn French at the moment. Merci beaucoup! I am using Memrise and Duolingo. I’m ranked 6th for the month so far.
You're the best. I've never laughed so hard while also learning. You single-handedly reignited my desire to be better at speaking French. Thank you!
god I love your french videos, they help me so much in learning!
When Damon is sitting on that couch that’s how you know it about to be French 😂😝
It's so funny being french and watching those videos. At the beginning of every new chapter i thought "well thats not going to be that complicated right?" And then you realise how crazy this langage is 😂We are so use to the sound of it we don't really think about it
The language itself is like a girl. So crazy and weird she is but we still love her beauty and all of her senses :")))
Your explanation of direct and indirect objects is so clear and helpful! I can feel my French chakras opening
Yo, things are clicking. THINGS ARE COMING TOGETHER.
i love the translation of “j’ai des chats” as “i have some cats” bc including the word “some” implies you have more cats than you’d care to admit 😂
Yes, especially if you translate "some" back into French, you get "J'ai quelques chats", with "quelques" actually meaning literaly "some". Which proves "des" is untranslatable into English xD
@@leviosadream2454 When do you use "des" and when "quelques" ?
@@markhathaway9456 I use "des" when I can make the same sentence in English without "some" in it. "I ate fries" = "j'ai mangé des frites" VS "I ate some fries" = "j'ai mangé quelques frites". But it's more like a feeling whether you should translate with "des" or not. Which is why I said there was no equivalent for it in English 😉
I would have said "some" as well for "quelques", or "several" as you can often replace "des" par "plusieurs"
How about “several” cats? Does that come close to “Des”? Because it seems “Des” is like a plural indefinite article which we don’t have in English...
As a portuguese speaker, most of this rules are easy to assimilate lol. Love your french videos btw
I’m so tireD OF GENDERED OBJECTS MY DOOR IS NOT FEMALE
why not? she could be. do not misgender your door. she has feelings.
how do you know?
@@eneko231 🤣🤣
eneko Until my door looks at me and says “I’m a door and I’m a girl” i wILL NOT BE GENDERING IT!!!!
Now imagine being formated to gender everything and then you try to learn german and all the genders are mixed up and they add a neutral to fuck shit up yaaay
(actually this is Nia, Nate's wife lol) PLEASSEE DO MORE OF THESE oh man your french videos are awesome. I've been watching either you and jo's videos or just yours for the last 6 years! Favorite youtuber
Damon out here teaching me new things about English that I never bothered to think about! Love the french content!!!!!
“i GuEsS tHaT’s WhAt MaKeS a LaNgUaGe BeAuTiFuL” 😂
Damn I never realized my language was such a diva wth
As I learned french at such a young age, now I just know a sentence is right or wrong , I never know why x)
This is nonetheless super interesting and is cracking me up !
bro do u know how helpful this would’ve been this past semester omg this would’ve saved me so much stress,,,
i’m definitely forwarding this to some friends who will need it. thank u for clearing some of this stuff up!!
Why are there not more of these magical videos! UGH, SO HELPFUL. For the life of me, I always got confused with genders (sa/son) and counting above 80!!! Now I finally understand!!! Merci Damon!!!
love the wes anderson vibe of the frame and the background
One simple rule with que/qui:
* que is placed before a pronoun or a noun
* qui is placed before a verb ;)
Yes but not always you have to pay attention to what come after the verb:
Le gâteau que mangeait mon père était empoisonné.
La fenêtre que réparait mon père était très ancienne...
Etc etc
@@eleonorer.6861 I try to stay away from sentences such as those in English or French. They're a bit ambiguous. Communication is difficult without adding to the problem.
not quite right.
Que or Qui in questions (Que veux-tu ? or Qui es-tu ?) are what we call "Pronom interrogatif". A pronoun means it replace something in the sentence, in questions --> the answer you're expecting. And in those cases, "Qui" is for people and "Que" is for objects.
and when it's not in question it is called "Pronom relatif" it begins what we call a "proposition relative" which is a phrase that explains a part of the main sentence.
If the function of the pronoun in the relative part of the sentence is the subject of the verb, we use "QUI" and if it's the direct object, we use "QUE"
ie : la phrase que j'écris est belle. (the sentence I'm writing is beautiful) "que" is referring to "la phrase" it's like an adjective that defines the noun in the main sentence. And in french it's like "la phrase est belle" and "que j'écris" are different sentences. In this example, we use "que" because the function of the "pronom relatif" (it replaces la phrase in this part of the sentence) is a COD (it's not the subject of the verb but the direct object of the verb). In that case, whatever it's a object or a person, we use "QUE".
ie: la voiture, qui est rouge, vient de démarrer. (the car that is red just started). In that case, "qui" is the subject of the relative sentence "qui est rouge". We use "qui" even it's not a person.
