Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Gabriella: Salut, chers auditeurs! Je m'appelle Gabriella. It’s Impossible to Find a Duck In The French Winter !
Jeremy: Moi, c'est Jeremy.
Gabriella: Let's get started. Quel est le sujet de la leçon d'aujourd'hui ?
Jeremy: In this lesson, you’ll learn some French homonyms. The conversation is between Marc and Vincent.
Gabriella: Ok, donc c'est une conversation familière ?
Jeremy: Oui, et il fait très froid en ce moment.
Gabriella: Ok, let’s listen to the conversation.
DIALOGUE
Marc : Je suis gelé, il fait un froid de canard !
Vincent : Couvre-toi bien, c’est encore un coup à aller à l’hosto. Et ta mère va encore râler.
Marc : ‘sais pas.
Vincent : C’est pas quoi ?
Marc : Je sais pas. Maman trouve qu’il fait bon, plutôt.
Vincent : Plus tôt ? Mais quand ça ?
Marc : Ah mais non ! “Plutôt” ! Il fait encore beau, quoi. Mais j’ai froid.
Vincent : Je trouve qu’il fait un temps de chien. Allez, je mets une laine et au charbon !
Gabriella: Now let's hear it with the English translation.
Marc : Je suis gelé, il fait un froid de canard !
Marc: I'm frozen. It's like an arctic cold in there.
Vincent : Couvre-toi bien, c’est encore un coup à aller à l’hosto. Et ta mère va encore râler.
Vincent: Dress warmly, or you'll end up in the hospital once again, and your mom will moan again.
Marc : ‘sais pas.
Marc: I dunno.
Vincent : C’est pas quoi ?
Vincent: Don't know what? (lit., "It's not what?")
Marc : Je sais pas. Maman trouve qu’il fait bon, plutôt.
Marc: I don't know. Mom thinks it's rather warm.
Vincent : Plus tôt ? Mais quand ça ?
Vincent: Rather warm? (lit., "Earlier?")
Marc : Ah mais non ! “Plutôt” ! Il fait encore beau, quoi. Mais j’ai froid.
Marc: Hey, but not that "rather"! It's still nice outside, basically. But I'm cold.
Vincent : Je trouve qu’il fait un temps de chien. Allez, je mets une laine et au charbon !
Vincent: I think it's wretched weather. I'm putting something warm on and going down the coal mine!
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Gabriella: Is it so cold in winter in France?
Jeremy: It’s not that bad, in my opinion. It’s just cold and dry.
Gabriella: They used a lot of idioms here!
Jeremy: Yes, the French use them a lot. Raconter des salades, par exemple.
Gabriella: "To tell salads?" But that’s total nonsense!
Jeremy: That’s the point! It’s used when someone is lying or talking nonsense!
Gabriella: Got it! What about un de ces quatre?
Jeremy: Literally “one of these four.” It means “soon,” and it can be used as “ see you” when parting.
Gabriella: Je t’appelle un de ces quatre.
Jeremy: "I call you soon." There is toucher du bois too.
Gabriella: It’s said to bring luck, right?
Jeremy: Oui, et les Français touchent un morceau de bois en même temps!
Gabriella: That’s funny, I like it!
VOCAB LIST
Gabriella: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson.
Gabriella: The first word we shall see is...
Jeremy: maman [natural native speed]
Gabriella: mommy
Jeremy: maman [slowly - broken down by syllable] maman [natural native speed]
Gabriella: Next
Jeremy: hosto [natural native speed]
Gabriella: hospital (informal)
Jeremy: hosto [slowly - broken down by syllable] hosto [natural native speed]
Gabriella: Next
Jeremy: se couvrir [natural native speed]
Gabriella: to cover up
Jeremy: se couvrir [slowly - broken down by syllable] se couvrir [natural native speed]
Gabriella: Next
Jeremy: râler [natural native speed]
Gabriella: to complain, to grumble
Jeremy: râler [slowly - broken down by syllable] râler [natural native speed]
Gabriella: Next
Jeremy: plutôt [natural native speed]
Gabriella: rather
Jeremy: plutôt [slowly - broken down by syllable] plutôt [natural native speed]
Gabriella: Next
Jeremy: aller au charbon [natural native speed]
Gabriella: to go down the coal mine, to work hard
Jeremy: aller au charbon [slowly - broken down by syllable] aller au charbon [natural native speed]
Gabriella: Next
Jeremy: froid de canard [natural native speed]
Gabriella: arctic cold
Jeremy: froid de canard [slowly - broken down by syllable] froid de canard [natural native speed]
Gabriella: Next
Jeremy: temps de chien [natural native speed]
