First, there are some important choices to be made.  Do you want to drink red wine, vin rouge, white wine, vin blanc, some rosé or champagne?  Then you need to choose between a bottle, une bouteille, a glass, un verre or a carafe, un pichet (often in a restaurant they will serve the house wine in a “pichet”)

Je voudrais un verre de vin blanc et une coupe de champagne, si’l vous plait. 

I would like a glass of white wine and a flute of champagne, please.

 

Avec le fromage, je vais commander une bouteille de vin rouge. 

With the cheese, I am going to order a bottle of red wine.

As France is such a prolific wine producing country, the wine producing regions each have their specialties.   For example, Bordeaux is one of the world’s leading red wine producers.  So if you ask for a glass of Bordeaux, un verre de Bordeaux, you will automatically be given a glass of red wine from the Bordeaux region.  La Bourgogne, Burgundy, is also famous for its red wine, but these are a much lighter wine that the reds from Bordeaux.

As you can imagine the quality of wine varies enormously from wine producer to wine producer, it all depends on the soil, le terroir, the vines themselves, les vignes, the winemaker, le vigneron and the how the weather affects the harvest, la vendange.  You can buy an expensive superior vintage wine, un grand cru, or you can buy cheap plonk, du pinard.  Generally, most people find something they enjoy in the middle.  Sometimes you can find wine that is produced in a co-operative, vin du pays, which is generally not expensive and can be of a really good quality.

If you are not sure what to buy, or would like to taste some wine¸ déguster du vin, there are specialist shops all around France, les marchands de vin, or you can ask the wine waiter in a restaurant, le sommelier.  The French are always pleased to give you their opinions and advice when it comes to wine.

A votre santé !

Visit our free audio lesson for more French wine vocabulary.

It’s time for a video post here at the Rocket Languages blog. Today Mauricio Evlampieff, the host of Rocket Spanish, is going to teach you how to pronounce vegetables in Spanish.

Mauricio loves cooking and has wanted to do a video post on Spanish cuisine for a long time.  In this video lesson Mauricio will teach you the Spanish names of both common and exotic vegetables. Enjoy!

Feel free to visit the Official Rocket Languages YouTube channel for more great language videos.

It’s time to get all nostalgic and talk about the past…

It’s very difficult to have a conversation in any language without having to refer to the past.  I have a friend who speaks “fluent” Spanish, but really he is just fluent in hand gestures, pointing behind him for past tense and in front of him for the future!  We’d like to help you be a little more fluent than that!

In Spanish there are two main ways to talk about the past tense; they are the preterite and the imperfect.  Let’s focus our attention on the preterite, which sound scary but isn’t – it’s easier than having to revert to hand gestures!

You will know when to use the preterite tense because you’ll be talking about something that happened ayer (yesterday), anoche (last night), la semana pasada (last week), etc. something that happened at a definite point in the past.

Ayer hablé con mi amigo – Yesterday I spoke to my friend.

La semana pasado fuimos al cine – Last week, we went to the movies.

The verb endings for the preterite tense are fairly simple:

• -ar verbs, like hablar, end in the following:

Yo + é – hablé

Tú + aste – hablaste

Ud, él, ella + ó – habló

Nosotros/as + amos – hablamos

Vosotros/as + asteis – hablasteis

Uds, ellos, ellas +aron – hablaron

• -ir and -er verbs, like vivir & comer, end in the same way:

Yo + í – comí, viví
Tú + iste – viviste, comiste
Ud, él, ella + ió – vivió, comió
Nosotros/as + imos – vivimos, comimos
Vosotros/as + isteis – vivisteis, comisteis
Uds, ellos, ellas + ieron – vivieron, comieron

Did you spot that for nosotros/as, the verb ending is the same as for the present tense, so only context will tell you which one it is.

El año pasado vivimos en Argentina – Last year we lived in Argentina

Vivimos en una casa muy grande – We live in a very big house

La semana pasada hablaste con tu jefe, ¿no? – Last week you spoke to your boss, didn’t you?

Vivieron en la Calle de la Victoria hace dos años, pero no se donde viven ahora – They lived in Victoria Street two years ago, but I don’t know where they live now.

Hopefully the above will help you to talk about what happened in the past in Spanish. For more information about the past tense, and some more free resources, head over to our free lesson on the Spanish Preterite.

Adios.

No! Don’t turn off the computer!

I won’t make you diagram sentences or recite parts of speech or anything. I just want to tell you a little bit about how useful grammar can be, and encourage you to spend some time learning the grammar of your target language.

Just as we can live in a house our whole lives and never understand the plumbing or examine the foundation, we can quite happily talk, listen, write and read in our first language without understanding or talking about grammar.

Some people also learn second and third languages through copying others, speaking, reading and writing in the language, without studying grammar.

However, copying and guessing can only get you so far …

While it is true that words, phrases and punctuation are all ingredients in a language, and you can communicate to a degree by combining ingredients in random ways, it’s a very good idea to use a tried and true recipe.

