This is Hardly French

Sentence : I just got back from vacation and life is already bad. Without Cheating : Je returnée maintenent les vacances et mon vie est mal !already! With Cheating : Je viens de rentrer de vacances et la vie est déjà mauvaise. Conclusion : I had no idea on this one so it was a great teaching sentence.

Sentence : I'm so sad. We have to leave Santorini today. Without Cheating : J'ai très triste. Nous avons partir le Santorini aujourd'hui. With Cheating : Je suis si triste. Nous devons quitter Santorin aujourd'hui. Conclusion : I did much better on this one. I THINK part would get the idea across, I wasn't aware of 'quitter'. And I totally forgot about 'si'. And I should have known 'devons'.

Sentence : We spent the entire day on the water. Without Cheating : Nous sommes éxecutiv toute le jour dans le !mer! With Cheating : Nous avons passé toute la journée sur l'eau. Conclusion : Woow. I only got two words correct. That hurts. I recently learned the word for spending money and thought that same word would apply, I should have known passé was the word. Ugh. And I totally forgot l'eau. Ugh again. Definitely need to add this to my flash cards.

  Sentence : I did a lot of walking today, now I'm very tired. Without Cheating : Je vais marchais beaucoup aujourd'hui, maintenent je suis ?tired. With Cheating : J'ai beaucoup marché aujourd'hui et je suis très fatiguée. Conclusion : I was actually... fairly close on this one. I think I said I will walked a lot today. lol. I thought for the past tense I had to use the 'ais' ending. My conjugating game is weak. Hehe. Weird that the translator got rid of my decision to say 'now I'm tired' and just go 'and I'm very tired'.

  Sentence : I'm sorry that these posts are so short. Without Cheating : Désolé ces ?posts sont petit. Cheating : Désolé, ces messages sont petits. Revision : However, to make it more accurate to my intended message, I modified my sentence to: I'm sorry that these blog posts are so short. And got: Je suis désolée que ces articles de blog soient si courts. Conclusion : I don't think I've ever encountered the word 'soient'. It means 'are'. Same with 'si courts'. I am definitely going to need to remember these words.

 I am teaching myself French. I'm using Duolingo - "Of course you are." - As well as reading through a French workbook, using HelloTalk, watching tons of French YouTube videos, listening to French true crime podcasts, and a just started an Open University course in French. In spite of nearly two years of this I still can't form basic sentences on my own. I can read and parrot it fairly well and sometimes understand spoken French, but I can't come up with the simplest sentences ever without cheating. So I realized I need to start journaling in French. So here we are.