Learn French ordinal numbers and more French question words
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| Greg:Hello everyone, I’m Greg. French Picnic, Part 2. |
| Mailys:Bonjour, tout le monde. This is Mailys. In this lesson, we will learn about ordinal numbers and more question words. |
| Greg:This is the second part of Mireille’s picnic date interrogation. |
| Mailys:And informal French is used. |
| Greg:Let’s listen to the conversation! |
| Mireille Deuxième question - depuis quand habites-tu là? |
| Jacques J’habite dans la même maison depuis 5 ans. |
| Mireille Troisième question - pourquoi habites-tu dans cette ville? |
| Jacques Je trouve que c’est une belle grande ville; il y a beaucoup de beaux parcs et les gens sont gentils. |
| Mireille Bonne réponse. Quatrième question - où travailles-tu? |
| Jacques Je travaille dans une petite école à côté de chez moi. |
| Mireille Cinquième question - que fais-tu? |
| Jacques Je suis concierge. |
| Mireille Concierge? Tu es concierge? Aimes-tu ça? |
| Jacques Bof, ça va. J’aime ça. |
| Mireille Dernière question - comment vois-tu ton avenir? |
| Jacques Je vois mon avenir… avec toi, Mireille! |
| Greg: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Mireille Deuxième question - depuis quand habites-tu là? |
| Jacques J’habite dans la même maison depuis 5 ans. |
| Mireille Troisième question - pourquoi habites-tu dans cette ville? |
| Jacques Je trouve que c’est une belle grande ville; il y a beaucoup de beaux parcs et les gens sont gentils. |
| Mireille Bonne réponse. Quatrième question - où travailles-tu? |
| Jacques Je travaille dans une petite école à côté de chez moi. |
| Mireille Cinquième question - que fais-tu? |
| Jacques Je suis concierge. |
| Mireille Concierge? Tu es concierge? Aimes-tu ça? |
| Jacques Bof, ça va. J’aime ça. |
| Mireille Dernière question - comment vois-tu ton avenir? |
| Jacques Je vois mon avenir… avec toi, Mireille! |
| Greg: Now let’s hear it with the English translation. |
| Mireille Deuxième question - depuis quand habites-tu là? |
| Greg:Second question - how long have you been living there for? |
| Jacques J’habite dans la même maison depuis 5 ans. |
| Greg:I’ve been living in the same house for 5 years. |
| Mireille Troisième question - pourquoi habites-tu dans cette ville? |
| Greg:Third question - why do you live in this city? |
| Jacques Je trouve que c’est une belle grande ville; il y a beaucoup de beaux parcs et les gens sont gentils. |
| Greg:I find that it’s a big and beautiful city. There are lots of beautiful parks and people are nice. |
| Mireille Bonne réponse. Quatrième question - où travailles-tu? |
| Greg:Good answer. Fourth question - where do you work? |
| Jacques Je travaille dans une petite école à côté de chez moi. |
| Greg:I work in a small school next to my house. |
| Mireille Cinquième question - que fais-tu? |
| Greg:Fifth question - what do you do? |
| Jacques Je suis concierge. |
| Greg:I’m a janitor. |
| Mireille Concierge? Tu es concierge? Aimes-tu ça? |
| Greg:A janitor? You are a janitor? Do you like it? |
| Jacques Bof, ça va. J’aime ça. |
| Greg:Bah, it’s fine. I do like it. |
| Mireille Dernière question - comment vois-tu ton avenir? |
| Greg:Last question - how do you see your future? |
| Jacques Je vois mon avenir… avec toi, Mireille! |
| Greg:I see my future… with you, Mireille! |
| Post Conversation Banter |
| Mailys:So, Jacques and Mireille live in a French-speaking city somewhere in the world. |
| Greg:The international community of French-speaking countries is called ‘la francophonie.’ |
| Mailys:That’s right, ‘La francophonie’ refers to all the countries and states of the world where French is either an official language or is used by a large portion of the population. |
| Greg:There are about 80 million people speaking French as a first language, but a total of 300 to 400 million people speak French to some extent. |
| Mailys:French is spoken on many continents. In Europe, it's an official language in France, Belgium, Switzerland and Luxembourg. |
| Greg:In North America, it's an official language in Canada and a first language to about 80% of people in Québec, with over 6 million speakers. |
| Mailys:It's also the official language of many countries in Africa, in the Caribbean and in Polynesia. |
| Greg:Listeners, is there a French-speaking population where you live? |
| Mailys:Let us know! Okay, now let’s go to the vocab. |
| Vocabulary and Phrases |
| Greg:Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| The first word we shall see is: |
| Mailys:depuis [natural native speed] |
| Greg:since, for |
| Mailys:depuis [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys:depuis [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Mailys:quand [natural native speed] |
| Greg:when |
| Mailys:quand [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys:quand [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Mailys:trouver [natural native speed] |
| Greg:to find |
| Mailys:trouver [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys:trouver [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Mailys:grand [natural native speed] |
| Greg:big, tall |
| Mailys:grand [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys:grand [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Mailys:gens [natural native speed] |
| Greg:people |
