Dialogue

Vocabulary (Review)

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Sam: Hi! My name is Sam and I’m joined here by…
Céline: Céline.
Christophe: et Christophe.
Sam: How Nice of You to Remember... umm... Someone's Birthday! In this lesson, you’ll learn how to wish someone a happy birthday and tell the difference between C'est (C “apostrophe” est) and elle and some vocab about time.
Céline: The conversation takes place in an office between Alice and her co-worker, Zacharie.
Sam: The speakers know each other, therefore, they’ll be speaking informally.
DIALOGUE
Collègues: Joyeux anniversaire. Joyeux anniversaire Alice.....
Wiz Alice: Non, non, non… ce n’est pas mon anniversaire aujourd’hui.
Lazy Zacharie: Quoi?
Wiz Alice: Oui, mon anniversaire, c’est vendredi. Aujourd’hui, c’est l’anniversaire d'Anne.
Lazy Zacharie: Quel âge elle a?
Wiz Alice: Elle a 40 ans.
Sam: One more time, slowly.
Female: Encrore une fois, lentement.
Collègues: Joyeux anniversaire. Joyeux anniversaire Alice.....
Wiz Alice: Non, non, non… ce n’est pas mon anniversaire aujourd’hui.
Lazy Zacharie: Quoi?
Wiz Alice: Oui, mon anniversaire, c’est vendredi. Aujourd’hui, c’est l’anniversaire d'Anne.
Lazy Zacharie: Quel âge elle a?
Wiz Alice: Elle a 40 ans.
Sam: One more time with the English.
Céline: Encore une fois avec l’anglais.
Collègues: Joyeux anniversaire.
Alice: Joyeux anniversaire, Alice.
Sam: Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you.
Wiz Alice: Non, non, non… ce n’est pas mon anniversaire aujourd’hui.
Sam: No, no, no! Today's not my birthday.
Lazy Zacharie: Quoi?
Sam: What?
Wiz Alice: Oui, mon anniversaire, c’est vendredi. Aujourd’hui, c’est l’anniversaire d'Anne.
Sam: Yeah, my birthday is on Friday. It's Anne's birthday today.
Lazy Zacharie: Quel âge elle a ?
Sam: How old is she?
Wiz Alice: Elle a 40 ans.
Sam: She is forty years old.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Sam: So guys, let me ask you a question.
Christophe: Oui Sam je t’écoute.
Sam: Okay. When at someone’s birthday, do you really emphasize like “happy birthday” or you’re just like “happy birthday.” How would you say “happy birthday” to somebody?
Christophe: On dit juste “joyeux anniversaire”.
Céline: Joyeux anniversaire.
Sam: Joyeux anniversaire? Would you say it like with a really happy intonation or is it not a big deal?
Céline: Of course! Of course with a happy intonation.
Sam: Do you have birthday cake?
Céline: Oui bien sûr.
Sam: What about birthday ice cream cake?
Céline: No, no, birthday cake.
Sam: Okay, I understand. One more question: do you have the party on the same day as your birthday or is it before or after or…
Christophe: Never before.
Céline: Yeah, you shouldn’t. It’s bad luck in France. So the same day or the day after or one week after.
Sam: Okay. Kind of the same thing in America.
Céline: Ah bon?
Sam: It’s not bad luck but we usually just celebrate it as close to the birthday as possible. Only makes sense, huh?
Christophe: Yeah. Sure.
Sam: Now let’s move on the vocabulary and phrases from this lesson. The first item is…
VOCAB LIST
Céline: Un anniversaire [natural native speed]
Sam: A birthday.
Céline: Un anniversaire [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Un anniversaire [natural native speed].
Sam: Next…
Céline: Ce n'est pas. [natural native speed]
Sam: It’s not.
Céline: Ce n'est pas. [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Ce n'est pas. [natural native speed].
Sam: Next…
Christophe: Aujourd’hui [natural native speed].
Sam: Today.
Christophe: Aujourd’hui [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Aujourd’hui [natural native speed].
Sam: Next…
Céline: Quoi.
Sam: What.
Céline: Quoi. Quoi.
Sam: Next…
Christophe: Vendredi [natural native speed]
Sam: Friday
Christophe: Vendredi [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Vendredi [natural native speed].
Sam: Next…
Céline: quel âge [natural native speed].
Sam: How old.
Céline: quel âge [slowly - broken down by syllable]. quel âge [natural native speed].
Sam: Next…
Christophe: an.
Sam: Age (as in number of years).
Christophe: an [slowly - broken down by syllable] an [natural native speed]
Sam: Next…
Céline: Joyeux (-euse) [natural native speed].
Sam: Happy or joyous.
Céline: Joyeux (-euse) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Joyeux (-euse) [natural native speed].
Sam: Now let’s look at the vocabulary usage from this lovely lesson. The first item is…
Christophe: Anniversaire.
Céline: Yes, birthday as well as in English anniversaire, is used to refer to the celebration of birth or marriage.
Sam: Great!
Céline: Oui. Next is a group of words, “ce n'est pas.”
Sam: That means “it is not.”
Christophe: It is the negative form of c’est.
Sam: Can you provide us with a short dialogue with the phrase “ce n'est pas”?
Céline: Okay. Let’s say we are playing Tarot. It’s a card game with 78 cards played by teams of two.
Christophe: And I say to Céline, ce n’est pas ton tour.
Céline: Yeah. He’s telling me, “it’s not your turn.”
Christophe: Fantastique. Next is the word “quoi”.
Sam: …which means “what.”
Christophe: It is the informal form of qu’est-ce que.
Céline: Yeah. And it’s mainly used to ask about something. Quoi in informal situation can be used to ask for clarification when you didn’t understand someone.
Christophe: But it is impolite in the formal situation.
Sam: Oh, that’s great to know.
Céline: So next we have the phrase quel âge.
Christophe: This is the best to learn as one element to ask for the age.
Sam: quel âge, how old. Or if you said, quel âge elle a?
Céline: Oui tout à fait. quel âge elle a is in the dialogue.
Sam: Oh. It means “how old is she?”
Céline: “How old is she.” Exactement.
Sam: Finally, the last word, an.
Céline: It means “years.”
Christophe: There is another word to refer to years, which is année.
Céline: The only difference is that année has a notion of length of time that an doesn’t have.
Sam: Maybe an example would make things clearer for us.
Céline: Okay. Je suis allée en France il y a 2 ans.
Sam: “I went to France two years ago.”
Céline: J’ai vécu deux années à Paris.
Sam: “I lived in Paris for two years.”
Céline: In the last example, the word année stress on the fact of length of time passed.
Sam: Interesting. Okay, guys. Now, shall we move on to our grammar point?
Céline: oui.
Sam: Okay. C’est parti. Let’s go.

