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 I got a few phrases that need to be checked,

1.  Vous appelle de quoi?  ( is this correct?  -what are you call ) is it a rude way of asking the name of someone?

 

2.  J'ai de chose à faire  -  I have something to do

 

3.  Super étonner  -  very very surprise ( is this correct ?)

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Hi

 

1 - 'Vous appelle de quoi' is a very litteral traslation, not correct at all in French

You should say 'Quel est votre nom?' for 'What is your name' or 'Comment vous appellez-vous / Comment t'appelles-tu?' which can be translated by 'How are you called?' even if I'm not sure is correct in english

 

2 - The correct phrase is 'J'ai deS choseS à faire'. 'Chose' is not neutral, it refers to one or many things

 

3 - you can say 'super étonné' (be careful, it is 'étonné' past participle, and not 'étonner' infinitive)

     Merci beaucoup de ton aide, Lauris.  Is it ok to say 'de ton aide'?  It is easy to make mistake in french language or is it because my french is poor that I find it easy to make mistake, I wonder which one is it.

    It's like the chinese story of a skinny emperor who was angry because he heard people said he looked like a skinny monkey.  He asked his lackeys around him if it was true that he looked like a skinny monkey, those lackeys dared not tell the truth.  So one of the lackeys said 'Your excellency, those people who said that were wrong because your excellency don't look like a skinny monkey at all,  in fact it is the monkey that look like your excellency' .  The emperor was quite please with that answer.  It is in the children stories of chinese schools.

 

     Oh, I nearly forgot I heard the expression ' Vous appelle de quoi'  from one of those movies spoken by french speaking african.  I guess it is not good french . Like some chinese speak terrible english in singapore or malaysia.

Yes "merci de ton aide" is the correct phrase!

 

Is guess French is a difficult language, because it has a lot of rules and exceptions, etc. I'm french, and I often struggle with some phrases or words.

Also it depends of your own native language. It will be more difficult to learn french if you speak a language from Asia, than if you speak a Latin-based language like spanish.

 

In any case, don't try to learn french by watching french movies with africans speaking french, they are often depicted using a french called 'petit nègre' which is extremelly simple, poor and wrong. (actually, a lot of africans speak a very good french).

 

PS : nice story, I'll remember it ;)

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