Review French possessives
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| Greg:Hello everyone, I’m Greg. That was a Weird French Movie! |
| Mailys:Bonjour tout le monde. This is Mailys. In this lesson, we will review possessives. |
| Greg:In this lesson, Mireille and Jacques have just come out of the movie theater and are going for a walk while talking about the movie. |
| Mailys:As usual, they use informal French. |
| Greg:Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| Jacques Ah, quel film excellent! |
| Mireille Jacques, tu veux marcher un peu pendant qu’on parle du film? |
| Jacques Pourquoi pas. |
| Mireille C’est vrai que le film est excellent, mais il y a des scènes bizarres. |
| Jacques Ah bon? Par exemple? |
| Mireille Bien, par exemple quand notre héros sauve sa fille et son garçon en même temps qu’il mange sa pomme, c’est pas un peu bizarre, ça? |
| Jacques Ouais, c’est vrai que c’est plutôt bizarre. Et quand il apprend le chinois pendant qu’il fait la cuisine? |
| Mireille Ah oui! Et que dire de la dernière scène où il prend son café pendant qu’il lave ses deux voitures? |
| Jacques Cette scène est vraiment trop drôle! |
| Mireille Jacques? |
| Jacques Oui, ma belle Mireille? |
| Mireille Tu viens à mon appartement prendre un verre? |
| Jacques …à ton appartement? |
| Greg: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Jacques Ah, quel film excellent! |
| Mireille Jacques, tu veux marcher un peu pendant qu’on parle du film? |
| Jacques Pourquoi pas. |
| Mireille C’est vrai que le film est excellent, mais il y a des scènes bizarres. |
| Jacques Ah bon? Par exemple? |
| Mireille Bien, par exemple quand notre héros sauve sa fille et son garçon en même temps qu’il mange sa pomme, c’est pas un peu bizarre, ça? |
| Jacques Ouais, c’est vrai que c’est plutôt bizarre. Et quand il apprend le chinois pendant qu’il fait la cuisine? |
| Mireille Ah oui! Et que dire de la dernière scène où il prend son café pendant qu’il lave ses deux voitures? |
| Jacques Cette scène est vraiment trop drôle! |
| Mireille Jacques? |
| Jacques Oui, ma belle Mireille? |
| Mireille Tu viens à mon appartement prendre un verre? |
| Jacques …à ton appartement? |
| Greg: Now let’s hear it with the English translation. |
| Jacques Ah, quel film excellent! |
| Greg:Ah, what an excellent movie! |
| Mireille Jacques, tu veux marcher un peu pendant qu’on parle du film? |
| Greg:Jacques, do you want to walk a bit while we talk about the movie? |
| Jacques Pourquoi pas. |
| Greg:Why not. |
| Mireille C’est vrai que le film est excellent, mais il y a des scènes bizarres. |
| Greg:It’s true that the movie’s excellent, but there are weird scenes. |
| Jacques Ah bon? Par exemple? |
| Greg:Really? For instance? |
| Mireille Bien, par exemple quand notre héros sauve sa fille et son garçon en même temps qu’il mange sa pomme, c’est* pas un peu bizarre, ça? |
| Greg:Well, for instance, when our hero saves his daughter and his son while he’s eating his apple, isn’t that a bit weird? |
| Jacques Ouais, c’est vrai que c’est plutôt bizarre. Et quand il apprend le chinois pendant qu’il fait la cuisine? |
| Greg:Yeah, it’s true that it’s a bit weird. And when he learns Chinese while he’s cooking? |
| Mireille Ah oui! Et que dire de la dernière scène où il prend son café pendant qu’il lave ses deux voitures? |
| Greg:Oh yeah! And what about the last scene where he has his coffee while he washes his two cars? |
| Jacques Cette scène est vraiment trop drôle! |
| Greg:That scene is really too funny! |
| Mireille Jacques? |
| Greg:Jacques? |
| Jacques Oui, ma belle Mireille? |
| Greg:Yes, my pretty Mireille? |
| Mireille Tu viens à mon appartement prendre un verre? |
| Greg:Will you come to my apartment for a drink? |
| Jacques …à ton appartement? |
| Greg:…to your apartment? |
| Post Conversation Banter |
| Greg: Okay listeners, so in this lesson's dialogue, Mireille said something that might have surprised you. |