I'm French and i'm so confused lmao. Good luck to anyone learning the language. I promise, it's worth it!
Your French teaching videos are awesome! They’re informative and entertaining at the same time! Can you please do another one?
I've can only speak English atm but have just started learning French, and this video was beyond useful! The way you explain stuff is so good and there were multiple moments watching this that my brain exploded because it suddenly just clicked! Please please please continue this series, c'est très bien!
The number thing is a really good trick, we were taught like that in college. Also, why wasn't this uploaded before my sems exam ughhh T_T Please upload some more, it'd be great help for tests
Something I noticed! (Lose examples for demonstration)
In french Qu'est-ce que literally translates to "what is it that" so french people will ask, for example:
"'What is it that' you love about France?"
Questions will be answered in a similar fashion to the question:
"'It's that' I can go for walks in the mornings"
"Est-ce que" is "Is it that" so:
"'Is it that' Paris is your favorite thing about France?"
"'It's that' Paris is my favorite thing about France. And 'it's that' the cafes are great."
Sounds really strange in English but I've noticed this pattern and thought it would be good to point it out.
I'm not a teacher or anything (please correct me if I'm wrong!), but when I looked at it like this it made more sense to me.
Happy learning!
My mind is BLOWN
Even french people get confused by the "Le, La/Lui, Leur"
That's relieving lol
no we don't 😆
I'm actually starting to think it's not that hard... I'm a portuguese native speaker, so it's easier for me🤭
No we don’t lol
I am French and you totally cracked me up!!! Loved it! You did a great job in explaining our crazy complicated grammar :)
I would’ve never survived FRENCH classes without your videos!! Please make more of them
wasn’t even this early to my own birth lol and ughh i wish u made these video sooner! I lived in Paris last year for like 6 months and I’m telling you i was strugglingggg anyway I absolutely adore your video and you inspire me every day to keep on working on my own channel!
Hey you watch Damon too, I saw you in Chloes comments
ukiyo omg cool! that’s so funny that we watch the same people :)
Who decided to give random objects a gender 😭 I hate it here
The Proto-Indo-Eurpeans.
I hate it so much
Welcome to the world of languages.
@@abcxyz4653 Most or many Indoeuropean languages do it, you better get used to it. For non natives, English orthography is a huge thing. It is erratic. Irregular verbs are athing, too. And tenses. So, every language jas their own thing ad it is what makes them colorful and interesting.
Almost every other language in the world...but I agree it sucks
My god, I've never imagined my native language could be so difficult. It's so difficult that you still make mistakes after explaining it : "Je LUI ai fait croire que je l'aimais" and not "l'"
your french videos genuinely teach me so much, thank you!
So happy you're doing more french videos, these are so helpful!!
4 min in, laughing like a stupid chipmunk and I had to stop it to comment that this is just AMAZING. Thank you. LOL
so where was this video when i had my french gcse 4 years ago???? :(((
where was this when I had my french GCSE last year??
Have you been to France and practised the language ?
@@julienbee3467 not yet but one day i will
watching him get frustrated is the most adorable thing ever.
I love these videos about comparison French and English. As I am not native speaker and I am learning English and as I want to remind basics and get new knowledge in French, this really helps me to understand both.
For real your video helped me understand indirect and direct objects for my Spanish cuz I've been getting them wrong and I've been learning Spanish for six years and speak it fluently at the Spanish restaurant i work at. THANK YOU
seeing as how i just started learning french a week ago.... i’ll be back 👀
Meanwhile in Belgium:
Seventy = septante
Eighty = quatre-vingt
Ninety = nonante
Whaaat, I din't know that exists somewhere, but why did they leave quatre-vingt?? XD
I believe Eighty is octante.
Eighty is "huitante" or at least it was in Switzerland
Ana Bryant it wasn‘t, it is!
@@anabryant8668 wow never heard of huitante before
Ont tip: When using '?' or '!' in French, you must put a space between them and the final word in the sentence.
It isn't true for Canadian French.
bdl.oqlf.gouv.qc.ca/bdl/gabarit_bdl.asp?id=5034
@@hugobourgon198 I said French, not Canadian French...
@@AntoinePelissier French is too general. Canadian French IS French just as any other version of French. You imposed your way into a whole language, I said it wasn't mandatory to do so in French language. In France's French it may be different, but French has more than one grammar. 💁♀️
Same for ; and :
Your explanations are amazing. Thank you so much, Damon! J'espère que tu vas bien pendant cette période bizarre. Bisous du Canada.
As an intermediate French learner, the way that Damon explains some of these concepts are enough for me to totally close the chapters of confusion that prevented me from having an advanced understanding-in other words, this series is a game changer and PLEASE KEEP THEM COMING.