this post was submitted on 09 May 2024
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[–] DacoTaco@lemmy.world 23 points 6 months ago (10 children)

"Je ne parle pas français" There you go, everything you need.

[–] elvith@feddit.de 4 points 6 months ago (1 children)

IIRC if you cannot do it because you never learned it it's "Je ne sais pas parler français"

[–] bitMasque@lemmy.world 7 points 6 months ago (1 children)

"I do not speak French" versus "I do not know how to speak French". Both are correct, though only the latter clarifies not speaking the language because they do not understand it, rather than purely out of spite. So in this specific case, the former could be used as a subtle FU.

[–] DacoTaco@lemmy.world 1 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Wouldnt "je ne sais pas parler francais" be more of a "i dont know speak french"? Like, sounding more gramatically broken?
The 'parler' is in an unconjugated form, i read that like its some broken form hehe

[–] bitMasque@lemmy.world 3 points 6 months ago

The verb "parler" is indeed supposed to be unconjugated. That's down to differing grammar and syntax in French and English. If I were to try and translate directly from French to English while maintaining the original sentence structure and whatnot, it would look roughly like this: "I not know not speaking French."

...Which is awkward as hell to read, mostly thanks to French splitting negatives into two parts, but you can see how the verb "parler" (speaking or talking) is unconjugated.

You may also notice how that sentence structure looks more similar to an antiquated way of speaking English, if we tweak that just a little bit: "I know not how to speak French."

[–] ilost7489@lemmy.ca 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

From what I can find and from what I know, it is grammatically correct however French is not my first language. As an English speaker I would probably go "parler le français"

[–] bitMasque@lemmy.world 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

That would mean "speaking the French", so while incorrect, I'm sure people would get what you would be trying to say.

[–] ilost7489@lemmy.ca 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Ok that's what I thought thinking back on it. I don't use french often enough to really be certain all the time

[–] JamesStallion@sh.itjust.works 1 points 6 months ago

Moé chais pas comment jassé en jouale

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