Learn how to tell people what name to call you
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Sam: You Have Them Chanting Your Name in No Time! In this lesson, you’ll learn how to greet people formally and tell your name with the verb s’appeler. |
| Céline: The conversation is between Robert Martin and Émilie during the day. |
| Sam: The speakers meet for the first time, therefore, the speakers will be speaking formally. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Robert Martin: Bonjour, je m'appelle Robert Martin. |
| Émilie: Bonjour, je suis Émilie. |
| Robert Martin: Enchanté, Émilie. |
| Émilie: Enchantée, Monsieur Martin. |
| Robert Martin: S'il vous plaît, appelez-moi Robert. |
| Sam: One more time slowly. |
| Céline: Ok c’est parti. Plus lentement. |
| Robert Martin: Bonjour, je m'appelle Robert Martin. |
| Émilie: Bonjour, je suis Émilie. |
| Robert Martin: Enchanté, Émilie. |
| Émilie: Enchantée, Monsieur Martin. |
| Robert Martin: S'il vous plaît, appelez-moi Robert. |
| Sam: One more time with the English. |
| Robert Martin: Bonjour, je m'appelle Robert Martin. |
| Sylvain: Hello, my name is Robert Martin. |
| Émilie: Bonjour, je suis Émilie. |
| Céline: Hello, I’m Émilie. |
| Robert Martin: Enchanté, Émilie. |
| Sylvain: That's a pleasure, Émilie. |
| Émilie: Enchantée, Monsieur Martin. |
| Céline: Nice to meet you too, Mr. Martin. |
| Robert Martin: S'il vous plaît, appelez-moi Robert. |
| Sylvain: Please, call me Robert. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Céline: I like sober Sylvain. Sam, did you now that Martin was also a first name, un prénom? |
| Sam: Well, actually in English, we have Martin as a first name. But I think we say Martin, like Martin Scorsese. |
| Céline: Oh yes, how could I forget? |
| Sam: In France, do you have middle names? |
| Céline: Oh not really. We have many first names actually. |
| Sam: Do you have more than one first name? |
| Céline: Yes, I have two others, but I won't tell you. |
| Sam: Why? |
| Céline: We never use them, but the custom in France is to give the name of the grandparents or godfather or godmother. |
| Sam: Okay, and do you have some unusual first names in France? |
| Céline: Of course, and I think some people don't think about their children's future by giving them super names like “culotte” or “planète”. |
| Sam: Culotte? |
| Céline: Yes. |
| Sam: That means undergarments, right? |
| Céline: Yes. |
| Sam: Underwear. |
| Céline: Yes, exactement. Oui, voila. |
| Sam: Drawers, as they would say on the East Coast. |
| Céline: But now in France, people tend to give old names like Charles. |
| Sam: Charles. |
| Céline: Charles in French. |
| Sam: Okay, okay. |
| Céline: Yeah, my two brothers' names are Antoine et Edward. |
| Sam: Antoine and Edward? |
| Céline: Yeah. |
| Sam: Oh, okay. My grandfather's name is Edward. |
| Céline: Ah oui? |
| Sam: Yeah. Now, we'll look at the vocabulary and phrases for this lesson. First. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Céline: Je m'appelle [natural native speed]. |
| Sam: My name is. |
| Céline: Je m'appelle [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Je m'appelle [natural native speed]. |
| Sam: Next. |
| Céline: Je / j' [natural native speed]. |
| Sam: I. |
| Céline: Je / j' [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Je / j' [natural native speed]. |
| Sam: Next. |
| Céline: Suis [natural native speed]. |
| Sam: Am, as in I am. |
| Céline: Suis [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Suis [natural native speed]. |
| Sam: Next. |
| Céline: Enchanté(e) [natural native speed]. |
| Sam: Nice to meet you. |
| Céline: Enchanté(e) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Enchanté(e) [natural native speed]. |
| Sam: Next. |
| Céline: S'il vous plaît [natural native speed]. |
| Sam: The formal version of please or if you please. |
| Céline: S'il vous plaît [slowly - broken down by syllable]. S'il vous plaît [natural native speed]. |
| Sam: Next. |
| Céline: Appelez-moi [natural native speed]. |
| Sam: Call me. The vous form of call me or the plural form of call me. |
| Céline: Appelez-moi [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Appelez-moi [natural native speed]. |
| Sam: Now, we'll take a look at the vocabulary and phrases for this lesson. First. |
| Céline: Je m'appelle. |
| Sam: Can you give us an example of je m'appelle? |
| Céline: Je m'appelle Carla. My name is Carla. Je m'appelle comes from the reflexive verbs s'appeler to indicate names. |
| Sam: Ah, so s'appeler literally means to be named. |
| Céline: Yes, we’ll talk about this grammar point later. So the next word is je suis. Can you try, Sam? |
| Sam: Je suis Nicolas Sarkozy. |
| Céline: You want to be the French President? |
| Sam: Why not? I want to be famous. |
| Céline: Oh, as he is in la presse people. |
| Sam: What is la presse people? |
| Céline: It's an expression we use in France for the media covering only celebrities with a lot of pictures, gossip magazines. |
| Sam: Like those magazines when you go to the supermarket, the checkout counter. |
| Céline: Maybe. |
| Sam: Oh definitely, they're entertaining. |
| Céline: Yes. |
| Sam: But the phrase je suis indicates names as je m'appelle. So what's the difference? |
