Learn how to let someone know when you understand something in French--and, maybe more importantly, when you don't
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Intro |
|---|
| Virginie: Bonjuor. |
| Eric: Eric here! |
| Virginie: Understanding French Easily. |
| Eric: In this lesson you will learn how to say hi. |
| Virginie: And how to say you understand and you don't understand something. |
| Eric: Our dialog takes place after History class when Rob meets Giulia. |
| Virginie: Rob has been now studying at the Sorbonne for a week and still has a hard time to understand everything in class. |
| Eric: Rob and Giulia are now friends. |
| Virginie: And since they are friends, our two characters will be speaking informally |
| Eric: Let's listen to this conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
| Rob: Salut Giulia, ça va? |
| Giulia: Ça va et toi? |
| Rob: Bof. |
| Giulia: Ça ne va pas? |
| Rob: Je ne comprends pas le français! |
| Giulia: Tu comprends très bien le français! |
| Eric: One more time with the translation. |
| Rob: Salut Giulia, ça va? |
| Eric: Hi Giulia, how are you? |
| Giulia: Ça va et toi? |
| Virginie: I’m good, and you? |
| Rob: Bof. |
| Eric: Not really well. |
| Giulia: Ça ne va pas? |
| Virginie: You’re not good? |
| Rob: Je ne comprends pas le français! |
| Eric: I don’t understand French! |
| Giulia: Tu comprends très bien le français! |
| Virginie: You understand French very well! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Eric: it seems that Rob is down today, don't you think Virginie? |
| Virginie: Yes it's sometimes hard to live in a country where you don't understand everything that's said. |
| Eric: Especially at school. Apparently our two characters just got out of History class. |
| Virginie: Yes and History class at the Sorbonne which is a prestigious university is quite a difficult thing to go through. |
| Eric: Right. I assume Rob had a hard time getting all the details about Napoleon. |
| Virginie: But he shouldn't get discouraged! |
| Eric: Giulia is there to reassure him. So let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Virginie: Ça va? [natural native speed] |
| Eric: How are you? |
| Virginie: Ça va? [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Ça va? [natural native speed] |
| Eric: And now the answer. |
| Virginie: Ça va. [natural native speed] |
| Eric: I'm fine. |
| Virginie: Ça va. [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Ça va. [natural native speed] |
| Eric: And next. |
| Virginie: Je ne parle pas bien le français. [natural native speed] |
| Eric: I don't speak French very well. |
| Virginie: Je ne parle pas bien le français. [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Je ne parle pas bien le français. [natural native speed] |
| Eric: And next. |
| Virginie: Très bien [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Very well |
| Virginie: Très bien [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Très bien [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next. |
| Virginie: Comprendre [natural native speed] |
| Eric: To understand. |
| Virginie: Comprendre [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Comprendre [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next. |
| Virginie: Et toi [natural native speed] |
| Eric: And you. |
| Virginie: Et toi [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Et toi [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next. |
| Virginie: Ca ne va pas [natural native speed] |
| Eric: It's not going well |
| Virginie: Ca ne va pas [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Ca ne va pas [natural native speed] |
| Eric: And finally. |
| Virginie: Bof [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Not really (casual). |
| Virginie: Bof [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Bof [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| Eric: Okay. So let's take a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Virginie: Yes. The first word/phrase we’ll look at is Ca va? |
| Eric: Which means ""How is it going?"" |
| Virginie: When you meet a friend, it's the first thing you say after saying hi. |
| Eric: What is ca va, literally? |
| Virginie: It would be ""it goes?"" Ca is it and va is goes. |
| Eric: And it's a pretty automatic phrase to say in France when you meet a friend. |
| Virginie: It's almost like a punctuation mark, you say Salut ca va? |
| Eric: So when someone asks ""Ca va?"" he is really inquiring into his friend's well-being? |
| Virginie: Not really, as you said it's automatic. |
| Eric: And usually you just answer Ca va which means ""I'm well."" |
| Virginie: And literally, it goes. |
| Eric: Watch your intonation though. It's going down this time. |
| Virginie: Yes your answer is a statement, right? So you will be Ca va. |
| Eric: But the question would be? |
| Virginie: Ca va? |
| Eric: Ca va Virginie? |
| Virginie: Ca va. |
| Eric: Let's use a slightly different way of asking Ca va now. |
| Virginie: Right, you can also ask ""Comment ca va?"" |
| Eric: And the added word at the beginning of the sentence is ""Comment."" |
| Virginie: Which means how. |
| Eric: Either way it's totally normal. How do you answer to comment ca va? |
| Virginie: You can answer Ca va or you can say Ca va bien. |
| Eric: Ca va bien. Bien is well or fine. |
| Virginie: Comment ca va, Eric? |
| Eric: Ca va bien, merci. |
| Virginie: Oh you just added a new word! |
| Eric: Oh yes? |
| Virginie: You said merci, which is thank you. |
| Eric: That's because I'm polite. |
| Virginie: You are. And it's always better to say Ca va bien merci, or Ca va merci. |
| Eric: But here Rob actually says something different, he says ""bof"", which in this context means ""not really"", or ""not really well."" |
| Virginie: Yes. This word bof is used a lot in France. People use it a lot. It's a casual and short way to say ""Not really well,"" ""Not really good."" |
| Eric: And you can use this in other contexts? |
| Virginie: Yes for example when you're asked ""Did you like this movie?"" You can answer bof. That means not really well. I didn't enjoy it very much. |
Lesson focus |
| Eric: Okay, so let's talk a little grammar now. The grammar focus for this lesson is the verb comprendre at the positive and negative forms. |
| Virginie: Je comprends! |
| Eric: Okay. Virginie just said she understands. Well good for you, Virginie. |
| Virginie: Yes. I said Je comprends, I understand. |
| Eric: The verb is comprendre, to understand. |
| Virginie: But we know that when you first visit a foreign country it's more likely that you don't understand. |
| Eric: Right. In these situations you will say ""je ne comprends pas"" I don't understand. Virginie, can you give us detail about the negative form in French? |
| Virginie: It's really, really easy. All you need to do is squeeze the verb between the two particles NE and PAS. |
| Eric: That's all? |
| Virginie: Yes, that's all. Listen to me, Je NE comprends Pas. |
| Eric: Okay, well that's easy. |
| Virginie: In our dialog there is another negative sentence though. |
| Eric: Yes Giulia asks Rob ""Ca ne va pas? |
| Virginie: Which means… |
| Eric: Literally ""It doesn't go well? |
| Virginie: See the negative structure here? The verb ""va"" is squeezed between ne and pas. |
| Eric: Ca ne va pas. So if I want to say ""I'm not well"", I will just say ""Ca ne va pas."" |
| Virginie: Yes. Quick recap here, I think we need it. Ca va, Eric? |
| Eric: Bof. |
| Virginie: Ca ne va pas? |
| Eric: Ca ne va pas. |
Outro |
| Eric: Okay, that just about does it for today. Okay, good bye! |
| Virginie: Salut! |
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