“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.
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
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”
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.”
I can say “I don’t speak [language], sorry.” in about 10 languages, just so if someone tries to speak to me I can say that to them.
So far only one person has said any follow up things in that language. I like to think it was “but you’re speaking it now!” but probably just about work stuff.
Is it weird that I get a very tiny kick out of the slight confusion I can see on some people’s faces?
“Je ne parle pas français” There you go, everything you need.
IIRC if you cannot do it because you never learned it it’s “Je ne sais pas parler français”
“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.
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
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”
That would mean “speaking the French”, so while incorrect, I’m sure people would get what you would be trying to say.
Ok that’s what I thought thinking back on it. I don’t use french often enough to really be certain all the time
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.”
I can say “I don’t speak [language], sorry.” in about 10 languages, just so if someone tries to speak to me I can say that to them.
So far only one person has said any follow up things in that language. I like to think it was “but you’re speaking it now!” but probably just about work stuff.
Is it weird that I get a very tiny kick out of the slight confusion I can see on some people’s faces?
Nope, i also get that kick out of it haha. Love it.
Though, i must say that my french is really terrible so i might as wel just not speak it