Learn all about how to use adverbs to add descriptiveness to your French verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs
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| Introduction |
| Virginie: Bonjour tout le monde! |
| Eric: Bonjour! Eric here. The Proper Way To Do Business in France. |
| Virginie: Hi, this is Virginie here. Hi Eric, how are you today? |
| Eric: I am very good. So what are we going to be looking at in this lesson? |
| Virginie: In this lesson, you will learn to describe someone and how things look, too. |
| Eric: It looks like Joe is going to be meeting an old colleague. |
| Virginie: The conversation takes place in the business office in Chanel in the morning. |
| Eric: Now, okay let’s have a listen. |
| Dialogue |
| Réceptionniste : Bonjour, et bienvenue chez Chanel. |
| Joe: Bonjour, j'ai rendez-vous avec Madame Fonta à 9h. |
| Réceptionniste : Votre nom ? |
| Joe: Joe McFly. |
| Réceptionniste: Un instant, Monsieur McFly. |
| (elevator music) |
| Réceptionniste : M. McFly, merci d'avoir patienté. Par ici. |
| Directrice : M. McFly, ça fait un bail ! |
| Joe : Oui, ça fait longtemps. Trop longtemps ! Voici un petit quelque chose des Etats-Unis. |
| Directrice : Merci, vous n'auriez pas dû. Vous avez l'air en forme ! Comment ça va ? |
| Joe : Ça va bien. Et vous ? Vous avez l'air en forme aussi. |
| Directrice: Je vais très bien. Beaucoup de travail, mais ça va. Aujourd'hui c'est chargé. Très chargé. Vous êtes prêt ? |
| Joe : Oui. |
| Eric: One more time, a little more slowly. |
| Virginie: Encore une fois, plus lentement. |
| Réceptionniste : Bonjour, et bienvenue chez Chanel. |
| Joe: Bonjour, j'ai rendez-vous avec Madame Fonta à 9h. |
| Réceptionniste : Votre nom ? |
| Joe: Joe McFly. |
| Réceptionniste: Un instant, Monsieur McFly. |
| (elevator music) |
| Réceptionniste : M. McFly, merci d'avoir patienté. Par ici. |
| Directrice : M. McFly, ça fait un bail ! |
| Joe : Oui, ça fait longtemps. Trop longtemps ! Voici un petit quelque chose des Etats-Unis. |
| Directrice : Merci, vous n'auriez pas dû. Vous avez l'air en forme ! Comment ça va ? |
| Joe : Ça va bien. Et vous ? Vous avez l'air en forme aussi. |
| Directrice: Je vais très bien. Beaucoup de travail, mais ça va. Aujourd'hui c'est chargé. Très chargé. Vous êtes prêt ? |
| Joe : Oui. |
| Eric: One more time, with the translation. |
| Virginie: Encore une fois, avec la traduction. |
| Réceptionniste : Bonjour, et bienvenue chez Chanel. |
| Eric: Good morning, and welcome to Chanel. |
| Joe: Bonjour, j'ai rendez-vous avec Madame Fonta à 9h. |
| Eric: Hello, I have an appointment with Mrs. Fonta at nine o'clock in the morning. |
| Réceptionniste : Votre nom ? |
| Eric: Your name? |
| Joe: Joe McFly. |
| Eric: Joe McFly. |
| Réceptionniste: Un instant, Monsieur McFly. |
| Eric: Just a moment, Mr. McFly. |
| (elevator music) |
| Eric(elevator music) |
| Réceptionniste : M. McFly, merci d'avoir patienté. Par ici. |
| Eric: Mr. McFly, thank you for waiting. This way. |
| Directrice : M. McFly, ça fait un bail! |
| Eric: Mr. McFly, it's been a while! |
| Joe : Oui, ça fait longtemps. Trop longtemps ! Voici un petit quelque chose des Etats-Unis. |
| Eric: Yes, it's been a while. Too long! Here's a little something from the United States. |
| Directrice : Merci, vous n'auriez pas dû. Vous avez l'air en forme ! Comment ça va ? |
| Eric: Thank you, you shouldn't have. You look great! How are you? |
| Joe : Ça va bien. Et vous ? Vous avez l'air en forme aussi. |
| Eric: I'm fine. And you? You also look good. |
| Directrice: Je vais très bien. Beaucoup de travail, mais ça va. Aujourd'hui c'est chargé. Très chargé. Vous êtes prêt ? |
| Eric: I'm very good. A lot of work, but good. Today is busy. Very busy. Are you ready? |
| Joe : Oui. |
| Eric: Yes. |
| Post Conversation Banter |
| Eric: Well, so it looks like Chanel is a pretty big company obviously. |
| Virginie: It is a big company and I think Joe is going to be very stressed out. He has a very, very busy schedule, yes. |
| Eric: So Joe is obviously some kind of high powered executive I guess. |
| Virginie: He is a marketing consultant. |
| Eric: Wow! |
| Virginie: Actually and he works for Chanel. |
| Eric: So what is the work life like in France is compared to the US? |
| Virginie: Well, it seems that people tend to work less than in the US and French people have this reputation of, you know, not working a lot but they are very productive. |
