Learn how to ask questions with various levels of formality
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Brandon: Where's the Nearest Bathroom in this French City? I’m Brandon! |
| Yasmine: Bonjour. I'm Yasmine. |
| Brandon: Yasmine, what are we going to learn in this lesson? |
| Yasmine: In this lesson, we'll learn how to ask basic questions with different degrees of politeness and how to apologize. |
| Brandon: This conversation takes place in a station |
| Yasmine: This conversation is between Paul and Marc. |
| Brandon: The speakers are not friends, so the speakers will be using formal French, except for the last sentence, which is informal. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Paul: Excusez-moi monsieur. Savez-vous où sont les toilettes s’il vous plaît ? |
| Marc : Je suis désolé, mais je ne sais pas. |
| Paul: (à lui-même) Je vais demander à cet enfant là-bas. |
| Paul : Hé, où sont les toilettes ? |
| Brandon: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| Paul: Excusez-moi monsieur. Savez-vous où sont les toilettes s’il vous plaît ? |
| Marc : Je suis désolé, mais je ne sais pas. |
| Paul: (à lui-même) Je vais demander à cet enfant là-bas. |
| Paul : Hé, où sont les toilettes ? |
| Brandon: Listen to the conversation with an English translation. |
| Paul: Excusez-moi monsieur. Savez-vous où sont les toilettes s’il vous plaît ? |
| Paul: Excuse me, sir. Do you know where the toilets are, please ? |
| Marc : Je suis désolé, mais je ne sais pas. |
| Marc: I'm sorry, but I don't know. |
| Paul: (à lui-même) Je vais demander à cet enfant là-bas. |
| Paul: (to himself) I'm gonna ask that kid over there. |
| Paul : Hé, où sont les toilettes ? |
| Paul: Hey, where's the toilet? |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Brandon: In French, you’ll address people differently depending on how well you know them. |
| Yasmine: French has two different words for "you"- tu and vous. |
| Brandon: It’s very important to remember the difference so you don’t sound rude. |
| Yasmine: Tu is the familiar form. |
| Brandon: It shows a closeness and informality, so use it with your friends or family. |
| Yasmine: Vous is formal. |
| Brandon: It’s used to show respect or formality with someone, so this would be how you’d address a boss or stranger. “Register” refers to the level of formality of a given word, or expression. In French, there are six registers- Literary, Formal, Normal, Informal, Familiar and Vulgar |
| Brandon: How do you usually speak, Yasmine? |
| Yasmine:. I usually speak in normal and informal language. |
| Brandon: Does your company have a pretty friendly atmosphere? |
| Yasmine: Yes, but I use formal language when I have meetings with my boss. |
| Brandon: What if we want to be less formal with someone? What would we say? |
| Yasmine: Est-ce que je peux vous tutoyer ? |
| Brandon: That means "May I say tu to vous?" or “May I address you with tu rather than vous?” Okay, onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Brandon: Let’s take a look at the vocabularies and phrases used in this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Yasmine: excuse [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: excuse |
| Yasmine: excuse [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Yasmine: excuse [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: Next we have.. |
| Yasmine: toilettes [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: restrooms |
| Yasmine: toilettes [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Yasmine: toilettes [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: Next we have.. |
| Yasmine: où [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: where |
| Yasmine: où [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Yasmine: où [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: Next we have.. |
| Yasmine: S’il vous plaît [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: please |
| Yasmine: S’il vous plaît [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Yasmine: S’il vous plaît [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: Next we have.. |
| Yasmine: être désolé [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: to be sorry |
| Yasmine: être désolé [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Yasmine: être désolé [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: Next we have.. |
| Yasmine: lui-même [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: himself |
| Yasmine: lui-même [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Yasmine: lui-même [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: Next we have.. |
| Yasmine: Là-bas [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: there, over there |
| Yasmine: Là-bas [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Yasmine: Là-bas [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: Next we have.. |
