Bonjour, ça va?
isra.a.writes • 29 May 2025 •
One of the habits I have listed under my French-learning journey is journaling in French.
I will write some prompts and respond to them in French, using assistance from translation websites, AI or both. This isn’t cheating because the goal is to practice writing in French. Then, I will share what I’ve learned.
Q: What did you eat today?
A: Aujourd’hui, j’ai mangé des flocons d’avoine avec du beurre d’amande, de la cannelle, de la banane et des myrtilles.
(Today, I ate oatmeal with almond butter, cinnamon, banana and blueberries.)
What I learned:
- The adjective usually follows the noun in French.
In my sentence, almond butter is written as “beurre d’amande” - amande (almond) describes beurre (butter).
This is the same when you want to describe a red car (une voiture rouge) or an interesting book (un livre intéressant). Commonly, the adjective follows the noun.
- ‘Unspecified quantities’
The French language requires the use of ‘partitive articles’ (du, de la and des, which translate to ‘some’) to indicate unspecified quantities. Since I am not eating these ingredients (almond butter, banana, cinnamon, and berries) separately, I have to use partitive articles. In English, you don’t have to do that. You never have to write some bananas, some cinnamon and some berries to describe ingredients.
This was interesting to me!
Comments
Use the site the way you want to use it! 😃
Multiple posts in a day, a separate post on how you’re progressing with your habits, notes from your reading, whatever you like! As long as it serves you and helps you get out of your own way, it’s all great.
As for the post: yesterday I had an argument with my wife about my daughter using ChatGPT to keep a daily diary (which her school recommended). My daughter isn’t comfortable writing in standard Arabic, so she wanted to write in the Kuwaiti dialect and use ChatGPT to translate it to standard Arabic. I encouraged her to do this but my wife thought I was giving my daughter an easy way out.
What many people don’t notice about habits is that any resistance can make the experience of the habit off-putting, which can limit our attention, openness, and learning. But by first showing up to the habit without resistance, she’s more likely to sustain the habit. Plus, the ChatGPT answers will help familiarize her with standard Arabic, so it’s a great way to learn!
@haideralmosawi That’s good to know! And definitely. Perfectionism and consistency cannot be friends.
I read this place is not for habit logging but I figured that since I am focusing more on what I’m learning, it’s not habit logging? Let me know.