Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

Intro

Virginie: Salut tout le monde! Hello, everyone!
JP: How to Pick Your Poison in French!
Virginie: So, we have a new host.
JP: Who, who, who? What are you talking about?
Virginie: Yes, we have a new hot and sexy voice with us and his name is JP.
JP: Hi everyone. Salut!
Virginie: Very nice to meet you, JP.
JP: It's good to be here, Virginie.
Virginie: Thank you. What are we going to talk about in this lesson?
JP: Well, I think we're going to talk about likes and dislikes.
Virginie: Well, actually, we're going to talk about dislikes more, I think, just like you know, how to be a Parisian basically.
JP: How to be Parisian?
Virginie: Yeah. How to say you don't like something.
JP: Oh, okay.
Virginie: That's so Parisian.
JP: Yeah. I imagine Parisians, there's a lot of things that they don't like.
Virginie: I don't know if you know this T-shirt that says, "I love rien, I am Parisian."
JP: I love nothing. I'm from Paris.
Virginie: Yeah. That's what it's going to be about.
JP: So who are we going to hear in the dialogue?
Virginie: In the dialogue, we have Rob, of course, and then there is Marc, too. Yeah, that's Rob's friend.
JP: All right. And what are they doing? Skipping and high-fiving?
Virginie: They are riding their bikes.
JP: Okay.
Virginie: Yeah, along the Marne and they're getting a drink.
JP: Okay. And the Marne is like a river.
Virginie: Yeah, it is a river. Yeah, we'll talk about it right after the dialogue.
JP: All right. So let's hear what they have to say.
Virginie: Yes. Okay. Let's listen to the dialogue now.

