Learn French ordinal numbers and more French question words
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Greg: Hello everyone, I’m Greg: and welcome to FrenchPod101.com. This is Lower Beginner, Season 1, Lesson 11 - 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! |
Lesson 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. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| 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] |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| 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. |
Lesson focus |
| 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! |
32 Comments
HideHi everyone!
Let us know if you have any questions about this lesson.
Bonjour Aishat,
Ah ça, on le découvrira dans les prochains épisodes !
Bonne journée,
Marion
Team FrenchPod101
J'espère Mireille aime Jacques aussi.
Alors, est-ce que Mireille habite à la ville comme Jacques.
Bonjour Eva,
Merci pour ton commentaire !
Bonne journée,
Marion
Team FrenchPod101
Je apprend le français depuis Mars.
Bonjour Josh,
I'm glad I could help! 😄
FYI, "utile" is not an adjective you would use for people, only objects. Instead you can say "ton aide m'a été très précieuse/utile" for example, or simply "Tu m'as beaucoup aidé". 😉
Bonne journée,
Marion
Team FrenchPod101
Bonjour Marion!
Comme d'habitude, tu es très utile, Marion! (I hope I got this sentence right this time.) Merci beaucoup pour votre réponse. I wouldn't have recognized my mistakes until you pointed them out. 😄
à la prochaine!
Bonjour Josh,
Be careful, you should say "Est-ce que cette leçon est excellente ?", and "Oui, elle est excellente" or you could use a pronoun to avoid the repetition: "Oui, elle l'est".
Also, just FYI, you wouldn't really use "très" with "excellente" as "excellent(e)" is already a superlative that means "very good". Adding "très" onto it would be quite redundant! 😉
Bonne journée,
Marion
Team FrenchPod101
Bonjour à tous!
Est-ce que cette leçon très excellente?
-- Oui! Je pense que c'est excellente!
J'espère Jacques et Mireille seront ensemble. ❤️️😄
Merci beaucoup et à demain!
Bonjour Andrew,
C'est difficile de se souvenir de tout ! 😅
Bonne journée,
Marion
Team FrenchPod101
Les gens oublient toujours St.Pierre et Miquelon quand ils disent de francophonie.