| Céline: Well, as we said earlier, je m'appelle is to be named while je suis is I am. |
| Sam: For example, Je suis okay. |
| Céline: I'm okay. |
| Sam: Yeah. |
| Céline: Yeah, exactement. |
| Sam: Oh okay, okay. Next, we have a phrase. |
| Céline: S'il vous plait. |
| Sam: If you please or in English, I think we just say please. |
| Céline: Exactement. |
| Sam: That's an important one, s'il vous plait. Oh, one thing, with s'il vous plait, would you use it at the beginning or the end? For example, if you're asking for something. |
| Céline: Hmm… Un café s'il vous plait. At the end. |
| Sam: Okay. So for example, if I want to use s'il vous plait -- hmm, what a good example. For example, my brain is not working this morning. Puis-je avoir un peu de l’eau, s'il vous plaît. |
| Céline: Yes, but it's “puis-je avoir un peu d’eau”. |
| Sam: Un peu d’eau? |
| Céline: Ou “un verre d’eau”. A glass of water is better. S'il vous plaît. |
| Sam: What about a cup of water? |
| Céline: No, it's a glass of water. |
| Sam: But if you get the water in a paper cup, it's a cup. |
| Céline: In France, we don't serve water in a… |
| Sam: Oh, I'm sorry. Désolé, Madame. |
| Céline: Ah, mademoiselle. |
| Sam: Madamoiselle. I'm sorry. |
| Céline: Okay, that's better. So another example with s'il vous plait? |
| Sam: For example, if I'm at party, I can say this, Carla, voulez-vous danser avec moi, s'il vous plait? Would you like to dance with me, please? |
| Céline: Do you think that was Sarkozy's pick-up line? |
| Sam: Sarkozy's pick-up line? Maybe. Nicolas, le séducteur. Nicolas, the seductor. |
| Céline: Yes. |
| Sam: Probably. I bet he's a smooth character, yeah? But he's married now. |
| Céline: Yes, with Carla. |
| Sam: She's very beautiful. |
| Céline: Yeah, yeah. Okay, so let's go back to s'il vous plait. S'il vous plait is the formal please and s'il te plait is the informal please, s'il te plait. |
| Sam: S'il te plait? |
| Céline: Um-hmm. |
| Sam: S'il te plait? |
| Céline: S'il te plait. |
| Sam: S'il. |
| Céline: S'il. |
| Sam: Te. |
| Céline: Te. |
| Sam: Te. |
| Céline: Plait. S'il te plait. |
| Sam: S'il te plait. Okay. So what's next? |
| Céline: Appelez-moi. It means call me. |
| Sam: Appelez-moi Sam le charmeur, Sam the charmer. |
| Céline: With your American accent, I'm sure girls are at your feet. |
| Sam: Really? With French women, I definitely have to go to France. |
| Céline: Yeah, sure. So basically, to ask people to use my first name or my nickname, I would say appelez-moi. |
| Sam: What's your nickname in French? |
| Céline: My nickname? |
| Sam: Maybe, yeah your nickname. |
| Céline: I won't tell you. |
| Sam: Why? |
| Céline: Because. Do you have a nickname Sam? |
| Sam: Maybe. |
| Céline: Don't play games. Just tell me. |
| Sam: Next time. Okay, mademoiselle. |
| Céline: Okay. |
| Sam: You weren't so cooperative today. You wouldn't give me your nickname. |
| Céline: But who cares? I think listeners are more interested in grammar point. |
| Sam: You might be right. |
| Céline: Okay, so let's go. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Sam: Okay. Let's look at our grammar point. I believe Céline, you mentioned something about s'appeler earlier. |
| Céline: Tout à fait. exactly. S'appeler, to be named, is a type of verb quite particular. It is called a reflexive verb, un verbe pronominal, in French. Its particularity is that the information given is reflected back to the subject. |
| Sam: With a reflexive verb, the subject performs an action on itself. |
| Céline: Exactement. |
| Sam: For example, je m'appelle Sam, I call myself Sam. If it's someone else, the pronoun will change. |
| Céline: Is your brain on fire? |
| Sam: Yes, why? |
| Céline: I don't know. This is a hard grammar point, I think. |
| Sam: Let's give this some examples. I'm convinced they'll understand 100% after they hear several example. |
| Céline: Je m’habille. |
| Sam: I dress myself. |
| Céline: Exactement. Je m'appelle. |
| Sam: I call myself. |
| Céline: Tu t'appelles. |
| Sam: You call yourself. |
| Céline: Il s'appelle. |
| Sam: He calls himself. |
| Céline: Elle s'appelle. |
| Sam: She calls herself. |
| Céline: Ça s'appelle. |
| Sam: It calls itself. I have a question, what if you want to say, "The robot calls itself." How do you say that in French? |
| Céline: Okay, in that case, Il s'appelle. |
| Sam: What if the robot is feminine? I'm sorry, what if the robot is a woman? |
| Céline: Elle s'appelle. Il s'appelle Astroboy. |
| Sam: Oh, he calls himself Astroboy. |
| Céline: Exactement. Usually, we use it with food for example. |
| Sam: For example? |
| Céline: Ça s'appelle un soufflé. But it's a little bit hard, so you can just say “c’est un soufflé”. |
| Sam: It’s a soufflé. That sounds easy. |
| Céline: Exactement. |
| Sam: That's a good way to do it, fun and easy. |
| Céline: That's French, fun and easy. |
| Sam: I thought that was American. |
| Céline: Okay, I can say, because listeners, they are going to hate me. So okay. |
Outro |
| Sam: Wow, that was an informative lesson. That does it for today. |
| Sam: Merci beaucoup. |
| Céline: Merci, au revoir. |
| Sam: Au revoir. Bye-bye. |
| Céline: Bye-bye. |
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