Self Introduction and Basic Greetings in Formal French

Dialogue

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Vocabulary

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Lesson Notes

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Lesson Transcript

Lesson conversation
INTRODUCTION
Virginie: Bonjour!
Eric: Eric here. Basic Bootcamp Season 1, lesson 1 - Self Introduction and Basic Greetings in Formal French.
Eric: Hello, and welcome to the Basic Bootcamp S1 at FrenchPod101.com, where we study modern French in a fun, educational format!
Virginie: So, brush up on the French that you started learning long ago, or start learning today.
Eric: Thank you for being here with us for this lesson. Virginie, how are you today?
Virginie: I’m good, Eric, thank you. OK, now you probably think, Bootcamp, this is going to be painful.
Eric: No, in our bootcamp, There’s no suffering here.
Virginie: We'll be slow, we promise.
Eric: We should have called it BootSpa, actually.
Eric: In this lesson, you will learn how to initiate the first contact with a person in French and how to introduce yourself.
Virginie: This conversation takes place at the reception lobby of a hotel in France.
Eric: And it’s between a receptionist and a tourist.
Virginie: The speakers will be speaking formally.
Eric: OK, so now let's listen to the conversation.
Réceptionniste: Bonjour, Madame. Je m'appelle Maxime.
Mme Lefebvre: Enchantée, Monsieur. Je m'appelle Madame Lefebvre Camille.
Réceptionniste: Enchanté Madame.
Eric: One more time, a little more slowly.
Réceptionniste: Bonjour, Madame. Je m'appelle Maxime.
Mme Lefebvre: Enchantée, Monsieur. Je m'appelle Madame Lefebvre Camille.
Réceptionniste: Enchanté Madame.
Eric: How about in English.
Réceptionniste: Bonjour, Madame. Je m'appelle Maxime.
Eric: Hello, madam. I'm Maxime.
Mme Lefebvre: Enchantée, Monsieur. Je m'appelle Madame Lefebvre Camille.
Eric: Nice to meet you, sir. I'm Mrs. Camille Lefebvre.
Réceptionniste: Enchanté Madame.
Eric: Nice to meet you, Madam.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Eric: Now I noticed that she introduced her name starting with her last name. Is that a usual thing to do?
Virginie: No it's not, here she is giving her name to a receptionist, that's why she is starting with her last name, for him to check her reservation. Usually, when you introduce yourself to someone, you say your first name first.
Eric: And sometimes you only say your first name, right?
Virginie: Yes, most of the time actually. The more formal the situation is, the more formal you will speak. And saying both your name and your last name is very formal.
Eric: You would that in a business context, I assume.
Virginie: Absolutely.
Eric: Now do people in France shake hands when meeting for the first time.
Virginie: At work, when it's your first encounter with your coworkers, then yes you will shake hands.
Eric: No kisses?
Virginie: Kisses come later, once you know people better.
Eric: And outside of a business context?
Virginie: That's different. In casual situations people will kiss each other to introduce themselves. Men with women, women with women.
Eric: What about men with men?
Virginie: well, men tend to shake hands. But when really good friends, they will kiss.
Eric: A kiss on each cheek, correct?
Virginie: Yes, so don't be shy when you go to France, and kiss everybody!!!
Eric: Well, not if it's your boss or a client...
VOCAB LIST
Eric: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson.
: The first word we shall see is:
Virginie: bonjour [natural native speed]
Eric: hello
Virginie: bonjour [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Virginie: bonjour [natural native speed]
: Next:
Virginie: madame [natural native speed]
Eric: Mrs
Virginie: madame [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Virginie: madame [natural native speed]
: Next:
Virginie: je m'appelle [natural native speed]
Eric: My name is
Virginie: je m'appelle [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Virginie: je m'appelle [natural native speed]
: Next:
Virginie: Enchanté(e). [natural native speed]
Eric: Pleased to meet you.
Virginie: Enchanté(e). [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Virginie: Enchanté(e). [natural native speed]
KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES
Eric: Let's have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson.
Virginie: The first word we’ll look at is... Bonjour Madame
