Dialogue

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Vocabulary (Review)

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Lesson Transcript

Intro
Eric: Who Let the Dogs Out in France?
Virginie: What are we going to learn today, Eric?
Eric: Well, we're going to be completing the conjugated of ""Avoir"" and Rob and Giulia are invited to a party at Jules. So, let's roll the dialogue.

Lesson conversation
Rob: On va chez Jules et Clara ce soir?
Giulia: D’accord. Mais…il a un chien, Jules, non?
Rob: Oui, il a un caniche.
Giulia: Je suis allergique.
Rob: Mince.
Giulia: Ils ont une terrasse, Jules et Clara?
Rob: Oui.
Giulia: Alors ça va, je viens.
Eric: One more time with the translation.
Rob: On va chez Jules et Clara ce soir?
Eric: Are we going to Jules and Clara's tonight?
Giulia: D’accord. Mais…il a un chien, Jules, non?
Virginie: Okay. But…he has a dog, no?
Rob: Oui, il a un caniche.
Eric: Yes, he has a French poodle.
Giulia: Je suis allergique.
Virginie: I am allergic.
Rob: Mince.
Eric: Bummer.
Giulia: Ils ont une terrasse, Jules et Clara?
Virginie: Do Jules and Clara have a terrace?
Rob: Oui.
Eric: Yes, they do.
Giulia: Alors ça va, je viens.
Virginie: Then I'm coming.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Virginie: Okay. So obviously, Guilia can't stay with a dog with a closed space.
Eric: Right. She must be very, very allergic.
Virginie: Yeah, yeah. So she needs a terrace just like people who can't stand smoke areas. And in France, a lot of people smoke in their apartments.
Eric: Right.
Virginie: So if you're a non-smoker…
Eric: It's kind of gross.
Virginie: Yes, it is. But now, in bars and in clubs, too, and restaurants, it's totally forbidden o smoke in France.
Eric: I was shock when they began that. I always thought the French were such smokers that they would never ban smoking.
Virginie: Yes, right? And you would think, you know, French people are going to have a demonstration about that, a strike or something. But no, no, no, they're being pretty disciplined.
Eric: Reasonable, wow!
Virginie: Yeah, yeah. That's good! That's good! That's healthy.
Eric: Very healthy. And I think you were also telling me that tobacco prices went up as well in France?
Virginie: Yes, they go up every year but they went up a little more, I think a couple of years ago. It was to prevent people from smoking. I guess France is becoming healthier.
Eric: I guess so. Well, so how much is a pack of cigarette in France?
Virginie: Well, it's probably around five or six euros a pack.
Eric: But again, a euro is what? A dollar of 30, dollar of 40 something like that.
Virginie: Yeah. So it's like 10 dollars.
VOCAB LIST
Virginie: Okay. Well, let's see our vocabulary. Avoir [natural native speed].
Eric: To have.
Virginie: Avoir [slowly - broken down by syllable], avoir [natural native speed].
Eric: Then.
Virginie: Mais [natural native speed].
Eric: But.
Virginie: Mais [slowly - broken down by syllable], mais [natural native speed].
Eric: All right.
Virginie: Un chien [natural native speed].
Eric: A dog.
Virginie: Un chien [slowly - broken down by syllable], un chien [natural native speed].
Eric: Okay.
Virginie: Un caniche [natural native speed].
Eric: A French poodle.
Virginie: Un caniche [slowly - broken down by syllable], un caniche [natural native speed].
Eric: All right.
Virginie: Allergique [natural native speed].
Eric: Allergic.
Virginie: Allergique [slowly - broken down by syllable], allergique [natural native speed].
Eric: Then.
Virginie: Mince [natural native speed]
Eric: Shucks or shoot.
Virginie: Mince [slowly - broken down by syllable], mince [natural native speed].
Eric: Okay.
Virginie: Une terrasse [natural native speed].
Eric: A terrace.
Virginie: Une terrasse [slowly - broken down by syllable], une terrasse [natural native speed].
Eric: All right.
Virginie: Alors [natural native speed].
Eric: Then, or so.
Virginie: Alors [slowly - broken down by syllable], alors [natural native speed].
Eric: And finally.
Virginie: Ça va [natural native speed].
Eric: It's okay.
Virginie: Ça va [slowly - broken down by syllable], Ça va [natural native speed].
KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES
Virginie: All right. So there is very interesting word in this dialogue. It's ""mince.""
Eric: ""Mince."" It's like ""shoot.""
Virginie: Yes. So whenever you make a mistake or when you forgot to do something, just say, ""mince.""
Eric: ""Mince."" That also means ""thin.""
Virginie: Yes. When it's an adjective, it actually means ""thin."" “Elle est mince.” she is thin. In this context in our dialogue, it's really, ""shucks.""
Eric: Yeah. It's nothing to do with being thin. It's just, ""shoot, darn.""
Virginie: Yeah. Right. So there are other words obviously that mean the same thing but it's more, you know, vulgar. So I don't know if I'm allowed to say anything here.
Eric: Well, I think you're allowed, Virginie.
Virginie: Okay. Let's say it very quick.
Eric: Be very open-minded. We're in Paris.
Virginie: Okay. So if you want to be vulgar, which I don't know, you can say…
Eric: Well, sometimes you do.
Virginie: Yeah. You can say instead of ""mince"" you can say, ""merde.""
Eric: Merde.
Virginie: That's it. I said it.
Eric: Shit.
Virginie: Yeah, exactly.
Eric: Or…
Virginie: Or there are a lot of words.
Eric: Zut.
Virginie: Zut. Zut is another vulgar…zut is very, very nice sound, ""zut.""
Eric: Darn.
Virginie: Yeah, darn. ""Zut!"" So remember you have ""mince,"" ""merde,"" which is vulgar. And then you have, ""zut!""
Eric: What about ""saperlipopette!""
Virginie: Saperlipopette! Yeah. That's something they used to say in the 18th century but they don't anymore but it's a nice word. Saperlipopette! It sounds nice.
Eric: Never heard of that one before. Okay.
Virginie: Then we have the word ""alors"" which…
Eric: We had seen in the previous lesson.
Virginie: Yes. But in this lesson, ""alors"" means ""then.""
Eric: Right. As in, ""alors d'accord je viens."" Giulia says that, right?
Virginie: Yeah. She says that. She says, ""Ok then, I'm coming."" ""Alors d'accord je viens.""
Eric: In another example, when you say, ""Then I'll leave,"" or ""Then I'll talk,"" you could say ""Alors je pars,"" or ""alors je parle.""
Virginie: So that's the second meaning of ""alors."" And our last word is going to be ""allergique"" today.
Eric: Allergic, as in English.
Virginie: Yes. Eric, are you very allergic to things?
Eric: No. I'm pretty much okay in the natural world.
Virginie: Okay. Well, for example I am allergic to dogs, just like Guilia.
Eric: All dogs or…
Virginie: Dogs with long hair.
Eric: What about cats?
Virginie: No. I had a cat actually. You've understood obviously that ""allergique"" means ""allergic.""
Eric: So if you say, ""Je suis allergique aux fraises."" You are saying…
Virginie: I am allergic to strawberries.
Eric: Strawberries or which is more likely, ""Je suis allergique au travail.""
Virginie: I am allergic to work.

