The English Topic

Aha, the tricky part: it still has to be written like this (maybe it’s better to call it ‘past continuous’ ) because 1: you have been reading it in the past few days (passe)
AND 2: you are still reading it now (present)
– so you end up with the combination of past + present in the one sentence to be grammatically correct.

You’re right, the most important thing is to be understood… 😀 . but if you can use this tense in speaking, you will be understood much faster, without confusion and somebody asking « Do you mean…..? »

I guess it’s a bit like your « future perfect » tense, (ie j’aurai lu)
but in the past….(sorry, I don’t know the names of all the tenses, we just use ours automatically)

Kate

😀 G’day all!! I only just logged in for the first time and was actually looking for a topic for presentations but couldnt find one, then saw the english part straight away so I thought I should introduce myself on here first.

First of all, a big hello to all you ozzie lovers, you have great taste!! A huge hello to Kate, sorry im very patriotic!! Im an ozzie, ive been living here in France since 1992. Born in Waratah near New Castle, NSW then lived in Melbourne for a while, then moved to Auckland NZ for seven years, then here in France. Im the only one who has decided to stay in France actually, my sis lives in Sydney and mum and dad have gone back to NZ so im here all by my lonesome and get a bit home sick sometimes, so im glad ive found this forum to take away some of the pain.

Anyway, thats a pretty long introduction already and I dont want to bore anyone so im off to have a geezer at the other topics and hope to be talking to you all very soon.

Cheers! 😛

Thanks for the welcome.
Ive had a good look at the site and forum this afternoon, alot is actally for french living in australia isnt it?
But I guess I can always help out with info on australia, ozzies, habits, slang and other stuff from time to time. Guess i’ll mostly post on this english part though as I make heaps of spelling mistakes still in french so I dont like typing it alot! Lazy me! 😆

Sure, do you mean school holidays or public holidays?

There are alot less religious meaning public holidays like over here in France, the most known public holidays are of course Australia Day, the Queens Birthday and Boxing Day, the 26th December that you dont have over here in France.
Maybe its because the ozzies get alot more pissed over christmas and need more time to recuperate from hang overs?? 😆

Yannus, great to see you on the English forum. Where will your trip in Oz begin?

Tadpole, a big welcome to you aussi….. we’ve some things in common (besides being Aussies 😉 – my mother is from Auckland and I spent quite a few childhood holidays there – I think NZ must be about second on my list of beloved countries to visit after my love of France.
I hope you can stick around here – a few Aussies come, but after a time, they seem to mostly go (lack of company and Frenchie reading level not high enough perhaps) – would be good to have other Aussie company on these forums and another aussie opinion (as I don’t often feel my views to be ‘typical Aussie’ as I’m rather focused on multiculturalism) 😀

Cheers,
Kate

Howdy Kate! 😀

My trip will begin in Sydney, after a short stop in Hong Kong.

I plan to stay in Sydney about 2 months after that i’ll try to go along the east coast, but it will depend on the people i’m gonna meet and on the opportunities i’m gonna find there. 🙂

To many posts to read, but I just want to insert myself in here.
Normally, I’ll go to Sydney in July to see my grandmother who is quite sick. That will be five years that I haven’t been over there. I miss my family as I miss my little island : Guadeloupe too 😳
About species of nationalities, my origin is original as well : Guadeloupean/Libanese/French/Australian :p
Trying to tape this posts shows me that I really lost my english, since I leave in Paris without my mother who talks to me in English of course (but I answer in French, shame on me !)

See you guys.

I’m 100% full-blooded citizen of the world and proud. No other mixture whatsoever.

Hi Kanguhru, nice to see you here, welcome to you too – another interesting mixture I haven’t seen before.

Tadpole: what a cool mix! Lucky! I’ll be heading over to France for a whole month at the end of May….. 6 long years since my last visit (30 days split over France, Germany & Switzerland) but this time, it’s going to be almost all just France, with just a bit of Switzerland at the end. Can’t wait!
***** (I’ll be in the A-A chat room 9 am — Paris time – for a few hours today, if anybody is around and would like to turn this forum into an « English chat » live for a while.

See you around,

Kate

My folks are coming end of May too over here to france, I hope they will at least stay about 3 or 4 months!! We probably will be going away on holidays for maybe 10 days in Switzerland to my aunties chalet for some R and R. Got no hols till then, so no ski this year (again!!)

😆 All right, all right oz boy! No need to boast!!

A tip for you Kanguhru: in English, we use « sniff » as the sound you make when you have a cold/the flu, or it can be use a little bit like a sound of contempt….so quite different.
I learned recently that the direct translation for « sniff » into English is « sob »

which makes it « Sob, that remains one of my dreams »

Hope this helps 😀

Kate

Ok ! I stick it somewhere in my brain 😀 But « Sob » is really odd !