| Eric: So the French work week is typically 35 hours a week but obviously for people who are management or a lot of other jobs, it goes way beyond that. |
| Virginie: Yeah definitely. |
| Eric: But 35 hours is still pretty nice. |
| Virginie: It is pretty nice and also usually people get five-week vacation per year in France. |
| Eric: Wow, that’s great. |
| Virginie: Yeah that’s the minimum they get. |
| Eric: I remember I once met somebody who is a gendarme, a French policeman, and he told me he got eight weeks of vacation a year. |
| Virginie: That’s true, yeah, public jobs are really, really good in terms of vacation. |
| Eric: Wow! He was telling me it was a difficult challenge to take all his vacation time. |
| Virginie: Yeah, that’s the challenge in France. Yeah, managing your vacation and yeah, if you work in a library for instance, in public library, you get 13 weeks. |
| Eric: 13 weeks off? |
| Virginie: Yes. Yeah, that’s really, really nice. |
| Eric: Why do librarians have it so good? |
| Virginie: I don’t know. We should ask them. I am not a librarian but they are lucky. That’s for sure. Okay, why don’t we look at the vocabulary? |
| Vocabulary and Phrases |
| Eric: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| : The first word we shall see is: |
| Virginie: un rendez-vous [natural native speed] |
| Eric: a date, an appointment |
| Virginie: un rendez-vous [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Virginie: un rendez-vous [natural native speed]: Next: |
| Virginie: avec [natural native speed] |
| Eric: with |
| Virginie: avec [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Virginie: avec [natural native speed]: Next: |
| Virginie: un instant [natural native speed] |
| Eric: a moment, an instant |
| Virginie: un instant [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Virginie: un instant [natural native speed]: Next: |
| Virginie: patienter [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to wait |
| Virginie: patienter [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Virginie: patienter [natural native speed]: Next: |
| Virginie: longtemps [natural native speed] |
| Eric: long |
| Virginie: longtemps [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Virginie: longtemps [natural native speed]: Next: |
| Virginie: quelque chose [natural native speed] |
| Eric: something |
| Virginie: quelque chose [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Virginie: quelque chose [natural native speed]: Next: |
| Virginie: Les États-Unis [natural native speed] |
| Eric: The United States |
| Virginie: Les États-Unis [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Virginie: Les États-Unis [natural native speed]: Next: |
| Virginie: bien [natural native speed] |
| Eric: well, good |
| Virginie: bien [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Virginie: bien [natural native speed]: Next: |
| Virginie: beaucoup de travail [natural native speed] |
| Eric: lots of work |
| Virginie: beaucoup de travail [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Virginie: beaucoup de travail [natural native speed]: Next: |
| Virginie: chargé(e) [natural native speed] |
| Eric: busy, in charge |
| Virginie: chargé(e) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Virginie: chargé(e) [natural native speed]: Next: |
| Virginie: un jour [natural native speed] |
| Eric: a day |
| Virginie: un jour [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Virginie: un jour [natural native speed]: Next: |
| Virginie: par ici [natural native speed] |
| Eric: over here |
| Virginie: par ici [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Virginie: par ici [natural native speed] |
| Vocabulary and Phrase Usage |
| Eric: Let's have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Virginie: The first word/phrase we’ll look at is.... |
| Virginie: Alright I would like to start with the end of the dialogue, actually. |
| Eric: Sure. |
| Virginie: Yes, after they exchanged greetings, etc, Madame Fonta asks "vous etes prets" |
| Eric: And that means "are you ready? or ready? |
| Virginie: You probably recognized vous etes |
| Eric: The formal "you are" |
| Virginie: And then pret is ready. |
| Eric: but if I ask Virginie if she's ready it will be slightly different, because she's a girl. |
| Virginie: Yes, pret is an adjective, so it agrees to the gender |
