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If you want to read beginner stories, short texts or longer short stories, about different topics, go to our site http://www.learn-to-read-foreign-languages.com and check out the different e-books Bermuda Word has to learn languages. We currently have a discount on a combined package of the Bermuda Word French Fairytales and Short Stories. If you want to see for yourself how the software in the e-books works, you can also download a demo.

“Les Trois Citrons” Continued – Instructions For The Prince

The prince is shown three lemons, a knife of silver and a cup of gold. These items are what he will need to get his long awaited princess…

“Prenez   ce   couteau   d’argent,   coupez   le   premier   citron,   et   au   même   instant   une   belle   princesse   paraîtra.   Elle   vous   demandera   à   boire.   Si   vous   lui   donnez   immédiatement   à   boire   dans   la   coupe   d’or,   elle   restera   avec   vous   et   sera   votre   femme ;    mais   si   vous   hésitez,   même   un   instant,   elle   disparaîtra,   et   vous   ne   la   reverrez   plus   jamais.”

“Si   vous   avez   le   malheur   de   la   perdre,   coupez   le   second   citron,   et   une   seconde   princesse   paraîtra,   qui   vous   demandera   aussi   à   boire.   Si   vous   ne   lui   donnez   pas   immédiatement   à   boire,   elle   disparaîtra   aussi.”

An Explanation Of French Grammar In Above Story

Let’s look at the third person plural present tense. When talking to someone and you want to be polite, in French there’s the third person plural. Prenez, coupez, donnez, hésitez, reverrez, avez, etc. There’s quite a lot of them in above piece. In English this actually is “you”, although probably most people would translate you with French “tu”. Thou is the old English more equal form similar to Du (German), jij (Dutch) and tu (French), and is not used anymore. So in the English speaking world I guess everyone is polite, and no-one is, in a way. I’ll give the conjugations for the third person plural in a couple of tenses here:

Present tense -> past tense (imparfait / simple) -> future       -> conditional tense

• vous prenez    -> vous preniez / prîtes                   -> prendrez  -> prendriez
• vous coupez    -> vous coupiez / coupâtes             -> couperez  -> couperiez
• vous donnez    -> vous donniez / donnâtes            -> donnerez -> donneriez

(The simple past tense is used mostly literary in French)

The next one we’ll discuss in a similar way is the Future, the Future tense. This is used to state things to happen. In the story the lady Spring is explaining to the Prince what will happen once he cuts the lemons with the silver knife:

• une   belle   princesse   paraîtra  ->  a beautiful princess will/shall appear
• Elle   vous   demandera   à   boire  -> she will ask you for a drink

And, she says, if you give her a drink immediately…

• elle   restera   avec   vous -> she’ll stay with you
• et   sera   votre   femme -> and will be your wife

No witty or romantic conversation needed, those were the good old days. Anyway, if he doesn’t do as he’s told however:

• elle   disparaîtra, -> she’ll disappear
• et   vous   ne   la   reverrez   plus   jamais -> and you will never see her again!

So the future tense means something “will” happen. As opposed to the Conditional tense, were something “should” happen.

Bermuda Word Learn French With Fairytales

The Prince Finds Help

Below we’ll continue with the French Fairy Tale story. The prince found the right person to help him, Lady Spring, and she gives him some magical objects to acquire a princess. At the end of the story we’ll add some grammar lessons in case you want to enrich your knowledge of the French language a little deeper. For just the story without my comments and the grammar, see the top of this page and click the tab “Fairytale Story”.

Le   prince   accepta   cette   invitation,   entra,   s’assit   à   table   et   mangea   et   but   avec   plaisir.

Quand   il   eut   fini   son   repas,   le   Printemps   lui   apporta   trois   beaux   citrons,   un   joli   couteau   d’argent   et   une   magnifique   coupe   d’or,   et   dit :

The Three Lemons – Les Trois Citrons – Learn French With Bermuda Word Stories

“Prince,   voici   trois   citrons,   un   couteau   d’argent   et   une   coupe   d’or.   Je   vous   donne   ces   objets   magiques.   Quand   vous   arriverez   tout   près   du   château   de   votre   père,   arrêtez-vous  à   la   fontaine.”

