Yes, even if this language isn't that easy to learn there are a few words that are not so difficult for us my fellow Bisaya folks. This is good news! But before we talk about them please accept my apologies for the delay of this entry. I was on vacation and it took me some time to be back on the writing mood.
So, in this entry I'll share with you some of the words that I have found easy to learn and remember because they are not so far from our mother tongue. After each French word will be its pronunciation, you'll notice that the pronunciations will be placed in between two forward slashes to avoid confusion.
Let's start with: avril /avril/- this is the month of April. I noticed that in French they are not particular about capitalizing their months of the year or days of the week when they right them even in formal letters. I was hesitating for this one because in Cebuano we don't really use the V sound, we use B instead but we have the street called V. Rama and I remember always hearing it being said correctly and of course we also say Viva Pit Señor! So, we do say the V sound when we have to! If you wanna say the month of April in French just say avril instead of Abril and you just said a French word! Easy right?! I'll write a different post about months of the year and days of the week so don't worry, you'll learn them too. ツ
Then we have the word cache-cache /kash kash/- this is something very familiar to ladies who love shopping but I'm not gonna talk about the clothing store here, I'm gonna talk about what this store name means. This comes from the verb cacher /KaShe/ (first group) which means to hide. Now, cache-cache is a famous children's game played probably all over the world. In Cebuano we simply call it tagu-tagu. So, have you noticed the similar pattern? Look at the different translations: French - cache-cache; Cebuano - tagu-tagu; English - hide and seek; Tagalog - tagu taguan. In both French and Cebuano we just repeat the same word twice.
Example sentence: Jouons à cache-cache! (Let's play hide and seek!)
The next word is doublé /duble/ and yes it means double which in Cebuano we say doble.
Example sentence: Le prix de l'essence est doublé. (The price of petrol has doubled.)
Unlike in English, there is only one type of H in French and that's the silent H all the time. They say un hôpital /opital/ for a hospital which is close to how we say it in Cebuano. And just a quick note on this; here in the region of Bretagne they have their own ancient language (dialect) called Breton /brotong/ and in the Breton language they say ospital for hospital which is totally like how we Cebuanos say it! Isn't that great? Now you learned not just a French word hôpital but a Breton word ospital as well, how amazing is that! And can you guess how they say hotel? It's not how we say it in Cebuano but it's another quick word to learn too. Yes, they say hôtel /otel/.
How do we say useless in Cebuano? Let's say there's a brawl between a nagging wife and her lazy husband. We'd probably here the wife say "Inutil kang tawhana ka, tibuok adlaw sige ra ka'g ligid ligid!" (What an example, I know!hahaha). Though the word can also mean disabled/handicapped, in this context it just means the husband is useless and for the word useless a French person would say inutile /inutil/. Amazing right? When I first heard this word and understood what it meant it just made me smile.
Example sentence: J'ai toujours froid, le nouveau pull que j'ai acheté est inutile. Maintenant, je comprend pourquoi ce n'etait pas cher. (I still feel cold, the new sweater that I bought is useless. Now I understand why it was not expensive.)
After inutile we have lavabo /lavabo/ - sink in English and lababo or lavabo in Cebuano. See? Not all french words are hard!
Example sentence: Les robinets du lavabo de la salle de bains sont mal fermés. (The sink faucets in the bathroom are not properly closed.)
Another interesting word would be un résultat /rezulta/ - which means result. The only difference is that we don't use the Z sound in its Cebuano counterpart resulta. Again, notice that the last letter is dropped.
Example sentence: Il est admis à Harvard, voilà le résultat de son travail! (He's accepted in Harvard, that's the result of his efforts!)
Up next is the word un savon /savong/ - soap in English. In Cebuano we say sabon so they are close with regard to spelling but not the pronunciation however I still find it an easy word to learn for a Filipino.
Example sentence: Il n'y a plus de savon sur le lavabo de la salle de bain. (There is no more soap on the bathroom sink.)
Then we have the word sexy /seksi/. It's the same spelling in English but it's pronounced in Cebuano, seksi. So, if someone teases you by saying the word seksi instead of pronouncing it in English you can have a good rebut by saying, "hey, I was trying to speak French!" ツ
Another word is un veranda /verongda/- a porch in English and veranda in Cebuano. There's a slight difference in the pronunciation but it still counts for me.
Example sentence: Notre véranda a une très belle vue sur la baie. (Our porch has a very beautiful view of the bay.)
There you have it! Now you have a few French vocabularies to practice on. Let's keep learning little by little. Positive learning attitude, strong determination and hard work are keys to learning a new language.
Note:
In French everything has a gender, even objects. This is one of the reasons why the language is tricky. The English articles are easier to learn (a, an, the and sometimes some). The nouns that I have used above are all masculine; un hôpital, un résultat, le lavabo, un savon and un veranda. We will talk about the French articles on my next post, that will be next week so stay tuned!