Lesson focus
Eric: Let's have a look at some of our grammar.
Virginie: Today the verb, ""avoir"" we're going to complete the conjugation. We already know ""j'ai,"" right? ""I have.""
Eric: I have.
Virginie: Well, what else do we know?
Eric: Well, I think we know, ""tu as,"" ""you have.""
Virginie: So where is ""avoir"" in our dialogue today?
Eric: Well, this is the new presentation of ""avoir"" which is ""il a"" he has.
Virginie: Right.
Eric: And Giulia asks ""il a un chien, Jules, non?""
Virginie: She's saying, ""He has a dog, Jules, no?"" So ""il a"" is ""il"" and then a blank and then the letter a.
Eric: And that's the singular, masculine pronoun.
Virginie: It's going to be the same for ""elle,"" she.
Eric: For example, ""Elle a un chien, giulia.""
Virginie: She has a dog, Guilia.
Eric: And again, this is the same for ""on,"" as well, which is ""we.""
Virginie: And it's going to be, ""On a un chien,"" we have a dog.
Eric: Okay. So we've done, you know, half of the avoir conjugations. What if we want to use the other word for we, ""nous.""
Virginie: Well, let's take an example from here. What do we have in the studio, Eric? Well, what can we talk about?""
Eric: Well we have microphones.
Virginie: Yeah. Microphones. How can I say, ""We have microphones.""
Eric: Nous avons des micros.
Virginie: Nous avons des micros. Again, it's ""nous avons,"" ""we have."" Right. We also have water.
Eric: Nous avons aussi e l'eau.
Virginie: ""Nous avons."" Okay. Now we need an example with ""vous,"" which is ""you."" So let's talk to our listeners, okay. I'm going to ask them something.
Eric: Go for it, Virginie.
Virginie: Okay. Hey, guys. Qu'est-ce que vous avez?
Eric: What do you have?
Virginie: So obviously, you can't answer directly but you can still answer if you're in your car or in the subway. I don't care.
Eric: In public.
Virginie: Just say, J'ai .. then iPod.
Eric: J'ai la radio.
Virginie: Well, I have…
Eric: A radio.
Virginie: A radio. Now, if we only talk to one listener but formally, it's going to be the exact same thing. It's ""qu'est-ce que vous avez,"" and what do you have?
Eric: And if we're going to ""they"" if we're talking about our listeners, they have an iPod. We would say, Ils ont un iPod
Virginie: “Ils ont” and that's for a group of people whether it's a man or men and women. It's going to be ""ils ont."" Now if it's a group of women only?
Eric: ""Elles ont.""
Virginie: “Elles ont”, right? So again, it's ""ils ont"" and ""elles ont.""
Eric: Yeah. I think we had an example in our dialogue when we talked about Jules and Clara. Guilia says something.
Virginie: Yeah. She says ""ils ont une terrasse, Jules et Clara?""
Eric: Do they have a terrace?
Virginie: You see, she's talking about Jules et Clara. It's a guy and a girl and it's ""ils ont en terrasse. All right.

Outro
Virginie: So we hope you took good notes of your verb ""avoir"" today and don't forget to practice.
Eric: Thank you for listening.
Virginie: Thank you.
Eric: [*]

Grammar

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