Thursday, January 20, 2011

bursts of French

Griffin definitely speaks more English than French--entirely normal and to be expected. He does seem to understand the two languages equally well, which thrills me. And very now and then, he'll burst into song in French, or count out loud in French, or recite a nursery rhyme to himself in French. Such fun for maman to hear!

But recently, in one single day, he used three long sentences--ten words or more!--entirely in French, grammatically correct French, no less!

As we walked out of the warm house into the cold weather:
Il y a de l'air chaud dans ma maison. [There is warm air in my house.]
This is notable for being unprompted by anything I said to him--it was his immediate reaction to the cold outside air. His first flawless ten-word sentence?

Le Père Noël apporte des jouets aux enfants qui sont sages. [Santa Claus brings toys to the children who are well-behaved.]
This is certainly an explanation he had heard before in English and French, but here too, nothing prompted him to say it at that moment. And check out that relative clause!

And finally, while crunching into an apple:

Je croque dans les pommes, dans les poires, et dans les biscuits. [I bite into apples, pears, and cookies.]
Thirteen words!

8 comments:

  1. Congratulations to both of you :)
    Makes your heard burst, doesn't it?

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  2. hello sarah, very excited to find your blog. just wrote a post that may be of interest to you and you might find a few other interesting things on my blog about my own polyglot tots who speak english, spanish and french
    http://busyasabeeinparis.blogspot.com/2011/01/polyglot-tots-experiment-update-verbal.html
    bon courage,
    maria

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  3. @smashedpea--Yes, bursting all over the place!

    @Monika--Thanks!

    @Maria--Nice to meet you! Thanks for stopping by my blog. I've enjoyed reading through yours. Your polyglot family would be a great one to profile on my blog--I'll email you about that.

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  4. That's so cool! Congrats to you both.
    Like Maria, I've enjoyed reading your blog because I have one too, about our trilingual family:
    http://trilingualtrio.blogspot.com/
    If you like it, I'd be happy if you'd include it in your listings.

    Looking forward to reading you again soon,
    Jen

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  5. @Tova--Thanks! (I didn't mean to ignore your comment--I think it showed up while I was responding to the previous ones.)

    @Jen--Thanks for sharing your blog! I'm enjoying reading it as well and would love to profile your family too. I'll be in touch!

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  6. Sarah, sorry for not visiting your blog for a very2 long time. It's a delight to see Carl's (gosh he's a big boy now) and your Griffin's bilingualism develop very well. Also, congrats for the birth of your niece Ellie!
    I remember eons ago you asked if I would be interested to be featured on your blog again. If it's still on, I would be happy to participate!

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