Ah, Dmitry should get that. Like tu and usted in Spanish... I've noticed that the practice is different depending on the country. In some areas, usted is always used in business, with city officials, in media, and for elders. (There was an area in Columbia where everyone used usted with each other even friends) While in other areas, usted is seldom used at all, not even on first meeting someone, speaking with someone who may be senior to you in business or even a client.

When I was first learning Spanish, I had numerous teachers and each came from a different country. It was Spanish all day every day for 6 months, no English. It was difficult learning all the tenses, verb conjugations, etc so I focused on usted instead tu so I wouldn't offend anyone. Eventually one day, my Puerto Rican teacher and my Spanish teacher told me to stop. Their actual words were "Stop that, what do you think you are, on the news or something?" :o)

What gets me now is ustedes or vosotros. Totally different between Spain and Latin America.


>>J'espère que ceci tu aide
>
>J'espère que ceci t'aide.
>or
>J'espère que ceci vous aide.
>
>Depending of the level of respect the person deserves. Tricky language.
>
>>>I started recently listening to Pimsleur Basic French tapes. They sound very good but there is no book that accompanies the course. The idea is to learn simply by listening. But I would like to see the words in writing as, I think, it will help me to memorize the new words better. So I was wondering if someone can suggest a good on-line (free) translator where I can type a simple phrase in English to see the French tranlsation. For example, right now I would like to see how the phrase "I would like to eat something" and "I would like to drink something" look in French.
>>>
>>>Thank you in advance for your help.
>>
>>You might try Babelfish
>>
>>
>>http://babelfish.yahoo.com/translate_txt
>>
>>Je voudrais manger quelque chose
>>Je voudrais boire quelque chose
>>
>>J'espère que ceci tu aide