The following excerpt is from a book called Jean de Florette by Marcel Pagnol. I have recommended this book in my booklist, accessed from the menu above, from where you can go ahead and order it if you feel brave enough to tackle the whole thing. Reading in French is one of the best ways to see how the language works, in your own time, and a great story helps it all move along nicely.

This post will guide you through the passage, highlighting a few general facts about how French literature is written.

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Soudain, la figure du Papet se pencha au bord de la barre, et chuchota.
« Bouge plus ! J’ai entendu du bruit…
- Où ?
- Dans la maison… »
Ils écoutèrent : un long silence, puis quelquechose grinça dans le grenier.
« C’est pas le fantôme de Pique-Bouffigue, dit Ugolin en riant. C’est les rats… J’en ai vu courir sur le toit, hier au soir. Ils sont gros comme des lapins. »
Ils écoutèrent encore un moment. La façade était morte, tous volets fermés. Le silence était si profond qu’ils entendirent un appel de perdrix qui venait d’aussi loin que le vent. Enfin le Papet chuchota :
« Tu peux y aller. »

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Suddenly, Papet leaned over the edge of the bar, and whispered.
“Don’t move! I heard something…”
“Where?”
“In the house…”
They listened; there was a long silence, and then something creaked in the attic.
“It’s not Pique-Bouffigue’s ghost!” said Ugolin, laughing, “It’s rats… I saw one run over the roof, last night. They’re as big as rabbits.”
They listened a moment longer.  The front of the house was dead, all the shutters closed. The silence was so deep that they heard a partridge call that came from as far away as the wind. Finally, Papet whispered, “You can carry on.”

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1. The words highlighted in green are in the tense called passé historique, which is only really used in writing. You’ll never have to speak it, but it’s worth learning what it looks like to recognise it in writing. On the timeline of tenses, the passé historique is the furthest to the left, moving right towards the future tense.

2. Notice the punctuation. French writing places a space before !, : and ? and between guillemets (« word »). Dialogue can have inline comments such as this, said Luke. And then it will carry on with the dialogue.

3. Notice the spoken form of French used in the dialogue – c’est pas instead of the full ce n’est pas.

4. See how the translation, while it could still do with some work, converts all punctuation to English standard punctuation and takes the meaning from the French and transfers it into natural English and well-known phrases rather than translating word for word.

5. In French, the same word never occurs in one sentence. Unless it’s written quickly. But the idea in French is a strict avoidance of repetition. While this does apply in English, not to the same extent as it does in French.