| Mailys:Right, she said ‘c’est pas un peu bizarre, ça?’; instead of saying ‘ce n'est pas’, she said ‘c'est pas’. |
| Greg:But we learned in lesson 6 that negation in French is done by adding ‘ne’ and ‘pas’ on either side of the verb. |
| Mailys:Actually, it's common in informal French for people to drop ‘ne’. In that case, ‘pas’ is the only indication that the verb is negative. |
| Greg:When ‘ne’ is left out, the rest of the sentence behaves as if it were still there. |
| Mailys:For instance in the imperative, ‘ne me regarde pas’ would become ‘me regarde pas’. |
| Greg:You will also find other small changes in informal spoken French. |
| Mailys:‘Tu’ often becomes ‘t'-apostrophe’ before a vowel -- ‘tu aimes; becomes ‘t'aimes’, or ‘tu habites is t'habites’. It's also very common for ‘il’ to be pronounced as ‘i’. |
| Greg:It's common in all languages to have some differences between the spoken and the written language and it's nothing to be worried about. |
| Mailys:Just keep your ears open and you'll get used to these details. |
| Greg:Okay! Let’s go on 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:pendant [natural native speed] |
| Greg:while, during |
| Mailys:pendant [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys:pendant [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Mailys:drôle [natural native speed] |
| Greg:funny |
| Mailys:drôle [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys:drôle [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Mailys:scène [natural native speed] |
| Greg:scene |
| Mailys:scène [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys:scène [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Mailys:par exemple [natural native speed] |
| Greg:for instance |
| Mailys:par exemple [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys:par exemple [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Mailys:sauver [natural native speed] |
| Greg:to save |
| Mailys:sauver [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys:sauver [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Mailys:apprendre [natural native speed] |
| Greg:to learn |
| Mailys:apprendre [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys:apprendre [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Mailys:arrêter [natural native speed] |
| Greg:to stop |
| Mailys:arrêter [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys:arrêter [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Mailys:venir [natural native speed] |
| Greg:to come |
| Mailys:venir [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys:venir [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Mailys:verre [natural native speed] |
| Greg:glass |
| Mailys:verre [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys:verre [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Mailys:appartement [natural native speed] |
| Greg:apartment |
| Mailys:appartement [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys:appartement [natural native speed] |
| Vocabulary and Phrase Usage |
| Greg:Let's have a closer look at the usuage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Mailys:The first word/phrase we’ll look at is.... |
| Greg:‘Pendant’ means “while” or “during”. When it's used with a noun, it means “during”. |
| Mailys:Il dort pendant les cours. |
| Greg:He sleeps during classes. |
| Mailys:Elle lit toujours pendant le vol. |
| Greg:She always reads during the flight. |
| Greg:When it's used with ‘que’, it means “while”. |
| Mailys:Pendant qu'elle travaille, je dors, je lis, j'écoute la télé. |
| Greg:While she's working, I sleep, I read, I watch TV. |
| Mailys:Ma mère fait la cuisine pendant que mon père fait la vaisselle. |
| Greg:My mother is cooking while my father is doing the dishes. |
| Greg:‘Drôle’ means “funny” or “weird”, depending on how it's used. |
