Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Sam: Now Honey, Just Tell Auntie if I am Getting Hot or Cold! In this lesson, you’ll learn how to refer to the furniture in the living room and speak about a specific object.
Celine: The conversation is at Alice’s house in the living room between her, her youngest child, Rémi and Aurelie.
Sam: The speakers are family, therefore, they’ll be speaking informally.
DIALOGUE
Female: Ok les enfants… Quel désordre! Cette salle de séjour est un désastre. Mais qu’est-ce qui se passe ici?
Male: Euh… La télé est allumée?
Female: Bien. Et?
Male: il y a du chocolat sur le mur.
Female: Et que fait la fourmilière sur la table basse?
Male: C’est la fourmilière de Rémi!
Sam: One more time, slowly.
Male: Encore une fois lentement.
Female: Ok les enfants… Quel désordre! Cette salle de séjour est un désastre. Mais qu’est-ce qui se passe ici?
Male: Euh… La télé est allumée?
Female: Bien. Et?
Male: il y a du chocolat sur le mur.
Female: Et que fait la fourmilière sur la table basse?
Male: C’est la fourmilière de Rémi!
Sam: One more time with the English.
Male: Encore une fois avec l’anglais.
Female: Ok les enfants… Quel désordre! Cette salle de séjour est un désastre. Mais qu’est-ce qui se passe ici?
Sam: “Okay kids, this living room is a disaster. What’s wrong here?”
Male: Euh… La télé est allumée?
Sam: “The TV is on.”
Female: Bien. Et?
Sam: “Good. And?”
Male: il y a du chocolat sur le mur.
Sam: “There’s chocolate on this wall.”
Female: Et que fait la fourmilière sur la table basse?
Sam: “Why is Remi’s ant farm on the table?”
Male: C’est la fourmilière de Rémi!
Sam: “This is Remi’s ant farm.”
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Sam: So guys, their room is pretty messy.
Celine: Yes, but I don’t think why. The fact that the TV is on is a problem because in France, we watch TV a lot. Even when we don’t watch TV, we just leave the TV on.
Sam: Wow. That gets expensive though, right?
Celine: Why is that? Pourquoi?
Christophe: Not so expensive.
Sam: Because you’re using energy.
Christophe: Yes, I know. It’s not really good for ecology.
Celine: C’est pas très éco.
Sam: Oh, but you leave the TV on all the time.
Celine: Um.
Sam: How about you guys, do you leave your TVs on all the time?
Celine: Yes, always. Always.
Christophe: Yes.
Celine: But when you are lonely at home, it just feels like you’re not so lonely.
Sam: You could always surf the internet.
Celine: Ah mais c’est pas pareil. And do you know about salle de séjour? We also call salon sallé de séjour.
Sam: Like the living room?
Celine: Voilà. We say salle de séjour ou salon.
Sam: Ah. It’s kind of a place where you can sit down, chitchat, relax.
Celine: Voila.
Sam: Like a salon.
Celine: U-hmm.
Sam: Okay. I understand.
Celine: So let’s check the vocab.
Sam: That’s a good idea. The first item is…
VOCAB LIST
Christophe: Désastre [natural native speed].
Sam: Disaster.
Christophe: Désastre [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Désastre [natural native speed].
Sam: Next…
Celine: Télé(vision) [natural native speed]
Sam: Television.
Celine: Télé(vision) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Télé(vision) [natural native speed].
Sam: Next…
Christophe: Allumer [natural native speed].
Sam: Turn on.
Christophe: Allumer [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Allumer [natural native speed].
Sam: Next…
Celine: Aliment [natural native speed].
Sam: Food.
Celine: Aliment [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Aliment [natural native speed].
Sam: Next…
Christophe: Mur [natural native speed].
Sam: Wall.
Christophe: Mur [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Mur [natural native speed].
Sam: Next…
Celine: Enfant. [natural native speed]
Sam: Kid.
Celine: Enfant. [slowly - broken down by syllable] Enfant. [natural native speed]
Sam: Next…
Christophe: Fourmilière [natural native speed].
Sam: An ant farm.
Christophe: Fourmilière [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Fourmilière [natural native speed].
Sam: Next…
Celine: Table basse [natural native speed].
Sam: Coffee table.
Celine: Table basse [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Table basse [natural native speed].
Sam: Next…
Christophe: Chocolat. [natural native speed]
Sam: Chocolate.
Christophe: Chocolat. [slowly - broken down by syllable] Chocolat. [natural native speed]
Sam: Next…
Celine: Salle de séjour. [natural native speed]
Sam: Living room.
Celine: Salle de séjour. [slowly - broken down by syllable] Salle de séjour. [natural native speed]
Sam: Now let’s look at the vocabulary usage from this lesson.
Celine: We are going to begin with enfant. It is a masculine noun referring to child or kid. So in the dialogue, enfant is at the plural form, les enfants because there are two kids – Aurelie and Remi.
Sam: I understand. The next word is désastre.
Christophe: I love that word! Not for its definition, a disaster, but for its origin.
Celine: You’re surprising me. Where does this word come from?
Christophe: Désastre comes from the Italian désastro. It’s derogative value meaning “bad star.”
Sam: Wow. From there, you easy forget what the word désastre means now.
Celine: In the dialogue, the living room is a disaster. Cette salle de séjour est un désastre.
Sam: “It was a disaster.” Oh, no! Why?
Celine: Because it’s messy.
Sam: That’s okay. If you can find everything, it’s not a problem.
Celine: Okay. Next word is “télé.” Its equivalent is TV in English.
Sam: It’s a short version of the word “television.”
Christophe: Télévision.
Sam: They need to tell you that it refers to the plasma or catalytic tube device promoting a clear image to see programs and movies.
Celine: Belle description. Nice description. So following, we have the word “allumer”.
Sam: Which means “to turn on.”
Christophe: This is a verb in ER. In the dialogue, you will find its past participle form used as an adjective at the feminine form.
Celine: To complete our vocab usage, there is the word chocolat…
Christophe: Which means “chocolate.”
Celine: Oui.
Christophe: J’adore le chocolat.
Celine: Moi aussi. Tu sais, Sam, do you know that chocolat c’est un aliment?
Sam: Food?
Celine: Yes, aliment – food.
Sam: Oh, yeah. There’s three kinds of chocolate, too.
Celine: Ah oui, le chocolat noir.
Christophe: Le chocolat blanc.
Celine: Et le chocolat au lait.
Sam: So black, white, and milk chocolate.
Christophe: c’est ça.
Celine: voilà.
Sam: Which chocolate is brown?
Christophe: le chocolat au lait.
Sam: Which chocolate is white?
Christophe: le chocolat blanc.
Sam: Which one’s black?
Celine: le chocolat noir.
Sam: Thank you for that. You want to go to the grammar now?
Celine: I want to go to the grammar. Yes.

