Wednesday, August 21, 2024

French say France or la France?

 Do French people really call their country France or do they prefer to use the word la France? If so, why?

◆ My first reaction is somewhat strong, and I want to act sarcastic and condescending. (I've been here a while, and some reactions have rubbed off on me).


They do call their country “France” but in the grammatical rules of their language, it is incorrect to not say La France. This is not ethnocentric- they also cannot (do not) say United States (or any country) without saying le or la. The country is a noun, and must always have a definite article.


●The rules to name the countries in French are very complicated. The name of our country is “France”. A feminin noun.


●In a sentence we don’t say just France but la France. Example : La France est un pays européen. France is an European country.

But it depends on the function of the noun in the sentence too. For example, I live in France : je vis en France. No article there.

And to go further with other countries names, some are masculine, some feminin with article, some are plural, and some are named only with a name.

Le mexique, la Finlande, les États-Unis, Israel.

You would say :

Je vais au Mexique, je vais en Finlande, je vais aux États-Unis, je vais en Israel. (I go to)

Je viens du Mexique, je viens de Finlande, je viens des États-Unis, je viens d’Israel. (I come from)

A real mess !

I am French.


●France is a failure states


●Says an American who has a country with a sovereign debt of $34.6 trillion and a US household debt of $16.9 trillion at the end of last year and a student debt of $1.727 trillion.

Do you want a medal ?

No doubt you are too strong for us! ( ;


●And the US clearly has a failed (not failure) education system. Two mistakes in five words!


●🤣🤣🤣


●What about Israel, Andorra, Canada, etc. (A lot of exceptions to your rule…)


●While some countries are exceptions (there is always exceptions to rules), mainly for smaller countries (ie. Israël, Andorran, Monaco), we actually do say LE Canada. Don’t Ask thé average french people why, tho. It’s just Like That.


●Or Malte, Chypre, Bahreïn , Haïti, Cuba, Oman, …

●We do say Le Bahreïn [Bahrain]

“J’adore vivre en France” (Translation: “I adore living in France”) so not always …


https://youtube.com/shorts/iWlBKIAleEo?si=5czxLZVkdNibSg2b

*athena sol ( scroll down to read Transcript)

https://youtube.com/shorts/iWlBKIAleEo?si=5czxLZVkdNibSg2b

●You can also refer to l’Hexagone since the map of France makes you think about such a geometric figure


●We also say l’Andorre (la, female). For the US, “les” (plural). Les États-Unis. Some countries are male, e.g. le Maroc, le Royaume Uni (United Kingdom), le Danemark, le Japon, some are female, e.g. la Chine, la Grèce, l’Espagne, l’Italie… “L’” often, but not always means female, e.g. “l’Azerbaijan” (male).


L’hexagone


●We say “la France” but “les États-Unis” because it’s plural


●-And that’s really no different than what the Americans say - “The United States”. Somehow, I doubt the author of the question is from the US.


●There are some countries that do not have definite articles in French, like Cuba, Israël or Haïti, but these are very few. So indeed “La France” is simply the correct way to say “France” in French. Just like Germany is “l'Allemagne”, China is “la Chine”, and so on.


Je suis allee en FRANCE (not LA France) en octobre. [Translation: I went to FRANCE (not LA FRANCE) in October.]


●It doesn’t always have an article. In France = en France; wines of France = vins de France


Nous vivons en France. Nous habitons la France. We live in France. We inhabit la France.

It’s grammar., nothing special.


●Grammar comments are wasted on Americans the majority cannot even speak or write grammatically correct English or even American come to that.

●But this question wasn’t written by an American. It was created by the Quora Prompt Generator. Seems the British are particularly prone to be taken in by those and the ones written by Russian Trolls (and even their own British citizens pretending to be dumb Americans!)

Should we come to the conclusion that the British are so hungry for opportunities to express their superiority that they are unable to use basic discernment when they see one?

●Your reply does not invalidate mine. American use of English is very poor, as an example the frequent use of the adverb ousting as a noun.

●I didn’t intend to invalidate yours. I do, however, question the relevancy to the subject.

I am curious as to what you mean, however. I do perceive Americans using adverbs in their base form rather than the -ly form (I am pretty tired. It was real nice.) But not real clear on using them as nouns ? (did you see what I did there? :) Could you give an example?

Not that I think it is a big deal, the Americans are known for evolving towards speech that prioritizes efficiency and simplicity. But since I am an English teacher, being aware of all the various types of differences is interesting to me.


■ THE END LA FIN.


*athena sol : 

pourquoi y a des pays masculins et des pays féminins ça n'a aucun sens

why are there masculine countries and feminine countries it makes no sense

alors c'est assez simple en

so it's quite simple in

les pays qui se terminent par le sont généralement féminins

countries that end with le are usually   feminine

la Chine  🇨🇳  la France 🇫🇷 

China 🇨🇳  France 🇫🇷 

l'Espagne  🇪🇸 la Turquie 🇹🇷

Spain 🇪🇸 Turkey 🇹🇷 

les pays qui se terminent par l autre lettre que la lettre E seront masculins

countries that end with L letter other than the letter E will be masculine

le Cameroun 🇨🇲 le Portugal  🇵🇹 et puis y a des pays qui n'ont pas de genre

Cameroon 🇨🇲  Portugal 🇵🇹 and then there are countries that don't have gender 

Taïwan 🇹🇼 Cuba 🇨🇺 Madagascar 🇲🇬

Taiwan 🇹🇼 Cuba 🇨🇺 Madagascar 🇲🇬 

ensuite tu remarqueras que les pays qui sont masculins on aura tendance à dire au