| Eric: It will be "virginie, tu es prete? |
| Virginie: OOui, je suis prete. Also note that Eric used the informal you, "tu" |
| Eric: Because Virginie is my friend. |
| Virginie: Let's take a look at Un rendez-vous. |
| Eric: ah this one is interesting because usually people think it only means a date |
| Virginie: Yes like a romantic date. Well, no! I mean, it means a date in certain contexts. |
| Eric: But rendez-vous can also mean an appointment |
| Virginie: Eh oui! For example, j'ai rendez-vous chez le dentiste |
| Eric: I have an appointment at the dentist's |
| Virginie: Or you can use it when you meet a friend, j'ai rendez-vous avec Dominique |
| Eric: I am meeting Dominique |
| Virginie: But if you say, by itsself "j'ai un rendez-vous cesoir" it sounds like it's date. |
| Eric: So, in the end, when you use the article "un" ibefore rendez-vous that means a date. |
| Virginie: Oui, and if you use it without the article "j'ai rendez-vous avec" I am meeting with |
| Eric: OK. Good to know. |
| Virginie: OK one last word maybe? which one would you pick |
| Eric: There are so many words here...let's talk about the phrase in our dialogue "ca fait longtemps" |
| Virginie: Oh yes it can be very useful. what does ca fait longtemps mean Eric? |
| Eric: It means "it's been a while/a long time |
| Virginie: Let's break it down - ca is it and then fait is makes and finally longtemps is "long" |
| Eric: Long or a long time |
| Virginie: Oui. Ca fait longtemps. |
| Eric: So if you haven't seen a french person in a long time, just say "ca fait longtemps. A word on "ca fait un bail" |
| Virginie: Oui. C'est tres bien. Very good. Let's do some grammar |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Virginie: The focus of this lesson is describing a person's appearance with avoir láir and the adverb très Je vais très bien."I'm very well." |
| Eric: So let's start with avoir l'air |
| Virginie: That's the infinitive of the verb avoir (to have) + l'air (spell) |
| Eric: That means, to look, to seem |
| Virginie: But also to sound |
| Eric: In our dialog Madame Fonta says "vous avez l'air en forme! |
| Virginie: If we break it down we have the expression avoir l'air conjugated with vous, "vous avez l'air |
| Eric: And then we have "en forme", which means great or good, when talking about a person |
| Virginie: Yes. Literally "en forme" means "in shape" .Vous avez l'air en forme. |
| Eric: Virginie tu as l'air en forme. |
| Virginie: Merci eric. Je vais bien. |
| Eric: Virginie just said "I am well |
| Virginie: And to do so, I used the verb aller, I said je vais literally "I go" |
| Eric: And then the adverb "bien", which means well. |
| virginie: But...there are plenty of ways to say you are well. Madame Fonta uses one of them in our dialogue |
| Eric: Yes she says "je vais tres bien" |
| Virginie: I am very well. She added the little adverb tres |
| Eric: And that's "very". Tres bien is very well. |
| Virginie: Let's see how Joe says he's doing well now. |
| Eric: He says, "ca va bien" |
| Virginie: Literally "it goes well" |
| Eric: Ca , "it", then "va" goes, and finally "bien", well. |
| Virginie: Let's have a quick recap here - Je vais bien |
| Eric: I qm well |
| Virginie: Je vais tres bien |
| Eric: I am very well |
| Virginie: And...ca va bien. |
| Eric: It goes well |
| Virginie: Woo. That's a lot of ways to say you're well. |
| Eric: OK now let's go back to avoir l'air, I have the feeling we're not done with it |
| Virginie: Yes. We're going to give you other examples of how you can use the expression "avoir l'air" |
| Eric: We already saw vous avez l'air/tu as l'air meaning "you look" |
| Virginie: Now in another context. Let's imagine a friend tells you about a movie. |
| Eric: ANd this movie sounds great. |
| virginie: You will then tell your friend" the movie sounds good" |
| Eric: Le film a l'air bien. |
| Virginie: same thing than previously. Le film is your subject |
| Eric: And that's the movie |
| Virginie: then you conjugate avoir l'air. Le film a - l'air |
| Eric: And finally you have the adverb "bien", good. |
| Virginie: again, le film a l'air bien |
| Eric: “The movie seems good.” |
| Virginie: So avoir l'air works for people and for things. |
Outro |
| Eric: Ok, I think that about does it for now. |
| Virginie: Thank you for listening! Merci ! |
| Eric: A bientôt |
| Virginie: A bientôt, au revoir. |
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