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and complex sentences in French with relative ease. It also began to show you how to convert huge numbers of English words into French and then start using them straight away.
We will be doing more of both here, which will allow you to make enormous strides with your French in an incredibly short space of time.
Let’s begin by carrying out a second Word Robbery…
Time to steal some words!
Word Robbery Number 2
The second group of words we are going to steal are words that end in “ion” in English.
Words such as:
accusation reservation decoration invitation confirmation cooperation imagination irritation manipulation perfection domination creation innovation inspiration donation association concentration anticipation information exploration occupation
There are around 1250 of these in English and we can begin using these in French right now.
Adding them to the words we’ve already stolen so far, we have now reached a total of 2000 words stolen – and we’re only on Chapter 2!
Words stolen so far 2000
We’ve now carried out our second Word Robbery and have gained more than a thousand words ending in “ion”, and it only took us thirty seconds to “learn” them.
If you look at the examples above, you’ll notice that most, though not all, of these “ion” words actually end in “ation”.
When they do, they become even more useful because you can then use them to make the past tense in French.
Let me show you how.
Let’s take “réservation” as an example.
The first thing you’re going to do with “réservation” is to cut off the “ation” at the end. Do this now and tell me, what are you left with?
réserv
(ray-zurv)
Good. Now, onto the end of this, I want you to add the “é” that you find on the end of the word “café”. So again, I simply want you to take “réserv” and add an “é” onto the end of it.
What word does that give you?
réservé
(ray-zurv-ay)
This means “reserved”. (And notice, from the pronunciation guide underneath “réservé”, that “é” is always pronounced “ay” in French).
Let’s try doing this again, this time with the word “invitation”. Once more, cut off the “ation” from the end of the word and replace it with the “é” you find at the end of the word “café”.
Doing this, what do you get?
invité
(earn-vit-ay)
This means “invited”.
Let’s try this one more time, as the more practice you get, the easier it will become.
Take the word “préparation” as the starting point this time. Again, cut off the “ation” from the end and add an “é” in its place.
What does that give you?
préparé
(pray-par-ay)
This means “prepared”.
Now again, what was “I have” in French?
J’ai
(zhay)
So, how would you say “I have prepared”?
J’ai préparé
(zhay pray-par-ay)
And “I prepared”?
J’ai préparé
(zhay pray-par-ay)
And “I did prepare”?
J’ai préparé
(zhay pray-par-ay)
(Once again, just in case you’d forgotten, you get three English past tenses for the price of one in French!)
“The dinner” in French is:
le dîner
(luh din-ay)
How would you say “I have prepared the dinner”, “I prepared the dinner”, “I did prepare the dinner”?
J’ai préparé le dîner.
(zhay pray-par-ay luh din-ay)
Alright, let’s return again to our 1200 “ation” words for a moment.
Once more, what was “reservation” in French?
réservation
(ray-zurv-ass-yon)
As before, let’s cut the “ation” off the end of “réservation” and replace it with the “é” from “café” to create the word that means “reserved” in French.
If you do that, what is “reserved”?
réservé
(ray-zurv-ay)
And this actually means both “reserved” and “booked”. So, how would you say, “I have reserved” / “I have booked”?
J’ai réservé
(zhay ray-zurv-ay)
“A table” in French is
une table
(oon tarb-luh)
Right, how would you say “I have reserved a table” / “I have booked a table”?
J’ai réservé une table.
(zhay ray-zurv-ay oon tarb-luh)
“For you” in French is:
pour vous (poor voo)
How would you say “I have reserved a table for you” / “I have booked a table for you”?
J’ai réservé une table pour vous.
(zhay ray-zurv-ay oon tarb-luh poor voo)
And again, what was “the dinner” in French?
le dîner
(luh din-ay)
And what was “for you”?
pour vous