Lesson focus

Christophe: Often, some students have trouble with the usage of “c’est” and “il est” when writing or speaking.
Sam: Okay. So it sounds like our grammar point is going to help our students differentiate between c’est and il est.
Céline: Oui. Let’s have a look at each one. C’est is composed of two years – ” c’ “ and the verb form “est”.
Christophe: The “ c’ ” is the contraction of the demonstrative pronoun “cela” referring to an object far away previously mentioned.
Céline: It is contracted to its first letter C, followed by an apostrophe in front of the verb starting with a vowel as it is with the verb être in the third person singular, in “c’est”.
Sam: Okay. But when do we use this “c’est”?
Christophe: In the dialogue, it is used to state the day as in c’est vendredi and the celebration c’est l’anniversaire d’Anne.
Generally speaking, c’est is used to identify something or someone.
Céline: For its form, you can observe that the phrase c’est is always followed by a noun.
Sam: Oh, wow, I get it. It’s like a grammatical ID. What about il est?
Christophe: il est is an incomplete phrase with the masculine personal pronoun il followed by être in the third person singular form.
Céline: The phrase il est indicates a quality of a person or thing. It is always used with an adjective.
Sam: For example?
Céline: Let’s say I’m talking about you. Let’s say I’m talking about you. Il est sympa. I’m describing that you have a nice way of being.
Christophe: On the other hand, I could also say C’est un homme sympa. In this case, I express the same idea, but here identify and defined the man.
Sam: Oh, thank you. That’s very clear.
Céline: Yeah. And we are nice today, right?
Christophe: Maybe.
Céline: Oh mon Dieu. Okay. So Sam, c’est quand ton anniversaire?
Sam: Oh. When’s my birthday? It’s a secret.
Christophe: Why a secret?
Sam: Oh, I’m just joking. My birthday? February 4th. Le 4 de février.
Céline: le 4 février.
Sam: Le 4 février.
Céline: Et toi Christophe?
Christophe: Me?
Céline: Oui toi.
Christophe: Le 12 novembre.
Céline: Et moi c’est le 21 octobre. So don’t forget.
Sam: So let’s recap. My birthday is February 4th, Christophe’s is November 12th, and Céline is October 20th.
Céline: Twenty-first!
Sam: Oh, I forgot already!
Céline: Oh mon Dieu!
Sam: So it’s the 21st. All you listeners, you can still send us a gift if you have time.
Céline: Oui.

Outro

Sam: But I think that’s a good place to end today’s lesson. So thank you, guys!
Céline: oui merci beaucoup Sam et merci Christophe.
Christophe: merci Céline. merci Sam.
Sam: Merci. Au revoir.
Céline: A bientôt!
Christophe: Au revoir.

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