Learn about the genders of French nouns so you can use the appropriate articles and adjectives with them
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 |
| Virginie: Hello everyone, bonjour! |
| Eric: Hello, Eric here. Your One Stop Shop for All Your French Needs. |
| Virginie: Hi, this is Virginie and I am here with Eric. How are you, Eric, today? |
| Eric: Doing very well. How are you? |
| Virginie: I am good. Thank you. |
| Eric: In this lesson, we are going to be following Joe as he visits the convenient store before going to his hotel. |
| Virginie: So Joe is buying a lot of things for his trip to the center of Paris. |
| Eric: This conversation takes place in a convenient store on Monday, Day 3. |
| Virginie: Yes, and Joe is speaking with store clerk. Let’s listen to that conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| Employé de magasin: Bonsoir. |
| Joe : Bonsoir. |
| (Il pose ses articles sur le comptoir.) |
| Employé de magasin : Trois bouteilles d'eau, une cannette de jus d'orange et un sandwich. Ce sera tout ? |
| Joe : (Il remarque quelque chose sur le comptoir) Qu'est-ce que c'est, ça ? |
| Employé de magasin : Des croissants au jambon. C'est délicieux. |
| Joe : Alors, un croissant s'il vous plaît. |
| Employé de magasin : Ça fait 15 euros. |
| Joe : Tenez. |
| Employé de magasin : Votre monnaie. |
| Joe : Merci. |
| Eric: One more time, a little more slowly. |
| Employé de magasin : Bonsoir. |
| Joe : Bonsoir. |
| (Il pose ses articles sur le comptoir.) |
| Employé de magasin : Trois bouteilles d'eau, une cannette de jus d'orange et un sandwich. Ce sera tout ? |
| Joe : (Il remarque quelque chose sur le comptoir) Qu'est-ce que c'est, ça ? |
| Employé de magasin : Des croissants au jambon. C'est délicieux. |
| Joe : Alors, un croissant s'il vous plaît. |
| Employé de magasin : Ça fait 15 euros. |
| Joe : Tenez. |
| Employé de magasin : Votre monnaie. |
| Joe : Merci. |
| Eric: One more time, with the translation. |
| Employé de magasin : Bonsoir. |
| Eric: Hello. |
| Joe : Bonsoir. |
| Eric: Hello. |
| (Il pose ses articles sur le comptoir.) |
| Eric(places items on the counter) |
| Employé de magasin : Trois bouteilles d'eau, une cannette de jus d'orange et un sandwich. Ce sera tout ? |
| Eric: Three bottles of water, a can of orange juice, and a sandwich. That will be it? |
| Joe : (Il remarque quelque chose sur le comptoir) Qu'est-ce que c'est, ça ? |
| Eric: (notices pastries at the counter) What is this? |
| Employé de magasin : Des croissants au jambon. C'est délicieux. |
| Eric: Ham croissants. It's delicious. |
| Joe : Alors, un croissant s'il vous plaît. |
| Eric: Well, a croissant, please. |
| Employé de magasin : Ça fait 15 euros. |
| Eric: It's fifteen euros. |
| Joe : Tenez. |
| Eric: Here. |
| Employé de magasin : Votre monnaie. |
| Eric: Your change. |
| Joe : Merci. |
| Eric: Thank you. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Virginie: So I think Joe is in a local grocery store. |
| Eric: Are you talking about one of those really small épicerie or something like that? |
| Virginie: Yes, épicerie is the word for grocery store. Yes, I think so. It looks really small. |
| Eric: Well, he still probably can find whatever he needs for few days in Paris. |
| Virginie: Right. |
| Eric: So Virginie, are there a lot of huge supermarket chains? |
| Virginie: In France, yes. We have a very well-known Carrefour, I think you must know it Eric. |
| Eric: That’s sort of like the equivalent of Wal-Mart. |
| Virginie: Yeah, it’s pretty international. That’s our biggest chain. Then we have leclerc, and I think that’s it for the biggest ones. |
| Eric: I see. |
| Virginie: Yeah, but in the center of Paris, you won’t find them. You have to go in the suburbs to find big, huge malls and grocery stores. |
| Eric: Just like in the New York. |
| Virginie: Yes. |
| Eric: But in the center of Paris, you do have really nice open air markets. |
| Virginie: Oh yes, and that’s very French, right? |
| Eric: Indeed. |
| Virginie: Yes. I remember when I was living in Paris, there was an open air market and it was called the Aligre market. And it was a vegetable and meat and fish market. It was really nice. |
