PianoKid

I'm studying French and I really want to be fluent, so I've begun to read the news in French. I stumbled upon this newsflash on RFI:

"On dénombre entre 28 (sources policières) et 42 (sources médicales) victimes, dont une très grande majorité d'enfants."

I'm assuming this means something like: "One counts between 28 (police sources) and 42 (medical sources) victimes, of whom a grand majority are children."

My question is: Why is there no verb after "majorité." Is this correct French grammar? In French, why is the verb left out there?

Could you charge Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, the maker of this atrocious film, for the deaths of the American ambassador and the others killed in Libya. If you say yes or no, substantiate your claim.

I want to pursue a job either in the foreign service (state department) or other government agencies. Would attending McGill for undergrad work followed by a US grad school hurt my chances of obtaining a government job? I plan on studying political science/international relations and foreign language?

Would a McGill degree hurt my chances of getting into a US grad school?

I love to listen to pop and classic rock music in English- Train, Maroon 5, Aerosmith, Dire Straits, Adele, and John Mellencamp are a few artists/bands on my iPod. I want to find artists and bands similar to these groups that sing in French, Spanish, Arabic, Portuguese, and Russian, since those are the languages that I am working on. At this time, my best two languages are French and Spanish, but by the time I finish college, I want to have some experience in each language. Any advice for rock/pop groups in those languages?

I want to learn Arabic, but the alphabet seems very abstruse. What are the best methods to approach learning a language with a different alphabet? I find Romance languages easy to learn, but other languages like Russian, Arabic, Farsi etc. seem difficult. Where do I begin to learn the Arabic alphabet?

I want to find out my family genealogy on my father's side. My grandfather was adopted, and he doesn't know who his parents were. I know his birthdate and I know which state he was born in. Other than that, I have no other information. Is it likely that I will be able to trace my lineage? If so, how? Ancestry.com came up blank.

Here's the situation:

Mother- born in America- 1962

Grandfather- born in America- 1934

Great-Grandmother- born in Italy- ? (I have the papers but I can't check)

-I'm pretty sure that you can't acquire citizenship via a women

Great-Great Grandfather- born in Italy- 1874 (Italy was unified at the time)

Provided that I have documentation establishing a blood line, will I be able to acquire an Italian passport to travel and work in the EU?

Additional Info:

-No one revoked their citizenship

-I am under the age of 18, but I am very interested in living and working in Europe if I can't find work in America

-I have all the documents from my great-great grandfather except one marriage certificate (my grandpa has all other documents)

Do I qualify?

Thank you! If you are not sure, please, do not answer!

Here's the situation:

Mother- born in America- 1962

Grandfather- born in America- 1934

Great-Grandmother- born in Italy- ? (I have the papers but I can't check)

-I'm pretty sure that you can't acquire citizenship via a women

Great-Great Grandfather- born in Italy- 1874 (Italy was unified at the time)

Provided that I have documentation establishing a blood line, will I be able to acquire an Italian passport to travel and work in the EU?

Additional Info:

-No one revoked their citizenship

-I am under the age of 18, but I am very interested in living and working in Europe if I can't find work in America

-I have all the documents from my great-great grandfather except one marriage certificate (my grandpa has all other documents)

Do I qualify?

Thank you! If you are not sure, please, do not answer!

I'm studying Spanish and Italian, and I can't do the trilled R's! I've looked up other answers and they don't seem to help. All of my friends can do it, and I want to develop a natural accent. It's an annoying block that I want to work through, but I can't figure out how to. Please help me!

Hello! I am translating this passage from the present to the past tense in French. The point of the exercise is to distinguish between the Passe Compose and l'imparfait. I am sure that the rest of the sentences are correct, so I will give you the story only as a background for my question. The last sentence is really giving me problems. So, is the last sentence Passe Compose or l'imparfait?

C'était samedi. Il était sept heures du soir. Il faisait beau. Pierre était chez lui. Il a eu envie de sortir. Il a téléphoné à Armelle, sa nouvelle copine. Il lui a proposé de fair une promenade en bateau sur le lac d'Annecy. Armelle a accepté. Pierre a pris sa moto et il est allé chercher Armelle. Il est arrivé chez elle. Armelle l'a attendu. Elle portait une belle robe rouge à fleurs et ses nouveaux souliers.

