In Poland, the first sentence children learn to read at school is "Ala ma kota" ("Alice has a cat.")
Is there a well-known "primer" sentence (or a few sentences) in your country/language?
I know that in the United States it's something like "See Dick. See Dick chase Jane. See Jane run."
Why on Earth do all the foreigners who learn French know the sentence "La plume de ma tante" (my aunt's pen or rather my aunt's feather, or perhaps both?). Who started the whole affair. If anyone finds out please let us know.
Or "my taylor is rich", when we begin to learn english.
Miquel
I don't think this is a primer sentence, but there is the famous "the rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain."
Well i dont know about english. Its my third language :-)
In spanish: "mi mamá me ama".
Ta tante t'attends dans ta tente.
Another typical first sentence in Spanish, similar to that proposed by Miquel is "Mi mamá me mima". I think the translation is "My mummy spoils me" but in a good sense, something like "My mummy takes care of me".
Gall, amant de la reine, alla, tour magnanime,
Galamment de l'arène à la tour Magne, à Nîmes.
lol
La pluma de ma tanta es sul pupitre de mon oncle.
Mon paire qu'ei a la vinha. Ma maire qu'ei au casau.
Aquestes persècs son los melhors que ai manjat.
The verb 'mimar' in spanish means to give a child 'more than he or she deserves.'
For instance, when mummy and kid are walking an aisle in the supermarket and this kid sees one toy he wants, he begs to his mum 'oh please mum, buy me that toy', and the mum who 'mima' says 'of course sweetheart, whatever my little angel wants', even though the kid throws it and forgets it two hours later.
That is mimar.
Hope it helped.
Perhaps it's just because my memory doesn't stretch back that far but I don't believe that there ever was a standard first sentence that children learn to read at school in Australia. As far as I know, it's all up to the individual teacher.
However, "The cat is on the mat." rings a bell but I don't think that it has any official (nor even any unofficial) status as a "primer sentence" nor can I even remember whether or not it was the first sentence I learnt to read at school. As for "See Dick. See Dick chase Jane. See Jane run.", it rings no bells but I'm not American.
I think Guilhem should have told you that those sentences are in Occitan the language of Southern France different to the French language of Victor Hugo. He obviously speaks o his aunt's pen (literally feather) on top of his uncle's desk in the first one. La colonisation franchimanda la podem veire, Guilhem, tamben en la frase que emplechas.
Saturday, January 10, 2004, 14:54 GMT