Learn how to say many common phrases in French that people use every day to introduce themselves
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| 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. | |
Lesson 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! |
26 Comments
HideIs meeting people easy for you?
Hello Ninooo and thank you for your comment!
How may I help you?
Bonne journée !
Marie Alice
Team FrenchPod101.com
help pls my moms making me do this
Hi Nina,
If you'd like to find some gaps before you start listening the Lower Intermediate series, I'd like to recommend you to check our Beginner series lessons than introduction level. Introduction might be too basic for you to find the missing ones.
Thank you,
Jae
Team FrenchPod101.com
Bonjour !
I was wondering, from when I started using this system (that was few days ago), from where should I start ? I see that lower intermediate level course is for me, and I know that I am at that level, but I also know that there are lots of gaps in my French, more precise - I haven't learned some things which are presented at the lower level lessons. I've decided that I will go through Introduction level and Intermediate. What do you think about it?
Hi zaidi1300,
Thank you for all your comments and suggestions.
We will consider creating those sites. :smile:
For now, let us know if you have questions about any of our French lessons.
Sincerely,
Laura
Team FrenchPod101.com
Bonjour Zayd,
Merci pour vos messages ! :smile:
Attention, il faut dire : "Je m’appelle Zayd et je suis enchanté de vous rencontrer . Je parle Français très bien . J’aime le Français .A bientôt."
Avez-vous des questions ?
If you have any question, don’t hesitate to ask !
Have a nice day,
Marie Alice
Team FrenchPod101.com
Excusez-moi , can you ask someone to add a Urdupod101.com , Pashtopod101.com and Bengaliclass101.com because there are a lot of people wanting to learn these languages in toronto, please do ask the company for this and so do i want to learn these languages properly. Merci beaucoup.
Allo , Je parle Francais,Anglais,Ourdou,Persan,Arabe, et E.C.T :sweat_smile:
Bonjour , Je m'appelle Zayd et je suis enchate de vous recrontre . Je parle Francais tres bien . J'aime Francais .
A bien tot. Do i speak French well? Merci beaucoup .
Bonjour Deepak,
Merci pour votre gentil message ! :smile:
Vous allez- bien ?
Bonne journée !
Marie Alice
TeamFrenchPod101.com