Lesson conversation

Rob: Un coca?
Marc: Non merci. Je n’aime pas le coca.
Rob: Un café alors?
Marc: Je n’aime pas beaucoup le café.
Rob: Tu aimes l’ice tea?
Marc: Je n’aime pas du tout l’ice tea!
Rob: Oh là là! Tu es difficile!
Marc: Je voudrais un verre d’eau.
Virginie: Encore une fois, plus lentement.
Rob: Un coca?
Marc: Non merci. Je n’aime pas le coca.
Rob: Un café alors?
Marc: Je n’aime pas beaucoup le café.
Rob: Tu aimes l’ice tea?
Marc: Je n’aime pas du tout l’ice tea!
Rob: Oh là là! Tu es difficile!
Marc: Je voudrais un verre d’eau.
Virginie: Encore une fois, avec la traduction.
Rob: Un coca?
JP: A Coke?
Marc: Non merci. Je n’aime pas le coca.
JP: No thanks. I don't like Coke.
Rob: Un café alors?
JP: A coffee then?
Marc: Je n’aime pas beaucoup le café.
JP: I don't like coffee very much.
Rob: Tu aimes l’ice tea?
JP: Do you like iced tea?
Marc: Je n’aime pas du tout l’ice tea!
JP: I don't like it at all!
Rob: Oh là là! Tu es difficile!
JP: Oh my God, you are picky!
Marc: Je voudrais un verre d’eau.
JP: I would like a glass of water.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Virginie: So I think Marc is being a little picky here.
JP: Yeah, he's not into Coke.
Virginie: Yeah. He's not into ice tea either.
JP: Okay.
Virginie: Yeah. He just wants water.
JP: Well, that's the healthy choice, I think.
Virginie: It is the healthy choice. It's a healthy day. They are riding their bikes.
JP: Exactly.
Virginie: As we said, along the Marne.
JP: Where is that?
Virginie: It is South of Paris and it's beautiful. And you probably saw it on some paintings.
JP: Okay.
Virginie: Like I don't know if you know Renoir.
JP: Of course, everybody knows Renoir.
Virginie: Obviously. He painted a lot, like, you know, country scenes along the Marne. It's a very inspiring river.
JP: You know, I love to ride my bike along the river. I do that everyday actually here in New York. I ride along the Hudson.
Virginie: Oh, that's true. Yeah, because you're lucky you live by the Hudson.
JP: What about you?
Virginie: I live in Brooklyn, so I don't ride my bike on the Brooklyn Bridge. No, no, no. But when I was living in Toulouse, you know I'm from Toulouse. I used to ride my bike along the river called Canal du Midi.
JP: Oh, the famous Canal du Midi. Now that goes all the way to…
Virginie: Sete.
JP: Sete.
Virginie: Which is not seven, it's S-E-T-E. It's a little town in the southeast of France. And you can go from Toulouse to Sete riding your bike along the river.
JP: Absolutely. Along the Canal du Midi.
Virginie: Yeah.
JP: You know, Pinet used to write his novels about the Canal du Midi, didn't he?
Virginie: That is true. Because Pinet is from the south, too, with his accent.
JP: Right. So if you read or watch the movie 'La Terre de Mon Père' or ‘Le Château de ma mère’, you can see scenes where they're hanging out along the Canal du Midi.
Virginie: Yeah, and it's beautiful.
JP: So Marc is being picky about his drink.
Virginie: So what I suggest is that we go through the vocabulary to see what Marc is picky about. Let’s go.
VOCAB LIST
Virginie: Un coca [natural native speed]
JP: a Coke
Virginie: Un coca [slowly - broken down by syllable] Un coca [natural native speed]
Virginie: Then we have
Virginie: un café [natural native speed]
JP: a coffee
Virginie: un café [slowly - broken down by syllable] un café [natural native speed]
Virginie: Then we have
Virginie: l'ice tea [natural native speed]
JP: iced tea
Virginie: l'ice tea [slowly - broken down by syllable] l'ice tea [natural native speed]
Virginie: Then we have
Virginie: beaucoup [natural native speed]
JP: a lot, very much
Virginie: beaucoup [slowly - broken down by syllable] beaucoup [natural native speed]
Virginie: Then we have
Virginie: pas du tout [natural native speed]
JP: not at all
Virginie: pas du tout [slowly - broken down by syllable] pas du tout [natural native speed]
Virginie: Next we have is
Virginie: ne/n'...pas [natural native speed]
JP: this is the negation that you are going to use in a sentence
Virginie: ne/n'...pas [slowly - broken down by syllable] ne/n'...pas [natural native speed]
Virginie: Then we have
Virginie: difficile (taste) [natural native speed]
JP: picky
Virginie: difficile (taste) [slowly - broken down by syllable] difficile (taste) [natural native speed]
Virginie: And finally we have
Virginie: un verre d'eau [natural native speed]
JP: a glass of water
Virginie: un verre d'eau [slowly - broken down by syllable] un verre d'eau [natural native speed]
KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES
Virginie: Let's take a look at some of those words more closely. Let's take a look at "difficile."
JP: Literally, "difficile" is like difficult, right?
Virginie: Yeah.
JP: But in this situation, they're being difficult about what they want to choose to drink.
Virginie: Exactly.
JP: They're being picky.
Virginie: So you can say someone is "difficile." Someone is picky. JP, tu es difficile!
JP: I'm picky. Oh my goodness.
Virginie: Actually, you're not.
JP: I'm not, I'm very…
Virginie: Yeah. He loves it, right?
JP: I do, I do.
Virginie: Yeah, but I am "difficile."
JP: Are you?
Virginie: I am very difficile. Yes. I don’t like cinnamon, for example.
JP: I did not know that.
Virginie: I know.
JP: Tu es difficile, Virginie.
Virginie: So this is in this particular context but in other context, you can say that "un travail difficile." A job is hard or difficult, right? "Un travail difficile."
JP: A difficult job.
Virginie: For example, do you think "le français est difficile?''
JP: Le français est difficile. French is hard. It's not. It's fun. But for the purposes of this podcast, "Le français est difficile."
Virginie: Exactly. Today, "Le français est difficile."
JP: Yeah. Or we can negate it.
Virginie: Yeah.
JP: "Le français ne pas difficile."
Virginie: Exactly. Or we can use the opposite word, the contrary, which is "ficile."
JP: Le français est facile.
Virginie: Le français est facile. There you go. There you have it. Now that you have "difficile," I'd like to have a quick review on the negative form.
JP: Okay. We already heard it with "le francais ne pas difficile."
Virginie: Do you all remember how the negation works in French? Because we've seen it before, but it's always good to review it.
JP: So we start with a sentence that was not negative. It was affirmative. We said "le français est difficile." So what I did was I took this phrase "ne pas" and I put it around the conjugated verb. In this case, the conjugated verb is "e" right? It's the verb "est" to be.
Virginie: Yes.
JP: So it is. It is hard. French is hard. Now I'm going to put "ne pas" around "e." So "le francais ne pas difficile."
Virginie: Then you probably noticed that the "e" of "ne" dropped in front of the verb "e" because "e" starts with a vowel.
JP: So we don't have to pronounce "le français ne e pas difficile," we can just contract that.
Virginie: Exactly. "Le français n'est pas difficile."
JP: Now, I had a friend that used to think of "ne" and "pas" like parenthesis. They go around the verb or you can say that they're like headphones. They go around the verb.
Virginie: We use headphones. That's perfect. Think about headphones. That's a great tip.
JP: Ne pas.
Virginie: Okay. Let's give another example.
JP: How about one from the dialogue.
Virginie: Yes. That's a good idea. In the dialogue, Marc says, "Je n'aime pas le coca."
JP: Okay, which is, "I don't like coke."
Virginie: That's pretty straightforward. "Je n'aime pas le coca."
JP: That verb is "aimer" right? And here is "je n'aime." Now if we put those headphones, the "ne pas" around the verb, we get "Je n'aime pas le coca."
Virginie: Exactly.
JP: I don't like coke.
Virginie: All right. And then, what do we have? What other vocab can we talk about? "Pas du tout." Well, when you say it by itself, "pas du tout" is…
JP: Not at all.
Virginie: If I ask JP, are you hungry?
JP: "Pas du tout."
Virginie: Not at all. And you can use "pas du tout" when you want to sound indignant in French, too.
JP: Like if your feelings are hurt and you want to…
Virginie: For example, I don't know. What can you tell me that would be indignant?
JP: Well, I know.
Virginie: Uh-huh. Oh, I'm scared now.
JP: I got to the studio today and you were late, Virginie.
Virginie: "Pas du tout."
JP: Nuh-huh, right? Uh-huh, I'm not late. No, "pas du tout."
Virginie: No. "Pas du tout." You'll hear that a lot in France.
JP: Okay.
Virginie: Yeah. Even better way, you can add the little "ne" which is "but" right before "pas du tout." So that would sound like "ne pas du tout."
JP: No. Not at all.
Virtual: Yeah. But not at all so you're even more indignant, right?
JP: Oh, for goodness sake. So now I understand the introduction when we said we're going to learn how to be Parisian.
Virginie: Exactly.
JP: We're going to learn how to be indignant.
Virginie: Yeah. That's the point of this lesson. Whenever you say "ne pas du tout" French people are going to think you're French or a Parisian.
JP: Okay. All right. Back to the dialogue. What else do we have?
Virginie: In the dialogue, we have "je voudrais."
JP: I would like.
Virginie: Straightforward.
JP: Je voudrais.
Virginie: Je voudrais.
JP: So if I want a coke.
Virginie: Je voudrais un coca?
JP: If I want a bottle of water?
Virginie: Je voudrais une bouteille d’eau.
JP: If I want an elephant.
Virginie: Je voudrais un éléphant.
JP: Okay, Virginie, Je voudrais un éléphant, s'il vous plaît.
Virginie: Oh, okay. I'll work on it.
JP: All right. It's difficult. Anyway, "je voudrais" means I would like.
Virginie: Absolutely. All right now, let’s get to our grammar point.