Grammar is like a recipe – something you can follow to put certain amounts of things together in certain ways to create something that works well. Therefore, it is important, and very useful, to understand a little bit about the structure (or grammar) of a language.

This means:

• How to build and use the parts of the language (naming words, actions words, describing words and all those extra words), by learning how they change and why they change.
• How these parts go together, in which order, and how to use certain formulas to put things together in correct ways so that you can understand and be understood.
• All languages have rules, and things about them that don’t change. Learning the do’s and don’ts will help you to speak naturally.
• All languages also have irregular parts that break the rules. It really helps to know what these are so that you can use your new language in the best way possible.

Learning the grammar of a language is much easier for adults than it is for children. Whether you realize it or not, you already have an understanding of how your first language works, and this will help you to understand the grammar of your new one.

Once you do, the possibilities are endless… Imagine being a master chef who knows all the basic techniques, and can therefore combine unlimited ingredients in unlimited ways!

So, how can you use this information to help you with your learning?

If you haven’t already, it’s time to explore the grammar rules of your target language.

At Rocket Languages our grammar lessons tie in with our interactive audio lessons. This is so that you can understand the grammar behind the conversations while taking part in conversations and learning new vocabulary. If you haven’t already I would suggest that you sign up for our one of our free courses and find out just how easy learning grammar can be.

Free language courses:

If you’d like some more information on talking about time, and how to pronounce these new words, why don’t you take a look at our free French time lesson – and as they say – there’s no time like the present!!!

To be able to arrange to meet someone, you need to know your numbers from 1 to 12 so you can make sure you don’t miss out on that important date!!

Other important words to know are:

Now let’s look at some French phrases that include the above vocabulary and meeting times.

On se voit à trois heures de l’après-midi  demain
Translation: We’re seeing each other at three o’clock tomorrow afternoon! 

J’ai un rendezvous à 11 heures ce matin
Translation: I have a meeting at 11 o’clock this morning.

La semaine prochaine, j’ai un rendezvous chez le dentist et demain, je vais voir ma grandmère dans l’après-midi.
Translation: Next week, I’ve got an appointment at the dentist and tomorrow I am going to see my grandmother in the afternoon.

The following phrases might be useful to know if you’re single and in France

Question: Est-ce qu’on peut se voir demain soir?
Translation: Can we see each other tomorrow evening?

Answer:  Oui, à 8 heures chez moi?
Translation: Yes, 8 o’clock at my place?

I think I’ve just arranged a date!!  See how easy that was – well, the French part was easy at least!

Remember, if you’d like some more information on talking about time, and how to pronounce these new words, why don’t you take a look at our free time in French lesson.

Bonne chance et à bientôt !

Marie-Claire

In today’s video post Mauricio is going to teach you some common, and not so common, Spanish animal names.

Get prepared for your next visit to the zoo and learn what a monkey, zebra, kangaroo, and other animals are called in Spanish. This video is not only perfect for beginners and children, but there are probably also a couple of animals that even advanced Spanish learners may not have encountered yet!

Enjoy!

• a) something you read in a newspaper or magazine
• b) the word “the”
• c) the word “a” or “an”?
• Correct answer = all of the above!

Today we are going to look at b) and c) only though – the and a/an – these are our definite and indefinite articles.

The definite article the versus the indefinite article a / an

Look at the difference between these two sentences :

• “A boy was playing in the park” (here we are talking about a boy we don’t know, we do know the other person will also know the park we are talking about)
• “The boy was playing in the park” (this time we are talking about a specific boy)

In Spanish the definite and indefinite articles are used exactly the same as in English.

• Un niño estaba jugando en el parque (a boy was playing in the park)
• El niño estaba jugando en el parque (the boy was playing in the park)

So we can see from the above that “un” is a direct translation of “a”  and “el” is a direct translation of “the” – easy!!  Well, actually it does get a little more complicated, but it’s also pretty logical.

This is the sentence we have used until now “Un niño estaba jugando en el parque”, let’s change it a little so we can see how the articles change depending on what the subject is.

• Una niña estaba jugando en el parque” (a girl was playing in the park)
  see how “un” becomes “una” when the subject “niña” is feminine (a girl was playing in the park)
• La niña estaba jugando en el parque (the girl was playing in the park)
  see how “el” becomes “la” when the subject “niña” is feminine (a girl was playing in the park)

What happens in the plural?  In English “the” never changes, neither does “a/an”, but in Spanish if the subject is plural, the article must also be plural:

• Unos niños estaban jugando en el parque (children were playing in the park)
• “Unos” is the masculine plural form of “un”
• Los niños estaban jugando en el parque (the children were playing in the park)
• “Los” is the masculine plural form of “el”
• Las chicas vestían camisetas rosas (the girls wore pink t-shirts)
• “Las” is the feminine plural form of “la”
• Unas niñas jugaban con muñecas (some girls were playing with dolls)
• “Unas” is the feminine plural form of “una”

For more information on definite and indefinite articles in Spanish, please go to http://www.rocketlanguages.com/spanish/resources/how_to_say_the_an.php

¡Hasta pronto!

