Learn how to ask questions to help you get the conversation started, such as asking who the person is and where the person is from
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Virginie: Salut à tous ! Bonjour ! |
| Eric: Hello everyone, Eric here. Do people understand where you're coming from? |
| Virginie: I'm Virginie and welcome back. |
| Eric: Welcome back. In this lesson, you'll be learning about how to talk about yourself and other people. |
| Virginie: We're still following Joe and he's still sitting by Manon, and they both share more about themselves. |
| Eric: And this conversation is still taking place on the plane just before takeoff. |
| Virginie: And our speakers are still talking informally. |
| Eric: Let’s have a listen. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| Joe: Donc, c’est qui ce chanteur ? |
| Manon: Pardon ? |
| Joe: "Ça m’énerve." |
| Manon: Oh, c’est Helmut Fritz. |
| Joe: Je vois. Tu viens d’où ? |
| Manon: Je viens de Lyon. |
| Joe: Ah oui, Lyon. |
| Manon: Et toi, tu es américain ? |
| Joe: Oui. |
| Manon: Tu es de New York ? |
| Joe: Non, je ne suis pas de New York. Je suis californien. |
| Manon: Oh, vraiment ? |
| Eric: One more time, a little more slowly. |
| Virginie: Encore une fois, plus lentement. |
| Manon: Je viens de Lyon. |
| Joe: Ah oui, Lyon. |
| Manon: Et toi, tu es américain ? |
| Joe: Oui. |
| Manon: Tu es de New York ? |
| Joe: Non, je ne suis pas de New York. Je suis californien. |
| Manon: Oh, vraiment ? |
| Eric: One more time, with the translation. |
| Virginie: Encore une fois, avec la traduction. |
| Joe: Donc, c’est qui ce chanteur ? |
| Eric: So, who is the singer? |
| Manon: Pardon ? |
| Eric: I'm sorry. |
| Joe: "Ça m’énerve." |
| Eric: "Ça m’énerve." |
| Manon: Oh, c’est Helmut Fritz. |
| Eric: Oh, it's Helmut Fritz. |
| Joe: Je vois. Tu viens d’où ? |
| Eric: I see. Where are you from? |
| Manon: Je viens de Lyon. |
| Eric: I'm from Lyon. |
| Joe: Ah oui, Lyon. |
| Eric: Ah yes, Lyon. |
| Manon: Et toi, tu es américain ? |
| Eric: And you, are you American? |
| Joe: Oui. |
| Eric: Yes, I'm American. |
| Manon: Tu es de New York ? |
| Eric: Are you from New York? |
| Joe: Non, je ne suis pas de New York. Je suis californien. |
| Eric: No, I'm not from New York. I'm Californian. |
| Manon: Oh, vraiment ? |
| Eric: Oh, is that so? |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Eric: Now Manon gives us some new insights about this character, Helmut Fritz. |
| Virginie: Yes, remember the singer? Eric, did you get the chance to listen to that song since our last lesson? |
| Eric: Yes, actually. It's pretty funny. |
| Virginie: Yeah, I like it. Some pop singers in France are very, very good. |
| Eric: Right. For example, Philippe Katerine is very funny. |
| Virginie: Oh yes, he's so edgy. |
| Eric: I have a feeling that French pop music is mostly based on the lyrics. |
| Virginie: Yes, that's true. The songs are lyric-centered, if I may say so. The orchestration is not that important. |
| Eric: Yeah, I personally also love Yann Tiersen. |
| Virginie: Oh, Yann Tiersen. Yes, and actually Eric, that's a good example of instrumentally focused songs. |
| Eric: Right, he's more of a musician. |
| Virginie: Yes, and he made the music for Amélie, you know the movie? He's a great violin player. |
| Eric: Ah yeah. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Eric: Ok, so let's go over some of the vocabulary. |
| Virginie: donc [natural native speed] |
| Eric: so |
| Virginie: donc [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Virginie: donc [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Le suivant |
| Virginie: qui [natural native speed] |
| Eric: who, and also that |
| Virginie: qui [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Virginie: qui [natural native speed] |
| Virginie: Next |
| Virginie: un chanteur [natural native speed] |
| Eric: a singer |
| Virginie: un chanteur [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Virginie: un chanteur [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Okay |
| Virginie: où [natural native speed] |
| Eric: where |
| Virginie: où [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Virginie: où [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Le suivant |
| Virginie: vous [natural native speed] |
| Eric: you (formal) |
| Virginie: vous [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Virginie: vous [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next |
| Virginie: venir de [natural native speed] |
| Eric: This has two meanings: to come from, or to have just |
| Virginie: venir de [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Virginie: venir de [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next |
| Virginie: je suis [natural native speed] |
| Eric: I am |
| Virginie: je suis [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Virginie: je suis [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Okay |
| Virginie: ça m’énerve [natural native speed] |
| Eric: it annoys me |
| Virginie: ça m’énerve [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Virginie: ça m’énerve [natural native speed] |