Pierre et Armelle sont arrivés au lac. Ils sont montés le bateau de Pierre. Pierre a pris sa guitare. Il a chanté des chansons romantique. Le ciel était clair. La lune et les étoiles brillaient dans le ciel. Armelle écoutait. Elle était tres contente.

Tout d'un coup, Pierre a fait un mouvement brusque. Il est tombé dans l'eau . Armelle a perdu l'équilibre est tombée dans l'eau aussi. L'eu était tres, tres froid. Pierre et Armelle ont nagé jusqu'a la plage. Armelle était trempée et furieuse. Sa robe et ses nouveaux souliers étaient fichus! Elle a demandé a Pierre de la raccompagner chez elle. Pauvre Pierre il n'a pas de chance!

Should it be Pauvre Pierre, il n'a pas eu de chance or is it Pauvre Pierre, il n'avait pas de chance? And if possible, can you explain why? Thank you so much! I'm working hard to gain perfect fluency in French!

I am an organ student who is amazed by people improvising fugues and great works out of thin air. I am interested in learning to improvise in the classical style (baroque, romantic, etc.) Realistically, I might never get there, but I want to become at least a very capable improviser. And I have a lot of work to do. I have to start building from the ground up. I have two problems. I can't just sit down and improvise, I need a method to solve my problem. What books, treatises, or drills should I consult? My other problem is that when I hear music in my head, I can't sit down and play it. How should I solve this problem, ear training? So basically, to sum things up, I need a good classical organ improvisational method, or guidance from someone who has learned to improvise in the classical style, and maybe someone could get me advise on how to make my hands play what my mind hears? Thank you.

I am learning French in school, and our teacher taught us the mnemonic device DRMRSVANDERTRAMPP for using the verb etre to form the passe compose (the

compound past tense in French). I am learning Italian on my own and I was wondering

if there is a mnemonic like DRMRSVANDERTRAMPP for Italian? Is there a less daunting

way of doing this other than memorizing every verb that goes with essere or avere?

I am considering playing an organ recital in a year, it's a very brief recital (max 30 minutes). The pieces I would play are:

1. Mendelssohn- Prelude and Fugue in C minor, op. 37

2. Franck- Cantabile in B Major

3. JS Bach- Toccata and Fugue in D minor BWV 538 "Dorian"

Would the three make a good recital? I am trying to represent different eras in organ playing. Thank you!

I am an English student learning Italian and soon Spanish and I can't roll my r's. What's the best method to correct this problem. I am willing to put in the time to learn, I just need to know how to go about doing it.

I am a third year student of French, and I speak and write French well. I know the past tense, the present tense, and the future tense. I would like to expand my knowledge by learning more adverbs, prepositions, correct usage, more verb tenses (imperfect vs. passe compose, subjunctive, compound tenses), pronouns, uses of there etc. If possible, I would like the book to have exercises with examples to follow and an answer key. Do any of you know of a book like that? Thank you! My goal is to one day in the future become fluent!

I want to become a diplomat working for the US government or the UN. I realize that these are competitive jobs, and I want to get a head start preparing to overcome my competition. I am in High School and I speak English and French, but I will commence learning Italian, Spanish, and maybe Russian soon. How can I prepare to acquire my dream job?

I'm going to Europe for two weeks, and although I have a nice digital camera at home, I don't want to risk losing that one. What is the cheapest option I have (This trip was very expensive), is something under $50 possible? Also, I have rechargeable batteries, but will a cheap camera get me through a day? What kind of SD card would you recommend?

PS: I'm on a budget and since I already have a good camera, I don't want to spend a lot

My teacher recommended going over Bismarck and the Enlightened Monarchs and Philosophes, what have your teachers predicted?

I'm a classical pianist who loves organ music, and is going to learn to play organ seriously. I know little about organ repertoire though. I love Bach, and I was introduced to Franck. What other great organ music is out there that I should listen to? Can anyone give me some good recommendations or a list of composers to hear?

I've been playing piano for about 11 years now, and I would like to seriously pursue learning the organ to eventually play in church services and as a second instrument. I'm interested solely in the classical genre, I have no interest in pop music or jazz. I'm on a budget and I need an organ model with at least 25 pedals and 2 manuals. What student organ models should I be looking for? I've been looking at eBay and Craigslist, without much luck. Any Ideas? Thanks.