Lesson focus

Sam: Let’s go to the grammar. Okay. What’s today’s grammar about?
Celine: Helping you to point out and talk about a determined object.
Christophe: When talking about a particular object in your immediate environment, demonstrative adjective are used.
Sam: Can you give us an example?
Celine: Let’s say you are in a store and all the items are on display. You’ll need to point out the objects to be able to see them closely.
Christophe: To indicate a particular article and be able to examine it, you would say je voudrais voir ce couteau Laguiole.
Sam: I’d like to see this Laguiole knife. What is Laguiole?
Celine: It’s a famous brand for cutlery, for knives, and silverware and all sorts of things.
Sam: Interesting.
Christophe: Anyway, the element ce in ce couteau is demonstrative adjective spells C-E. It is the singular and masculine form.
Celine: Of course. There are other forms according to gender and number of the noun it refers to.
Sam: How would I say “This man is funny?”
Christophe: Cet homme est amusant. Cet being spelled C-E-T, C-E-T (French spelling).
Sam: How about “This woman is boring”?
Celine: Cette femme est ennuyeuse. Here, cet is C-E-T-T-E. And for any plural noun, use ces, C-E-S. Why the man is funny and the woman is boring?
Sam: It’s just the way it works out in this dialogue. But it’s not always that way.
Celine: Okay. For example, “these people are in hurry.”
Christophe: Ces gens sont pressés
Sam: Kind of like us.
Celine: Oui.
Christophe: Oui.

Outro

Sam: Okay. So I think that’s a good place to wrap up. So, until next time. Thank you!
Celine: Merci à tous les 2!
Christophe: Au revoir.
Sam: Au revoir.
Celine: Au revoir.

Grammar

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