Je suis très heureuse de vous revoir!  Hi there, I’m very happy to see you again! Happiness is a wonderful emotion; let’s look at describing some other emotions in French!
As I said above “je suis heureuse”, this is the feminine version of “heureux”.

• Je suis heureux parce que j’ai fini mes examens! – I am happy because I have finished my exams!

Many of these adjectives to describe your emotions change in the feminine form, for example:

• Je suis jaloux becomes je suis jalouse – I am jealous

• Je suis fatigué becomes je suis fatigue – I’m tired

• Il est amoureux becomes elle est amoureuse – he is in love / she is in love

Many of these adjectives sound quite similar to English words, for example:

• surpris / surprise = surprised

• furieux/ furieuse = furious

• occupé / occupée = busy (occupied)

• impatient / impatiente = impatient

• nerveux / nerveuse = nervous

• calme = calm – note this does not change form

Like in English, the verb “to be” – être is used with these adjectives:

• Je suis surprise de te voir ici. I am surprised to see you.

• Il est nerveux; il va chez le dentiste. He is nervous; he’s going to the dentist

• Les enfants sont impatients, c’est presque Noel! The children are excited, it’s almost Christmas!

• Je suis triste parce que mon chien est malade. I am sad because my dog is sick.

• Vous êtes très occupés. You are very busy.

Have a look at these sentences describing how someone is feeling and see if you can work out what they mean. For some help, visit http://www.rocketlanguages.com/french/learn/emotions-in-french/

Time for a little pop quiz!

Here are some scenarios – see if you can match them to the emotions, 1-4:

Hope you passed with flying colors!

If you want to listen to how these words are pronounced, please go to http://www.rocketlanguages.com/french/learn/emotions-in-french/

A bientôt.

Do you remember the first time you picked up a crayon or a pen and wrote something that had meaning? Maybe it was just your name, or a card for your mother.

Chances are, seeing that writing on the paper and knowing you had done it made you feel very proud. And so it should; being able to write something that another can understand is a pretty big accomplishment – it took our species a few million years to figure it out!

And now it is up to you to evolve a little further…

If you haven’t already, start to write in your new language – and more than just vocabulary or flashcards. It might feel strange at first, but if you haven’t been doing it, give it a try. You can decide if you write with a pen or a computer, and both are useful for visual or auditory learners.

Let’s get started!

So, what are some things you can write in your new language?

• A shopping list
• Your daily “to do” list
• Your tasks for the week
• A journal, which is private and meaningful, and may be a way of recording your thoughts and questions about learning a language
• A diary of a trip, especially if it is to a foreign language-speaking country
• A letter to a pen pal who speaks your new language, whom you may be able to find online, or within your community forum
• Some comments on your community forum
• A birthday card
• A love poem
• A song to sing with a child, practicing your new language rhymes…
• What else?

Any of these things will be useful, and improve your learning. And most of them are private, so it’s okay to make mistakes. Give it a try!

So, why is writing useful for your language learning?

• You’ll gain confidence with your new language, by doing something meaningful with it (even if that is your shopping list. It makes the language a useful tool. )
• It’s a good way to spot mistakes; people are more hesitant about writing mistakes down. It is easy to make them when you are speaking, and brush them off, but when you write, it may force you to go and look up the correct form or spelling.
• For visual learners, writing is an excellent way to use your learning style; seeing what you can do in your new language is great reinforcement and encouragement for you.
• For kinesthetic learners, writing is something physical, and it’s an excellent way to reinforce what you are learning.
• For all types of learners, writing requires you to think in your new language, come up with the words and phrases on your own (and not just copy someone else’s example), and write it correctly, showing tangible evidence of your knowledge! Just try it, and you’ll see what I mean.
• For those who are writers naturally, try to write an essay or a story in your new language. It’s a great challenge, and a lot of fun.

In fact, if you like, we’ll give you a little homework assignment now, and you can try it…

Write at least 50 words of your new language, in sentences, to describe your best friend. Tell us where they come from, what they look like, what they like to do, what they do for a job, what they do in their spare time, and why you like this person.

You could team up with a partner and correct each other’s stories.

Last week we tested how good you are asking where something is in French. This week we are taking it a step further and are testing whether you know how to follow directions in French. Basically this quiz focuses on the type of language you will hear after you ask the “where is” question. Language like “to the left”, “go straight” and “on the corner of” for example. If you’d like a quick brush up on directions in French check out our free lesson.

Spanish Quiz:

Do you know which Spanish verb to use when if you are talking about time? How much do you know about Spanish verbs in the preterite tense? How good are you at conjugating verbs in Spanish? Now is your chance to find out! This week’s Spanish quiz is on basic Spanish verbs. If you’d like a quick refresher visit our free Spanish verb lessons.

So, click on one of the images below to start your weekly quiz, and don’t forget to share your score on Facebook and Twitter, so that everyone knows how well you’ve done.

Good luck!