Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Notes

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Lesson Transcript

Intro

Virginie: Bonjour tout le monde! Hello everyone. This is Virginie, welcome.
Eric: Hi, Virginie. This is Eric. Where Are You in France? So in this lesson what are we going to be looking at?
Virginie: In this lesson you will learn how to tell where and where your friends are.
Eric: In this dialogue, Rob, Sarah, Jules and Giulia are meeting at the park Buttes Chaumont for a picnic. Rob wants to introduce Giulia to Sarah.
Virginie: Yes. And this conversation is between Rob and Giulia.
Eric: And they're going to be speaking informal French.
Virginie: Now, let's listen to the conversation.

Lesson conversation

Rob: Allô?
Giulia: Rob? C’est Giulia. Vous êtes où?
Rob: Nous sommes à la grotte.
Giulia: D’accord. Jules et Sarah, ils sont là?
Rob: Oui, il sont là.
Giulia: J’arrive!
Eric: One more time with the translation.
Rob: Allô?
Eric: Hello?
Giulia: Rob? C’est Giulia. Vous êtes où?
Virginie: Rob, it’s Giulia. Where are you guys?
Rob: Nous sommes à la grotte.
Eric: We are at the cave.
Giulia: D’accord. Jules et Sarah, ils sont là?
Virginie: Okay. Are Jules and Sarah there?
Rob: Oui, il sont là.
Eric: Yes, they are here.
Giulia: J’arrive!
Virginie: I’ll be right there!
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Eric: What was the name of the park that they're going to again?
Virginie: Les Buttes Chaumont, The Chaumont hills if you prefer.
Eric: And where is it located?
Virginie: It's in the 19th arrondissement in Paris.
Eric: Our friends are gathering together for a picnic.
Virginie: Yes, oui, absolutely, a typical French picnic!
Eric: And what do French eat at a typical French picnic?
Virginie: Well I think you can guess the main item, Eric.
Eric: Wine?
Virginie: Oui! Du vin! Wine!
Eric: You're allowed to drink alcohol in Parks in France?
Virginie: Yes we are, fortunately. Wine on the grass is so enjoyable.
Eric: Wow, that sounds really bacchus (adjective???).
Virginie: Yes.
Eric: So if I go to a picnic this weekend, Virginie, I'm going to bring you some camembert sandwhiches.
Virginie: Yes thank you. With some beguette too.
Eric: Wow. Sounds like a plan!
Virginie: It's nice. You can also bring a jambon beurre. Do you know what a jambon beurre is?
Eric: What's a jambon beurre?
Virginie: A jambon beurre is a ham sandwich with butter.
Eric: Okay sounds good. Well let's listen to some vocabulary.
VOCAB LIST
Virginie: Allô [natural native speed]
Eric: Hello, this is used on the phone.
Allô [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Allô [natural native speed]
Eric: Then.
Virginie: à [natural native speed]
Eric: At, to or in.
Virginie: à [slowly - broken down by syllable]. à [natural native speed]
Eric: Next.
Virginie: Une grotte [natural native speed]
Eric: A cave.
Virginie: Une grotte [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Une grotte [natural native speed]
Eric: Then.
Virginie: Là [natural native speed]
Eric: There or here.
Virginie: Là [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Là [natural native speed]
Eric: The next one.
Virginie: Arriver [natural native speed]
Eric: To arrive.
Virginie: Arriver [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Arriver [natural native speed]
Eric: Okay.
Virginie: Où [natural native speed]
Eric: Where.
Virginie: Où [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Où [natural native speed]
Eric: And finally.
Virginie: D'accord [natural native speed]
Eric: Okay, I agree.
Virginie: D'accord [slowly - broken down by syllable]. D'accord [natural native speed]
KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES
Virginie: What are are looking at today, Eric?
Eric: Why don't we explain, first, what Giulia said at the end of the dialog.
Virginie: Giulia says ""j'arrive!""
Eric: And this is the French way of saying ""I'll be right there.""
Virginie: Yes or ""I'm coming!""
Eric: Literally this is just I arrive.
Virginie: Oui. And here we have je which you know dropped its ""e"" because it's in front of a word starting with a vowel.
Eric: When je is in front of a word with a vowel, it just become j"".
Virginie: And then you have ""arrive"", which is arrive.
Eric: So you can just use ""j'arrive"" anytime you want to say ""coming!""
Virginie: Next, we have some phone greetings here, Eric.
Eric: We have ""allo?""
Virginie: Allo.
Eric: And that's what you say when you pick up your phone in French.
Virginie: Oui, directement, directly, you just say allo?
Eric: And that's ALLO.
Virginie: And then the person who's calling will say ""allo Eric? C'est Virginie!""
Eric: Hello, Eric. This is Virginie. Let's have a little practice here at, Virginie. I'm giving you a call what would you say?
Virginie: I would say, Allo?
Eric: Allo Virginie? C'est Eric!
Virginie: So a quick recap. It's allo then your friend's name…
Eric: …and then you can say C'est followed by your name. Great. So let's move on to our grammar.

Lesson focus

Virginie: As we said previously, the focus of this lesson is to ask your friends where you are.
Eric: Rob, Sarah and Jules are already at the park and they're waiting for Giulia to get there.
Virginie: Giulia is on her way and she wants to make sure where her friends exactly are in the park of Les Buttes Chaumont.
Eric: So she calls Rob and asked, Vous êtes où? ""Where are you?""
Virginie: Now in previous lessons we saw that vous is the formal you.
Eric: But here vous takes on a slightly different meaning. It's going to be the plural you or like you guys. So, vous in French has two meanings.
Virginie: It can be the formal you.
Eric: And it can be the plural you, or ""you guys.""
Virginie: Exactly. And it all depends on the context.
Eric: So to continue her phrase, she uses the verb etre, where are you guys, vous etes.
Virginie: And then she adds the little word ou, which we know is where.
Eric: But she could also ask the same question in a different way, right?
Virginie: Oui, oui, oui she could say ou vous etes as opposed to vous estes ou.
Eric: So the word ou can start the question as well.
Virginie: And another way she could have said that is ou etes-vous.
Eric: This is basically reversing the subject and the verb.
Virginie: Yes ou which is where, este which is the verb and vous which is the subject ou etes vous.
Eric: This is a slightly more formal way of posing a question, right?
Virginie: Yes, it's very, very formal. Very few people actually use it in France. We don't use that form of question really.
Eric: Right, who would use it though?
Virginie: My grandma would use it. My grandma is this very fancy Parisian lady. So he's very formal with pretty much everyone even me.
Eric: Even you, wow.
Virginie: Yes. If you ever meet my very grandma out there, you can say, ou etes vous. And she will say charming.
Eric: Vous etes charmant.
Virginie: Yes.

Outro

Eric: Maybe worth the effort! Well that just about does it for today. Thank you very much for listening.
Virginie: Have a great day. Au revoir.
Eric: Bye.
Virginie: Bye.

Grammar

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