Learn how to briefly describe a product
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| INTRODUCTION |
| Maryssa: A French Business Presentation. Maryssa Here. |
| Aurore: Bonjour, I'm Aurore. |
| Maryssa: In this lesson, you’ll learn about describing a product. The conversation takes place in a meeting room. |
| Aurore: It's between Laurène and a customer. |
| Maryssa: The speakers are strangers, therefore, they will speak both formal and informal French. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Laurène: Voici le dernier produit que nous avons imaginé. C'est un agenda. |
| customer: Il me paraît bien grand pour un agenda. |
| Laurène: Oui c'est normal. Nous nous sommes inspirés du Bullet journal, très tendance en ce moment. |
| Il a donc des spirales, une plus grande taille et plus de pages. Pour écrire plus. |
| customer: Et qu'est ce qu'il a de plus comparé à un agenda classique ? |
| Laurène: Il contient plusieurs plannings permettant de mieux s'organiser. Il est aussi coloré, il est attrayant. |
| customer: C'est vrai, cela donne envie d'écrire ! |
| Laurène: C'est le but ! Il contient aussi des autocollants. |
| customer: Le papier est de meilleure qualité que le précédent. |
| Maryssa: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| Laurène: Voici le dernier produit que nous avons imaginé. C'est un agenda. |
| customer: Il me paraît bien grand pour un agenda. |
| Laurène: Oui c'est normal. Nous nous sommes inspirés du Bullet journal, très tendance en ce moment. |
| Il a donc des spirales, une plus grande taille et plus de pages. Pour écrire plus. |
| customer: Et qu'est ce qu'il a de plus comparé à un agenda classique ? |
| Laurène: Il contient plusieurs plannings permettant de mieux s'organiser. Il est aussi coloré, il est attrayant. |
| customer: C'est vrai, cela donne envie d'écrire ! |
| Laurène: C'est le but ! Il contient aussi des autocollants. |
| customer: Le papier est de meilleure qualité que le précédent. |
| Maryssa: Listen to the conversation with the English translation. |
| Laurène: Here's the latest product we have imagined. It's a diary. |
| Customer: To me, it seems big for a diary. |
| Laurène: Yes, that's normal. We were inspired by the Bullet journal, which is the latest trend. It has spirals, a bigger size, and more pages. In order to write more. |
| Customer: Compared to a regular diary, what is its advantage? |
| Laurène: It has several schedules, allowing you to better organize. It contains colored pictures, it's attractive. |
| Customer: True, it makes me want to write in it! |
| Laurène: That's the point! It also has stickers. |
| Customer: The quality of the paper is better than the previous one. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Maryssa: Laurène is doing a good job of selling that diary to the customer. |
| Aurore: Yes, the customer is hearing all about its new features. |
| Maryssa: It sounds good, I think I want one, too! |
| Aurore: Let’s all buy diaries from Laurène! |
| Maryssa: Aurore, I wanted to ask you about the French economy. |
| Aurore: In France, there are two growth and employment sectors. The first is the BTP, or Bâtiment Travaux Publics. |
| Maryssa: That means "public buildings and works sector." What is the other? |
| Aurore: It’s transport. |
| Maryssa: This includes the automobile and aeronautical industries. |
| Aurore: There’s a lot of temporary work in both sectors. |
| Maryssa: Only temporary work? Is it easy to find permanent jobs? |
| Aurore: It can be quite difficult, I think. |
| Maryssa: Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Maryssa: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is... |
| Aurore: produit [natural native speed] |
| Maryssa: "product" |
| Aurore: produit [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Aurore: produit [natural native speed] |
| Maryssa: Next we have... |
| Aurore: paraître [natural native speed] |
| Maryssa: "to appear" |
| Aurore: paraître [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Aurore: paraître [natural native speed] |
| Maryssa: Next we have... |
| Aurore: agenda [natural native speed] |
| Maryssa: "diary" |
| Aurore: agenda [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Aurore: agenda [natural native speed] |
| Maryssa: Next we have... |
| Aurore: s'inspirer de [natural native speed] |
| Maryssa: "to be inspired by" |
| Aurore: s'inspirer de [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Aurore: s'inspirer de [natural native speed] |
| Maryssa: Next we have... |
| Aurore: tendance [natural native speed] |
| Maryssa: "trend" |