| Mailys:gens [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys:gens [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Mailys:réponse [natural native speed] |
| Greg:answer |
| Mailys:réponse [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys:réponse [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Mailys:concierge [natural native speed] |
| Greg:janitor |
| Mailys:concierge [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys:concierge [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Mailys:comment [natural native speed] |
| Greg:how |
| Mailys:comment [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys:comment [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Mailys:dernier [natural native speed] |
| Greg:last |
| Mailys:dernier [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys:dernier [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Mailys:avenir [natural native speed] |
| Greg:future |
| Mailys:avenir [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys:avenir [natural native speed] |
| Vocabulary and Phrase Usage |
| Greg:Let’s take a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. Let’s start with ‘depuis’. |
| Mailys:‘depuis’ means “since” or “for”, and points to either the duration or the starting point of an ongoing situation. |
| Greg:Simply use a sentence in the present tense, and add ‘depuis’ plus the duration or starting point. To say “I’ve been speaking French for 2 years”, we say... |
| Mailys:Je parle français depuis deux ans. |
| Greg:Here are two more examples... |
| Mailys:Elle travaille ici depuis lundi. |
| Greg:She’s been working here since Monday. |
| Mailys:Elle travaille ici depuis un an. |
| Greg:She’s been working here for a year. |
| Greg:Let’s now look at ‘dernier’, meaning “last”. |
| Mailys:The feminine form is ‘dernière’. |
| Greg:What’s peculiar about this adjective is its placement. It comes before the noun, except with expressions of time where it comes after... |
| Mailys:C’est la dernière pizza que je mange. |
| Greg:It’s the last pizza that I eat. |
| Mailys:Il habite à Paris depuis l’an dernier. |
| Greg:He’s been living in Paris since last year. |
| Greg:Let's now look at the adjective ‘grand’. It means “tall” or “grown-up” when referring to people, and “large” with objects. The feminine is ‘grande’. This adjective usually comes before the noun. |
| Mailys:‘Une grande ville’, “a big city”. |
| Greg:So far the adjectives we have presented that go before the noun are... |
| Mailys:‘dernier’, ‘grand’, ‘petit’, and all ordinal numbers like ‘premier’. |
| Greg:Lastly, ‘gens’ means “people” and it is masculine plural. ‘Gens’ is always plural. |
| Mailys:J’aime beaucoup les gens de cette ville. |
| Greg:“I really like the people of this city.” Now let’s go on to the grammar. |
| Grammar Point |
| Greg:The focus of this lesson is ordinal numbers and question words. |
| Mailys:Let’s start with ordinal numbers. These are words like “first”, “second”, “third”, etc. |
| Greg:As Mireille is quizzing Jacques, she asks him a series of questions. |
| Mailys:‘première question’, ‘deuxième question’, ‘troisième question’, and so on. |
| Greg:All ordinal numbers end in ‘ième’, except for ‘premier’ and ‘première’. |
| Mailys:Which is easy to remember because English speakers know the word ‘première’. |
| Greg:Let’s to listen to ordinal numbers up to 10 - |
| Mailys:premier |
| Greg:first |
| Mailys:deuxième |
| Greg:second |
| Mailys:troisième |
| Greg:third |
| Mailys:quatrième |
| Greg:fourth |
| Mailys:cinquième |
| Greg:fifth |
| Mailys:sixième |
| Greg:sixth |
| Mailys:septième |
| Greg:seventh |
| Mailys:huitième |
| Greg:eighth |
| Mailys:neuvième |
| Greg:ninth |
| Mailys:dixième |
| Greg:tenth |
| Greg:Don’t forget that these ordinal adjectives are placed before the noun... |
| Mailys:‘la troisième bouteille’, ‘la cinquième question’, ‘le septième café’, and so on. |
| Greg:In this lesson, a few new question words were presented, in addition to ‘que’ and ‘où’ which we introduced in the previous lesson. |
| Mailys:We learned ‘quand’ meaning ”when”, ‘pourquoi,’ “why”, and ‘comment’, “how”. |
| Greg:Let’s listen to some examples. First with ‘quand’... |
| Mailys:‘Quand travailles-tu?’ “When do you work?” |
| Greg:Mailys, could you give us an example with ‘depuis quand,’ “since when?” |
| Mailys:Sure, ‘depuis quand habites-tu à New York?’ which means “Since when have you been living in New York?” |
| Greg:Now with ‘pourquoi’ meaning “why” |
| Mailys:‘Pourquoi est-ce que tu aimes la cuisine française?’ “Why do you like French cuisine?” |
| Greg:and finally, ‘comment’ meaning “how”. |
| Mailys:‘Comment réserve-t-on une table?’ “How does one book a table?” |
| Greg:Thank you, Mailys. One last note -- you may have noticed that, when asked what he does, Jacques answered ‘je suis concierge’ without using an article before ‘concierge’. |
| Mailys:In French, when we use the verb to be to introduce a profession, no article is used. For example, ‘Je suis professeur’ |
| Greg:I’m a teacher / professor |
| Mailys:And ‘Elle est dentiste’ |
| Greg:She’s a dentist. |
| Greg:Alright. That’s it for this lesson! Thanks for listening, and join us for lesson 12 to find out if Jacques and Mireille will go out again! |
| Mailys:À bientôt tout le monde! |
| Greg:See you soon! |
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