Learn about how to use the French indefinite feminine article meaning "the" and the French definite article meaning "a" to refer to nouns
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Intro |
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| Virginie: Bonjour a tous. |
| Eric: Eric here! Phrases You Don’t Want on Your French License Plate. In this lesson you will learn about feminine articles and tell and ask about origins. |
| Virginie: This conversation takes place by the river of Seine in Paris. |
| Eric: Rob is meeting Sarah for a walk on the banks of the Seine. |
| Virginie: Yes. And Rob has short term memory issues and asks her again where she's from. |
| Eric: The speakers are friends. Therefore the dialog is going to be again in informal French. Okay, let's start the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
| Rob: Tu viens d'où, déjà? |
| Sarah: Je viens de Toulouse, Midi-Pyrénées. |
| Rob: Midi-Pyrénées, c'est une région? |
| Sarah: Oui, c'est la région du cassoulet! |
| Rob: J'adore le cassoulet! |
| Sarah: Beurk! |
| Eric: One more time with the translation. |
| Rob: Tu viens d'où, déjà? |
| Eric: Where are you from again? |
| Sarah: Je viens de Toulouse, Midi-Pyrénées. |
| Virginie: I am from Toulouse, Midi-Pyrénées! |
| Rob: Midi-Pyrénées, c'est une région? |
| Eric: Midi-Pyrénées, is that a region? |
| Sarah: Oui, c'est la région du cassoulet! |
| Virginie: Yes, it's the region of the cassoulet! |
| Rob: J'adore le cassoulet! |
| Eric: I love cassoulet! |
| Sarah: Beurk! |
| Virginie: Eww! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Virginie: So, Eric have you ever tried cassoulet? |
| Eric: I have, I have. It's good. |
| Virginie: Maybe a little heavy? |
| Eric: If you don't know what cassoulet is, it is a regional dish from southwest of France. |
| Virginie: And it's composed of beans, duck, and a lot of fat. |
| Eric: And the Southwest is known for its foie gras too, right Virginie? |
| Virginie: Yes, it's foie gras and it's rugby too. |
| Eric: Oh yes? |
| Virginie: Yes. The Toulouse team is very famous |
| Eric: And have you ever played rugby Virginie? |
| Virginie: No it's too violent for me, a little bit like American football. |
| Eric: Okay. Well is Southwestern in France very touristy? |
| Virginie: Well it is, but less than the Cote D'azur - the Riviera |
| Eric: With Canes, nice, Monaco. |
| Virginie: Yes the Riviera is beautiful. |
| Eric: Okay, so let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Eric: Okay, so let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. What do we have first? |
| Virginie: Venir de [natural native speed] |
| Eric: To come from, to have just. |
| Virginie: Venir de [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Venir de [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next. |
| Virginie: Une région [natural native speed] |
| Eric: And area or a region. |
| Virginie: Une région [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Une région [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Okay. |
| Virginie: Le cassoulet [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Cassoulet, a duck and bean dish. |
| Virginie: Le cassoulet [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Le cassoulet [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next. |
| Virginie: Déjà [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Already. |
| Virginie: Déjà [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Déjà [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Okay. |
| Virginie: Une [natural native speed] |
| Eric: A, feminine. |
| Virginie: Une [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Une [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next. |
| Virginie: La [natural native speed] |
| Eric: The, feminine. |
| Virginie: La [slowly - broken down by syllable]. La [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Okay. |
| Virginie: Adorer [natural native speed] |
| Eric: To be fond of or to love. |
| Virginie: Adorer [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Adorer [natural native speed] |
| Eric: And finally. |
| Virginie: Berk [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Phew, yuck. |