| Virginie: ça m’énerve [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Le suivant |
| Virginie: je vois [natural native speed] |
| Eric: I see |
| Virginie: je vois [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Virginie: je vois [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Okay |
| Virginie: vous venez d'où [natural native speed] |
| Eric: where are you from |
| Virginie: vous venez d'où [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Virginie: vous venez d'où [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next |
| Virginie: et vous [natural native speed] |
| Eric: and you |
| Virginie: et vous [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Virginie: et vous [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Okay |
| Virginie: vraiment [natural native speed] |
| Eric: truly or really |
| Eric: Okay |
| Virginie: américain [natural native speed] |
| Eric: American |
| Virginie: américain [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Virginie: américain [natural native speed] |
| Virginie: Next |
| Virginie: californien [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Californian |
| Virginie: californien [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Virginie: californien [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| Virginie: What do we have here, Eric? |
| Eric: Right, since we’re talking about French music, let’s see the word chanteur. |
| Virginie: Oh yes, that means singer, a male singer. |
| Eric: And of course, the French language has genders. |
| Virginie: Yes, masculine and feminine. And chanteur here is masculine for singer. |
| Eric: Okay, and so how would you say a female singer? |
| Virginie: Good question. It is chanteuse. |
| Eric: So the end of the word is modified. |
| Virginie: Yes. Chanteur ends with -eur, which is pronounced [heur], |
| Eric: And chanteuse ends with -euse, chanteuse. |
| Virginie: And some other professions in French end with heur for the masculine and heuse for the feminine. |
| Eric: Let’s take waiter for an example. |
| Virginie: Waiter is serveur. |
| Eric: And a waitress is serveuse. |
| Virginie: Okay, notice the difference? Serveur, masculine. Serveuse, feminine. |
| Eric: And now what other words are we going to look at, Virginie? |
| Virginie: The next word is donc. |
| Eric: In English, so. |
| Virginie: Oui. Joe says, "So, who is this singer?", Donc, c’est qui ce chanteur ? |
| Eric: So Joe is obviously trying to start a conversation. |
| Virginie: I think he wants to practice his French, right? |
| Eric: Right, his French. |
| Virginie: What do you mean? |
| Eric: Maybe he just wants to talk to the girl on the plane. |
| Virginie: Yeah, maybe she’s cute. It’s true. We’ll know later, I guess. |
| Eric: What is our last word? |
| Virginie: Vraiment. |
| Eric: Manon says vraiment ? |
| Virginie: when Joe says he's not from New York, she says vraiment?. |
| Eric: So I think she assumes that all Americans come from New York. |
| Virginie: Apparemment, oui — apparently, yes. |
| Eric: Because vraiment is really in English. |
| Virginie: Oh, vraiment? |
| Eric: Oui, vraiment. Yes, really. |
Lesson focus |
| Virginie: Okay, it's time for some grammar now. Today we’ll focus on the question Qui c’est ? |
| Eric: You ask this question when you want to know about someone. |
| Virginie: Qui c’est ? is Who is it? |
| Eric: The first word is qui, which means who. |
| Virginie: And the second part of the question is c’est, which means this is. |
| Eric: Literally, we’re saying Who this is. |
| Virginie: Yes, and to answer this question, |
| Eric: you'll begin by saying C’est..., This is... |
| Virginie: For example, imagine that Eric and I are at the White House's garden party, and I don't know, George Clooney is there, but of course I don't know him because I never go to the movies, I don't know who he is. I will then ask Eric, Qui c’est ?, who is this? |
| Eric: And I will answer, C’est George Clooney, this is George Clooney. |
| Virginie: Of course, we didn’t really go to the White House garden party. |
| Eric: We might have had other plans. |
| Virginie: Exactly. Now you probably want to know how to ask someone where he or she's from, right? |
| Eric: And this is easy, too. |
| Virginie: Oui. Joe asks Manon, Tu viens d’où ? |
| Eric: Let’s break this down. The first word is tu, |
| Virginie: that’s you. |
| Eric: Joe and Manon are young, so they directly use the informal pronoun tu. |
| Virginie: Then we have the verb viens. |
| Eric: And that’s come. |
| Virginie: Finally, we have d’où, d, apostrophe, ou, which means from where. |
| Eric: Let’s hear it again — Tu viens d’où ? And Joe’s answer was je, I — |
| Virginie: suis — |
| Eric: am |
| Virginie: californien. |
| Eric: Californian. Je suis californien. |
| Virginie: I am Californian. |
Outro |
| Virginie: Okay, I think we saw the most important points here. |
| Eric: Yep, that just about does it for this lesson. |
| Virginie: Okay, thank you all for listening. |
| Eric: Thank you very much! |
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