Gabriella: wretched weather
Jeremy: temps de chien [slowly - broken down by syllable] temps de chien [natural native speed]
Gabriella: And last...
Jeremy: mettre une laine [natural native speed]
Gabriella: to put something warm on
Jeremy: mettre une laine [slowly - broken down by syllable] mettre une laine [natural native speed]
KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES
Gabriella Let's have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. Jeremy, in this lesson, we’re learning idioms, right?
Jeremy: Oui, des expressions courantes, comme “aller au charbon”
Gabriella: “To go down the mine.”
Jeremy: C’est ça! It means "to go to work” but with the meaning of “working hard” and doing one’s best at work.
Gabriella: So in the dialogue, Vincent is saying he will work hard the whole day?
Jeremy: Yes, and that he is kind of unhappy with that!
Gabriella: Peut-être qu’il préférerait rester avec son fils? Même s’il fait un “froid de canard”!
Jeremy: (laughs) bien joué! This is our second idiom. It means ‘arctic cold”.
Gabriella: That’s strange…
Jeremy: Not that much, there are no ducks when it’s too cold outside!
Gabriella: Ok, je vois! And what about un temps de chien? “A dog weather” ? Doesn’t sound great...
Jeremy: En effet, ça veut dire "very bad weather”. It’s used when it’s raining a lot, for example.
Gabriella: I see. The French seem to like to compare weather and animals!
Jeremy: Haha, oui, c’est vrai. Notre dernière expression est “mettre une laine”.
Gabriella: "To put on some wool". I get the meaning: to put on something warm.
Jeremy: That’s right! It’s not used so often now, we would rather use se couvrir chaudement, meaning “to cover up warmly”.
Gabriella: I’ll definitely use them when I go to France! Okay now onto the grammar.
GRAMMAR POINT
Gabriella: In this lesson, you’ll learn about homonyms.
Jeremy: Yes, as in many languages, French has a lot of words that sound like others, but come with a different meaning.
Gabriella: There are some in the dialogue, such as “plutôt” and “plus tôt.”
Jeremy: They respectively mean “rather” and ‘“earlier”. Depending on the context, they can be mixed.
Gabriella: Je vois. C’est la même chose avec “bien tôt” et “bientôt”.
Jeremy: “quite early” and “soon”. Let’s see that with an example... C’est triste, tu sais. Il nous a quitté bien tôt… Et bientôt, ça sera notre tour.
Gabriella: "It’s sad, you know. He left us too early... and soon, it will be our turn."
Jeremy: Confusion can occur when writing too, for example, la and là with an accent grave
Gabriella: The first is a regular a, the second is an a with an accent. These mean “the” and “there” respectively.
Jeremy: For example... Où est-ce que je pose ma valise? And the answer can be Met la là.
Gabriella: "Where do I put my luggage?" " Put it there."
Jeremy: C’est ça. It’s the same for ou, and où with an accent grave. There is a tip with these!
Gabriella: They translate as “or” and “where”. And about the tip... the accent means it’s describing a place!
Jeremy: C’est tout à fait ça! “Je la pose où? Dans le salon ou dans la chambre?”
Gabriella: Where do I put it? In the living room, or in the bedroom?
Jeremy: Written or spoken, you can’t really mix them, but be careful about the accent!
Gabriella: Ok, je ferais attention, ce n’est pas très difficile!
Jeremy: Another one, quite tricky... “peut-être” and “peut être”.
Gabriella: “Maybe” and “might be”.
Jeremy: The only difference is the hyphen, actually! And they are supposed to be pronounced linked, but the French sometimes separate the second one.
Gabriella: peut-être (prononcer peutêtre) et peut être (prononcer peu-être). Je vois.
Jeremy: Il est peut-être perdu.
Gabriella: "Maybe he is lost."
Jeremy: Il peut être perdu.
Gabriella: "He might be lost. I think I got it."
Jeremy: With practice, you will get it very quickly.
Gabriella: Donc, n’hésitez pas à pratiquer dans les commentaires!
Jeremy: Bonne chance, et à la prochaine!

Outro

Jeremy: Okay, that’s all for this lesson.
Gabriella: Thank you for listening everyone, and we’ll see you next time.
Jeremy: Salut!

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