Some Notes On Grammar

There are two reflexive verbs used in the text. To sit oneself (s’asseoir) with conjugation used “sat himself”, s’assit,  and to halt oneself (s’arreter), conjugation here “halt yourself”, arrêtez-vous. Mind that French often uses reflexive verbs where English wouldn’t. In English you would say “The prince sat down”, and “Please stop at the fountain”. For learning to read purposes you just need to understand that it’s simply sitting and halting that’s meant here. Here’s all the conjugations for s’asseoir in the passé simple (no, don’t go learning these, just look so you get a broader comprehension of what you can encounter verb-conjugation-wise).

• Je m’assis -> I sat down (litterally, I sat myself)
• Tu t’assis -> you sat down (litterally, you sat yourself)
• Il s’assit -> he sat down (litterally, he sat himself)
• Nous nous assîmes -> we sat down (litterally, we sat ourselves)
• Vous vous assîtes -> you sat down (litterally, you sat yourselves)
• Ils s’assirent -> they sat down (litterally, they sat themselves)

The words “arrêtez-vous” were in present tense, so we will also give the present tense of all its conjugations here.

• je m’arrête -> I halted myself
• tu t’arrêtes -> you halted yourself
• elle s’arrête -> she halted herself
• nous nous arrêtons -> we halted ourselves
• vous vous arrêtez -> you halted yourselves
• ils s’arrêtent -> they halted themselves

The future tense is given with “Quand vous arriverez…” meaning litterally “When you will arrive”, again, here English would say “When you arrive…” so the future tense is implied in the context in English. French future tense is formed by adding a conjugation to the infinitive “Arriver”, “to Arrive”. So arriver-ez, in case of vous.

• arriverai – (I) will arrive
• arriveras – (you) will arrive
• arrivera – (she/he/it) will arrive
• arriverons – (we) will arrive
• arriverez – (you) will arrive
• arriveront – (they) will arrive

What To Remember And What Not

Seeing all the different conjugations of different verbs can be confusing, alarming, frightening, etc. How will you ever learn these by root? Well, either by years of cramming, or by just reading a lot and then using them actively. For now just try to keep an open mind that there are different conjugations, past, present and future, like in English. Here we try to get to the point where you can pick up a French bestseller, a bestseller in French, if you will, and start reading it.

To start reading on your own you need a basic vocabulary of about 5000 words. A regular course will get you to 500, a thousand or maybe 2000 words. Nearly not enough to start reading in French by yourself. This single French Fairytale will not get you there either, but if you check out the e-books at the Bermuda Word site you will see that once you finish a couple of those, filled with fairytales and short stories, you are well on your way to reading French books, stories, classics, texts etc by yourself.

Bermuda Word progress with pop-up powered and spaced repetition speeded e-books!

Another way to visually show the impact that Bermuda Word e-books have, is to look at the difference between starting reading Bermuda Word French Romance Stories before and after you finish the other Bermuda Word e-books. When starting as a beginner with Bermuda Word French Romance Stories, at first you will have less than 50% word comprehension, meaning more than 50% of the words you encounter are new to you. This percentage goes down of course because you learn a lot of new words on the way, but it stays pretty high during in the e-book.

Bermuda Word Learn to Read French Romance Stories Progress

Now see what happens if you start with these Bermuda Word French Fairytales of which you’re now just reading one and finish the whole e-book, and also get Bermuda Word French Beginner Stories and Bermuda Word French Short Stories. You will learn thousands of new words and this has a visible impact on your word comprehension!!! At the time when you have finished all the Bermuda Word e-books except for Romance Stories and you start with that one, you can see its reading comprehension levels are a lot better. There are less than 23% unknown words in the first chapter! As opposed to 55% when you do not read the other e-books! So the impact is obvious. By reading Bermuda Word E-books you learn thousands of new words and in the end you can start reading French bestsellers, stories, tales, legends or whatever you want by yourself, which I can tell you is something to be very proud of, as I suspect 99% of the people starting a language course just quit before even finishing it or never get any reading fluency level at all. And, seriously, with Bermuda Word e-books you can get reading and listening fluency fast and easy!

Bermuda Word Learn to Read French Romance Stories Progress After Finishing All The Other E-books

French Beginner Stories At Bermuda Word Shop

To Learn Reading French Start Here

Check out these pages for a pop-up translated French Fairytale and learn French fast and easy. Go to Bermuda Word Shop and find the full product including audio, and other products in French and other Foreign Languages.