| Virginie: Berk [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Berk [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| Eric: Okay, so let's take a look at this vocabulary. |
| Virginie: Yes. Let's take at the word deja. |
| Eric: Deja means already and is spelled DEJA. |
| Virginie: Deja usually means already, but in our dialogue it means again. |
| Eric: Right. As in ""what did you say, again?"" |
| Virginie: Yes Rob asks Sarah ""tu viens d'ou deja? |
| Eric: Where are you from again? |
| Virginie: Rob forgot that he already asked her when he first met her. |
| Eric: Right. Do you have another example to use deja? |
| Virginie: Yes when you don't remember somebody, you say ""qui c'est dejq'? |
| Eric: Who is this again? Remember we saw the question who is this in a previous lesson. |
| Virginie: It's simple. You put deja at the end of your sentence. |
| Eric: Now what about the last word that she says at the end of the dialogue? |
| Virginie: Oh, yes. It's berk! She is disgusted. |
| Eric: Like ewww in English. |
| Virginie: We say it all the time in France. |
| Eric: Once I heard someone say Berk c'est degueulasse. |
| Virginie: Oh yes degueulasse, it's a popular word too. But watch out, it's very familiar. |
| Eric: Okay I see. What does that mean exactly? |
| Virginie: It means ""gross"". De-gueu-lasse. |
| Eric: Great. It's always good to hear some French slang. |
Lesson focus |
| Virginie: Now what about our grammar point? Today we'll talk about the feminine articles. |
| Eric: And this is basically going to follow similar rule as the masculine article which we saw the last time. |
| Virginie: So the feminine articles in French are une, UNE and la, LA. |
| Eric: Une is the indefinite and la is the definite. |
| Virginie: So now remember the rule... |
| Eric: …when you talk about something general, or something that exists among other things… |
| Virginie: …then you will say ""une"" indefinite. |
| Eric: Do you have an example, Virginie? |
| Virginie: In the dialog Rob asked ""c'est une region?"" talking about the midi pyrenees region. |
| Eric: He's asking ""Is it a region?"" |
| Virginie: Right, c'est une region? Which implies ""is it a region in France? |
| Eric: Among all the other regions. Therefore he's using the indefinite article. What about the definite article La? |
| Virginie: La is used to talk about things that are specific, or already mentioned by the people engaged in the conversation. |
| Eric: Right. So for example Sarah says when she talks about her region ""c'est la region du cassoulet!"" |
| Virginie: Yes. It's the region of the cassoulet! |
| Eric: She specifies which region it is exactly. |
| Virginie: And she uses LA. She defines her region as the one that makes cassoulet. |
| Eric: Okay. Do you have another example? |
| Virginie: Yes. Well, imagine you visit Toulouse. |
| Eric: Okay. |
| Virginie: And you see a nice street, right? Street in French is femal and is rue (syllables) RUE, la rue. What will you say? |
| Eric: Well, I guess you would say- C'est une belle rue. (syllable+belle translation) |
| Virginie: Right. C'est une belle rue, this is a nice street. C'est une belle rue. |
| Eric: It is a nice street among other streets. |
| Virginie: You use the indefinite article un. And now I will answer, oui, c'est la rue Bonaparte. |
| Eric: So literally, you're saying, this is the Bonaparte Street. |
| Virginie: Exactly, definite article. There is only one Bonaparte Street in Toulouse. |
| Eric: Right, okay. Now I have a question about the verb venir. |
| Virginie: Yes, what is it? |
| Eric: Well we've learned that it means to come. But today it is followed by another little word. |
| Virginie: Yes, it's followed by de, it's a preposition, and here it means from. |
| Eric: So, Sarah says je viens de, I come from. |
| Virginie: Yes. And Rob, right before asked, ""tu viens d'ou? |
| Eric: And this means where are you from? |
| Virginie: Yes and in this sentence ou, means where. |
| Eric: Can we hear this one more time, Virginie? |
| Virginie: Tu viens d'ou? |
| Eric: You come from where? |
Outro |
| Eric: Okay, That's all we have for today. Thank you very much, everyone. |
| Virginie: Thank you for listening. Meric! Au revoir! |
| Eric: Goodbye. |
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