It is I....

I am the Forum Administrator too. But I hope that we can all participate equally.

I had great weekend at les journées patrimoines and fête de vapeur at Longueville at the weekend.
Photos and info later.

And you......What's been happening?

I have made some progress; I have now got a continuous track around the canal, but now power to it as yet. I am rapidly running out of track so will have to arrange to pick some up on my next visit back to the UK at the end of October.
Geoff Watson may be visiting me on Friday to see how far I have got this year.

Great Peter. I wish I could come too. But suddenly I have so much to do.
Some pictures would be super.

Admin wrote:

Great Peter. I wish I could come too. But suddenly I have so much to do.
Some pictures would be super.

Would you like a pic of me,in the bath perhaps?

Maybe if you're holding a train.....

[quote="micheline"]Maybe if you're holding a train.....[/quote

Now you made me laugh a lot

micheline wrote:

Maybe if you're holding a train.....

Right I see how the tone is set

Yes I am, it is a Midland Express engine with a long train behind it.

I heard it was a 'terrier'

mikeyh wrote:

I heard it was a 'terrier'

I am going to self regulate myself, it could very easily get out of hand - oops oo er Mrs

Hello,
I think it ' s here that i have to say hello to all.
My name is Pete and some of you knowing me, i m IMAGIMONDE.
I m very sorry,my English is not perfect (less than Carls French )
It s seems to be a lovely and friendly place here.

I put the Good E
It s not easy to surf on languages, French (i m bad), German (i m bad), English (i m ? ...Bad)
I now try a new one, Music, with friends...but...i m BAD ...

The only big mistake is that 'English' has a capital letter (majuscule).

You can post in French if your prefer but I'm sure your English is a lot better than you think.
And my French grammar is terrible.

Like everyone who posts on here you can moderate your own posts.... and others if you need to.

Bienvenue Pierre! J'espere tu es tres contente ici!

mikey

Welcome Pete, my french is almost non existant (come to think about it my English is not much cop either)

AH Yes! Durhan neither cockney nor Geordie part of the midlands I guess

Steady--- entente cordial and all that, we prefer "Yacker" but having said that my ancestors came over from France with William the Conqueror.

My daughter is actually a real cockney girl 'aving bin born in the Royal London 'ospit'al in Whitechapel.
Funny old world innit?

mikeyh wrote:

Bienvenue Pierre! J'espere tu es tres contente ici!

mikey

Thank you
Without the e , i feel better

Ah oui...Mikey, tut, tut, tut....


Il faut apprendre absolument la différence entre masculin et féminin.

Pierre d Imagimonde wrote:

mikeyh wrote:

Bienvenue Pierre! J'espere tu es tres contente ici!

mikey

Thank you
Without the e , i feel better

Binvnu Pirr! J'spr tu s trs contnt ici



Now it makes no sense at all to us French Yackers

Beware Pierre of your next posting 'en Anglais'!!

Mikey

This masculine-feminine and (if you speak German and/or Russian) neuter gender stuff is very difficult to remember.

Being a teacher of English grammar (and I do make much mistakes...), it is an interesting subject.

In Latin languages all nouns have male and female gender with adjectives and verb endings having agreement.

When I first came to France I used to buy two of everything. Why, you ask?
Well rather than dither about embarrassingly at the counter of the boulangerie for example trying to remember whether it was 'un ou une' for baguette I just said 'deux' which has no gender.

This continued for quite some while until we decided to go and buy a new car.

Also this gender thing makes you realise how impersonal the English language can be.

For instance, in France babies are always masculine until they become garçon or fille whereas in English a baby is often referred to as 'it' until we find out if it is a boy or girl.

Funny you should mention boulangerie - we have a store here called boulanger - I assumed it sold cakes and bread n stuff for some time.

We actually ended up buying our new telly from it.


Re gender the Spanish take it a step further - from BBC website "Spanish Steps"-

Quote :

un bocadillo a roll or one roll
una tortilla an omelette or one omelette.

This is because all Spanish nouns, whether referring to people, things or ideas, are either feminine or masculine.

Do I have to make sure I don't get girly idea's ?


People from other parts always say that English is the hardest language to learn, I had no problem with it at all. A spade is a spade, a pen is a pen, etc, etc .

How do you address your loco's ? if you have a Ruby is it "une" and is Edrig "un" ? regardless of the fact that a Dampfloco, or loco de vapeur, of whatever is male ?

Now there's a funny thing I too thought that Boulanger sold bread.
Well...'Baker's' sells domestic equipment here as well.

In French there is very little logic to the allocation of gender.

Une locomotive, un train, une rame (multiple unit or set), un wagon......
Un autorail, une automotrice (generally but not always - electric railcar)....
Un bateau, une peniche (barge), un automoteur (big barge)....

But....
Un livre and une livre, a book and a pound (also demi-kilo).

I did once ask a book of cheese....