Learn French With Les Trois Citrons Continued

“Je   cherche   une   femme.   Vos   trois   soeurs,   l’Hiver,   l’Automne   et   l’Été   étaient   trop   affairées   pour   m’en procurer   une,   mais   j’espère   bien   que   vous   aurez   compassion   de   moi,   et   que   vous   me   trouverez   la   personne   charmante   que   je   cherche   depuis   si   longtemps   en   vain.”

“Oui,   mon   prince,   je   vous   aiderai,”   répondit   la   jolie   jeune   femme.   “Entrez   dans   ma   petite   maison,   asseyez-vous  là,   à   cette   petite   table,   et   je   vous   donnerai   à   boire   et   à   manger,   car   vous   avez   sans   doute   bien   faim   et   bien   soif.”

Notes On French Grammar In This Bermuda Word Story

Personal pronouns like “my”, “your”, “his” work pretty much the same in French. The only difference is that there’s a different inflexion based on the gender of the subject. “Son pantalon (his trousers)” in case of a masculine word and “Sa veste (her jacket)” in case of a feminine word. In this part of the fairytale you’ll see one in use in the following sentence “Vos trois soeurs”, meaning, “Your three sisters”. Here’s a list of all the French possessive personal pronouns:

• mon frère, ma soeur -> my brother, my sister
• ton père, ta mère -> your father, your mother
• son sac, sa voiture -> his bag, her car
• notre dame, nos dames -> our lady, our ladies
• votre jambe, vos bras -> your leg, your arms
• leur idée, leur cheveux -> their idea, their hairs

The usage of “en” in French may be confusing for a beginning student who’s not versed in any other Romance language. It litterally means “in”, but sometimes, in cases where “in” would be weird, unusual, funny, illogical, etc it probably means something like “of it”, and in this piece of Fairytale occurs in this sentence “Je   cherche   une   femme.   Vos   trois   soeurs,   l’Hiver,   l’Automne   et   l’Été   étaient   trop   affairées   pour   m’en procurer   une“. I’m looking for a woman. Your three sisters, the Winter, the Fall and the Summer were too busy to me of it procure one. So here “en” does not mean “in”, it is actually pointing back at “une femme”. I’m searching for a woman, and they could not find one of them. Something like that. People may argue about the exact meaning and may say it means something other than “of it” in French, but whatever it does it links the sentence back to an original subject that it refers to. You only have to understand here that French “en” sometimes can mean something else than “in”.

The Collection Of E-Books At The Bermuda Word Learn To Read Foreign Languages Site

At the Bermuda Word shop we currently have four Bermuda Word software powered e-books on offer. The first is the one where this story comes from, Bermuda Word French Fairytales. BTW these e-books don’t have as many pictures as this Blog adds to this one story, just for your information. The Bermuda Word Fairytales e-book contains eight fairytales of varying difficulty (of which the one published here is the longest and the most difficult as well probably). It teaches you the most frequent French words as well as a lot of less frequent words.

Bermuda Word Learn to Read French Fairytales Example With Menu Off

The following e-book with which I would advise you to continue your learning would be Bermuda Word French Beginner Stories (what’s in a name). It contains a lot of new low frequency words so it’s actually not advised to start with this one. Once you have finished French Fairytales it will be much easier to read though this e-book and learn new words as you already know quite a lot of high frequency words.

Bermuda Word Learn to Read French Beginners Stories Example

The third e-book which Bermuda Word has on offer is called French Short Stories, and contains stories by classical French authors Maupassant and Balzac. They are funny and interesting and dramatic as well. Once you finish the above e-books you should be able to breeze relatively easy through this one, although there are some philosophical or descriptive paragraphs which might give you some trouble.