then you will notice that the countries that are masculine we will tend to say au

je vais au Portugal 🇵🇹 

I'm going to Portugal 🇵🇹 

je vais au Danemark 🇩🇰

I'm going to Denmark 🇩🇰 

pays masculin pour les pays féminins on dira en

masculine country for feminine countries we will say en

je vais en France 🇫🇷 je vais en Suède 🇸🇪

I'm going to France 🇫🇷 I'm going to Sweden 🇸🇪 

et pour les pays et les territoires qui n'ont pas de genre on dira plutôt à

and for countries and territories that don't have a gender, we'll say

je vais à Tahiti

I'm going to Tahiti 

à Monaco alors tout ce que je viens de vous dire c'est très mignon hein

in Monaco so everything I just told you is very cute huh

mais il y a des exceptions

but there are exceptions

il y a les pays qui finissent en E mais qui sont masculins le Mozambique 🇲🇿

there are countries that end in E but are masculine Mozambique 🇲🇿 

le Mexique 🇲🇽 le Zimbabwe 🇿🇼

Mexico 🇲🇽 Zimbabwe 🇿🇼 

le Cambodge 🇰🇭

Cambodia 🇰🇭 

il y en a d'autres et là par contre me demandez pas pourquoi moi j'ai fait mon taf

there are others and here on the other hand do not ask me why I did my job

https://youtube.com/shorts/iWlBKIAleEo?si=5czxLZVkdNibSg2b


Continue de rire, reste drôle

keep laughing stay funny


为什么会有阳性国家和阴性国家,这毫无意义 

Wèishéme huì yǒu yángxìng guójiā hé yīnxìng guójiā, zhè háo wú yìyì


所   以 很    简    单 

suǒ-yǐ hěn jiǎn-dān


以 le 结尾的国家通常是阴性的 yǐ le jiéwěi de guójiā tōngcháng shì yīnxìng de


中国 🇨🇳 法国 🇫🇷 

zhōng-guó 🇨🇳 fà-guó 🇫🇷 


西 班   牙 🇪🇸 土 耳 其 🇹🇷 

xī-bān-yá 🇪🇸 tǔ' ěr-qí 🇹🇷 


以字母 L 结尾而不是字母 E 的国家是阳性的

yǐ zìmǔ L jiéwěi ér bùshì zìmǔ E de guójiā shì yángxìng de

喀麦隆 🇨🇲 葡萄牙 🇵🇹 还有一些没有性别的国家 

kāmàilóng 🇨🇲 pútáoyá 🇵🇹 hái yǒu yīxiē méiyǒu xìngbié de guójiā


台   湾 🇹🇼 古  巴 🇨🇺 马 达 加 斯 加 🇲🇬 

tái-wān 🇹🇼 gǔ-bā 🇨🇺 mǎ-dá-jiā-sī-jiā 🇲🇬 


然后你会注意到,阳性国家我们倾向于说 au

ránhòu nǐ huì zhùyì dào, yángxìng guójiā wǒmen qīngxiàng yú shuō au

我要去葡萄牙 🇵🇹 wǒ yào qù pútáoyá 🇵🇹 


我要去丹麦 🇩🇰 wǒ yào qù dān-mài 🇩🇰 


阳性国家 对于女性化的国家,我们会说 en

yángxìng guójiā duìyú nǚxìng huà de guójiā, wǒmen huì shuō en

我要去法国 🇫🇷 我要去瑞典 🇸🇪 

wǒ yào qù fà-guó 🇫🇷 wǒ yào qù ruì-diǎn 🇸🇪 


对于没有性别的国家和地区 ,

duìyú méiyǒu xìngbié de guójiā hé dìqū, 我们会说 wǒmen huì shuō


我  要   去  塔 希 提 岛 

wǒ yào qù tǎ xī  tí  dǎo 


在摩纳哥,所以我刚才告诉你的一切都很可爱,嗯

zài mónàgē, suǒyǐ wǒ gāngcái gàosù nǐ de yīqiè dōu hěn kě'ài, ń


但    也 有   例 外 

dàn yě-yǒu lì-wài


有些国家以 E 结尾,但属于男性化国家 莫桑比克 🇲🇿 yǒuxiē guójiā yǐ E jiéwěi, dàn shǔyú nánxìng huà guójiā mòsāngbǐkè 🇲🇿 


墨  西 哥 🇲🇽 津  巴  布  韦 🇿🇼 

mò-xī-gē 🇲🇽 jīn-bā-bù-wéi 🇿🇼 


柬   埔  寨 🇰🇭 

jiǎn-pǔ-zhài 🇰🇭 


还有其他国家,而这里,另一方面,不要问我为什么要做我的工作 hái yǒu qítā guójiā, ér zhèlǐ, lìng yī fāngmiàn, bùyào wèn wǒ wèishéme yào zuò wǒ de gōngzuò


https://youtube.com/shorts/iWlBKIAleEo?si=5czxLZVkdNibSg2b


继续   笑,保    持   幽   默

 jì-xù xiào, bǎo-chí yōu-mò



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