Eric: This is Hello Miss.
Virginie: Yes, and Bonjour/Hello is used during the day. It literally means Good Day.
Eric: That's right, at night, the French say Bonsoir/good evening.
Virginie: Exactly.
Eric: What else do we have here?
Virginie: We have Bonjour Monsieur.
Eric: Which means Hello Sir.
Virginie: One thing I want you to know is that you won't say bonjour monsieur all the time when you meet someone, you can just say bonjour, that's fine. It is extremely formal.
Eric: I assume I would say it if I met President Obama.
Virginie: Yeah, Eric, if you meet President Obama, maybe you should say Bonjour, Obama, instead of bonjour. But that’s pretty much the only situation when you have to say that.
Eric: If you want to speak to Obama in French, that is.
Eric: OK what do we have next?
Virginie: We have Enchantee.
Eric: Which means "Nice to meet you". What would it be literally? Enchanted?
Virginie: Exactly. I know it's a little over the top. I know.
Eric: It's really nice. And next, we have...
Virginie: Je m'appelle -
Eric: That means my name is...
Virginie: Yes, Je m'appelle Virginie. My name is Virginie.
Eric: Or je m'appelle Eric. What is this verb?
Virginie: It is the verb s'appeler, and it’s spelled appeler.
Eric: Why don’t we introduce ourselves to each other.
Virginie: That’s a good idea.
Eric: Bonjour.
Virginie: Bonjour.
Eric: Je m'appelle Eric.
Virginie: Enchantee, Eric. Je m'appelle Virginie.
Eric: Enchante.
Virginie: Now, you can all introduce yourself in French.
Eric: What if I don’t know the other person’s name. How do I ask someone what his name is?
Virginie: Well, you can ask "Comment vous vous appelez?"
Eric: One more time slowly.
Virginie: Comment vous vous appelez? Literally, how is it that you are name?
Eric: So that's in formal context, right?
Virginie: Yes, actually, if it’s a friend of a friend, you would say Comment tu t'appelles?
Eric: The use of “vous” and “tu” in French are actually pretty hard to get.
Virginie: It is hard to get, because in English, for example, you only have “you.” And in French, you have “tu” when you speak with a friend or a friend of a friend, or someone of same age. But you have “vous” whenever you speak to someone you don’t know, or someone more important in the company you work in.
Eric: So it’s a little bit more of a hierarchy when you’re using “vous” you’re addressing someone more formally.
Virginie: Yes, exactly.
Eric: OK, now let's move on to the focus of this lesson.
Lesson focus
Virginie: Now, you know how to say "je m'appelle" with your name, which means “my name is”. But there are other ways.
Eric: Just to review, je means “I,” and m’appelle means “am called”. So literally, you are saying, “I am called”.
Virginie: Yes. That’s what it means literally.
Eric: And what other ways do you have of saying my name is?
Virginie: Well, you can use the verb être “to be,” and say Je suis Virginie. Je being “I” and suis being “am.”
Eric: Say it one more time for us.
Virginie: Je suis Virginie.
Eric: Okay, and that’s pretty much the same as we would commonly say in English, I am Eric.
Virginie: Absolutely. Just a quick note about the verb s'appeler. S'appeler is the infinitive form of the verb, to be called and it ends with -er. You know, in French, there are three groups of verbs?
Eric: Right.
Virginie: And s'appeler belongs to the first one, the ER verbs but we will see that later on.
Eric: Okay, and there is a whole section of verbs that are going to end in ER.
Virginie: Yes, absolutely.
Eric: Great. Okay, great. So I think that’s enough grammar for today then?
Virginie: Yes I think that’s enough.
Outro
Eric: Then that just about does it for us today. Some of our users already know that the most powerful tool on FrenchPod101.com
Virginie: Is the line by line audio.
Eric: It is the perfect tool for rapidly improving listening comprehension.
Virginie: By listening to lines of the conversation again and again,
Eric: Listen till every word and syllable becomes clear. Basically, we break down the dialogue into comprehensible bitesize sentences.
Virginie: So, you can try the line by line audio in the premium learning center at FrenchPod101.com
Eric: Please take a look. Take care, everyone.
Virginie: Au revoir
Eric: Bye!

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Self Introduction and Basic Greetings in Formal French

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Lesson conversation

Lesson focus

Outro