Lesson focus

Virginie: Still talking about dislikes. We've seen that "je n'aime pas."
JP: I don't like it.
Virginie: Now, in our dialogue, Marc expresses his dislikes with other phrases. He says, "Je n'aime pas beaucoup le café."
JP: I don't like coffee that much.
Virginie: That's someone picky.
JP: So "je n'aime pas,' so "I don't like." And then "beaucoup" , which is one of our vocab words, means very much. "Je n'aime pas beaucoup," I don't like it very much.
Virginie: Exactly. So if you want to say that you don't like burgers very much, you will say…
JP: "Je n'aime pas beaucoup le burger."
Virginie: Exactly. Then Marc uses another phrase. Marc has -- you know, he's a resourceful vocabulary person.
JP: Okay.
Virginie: Yes. Then he says, "je n'aime pas du tout l'ice tea."
JP: I don't like ice tea at all. And there is he "pas du tout."
Virginie: You know by now that "pas du tout" means "not at all." So "je n'aime pas du tout."
JP: I don’t like it at all.
Virginie: It's very assertive. Now the verb aimer, you have to know that it means two things.
JP: Okay.
Virginie: When you talk about a person and you want to say you like this person, you're not going to say "J'aime JP," for example.
JP: Oh, you should say that all you want. "I love JP." I like that sentence.
Virginie: Yes. But it will sound romantic. It will sound like you're making a romantic statement.
JP: Well, I like that sound even more now.
Virginie: I have JP.
JP: J'aime, JP.
Virginie: Yeah. So if you want to make sure that people understand you're just saying that you like JP as a friend, you're going to say, "J'aime bien JP." JP!
JP: So this is the difference between like and love, okay, when you're talking about people. So, “Virginie, J'aime bien.”
Virginie: Exactly.
JP: I like you.
Virginie: Yeah.
JP: Or Virginie, j'taime.
Virginie: Oh, that's nice. Okay guys, I think we're going to have to stop this lesson right away.
JP: All right. Maybe we should talk about some ice tea. Now, Virginie, is there any ambiguity when you say "je n'aime pas beaucoup l'ice tea" if it's romantic or not romantic?
Virginie: No. That's the point. When you talk about things, there's no ambiguity. It's only when you talk about people.
JP: Okay.
Virginie: Make sure you say, "j'aime bien," and not only "j'aime" because it might sound a little strong.
JP: A little bit romantic.
Virginie: Yeah.
JP: Okay. Be careful with that.

Outro

Virginie: Yes. Well, I think we're done for today. Au revoir!
JP: À la prochaine!
Virginie: Bye-bye.

Grammar

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