Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Notes

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Lesson Transcript

Intro

Virginie: Salut tout le monde! Hi, everyone.
Eric: Eric here!
Virginie: Talking About This in French is Real Work! What Do You Do? Hi, Eric. In this lesson you will learn how to ask someone what he or she does.
Eric: Today's dialog takes place at the museum.
Virginie: Remember how Giulia recommended that Rob goes to the Museum of Art?
Eric: Well, he followed her advice.
Virginie: And now Rob stands fascinated in front of a Giacometti sculpture.
Eric: He starts taking notes on his notepad. A young woman comes to him.
Virginie: She probably thinks he's cute.
Eric: Maybe. This is our first dialog. We're going to use the formal way of speaking. The speakers are using it because they've never met before. Okay, let's start the conversation.

Lesson conversation

Sarah: Vous êtes étudiant?
Rob: Pardon? Ah, oui.
Sarah: Vous êtes étudiant à l’université?
Rob: Oui. Et vous, qu’est-ce que vous faites?
Sarah: Je suis comédienne.
Rob: De cinéma?
Sarah: Non, de théâtre.
Eric: One more time with the translation.
Sarah: Vous êtes étudiant?
Virginie: Are you a student?
Rob: Pardon? Ah, oui.
Eric: Excuse me? Oh, yes.
Sarah: Vous êtes étudiant à l’université?
Virginie: Are you a student at the university?
Rob: Oui. Et vous, qu’est-ce que vous faites?
Eric: Yes. And you, what do you do?
Sarah: Je suis comédienne.
Virginie: I am an actress.
Rob: De cinéma?
Eric: A movie actress?
Sarah: Non, de théâtre.
Virginie: No, a theater actress.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Eric: So, Virginie, is it usual for a French women to pick up men at museums?
Virginie: No, not only in Museums!
Eric: What a country.
Virginie: More seriously, she's just talking to him. She saw him taking notes and she's just curious.
Eric: Okay. And what's her name?
Virginie: Sarah
Eric: Okay. One more question. Who is Giacometti?
Virginie: He was an Italian artist who lived in Paris.
Eric: And is he popular in France?
Virginie: Yes, he's pretty famous.
VOCAB LIST
Eric: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson.
Virginie: Oui [natural native speed]
Eric: Yes.
Virginie: Oui [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Oui [natural native speed]
Eric: Next.
Virginie: Pardon [natural native speed]
Eric: Pardon, excuse me.
Virginie: Pardon [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Pardon [natural native speed]
Eric: The next one.
Virginie: Le théâtre [natural native speed]
Eric: The theater.
Virginie: Le théâtre [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Le théâtre [natural native speed]
Eric: And next.
Virginie: Ah, oui [natural native speed]
Eric: Oh, yes.
Virginie: Ah, oui [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Ah, oui [natural native speed]
Eric: And next.
Virginie: Un cinéma [natural native speed]
Eric: The cinema.
Virginie: Un cinéma [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Un cinéma [natural native speed]
Eric: And finally.
Virginie: Faire [natural native speed]
Eric: To do or to make.
Virginie: Faire [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Faire [natural native speed]
KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES
Eric: Okay. So, let's have a closer look at this dialogue.
Virginie: Yes. The first word we’ll look at is....
Eric: Well, I think we should start with the formal pronoun vous...
Virginie: Yes. Sarah asks Rob ""vous etes etudiant?"" Are you a student?
Eric: And she does so because he's a stranger, she doesn't know him.
Virginie: Now do you remember how Giulia and Rob in our previous dialogue said Tu right away when they first met?
Eric: Yes, right. Why didn't they say Vous since they didn't know each other either?
Virginie: Well that's because they knew they were both students.
Eric: So they were sort of in the same zone, part of the same planet.
Virginie: Right. They knew that on the student planet people say TU to each other.
Eric: Okay. That makes sense.
Virginie: It's very subtle. It gets easier when you have lived in France for awhile.
Eric: So Sarah say vous etes, ""you are"".
Virginie: Now we would like to talk about the word ""Pardon?""
Eric: That means ""excuse-me, or pardon-me, right?
Virginie: Yes, and it's used the exact same way as in English.
Eric: Pardon?
Virginie: I said it's used the exact same way as in English.
Eric: I know. I was only practicing.
Virginie: Oh okay, sorry. So what's our next word, Eric?
Eric: Comedienne. Sarah says that she's a comedienne, which means an actress.
Virginie: Yes, and comedienne is used for both theatre and cinema in French.
Eric: But it's also the word ""actrice"" in French, which is actress too.
Virginie: That's right. But actrice is only used for cinema actresses.
Eric: Okay. So comedienne is for both the cinema and the theatre, but actress is only for cinema.
Virginie: Yes!
Eric: Okay so let's go into some grammar.

Lesson focus

Virginie: The grammar focus today is the question ""qu'est-ce que vous faites?"", what do you do?
Eric: And if you listened to our previous lesson this is going to be pretty easy.
Virginie: Yes. Last week we saw that the words ""Qu'est-ce que"" at the beginning of question stand for ""what.""
Eric: With that said, the second part of the question is ""vous faites""
Virginie: Which means ""you do."" So the entire question is literally ""what you do?""
Eric: Qu'est-ce que vous faites?
Virginie: And if Eric actually asks me…
Eric: Qu'est-ce que vous faites?
Virginie: I will answer, Je suis professeur de francais, I am a French teacher. I just used the verb, to be, etre, that you already know.
Eric: Now since I know Virginie pretty well, I will use the informal you, ""tu"" as opposed to the vous. Qu'est-ce que tu fais?
Virginie: Je suis professeur de Francais.
Eric: Now ""vous faites"" and ""tu fais"" both are conjugations of the verb ""faire"", to do or to make.
Virginie: And you'll find the whole conjugation in the lesson notes.
Eric: Okay, well I think that will do it for our grammar focus.
Virginie: But before we go we would like to talk about the little word ""et""
Eric: Okay and that means ""and"". You probably noticed it in previous lessons.
Virginie: Yes in our dialog Rob asks Sarah ""et vous""
Eric: And that means ""What about you?"", ""and you"".
Virginie: Okay, now I think we're all set.

Outro

Eric: Well, that just about does it for today. Okay, great. Good bye.
Eric: Bye. Salut!

Grammar

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