| Eric: Virginie will prepare her amazing plate there, right? |
| Virginie: Yeah, exactly. |
| Eric: Sounds delicious. |
| Virginie: It’s a very nice atmosphere too. People are screaming around, hey buy my fish. You can buy my fish. |
| Eric: Well, let’s have a look at a little bit of vocabulary now. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Virginie: trois [natural native speed] |
| Eric: three |
| Virginie: trois [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Virginie: trois [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Virginie: une bouteille [natural native speed] |
| Eric: a bottle |
| Virginie: une bouteille [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Virginie: une bouteille [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Virginie: l'eau [natural native speed] |
| Eric: water |
| Virginie: l'eau [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Virginie: l'eau [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Virginie: un / une [natural native speed] |
| Eric: a, an |
| Virginie: un / une [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Virginie: un / une [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Virginie: un jus d'orange [natural native speed] |
| Eric: an orange juice |
| Virginie: un jus d'orange [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Virginie: un jus d'orange [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Virginie: le jambon [natural native speed] |
| Eric: the ham |
| Virginie: le jambon [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Virginie: le jambon [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Virginie: ça [natural native speed] |
| Eric: it |
| Virginie: ça [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Virginie: ça [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Virginie: la monnaie [natural native speed] |
| Eric: the change (coins) |
| Virginie: la monnaie [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Virginie: la monnaie [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Virginie: tenez [natural native speed] |
| Eric: here you go, here it is |
| Virginie: tenez [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Virginie: tenez [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Virginie: un croissant au jambon [natural native speed] |
| Eric: a ham croissant |
| Virginie: un croissant au jambon [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Virginie: un croissant au jambon [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Virginie: qu'est-ce que / qu'est-ce qu' [natural native speed] |
| Eric: what |
| Virginie: qu'est-ce que / qu'est-ce qu' [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Virginie: qu'est-ce que / qu'est-ce qu' [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Virginie: Ce sera tout ? [natural native speed] |
| Eric: That's it? |
| Virginie: Ce sera tout ? [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Virginie: Ce sera tout ? [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Virginie: voilà [natural native speed] |
| Eric: here you are, here it is, here is |
| Virginie: voilà [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Virginie: voilà [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Virginie: merci [natural native speed] |
| Eric: thank you |
| Virginie: merci [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Virginie: merci [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Virginie: le beurre [natural native speed] |
| Eric: butter |
| Virginie: le beurre [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Virginie: le beurre [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| 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: This is long list of vocab that we have here |
| Eric: Let's pick a few words |
| Virginie: First let's see "monnaie" |
| Eric: Yes the clerk is giving Joe his "monnaie" |
| Virginie: His change. |
| Eric: Virginie, how would I ask "do you have any change? |
| Virginie: You would ask, "tu as de la monnaie" |
| Eric: Oh, ok, it's you have "tu as", followed by "de la", which in French is "some" at the feminine form |
