verb - to be

i am          je suis io sono
you are    tu es tu sei
he/she is  il/elle est lui/lei e
we are      nous sommes noi siamo
you are     vous etes voi siete
they are  ils/elles sont loro sono

si vous avez besoin de quelque chose, appelez-moi. je vous dirai comment vous en passer.

camus in italiano

ho capito che avevo distrutto l'equilibrio del giorno, lo straordinario silenzio di una spiaggia dove ero stato felice. allora ho sparato quattro volte su un corpo inerte dove i proiettili si insaccavano senza lasciare traccia. E furono come quattro colpi secchi che battevo sulla porta della sventura.

seems a more poetic killing in french?

verb - to have

this is one is most important. present tense

i have               j'ai                     io ho
you have         tu as                  tu hai
he/she has     il/elle a              lui/lei ha
we have          nous avons      noi abbiamo
you have         vous avez         voi avete
they have        ils/elles ont     loro hanno

Albert Camus - The Stranger, l'etranger
Just one of the most stunning books of all time 

J'ai compris que j'avais détruit l'équilibre du jour, le silence exceptionnel d'une plage où j'avais été heureux. Alors, j'ai tiré encore quatre fois sur un corps inerte où les balles s'enfonçaient sans qu'il y parût. Et c'était comme quatre coups brefs que je frappais sur la porte du malheur.

I knew I had destroyed the balance of the day and the perfect silence of the beach where I'd been happy. Then, I fired again four times on his lifeless body where the bullets sank in without making a mark. And it was like four sharp blows on the door of unhappiness.

parallel text

gone back to reading 'new penguin parallel text short stories in french'. very useful and getting easier to read

word of the day - wife femme moglie (mol-e-a)

learnitalianpod.com

Driving to work i listened to 'learn french by podcast'. Not a bad site. Coming back though, first listen to learnitalianpod.com. Very good with a chap called Massimo. One was 7 new year's resolutions that I think are

• perdere peso                                             lose weight
• respendare denaro                                    save money
• passare più tempo in mi familia               pass more time with my family
• per trovare un lavoro migliore                 to look for a better job
• migliorare la mia educazione                   improve my education
• fare un voyage                                          take a trip
• ridurre lo stress                                         reduce stress

Nice, bon, buono

Harry Potter et la Chambre des Secrets

I had bought an 8 CD set of HP&theSecrets quite a while ago to listen in the car. But it was all too fast about a year ago. Now its time to give them another go. CDs seems so quaint nowadays, so uploading them onto skydrive. That way I won't loose them, and can get them from anywhere.

Hmm, they're about 20Mbps each. So maybe won't upload all. But at least get them on the PC

It starts...

Ce n'était pas la première fois qu'une dispute éclatait au petit déjeuner dans la maison du 4, Privet Drive. Mr Vernon Dursley avait été réveillé a l'aube par un hulelement sonore qui provenait de la chambre de son neveu Harry.

Your race is run. all roads lead to Rome

driving home a listening to Italian podcast 121 that is ok'ish. but heard these two phrases that I wanted tp see written down

Your race is run
votre course se courez
la tua razza avete corso

All roads lead to Rome
tous les chemins mènent à Rome
tutte la strade portano a Roma

Devoir and Devenir

Heard these two verbs on the way to work this morning. I listen to "news in slow French" that is very good. Always get these muddled.

Devoir- 'must' or 'to have to'

Think 'must be hungry and must "devoir" some food

Devrait - Il devrait venir ici - conditional - he should come here

Devenir - 'become'

Think of the "Devine"er, ask God what will become of us?

Just got an iPhone app!

Wow! There are blogger apps as well! What a whole new world!

Il y a blogger apps aussi! Quel a neauvelle toute le monde.

Bum

Umm, that last post was Italian. Just in case you didn't realise.

I started with French, and getting reasonable with that. Then thought, as we went to Rome last year, I'd like to learn some of that. Now I find so much the same between the two! Something to do with one feeding the other and vulgar latin and all that.

Start a blog just as Maggie dies

Would you believe it; just set up a blog for the first time and Margaret Thatcher dies. So didn't listen to any podcasts on the way home. Usually listen to French on the way to work and Italian on the way back. But had to listen to the news rather than listen to the Italian this afternoon.

Anyway, it the pronoun stuff in Italian today. There are stressed and unstressed pronouns, that I haven't sorted in my head yet. But
Unstressed today
Mi    Me
To    You (single)
Lo    Him/it
La    Her/it
Ci    Us
Vi    You (plural)
Li    Them(masc)
Le    Them(fem)

As i said, not at all sorted in my head, but will try...

what does this bit do?

probably some remote postie thing

help, erm. what's this all about? well this is just a test bit