| Aurore: tendance [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Aurore: tendance [natural native speed] |
| Maryssa: Next we have... |
| Aurore: comparé à [natural native speed] |
| Maryssa: "compared to" |
| Aurore: comparé à [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Aurore: comparé à [natural native speed] |
| Maryssa: Next we have... |
| Aurore: attrayant [natural native speed] |
| Maryssa: "attractive" |
| Aurore: attrayant [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Aurore: attrayant [natural native speed] |
| Maryssa: Next we have... |
| Aurore: autocollant [natural native speed] |
| Maryssa: "sticker" |
| Aurore: autocollant [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Aurore: autocollant [natural native speed] |
| Maryssa: Next we have... |
| Aurore: planning [natural native speed] |
| Maryssa: "schedule" |
| Aurore: planning [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Aurore: planning [natural native speed] |
| Maryssa: And last... |
| Aurore: qualité [natural native speed] |
| Maryssa: "quality" |
| Aurore: qualité [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Aurore: qualité [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Maryssa: Let's have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first word is... |
| Aurore: Il me paraît |
| Maryssa: meaning "to me it seems." |
| Maryssa: This is a phrase. |
| Aurore: It includes the verb paraître. |
| Maryssa: This means "to seem" and is a transitive verb. |
| Aurore: il me paraît is "personal." |
| Maryssa: It shows how something seems to you. |
| Aurore: "Less personal" is il paraît. |
| Maryssa: "It seems." Can you give us an example using this phrase? |
| Aurore: Sure. For example, you can say... Mon école primaire me paraît plus petite maintenant que je suis adulte. |
| Maryssa: … which means "My elementary school seems smaller now that I'm an adult." |
| Maryssa: Okay, what's the next word? |
| Aurore: s'inspirer de |
| Maryssa: meaning "to be inspired by." |
| Maryssa: This is a transitive verb. |
| Aurore: Inspirer is a verb that means "to inspire." |
| Maryssa: How can you say that you are inspired? |
| Aurore: By adding the verb être. Je suis inspiré. |
| Maryssa: Can you give us an example using this verb? |
| Aurore: Sure. For example, you can say... Pour peindre, je m'inspire de mon artiste préférée, Frida Kahlo. |
| Maryssa: ... which means "When I paint, I'm inspired by my favorite artist, Frida Kahlo." |
| Maryssa: Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Maryssa: In this lesson, you'll learn about describing a product. To do this, you’ll need to know some adjectives and adverbs that can really make your product sound good. |
| Aurore: Remember, the form will change depending on the gender of the noun. |
| Maryssa: That’s right! Aurore will give both forms, with the masculine form first. What’s first? |
| Aurore: novateur, novatrice |
| Maryssa: "innovative." Next is; |
| Aurore: naturel, naturelle |
| Maryssa: "natural." Our next one is; |
| Aurore: fantastique, fantastique |
| Maryssa: "amazing." Next is; |
| Aurore: extraordinaire, extraordinaire |
| Maryssa: "extraordinary." And finally; |
| Aurore: nutritif, nutritive |
| Maryssa: "nutritional." And yes, some of those were the same for both masculine and feminine. Now, let’s hear some phrases that you can use. |
| Aurore: Notre produit contient seulement… |
| Maryssa: "Our product contains only…" |
| Aurore: Notre produit contient autant de… |
| Maryssa: "Our product contains as much/many as…" And now, a couple of full sentences. |
| Aurore: Ce qui rend notre produit différent c’est son goût extraordinaire. |
| Maryssa: "What makes our product different is its amazing taste." |
| Aurore: La robe est de couleur rouge et orange. |
| Maryssa: "The dress is red and orange." Another good way to promote your product is to compare it to something else. |
| Aurore: You can use the expression comparé à. |
| Maryssa: This means "compared to." |
| Aurore: The pattern is Comparé à ce produit, mon produit est... |
| Maryssa: "Compared to this product, my product is…" You can use other nouns in place of the word "product." Let’s hear some examples. |
| Aurore: Comparé au dentifrice classique, mon dentifrice est blanchissant. |
| Maryssa: "Compared to traditional toothpastes, my toothpaste is teeth-whitening." |
| Aurore: Les légumes bio sont meilleures pour la santé comparés aux légumes non bio. |
| Maryssa: "Organic vegetables are better for the health compared to non-organic vegetables." |
Outro |
| Maryssa: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Aurore: A la prochaine! |
Comments
Hide