Bermuda Word Learn to Read French Shortstories Example

Now the last one is Bermuda Word Romance Stories, containing stories by Maupassant and Zola about first loves, eternal love, rekindled love, murdered loved ones and sisterly love. In short a whole lotta love. You’ll see that if you try reading Bermuda Word Romance Stories as the first e-book as a beginner, it will be pretty tough, as you’ll encounter more than 50% unknown words in the first chapter, and more than 30% and 20% in the next chapters. With 11000 words in total and almost 3000 unique words, that’s quite a lot. In fact the first pages you’ll probably have to decipher word by word as a beginner. That’s why there is the Bermuda Word program. You start reading with Bermuda Word Fairy Tales, continue with Bermuda Word Beginner Stories, then with Bermuda Word Short Stories, and then Bermuda Word Romance Stories will be a lot easier to comprehend. The number of unknown words will drop to 20% in the first chapter and towards 10% when you’re finished, and that’s without counting any other forms of the words you know, so you’ll probably recognize more than 95% of the words in the text at that time. You’ll be ready to start reading a French book all by yourself!

Learn Read French Fast And Easy With Fairytales

French Romantic Short Stories Added In Shop

We now have three products of around 10,000 words each to learn read the French language fast and easy. French Fairy Tales, French Short Stories and French Romance Stories. Here we are continuing with an example from the Fairy Tales collection.

Quelques   minutes   après   il   remarqua   que   l’herbe   était   d’un   vert   plus   tendre,   que   tous   les   arbres   étaient   couverts   de   fleurs,   et   vit   une   petite   maison   verte,   au   milieu   d’un   jardin,   où   il   y   avait   une   grande   quantité   de   belles   fleurs :    des   tulipes,   des   jacinthes,   des   jonquilles,   des   violettes,   des   lilas,   des   muguets,   etc. ,   etc.

Notre   héros   heurta   à   la   porte   de   cette   petite   maison,   et   une   dame   aux   cheveux   blonds   et   aux   yeux   bleus   parut   immédiatement.   “Que   cherchez-vous ,   jeune   homme,”   demanda-t-elle  ?

Learn To Read Foreign Languages With Bermuda Word

Learn To Read Foreign Languages Fast And Easy

Visit our shop to buy the full products. Here we’re publishing one of the stories. The prince visited Lady Winter, who sends him to Lady Autumn, who sends him to Lady Summer:

“Pouvez-vous  me   procurer   la   femme   charmante   que   je   cherche   depuis   si   longtemps   en   vain?”

“Ah,   mon   prince,”   répondit   la   belle   dame   aux   cheveux   bruns   et   aux   joues   rouges.

“Je   suis   aussi   fort   occupée,   et   je   n’ai   pas   le   temps   de   vous   trouver   une   femme.   Mais   allez   faire   visite   à   ma   soeur,   le   Printemps,   elle   vous   aidera   certainement.”

Le   prince   la   remercia   et   partit.

Learn French With Extensive Reading And Spaced Repetition

Memorize Vocabulary Easily Through Enhanced Reading

You just read and the software will make sure you remember any new words. That’s how the products work which we offer at Bermuda Word.

The story we’re showcasing below is one of the stories which you can also buy as part of the French Fairytales collection and which in the full product has audio included, immediate pop-up (no lag as with this example) and spaced repetition vocabulary training. Enjoy the example here:

Learn Lots Of New French Words With A Fun Story

Arrivé   à   la   porte   de   cette   petite   maison,   il   heurta,   et   une   jolie   femme,   aux   cheveux   bruns   et   aux   joues   rouges,   ouvrit   la   porte   en   demandant :

“Que   voulez-vous ,   jeune   homme,   et   que   cherchez-vous  dans   mon   royaume?”

“Madame,”   dit   le   prince   avec   la   plus grande   politesse, “j’ai   eu   l’honneur   de   faire   visite   à   vos   deux   soeurs,   l’Hiver   et   l’Automne.   Je   leur   ai   demandé   de   me   trouver   une   femme,   la   plus   jolie   du   monde,   mais   elles   sont   trop   occupées   et   m’ont   envoyé   chez   vous.”

Learning French With A Fairytale

Learn To Read Foreign Languages With Fairytales

That’s what we offer at www.learn-to-read-foreign-languages.com. Please visit our site and support us. With your help we can make manually pop-up translated stories in all languages. And we believe that’s the fastest and easiest we to learn to read a language, which is the key to completely mastering a language.

The Three Lemon Princesses Part 8

“Je   n’ai   pas   de   femme   pour   vous.   Je   suis   l’Automne,   et   je   suis   très   occupée,   je   vous   assure,   car   j’ai   tous   les   fruits   à   cueillir.