| Mailys:As an adjective added after a noun, it usually means “funny”. |
| Mailys:C'est un film très drôle! |
| Greg:It's a very funny movie! |
| Mailys:Excusez-moi, pouvez-vous me recommander un livre drôle? |
| Greg:Excuse me, can you recommend a funny book to me? |
| Greg:However, ‘drôle’ can also mean “odd” or “weird”. In that case, ‘drôle’ will come before the noun and be followed by the preposition ‘de’. |
| Mailys:C'est vraiment un drôle de film. |
| Greg:It's a really odd movie. |
| Mailys:Ton ami est un drôle de garçon. |
| Greg:Your friend is a weird guy. |
| Greg:‘Apprendre’, “to learn”, and ‘venir’, “to come”, are two irregular verbs introduced in this lesson. Let's look at their conjugation. |
| Mailys:‘apprendre’, “to learn” |
| j'apprends |
| tu apprends |
| il apprend |
| nous apprenons |
| vous apprenez |
| ils apprennent |
| Greg:Then we have ‘venir’, which means “to come”. Let’s hear the conjugations for that. |
| Mailys |
| je viens |
| tu viens |
| il vient |
| nous venons |
| vous venez |
| ils viennent |
| Greg:Here are some examples |
| Mailys:Est-ce que vous apprenez le français depuis longtemps? |
| Greg:Have you been learning French for a long time? |
| Mailys:D'où venez-vous? Je viens de Belgique. |
| Greg:“Where are you from? I'm from Belgium.” Ok, let’s go to the grammar now! |
| Grammar Point |
| Mailys:The focus of this lesson is possessives. |
| Greg:In the previous lessons, we’ve introduced many possessive adjectives here and there. Since there are several forms to remember, this lesson will offer a complete overview of all possessives. |
| Mailys:You can also consult the lesson notes for a complete table of all possessive adjectives. |
| Greg:For the first and second person singular possessives -- “my” and “your” --, there are different masculine, feminine and plural forms. |
| Mailys:But there is only one plural form, regardless of gender. |
| Greg:For my, the masculine form is ‘mon’, the feminine is ‘ma’ and the plural is ‘mes’. |
| Mailys:Mon chien |
| Greg:My dog |
| Mailys:Ma maison |
| Greg:My house |
| Mailys:Mes amis |
| Greg:My friends |
| Greg:For “your”, the forms are ‘ton’, ‘ta’ and ‘tes’. |
| Mailys:Ton chien |
| Greg:Your dog |
| Mailys:Ta maison |
| Greg:Your house |
| Mailys:Tes amis |
| Greg:Your friends |
| Greg:The third person singular possessives, ‘son’, ‘sa’, and ‘ses’, work in exactly the same way, but it's worth noting that this is different from English. |
| Mailys:In English, we use “his” or “her” depending on the gender of the owner; in French, we use ‘son’ or ‘sa’ depending on the gender of the noun, not of the owner. |
| Greg:Just as we say ‘mon livre’ and ‘ton livre’, we also say ‘son livre’, “his or her book”. |
| Mailys:We say ‘son’ because ‘livre’ is masculine. |
| Greg:In a case like this, the French doesn't indicate whether the owner is a man or a woman. |
| Mailys:Son livre |
| Greg:His or her book |
| Mailys:Sa voiture |
| Greg:His or her car |
| Mailys:Ses enfants |
| Greg:His or her children |
| Greg:We should also mention that before a vowel, ‘ma’, ‘ta’ and ‘sa’ become ‘mon’, ‘ton’ and ‘son’, even though the noun is feminine. |
| Mailys:mon école |
| Greg:my school |
| Greg:Plural person possessives (our, your, their) only have one form for both masculine and feminine. |
| Mailys:With a plural noun, there is only one form, as with all other possessives. |
| Mailys:Notre père |
| Greg:Our father |
| Mailys:Votre école |
| Greg:Your school |
| Mailys:Leurs enfants |
| Greg:Their children |
| Mailys:Remember that just like the articles ‘le’ and ‘la’, the possessives offer a great way to tell the gender of a noun. |
| Greg:And that’s it for this lesson! Join us for lesson 20 to find out what surprise Mireille has in store for Jacques! |
| Mailys:I'm very curious! À bientôt! |
| Greg:Bye everyone, see you soon! |
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