| Virginie: And finally you have monnaie, change. Again, tu as de la monnaie? |
| Eric: OK that can be useful. |
| Virginie: OUr next word is "tenez", |
| Eric: And that's here you go, formal |
| Virginie: Oui. You can use it whenever you hand something to someone. |
| Eric: It's the imperative form of the verb tenir, to hold. |
| Virginie: It's like you're saying "hold" |
| Eric: I think we already saw "tiens", the informal way, in a previous lesson. |
| Virginie: Oui oui. |
| Eric: OK what's next? |
| Virginie: Mmmmm.joe is buying trois bouteilles d'eau. |
| Eric: Three bottles of water. |
| Virginie: Bouteille is bottle/bottles, and water is eau (spell) |
| Eric: And you can see that the preposition "de" that we talked about in the previous lesson is here again! |
| Virginie: Oui cette preposition, this preposition likes to sneak in everywhere it can. |
| Eric: Again, it is "of", and "de" allows the eau to specify what kind of bottle is it. |
| Virginie: Une bouteille d'eau. |
| Eric: Now what would be a bottle of coke |
| Virginie: Une bouteille de coca |
| Eric: Coca. That's cute. |
| Virginie: Coca cola! |
| Eric: Coca is completing bouteille |
| Virginie: Now for the rest of the vocab you can refer to our lesson notes. |
Lesson focus |
| Eric: What's our focus today, Virginie? |
| Virginie: The focus of this lesson is noun genders in French |
| Eric: Oh I see. I used to have such a hard time figuring out the genders when I was learning French. |
| Virginie: I know, it's tough. |
| Eric: French has two genders. |
| Virginie: Masculine and feminine |
| Eric: And contrary to what you've probably been told there are ways to guess which gender a noun is |
| Virginie: Yes! Depending on how it ends |
| Eric: OK let's pick our examples from the dialogue. |
| Virginie: Shall we start with the feminine words? |
| Eric: Yes, ladies first. |
| Virginie: Ah. So..une cannette is feminine |
| Eric: Une cannette is a can |
| Virginie: And it ends with ette |
| Eric: That's our first rule, all nouns ending with ette in French are feminine. |
| Virginie: Yes. Then, but that's not in our dialogue, all words ending with ion (spell) |
| Eric: Like une institution, an institution, or |
| Virginie: Or une mission, a mission |
| Eric: Now you'll find a complete list in our lesson notes. |
| Virginie: OK. Masculine words have more of a firm rule. |
| Eric: Yes. All noun ending with a consonant are masculine. |
| Virginie: Except for a very few. |
| Eric: ell, our example from the dialog here is sandwich |
| Virginie: Sandwich..mm..doesn't sound that French. |
| Eric: Well, it's in French dictionaries...so sandwich ends with the consonant h |
| Virginie: Therefore it's masculine. |
| Eric: Now nouns ending with MENT are also masculine. |
| Virginie: Like le piment, pepper |
| Eric: Or le moment |
| Virginie: The moment. Great. |
| Eric: Again, there are other categories to help you figure out genders |
| Virginie: And you will find them in the lesson notes. |
| Eric: Now let's take a look at that question Joe asks the store clerk |
| Virginie: Yes he asks "qu'est-ce que c'est ca", what is this? |
| Eric: Now we already know that qu'est-ce que means what |
| Virginie: And then c'est (SPELL) means it is. |
| Eric: So literally it is "what it is" |
| Virginie: The question qu'est ce que c'est works by itself and means "what is ti or this? |
| Eric: But joe, is pointing at something, some croissants I believe. |
| Virginie: So he adds at the end of the question the little demonstrative "ca", which is this. |
| Eric: He insists on what he's pointing out |
| Virginie: Literally it is "what is it, this?” Qu'est-ce que c'est ca ? |
| Eric: And this construction is very frequent in French to find this word "ca" at the beginning or at the end of a sentence. |
| For example, you can say, ca c'est bien, or c'est bien, ca. |
| Eric: so if you go to France be ready to hear "ca" a lot. |
Outro |
| Eric: OK! So thank you for listening to this lesson. |
| Virginie: Merci d'avoir écouté. Thank you for listening. And, au revoir. |
| Eric: Au revoir ! |
Comments
Hide