Usage guide that compares/contrasts with Spanish?

[Bill Braskey]

I just began learning French, but I am fluent in Spanish.  Is there a guide (on the web) to French usage that will help me take advantage of my Spanish knowledge when the usage is the same, and be alert for those special circumstance when French and Spanish usage differ?  Examples: subjunctive mood, tu/vous, past tenses, pragmatics of requests/commands, etc.

[Neil Coffey]

Hi Bill -- in case it's of any use, I've attached a very general overview that I prepared for one of my private students (a native Spanish speaker learning French). It's in Spanish and it is a very general overview, but it may be of some use to you.

[Bill Braskey]

Thanks.  Reading through this, a few of my questions have been answered already.  Such as the lack of the "personal a" in French-- I have an instinctual desire to interject an "a" between verbs and their human objects, which I must control now.

It's difficult to glean the nuances of a language from Rosetta Stone, which I've concluded is designed to turn humans into parrots.

[Pibosan]

Hello, Bill,

I have done something similar but in reverse; I was learning Spanish and I thought it would be useful to approach it from French.  It was useful - up to a point.  My advice is to learn French as French and try not to ask constantly, "How is that differ from Spanish?" or "It's in the simple past in Spanish, so what tense should I use in French?"  This might be more of a hindrance at the beginning.  As your French gets more advanced and you get a feel for the language, then comparing the two languages will be beneficial and fun.  Bon continuation !

[Bill Braskey]

I don't learn languages by "mentally translating" from one I already know.  It's just that the structural and lexical similarities between Spanish and French are too numerous (as compared with English), and they lead me to follow Spanish grammatical rules where they may not apply in French.  As I am using Rosetta Stone, I do not receive any formal lessons on grammar, so I must either seek them out elsewhere or infer them from the limited set of examples presented in the software.  It is frustrating because I have an academic linguistics background as well as the innate desire to know how everything in the world around me works (i.e., Paralysis by Analysis).  I learned Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, and Swedish in the university environment; but Rosetta Stone is a very different system, indeed.

[Pibosan]

"Paralysis by Analysis" - ha, ha, I know that so well myself !  Do you think it would be helpful to get a grammar book on French written in Spanish?  It might answer your questions on grammatical structures.  I have the le Robert French/Spanish dictionary which I find very useful comparing vocabulary.

[Bill Braskey]

As I delve deeper into French, I will certainly look to build my reference library.  I generally prefer monolingual dictionaries because they tend to include etymology (which I value greatly for embedding connotation in my word choice), and they explain more subtle distinctions in usage and across dialects.  It can be frustrating initially, when one's lexicon is small, having to look up multiple definitions just to understand the original entry; but the payoff is greater in the long run.  Besides, for quick-and-dirty translation, I can just use the internet.  This may stray off-topic and warrant a new post, but I'll ask anyway: Is there a "Gold Standard" French dictionary (available in an abridged rather than encyclopedic format) equivalent to the OED or the Real Academia Española?

 

As for grammar references, I find that Routledge publishes some nice reference texts in English for a variety of languages.  I have a couple of them in my library.  However, their offerings on French don't seem to align with the academic style I appreciate in their other language offerings.  Their French grammars appear to be designed for students and/or for specific contexts like contemporary spoken French.  I'd like something that includes discussions on formal writing, dialectical differences, and a reasonable reachback into disused styles (say, 100 years).  I may not find everything in one English-language text, but I'd be a little surprised if that were the case.

[Neil Coffey]

The major monolingual dictionaries are the larger editions of Larousse and Robert, especially those referred to as "Petit Larousse" and "Petit Robert". Both have their strengths, weaknesses and focuses. Don't be put off by the "petit": they mean "petit" in the sense of "single volume" and each is fairly comprehensive. (As comprehensive as you need them: once you go beyond the information in these dictionaries, what you really need are database/Internet searches anyway.) The Larousse is a little bit more "encylopoedic", the Robert a little bit more "hardcore linguistic".

 

Part of becoming fluent in a language is mastering different registers. As well as the major reference grammars[1], take a look at works such as Batchelor & Offord, 
Using French: A Guide to Contemporary Usage, that specifically tackle the issue of register.

 

[1] e.g. Price, "A Comprehensive French Grammar"; Batchelor, "A Reference Grammar of French"; Hawkins & Towell, "French Grammar and Usage"; L'Huillier, "Advanced French Grammar" -- you may like to have a look at the French Grammar category of the site's store.