Allez   faire   visite   à   ma   soeur,   l’Été,   elle   aura   peut-être  le   temps   de   s’occuper   de   vous   et   de   vous   trouver   une   jolie   femme.”   Le   prince,   ainsi   congédié,   continua   son   voyage.   Il   remarqua   avant   bien   longtemps   que   l’herbe   était   haute,   que   le   feuillage   était   épais,   et   que   le   blé   était   mûr.

Il   n’avait   plus   froid,   au   contraire   il   avait   bien   chaud,   et   il   fut   très   content   d’apercevoir   une   petite   maison   jaune,   à   peu   de   distance.

This Is The Way To Read French Fast

Enjoy The Next Part Of The Story

In the next pages the prince is visiting the ruling ladies of the island. After Lady Winter he meets Lady Autumn:

Il   arriva   bientôt   après   à   une   petite   maison   brune,   et   frappa   à   la   porte.

Une   belle   dame,   aux   yeux   et   aux   cheveux   noirs,   ouvrit   la   porte,   et   demanda   d’une   voix   bien   douce :    “Que   voulez-vous ,   jeune   homme,   et   que   cherchez-vous  ici   dans   mon   royaume?”

“Je   cherche   une   femme,”   répondit   le   prince   sans   hésitation.

“Une   femme!”   répéta   la   belle   dame   avec   surprise.

Art, Fairytales and French

Learn to Read French with the Three Lemon Princesses Story

Learning French through a regular course can be pretty tough. This Blog offers a way to start reading French from day one while learning some handy stuff at the same time. At our site www.learn-to-read-foreign-languages.com you can find our full products that include more stories and audio. It includes immediate pop-up translation and vocabulary practicing options that are supported by software that calculates the number of times you should practice a word to retain it in your memory. This “Bermuda Word Method” is the best way to learn a foreign language.

The Prince Meets Lady Winter – Learn French With Fun Stories

“Je   cherche   une   femme,   la   plus   jolie   au   monde ;    pouvez-vous  me   dire   où   la   trouver?”   répondit   le   prince.   “Non,   il   n’y   a   pas   de   femme   pour   vous   dans   mon   royaume.   Je   suis   l’Hiver,   je   n’ai   pas   le   temps   de   m’occuper   de   mariages.   Mais   allez   visiter   ma   soeur,   l’Automne,   elle   vous   trouvera   peut-être  la   femme   idéale   que   vous   cherchez.”

Schreier – Man With Lance

Le   prince   remercia   la   belle   dame   aux   cheveux   blancs,   remonta   à   cheval,   continua   son   chemin   et   remarqua   bientôt   que   la   neige   et   la   glace   avaient   disparu,   et   que   les   arbres   étaient   tout   couverts   de   beaux   fruits.

Read In French Fast And Easy

Reading In French Is Easy With Pop-up Translation

Enjoy the story instead of looking up words in a dictionary. Reread the page a few times until you know all the words. Go back to older pages and do the same, so the words and the sentences become part of your memory. Or go and buy the full product with audio at www.learn-to-read-foreign-languages.com. It has software that supports memorization of low frequency words (words you encounter only very rarely, and which you would normally would forget again).

Le   prince   débarqua   avec   son   cheval,   et   continua   son   voyage,   malgré   le   froid   intense   et   la   neige   et   la   glace   qui   l’entouraient   de   tous   côtés.   Le   prince   était   surpris   de   se   trouver   déjà   en   hiver,   mais   il   continua   bravement   son   chemin.

Il   arriva   enfin   à   une   toute   petite   maison   blanche.   Il   frappa   à   la   porte,   et   une   belle  dame   aux   cheveux   blancs   ouvrit   la   porte.

“Que   cherchez-vous ,   jeune   homme?”   demanda-t-elle .

Learn Some French Grammar

In two days we’ll follow up with this “pop-up subtitled” French Fairytale about the Three Lemon Princesses. For now, we’ll end with some notes on French Grammar:

1. “son”, possessive pronoun takes the form of the noun it refers to, so “son cheval” and “sa mère”.

2. “aux” is a conjunction of “à les”, “at the” or here “with the”, in English simply “with”, “cheveux blancs”, “hairs white”.

3. “entouraient” is the third person plural form simple past tense of entourer (surround). Most or all of the story is in the past tense (so much for learning to communicate, which is normally in the first tense). But who needs communication when you can read?