| Yasmine: demander [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: to ask |
| Yasmine: demander [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Yasmine: demander [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Brandon: Let's have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first one is.. |
| Yasmine: être désolé |
| Brandon: meaning "To be sorry." |
| Yasmine: être is a verb meaning "to be." Désolé is an adjective meaning "sorry." In the feminine form désolé becomes désolée. |
| Brandon: Listeners, While these two words sound the same,the feminine version has an e added to the end.When would we use this phrase? |
| Yasmine: If you want to apologize, to express your remorse you can say Je suis désolé(e). |
| Brandon: “I am sorry.” Can we also use this expression to sympathize with someone in pain, like in English? |
| Yasmine: Yes, it would be Je suis désolé que tu te sois cassé la jambe. |
| Brandon: “I'm sorry to hear that you've broken your leg.” Is there an even more polite way to apologize? |
| Yasmine: You can use présenter ses excuses. |
| Brandon: Which also means “to make apologies.” |
| Yasmine: Je vous présente mes excuses pour les dégâts que j'ai causés. |
| Brandon: This means “I apologize for the damage I caused.” Are there any other things to be aware of? |
| Yasmine: Well, Etre désolé requires the subjunctive. |
| Brandon: The subjunctive mood is found in clauses introduced by |
| Yasmine que |
| Brandon or |
| Yasmine qui. |
| Brandon Can you give us an example? |
| Yasmine: Je suis désolé qu'il ne vienne pas. |
| Brandon: Literally this means “I'm sorry that he's not coming.”Okay, next we have.. |
| Yasmine: lui-même, |
| Brandon: meaning "himself." |
| Yasmine: Lui-même is a pronoun in masculine form. |
| Brandon: Pronouns are used in place of a noun that has already been mentioned or that is already known, often to avoid repeating the noun. When can we use this phrase? |
| Yasmine: You can not use lui-même With an impersonal subject, such as on or tout le monde. Instead, use the French pronoun soi. |
| Brandon: Can you give us an example? |
| Yasmine: Sure! On n'est jamais si bien servi que par soi-même. |
| Brandon: Ah, we have this phrase in English, too! “If you want something done, you have to do it yourself.” |
| Yasmine: The feminine form of lui-même is elle-même. Aucune stratégie ne fonctionnera par elle-même |
| Brandon:.That means “No single strategy will work on its own.” Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Brandon: In this lesson, you'll learn about how to apologize in French |
| Yasmine: In the dialogue, we had Je suis désolé, mais je ne sais pas, |
| Brandon: meaning “I'm sorry, but I don't know.” As you haven't mastered French yet, it's probably smart to go over the phrases for apologizing as they just might come in handy.What’s first? |
| Yasmine: We'll start with pardon. |
| Brandon:You would use this phrase when you want to pass by someone, when you want to apologize for bumping into someone, or when you don't understand what someone has said. It’s pretty common. I bet you’ll hear it a lot in crowded places like markets and the metro. What’s next? |
| Yasmine: Next, we'll take a look at Excusez-moi. |
| Brandon: You can also use this phrase to get by someone, but it’s a bit stronger and a bit more forceful without losing any politeness. You’d also use it to apologize in a more emphatic way. You can say |
| yasmine pardon |
| brandon in passing, just like "excuse me" in English, but you have to be more direct if you're apologizing to a particular person. You can only use |
| Yasmine excusez-moi |
| Brandon before a sentence explaining what you are apologizing for, just like |
| yasmine pardon. |
| Brandon Let’s hear an example. |
| Yasmine: Excusez-moi, je ne parle pas Français. Pardon, je ne parle pas Français. |
| Brandon: Which both mean “I’m sorry, I don’t speak French.” But what if someone says one of these expressions to you? What do you say back? |
| Yasmine: The proper response is Il n'y a pas de problème or ce n'est pas grave. |
| Brandon: Those mean “It’s no problem” or “It’s not a big deal.” We’ve seen that apologizing for bumping into people or needing to get by someone are daily needs. However, I’m sure that there are more specific situations in which apologizing requires a different tone and different words.What if you’re apologizing to your family or friends? You can be informal with them, right? |
| Yasmine: Right, you don’t need to address friends with the formal vous.You can say excuse-moi, which is the tu form. |
| Brandon: The Cultural Insight section will show you more situations that call for different phrases, make sure to check them out! |
Outro |
| Brandon: Okay, that’s it for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone. See you next time! |
| Yasmine: À bientôt! |
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