sergeantslutsky asked: I have a rather simple and possibly stupid question about grammar. Yesterday in class we talked about working hours, and learned sentences like Я работаю восемь часов в день. Why does день stay the way it is here and does not get an е (prepositional) added to it? Conversely, if I want to state how many hours I work in a week, would Я работаю 40 часов в неделе be correct? Or в неделя?

properrussian:

Hi! This is not a stupid question, this is a legit question! 

In the phrases that identify a period of time nouns that come with a preposition в are in the Accusative case. Accusative is for direct objects, if you remember. Thus, it is восемь часов в день, сорок часов в неделю, пятьдесят недель в год.

That works somewhat similar to English, too, where all those nouns look like a direct object (Acc) to me: eight hours a day, seven days a week etc. It’s just that in Russian, you add в.

This preposition в may take Accusative in other sentences too, for example, when indicating directions: Я переехал в Канаду (direction, Accusative), и теперь живу в Канаде (location, Prepositional). 

fausse-francaise:

How to write a professional email in French

One of the most stressful things in French to do is write an email because there is a precise formula of brown-nosing politeness that must be displayed. Even for French people they can seem daunting. I’ve done my best to lay out the formula along with some advice to writing a professional email. Note that this lays out the formula for the most formal type of email you would write. Also, this is something found in France (perhaps Switzerland and Belgium too? Someone let me know) but this type of formality is not so strict in Québec (thank god). So without further ado, here’s how to write a professional email in French!

The subject line should

1. Be a nominal phrase (i.e. without a conjugated verb)
2. Avoid articles (un/une, le/la/les)
3. No longer than about 7 words
4. Examples :

Demande d’informations

Candidature pour un stage

Annulation de la formation du 23 mars

Invitation aux Portes Ouvertes du 6 juin 2016

The opening lines

1. If you know the name of the person you are contacting, address with Monsieur or Madame followed by their surname
2. If you do not know to whom you are speaking, put “Madame, Monsieur,” this would be the equivalent of “To whom it may concern,”
3. If you do know their name, but you have not met and the person is of higher standing, address them with Monsieur/Madame and then their title
4. Examples : 

Madame la Directrice

Monsieur le Vice-Président

The body

1. Always use vous, always
2. If you are looking for information, use forms such as
3. Je souhaite recevoir des informations par rapport à…
4. Je voudrais savoir….
5. If you are applying for a job*, use forms such as
6. Je me permets de vous adresser un CV et une lettre de motivation
7. Vous trouverez ci-joint un CV et une lettre de motivation
8. If you need someone to do something, use forms such as
9. Je vous prie de bien vouloir….
10. Vous voudrez bien me faire…..
11. Do not use any slang, anglicisms, or abbreviations
12. Use simple, clear phrases. Short, concise sentences are preferred.

The closing statement

Just so you guys know, all of these phrases mean absolutely nothing, they are just formalities, seriously, they are just the literary equivalent of kneeling before the recipient and bowing

1. If you expect a response, put one of the following forms before the final salutation. If you use number 2 or 3, you will need to add “et” before the final salutation
2. Dans l’attente de votre réponse
3. J’attends vivement votre réponse
4. J’attends avec impatience votre réponse
5. Final salutation
6. Start with “Je vous prie d’agréer,
7. Next, the recipient (Madame, Monsieur)
8. Followed by any one of these:
9. Mes meilleures salutations
10. Mes salutations les meilleures
11. Mes salutations distinguées
12. Mes salutations respectueuses
13. Mes salutations cordiales
14. L’expression de mes salutations les plus sincères
15. Mes salutations sincères
16. Remember, in French, family names are entirely in caps, so when you sign your name, it would sign like Hugo MARTIN

*I will do another post entirely on submitting applications 

So here is a short example of an email I wrote my fictitious school department chair,

Madame la Directrice,

Je souhaite recevoir des informations par rapport à votre programme de masters. En particulier, je voudrais savoir si le programme comprend la possibilité de faire un stage pour des crédits. 

Dans l’attente de votre réponse, je vous prie d’agréer, Madame, mes salutations respectueuses.

Hugo MARTIN

(via lovelybluepanda)

José de Nebra - Wikipedia

PANDOLFI Violin sonatas - Arcana A360 [JV]: Classical Music Reviews - August 2011 MusicWeb-International