Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Notes

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Brandon: Are You Losing Track of the Months in France? I’m Brandon!
Yasmine: Bonjour. I'm Yasmine.
Brandon: Yasmine, what are we going to learn in this lesson?
Yasmine: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to discuss dates and the timing of events
Brandon: This conversation takes place in a café
Yasmine: This conversation is between Anaïs and Alexandre.
Brandon: The speakers are friends, so the speakers will be using informal French. Okay, let's listen to the conversation.
DIALOGUE
Anaïs: Il y aura 29 jours en février cette année.
Alexandre: Pourquoi pas 30?
Anaïs: Il n’y a jamais 30 jours en février. C’est 28 jours.
Alexandre: Non, je suis certain qu’Halloween est le 30 février.
Anaïs: Tu veux dire le 31 octobre?
Alexandre: Mais quel mois vient après septembre?
Brandon: Listen to the conversation one time slowly.
Anaïs: Il y aura 29 jours en février cette année.
Alexandre: Pourquoi pas 30?
Anaïs: Il n’y a jamais 30 jours en février. C’est 28 jours.
Alexandre: Non, je suis certain qu’Halloween est le 30 février.
Anaïs: Tu veux dire le 31 octobre?
Alexandre: Mais quel mois vient après septembre?
Brandon: Listen to the conversation with an English translation.
Anaïs: Il y aura 29 jours en février cette année.
Anaïs: There will be 29 days in February this year.
Alexandre: Pourquoi pas 30?
Alexandre: Why not 30?
Anaïs: Il n’y a jamais 30 jours en février. C’est 28 jours.
Anaïs: There are never 30 days in February. It's 28 days.
Alexandre: Non, je suis certain qu’Halloween est le 30 février.
Alexandre: Nope, I'm sure Halloween is on the 30th of February.
Anaïs: Tu veux dire le 31 octobre?
Anaïs: You mean the 31st of October?
Alexandre: Mais quel mois vient après septembre?
Alexandre: Which month comes after September?
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Brandon: Yasmine do French People celebrate Halloween? It’s not a traditional French holiday, is it?
Yasmine: No, but it becomes more popular every year. Halloween is mostly celebrated by young adults or teenagers.
Brandon: It must be the influence of American culture.
Yasmine: Sometimes children dress up and ask for treats, but adults prefer having Halloween parties.
Brandon: I guess that’s the same as in the U.S., where everyone dresses up and goes to a friend’s house or bar. I’ve heard that unlike in America, where you can dress up as a fairy or dog or whatever you want, in France you can only dress up as scary things like a witch or a zombie.
Yasmine: That’s true.
Brandon: Did you ever celebrate Halloween in France?
Yasmine: A few times, with my friends. We went to a party dressed like monsters. But Halloween occurs during the mid-season school break.
Brandon: That’s bad timing. If we do celebrate Halloween in France, how would we talk about wearing a costume?
Yasmine: You can use Se déguiser, which means "to disguise yourself."
Brandon: Remember that phrase listeners, but let’s move onto the vocab.
VOCAB LIST
Brandon: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary and phrases used in this lesson. The first word is..
Brandon: The first word is..
Yasmine: année [natural native speed]
Brandon: year
Yasmine: année [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Yasmine: année [natural native speed]
Brandon: Next we have..
Yasmine: jamais [natural native speed]
Brandon: never
Yasmine: jamais [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Yasmine: jamais [natural native speed]
Brandon: Next we have..
Yasmine: février [natural native speed]
Brandon: February
Yasmine: février [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Yasmine: février [natural native speed]
Brandon: Next we have..
Yasmine: certain [natural native speed]
Brandon: sure
Yasmine: certain [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Yasmine: certain [natural native speed]
Brandon: Next we have..
Yasmine: venir [natural native speed]
Brandon: to come
Yasmine: venir [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Yasmine: venir [natural native speed]
Brandon: Next we have..
Yasmine: après [natural native speed]
Brandon: after
Yasmine: après [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Yasmine: après [natural native speed]
Brandon: Next we have..
Yasmine: octobre [natural native speed]
Brandon: October
Yasmine: octobre [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Yasmine: octobre [natural native speed]
Brandon: Next we have..
Yasmine: septembre [natural native speed]
Brandon: September
Yasmine: septembre [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Yasmine: septembre [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 word is..
Yasmine: certain
Brandon: meaning "sure."
Yasmine: Certain is an adjective.
Brandon: It means "inevitable," "indisputable," "sure," and also "some." It’s an adjective that needs to agree in gender and number with the noun it modifies. Can you give us an example?
Yasmine: Certains enfants n'aiment pas le chocolat.
Brandon: “Some kids don't like chocolate.”
Yasmine: Il est certain / C'est certain may require the subjunctive.
Brandon: That means “It is certain.”This expression may require a change to the subjunctive mood depending on whether it’s being used affirmatively, negatively, or interrogatively. The subjunctive mood is used to express actions or ideas which are subjective or uncertain.
Yasmine: This expression can be introduced by que,
Brandon: “what,”
Yasmine: or qui,
Brandon: “who.”
Yasmine: For example, C'est certain qu'il le fait.
Brandon: “It’s certain that he’ll do it.” Can we use this expression any time?
Yasmine: Well, Certain is a little bit pompous and formal.
Brandon: What if we want to speak informally?
Yasmine: Use the word sûr. Je suis sûr d'avoir fermé la porte.
Brandon: “I'm sure I closed the door.”
Yasmine: The feminine form is "sure." Elle est sûre d'elle à propos de ce dossier.
Brandon: “She is confident about this file.”
Yasmine: Sûr et certain is a famous informal expression.
Brandon: It's informal because it's redundant; it's like saying "absolutely certain" or "positively sure." Can you show us how to use it?
Yasmine: Of course. Marion est sûre et certaine qu'il va neiger.
Brandon: “Marion is absolutely positive that it's going to snow.” Okay, next we have..
Yasmine: attendre
Brandon: meaning "to wait."
Yasmine: Attendre is a regular French verb.
Brandon: How would we use it?
Yasmine: J'attends que mes enfants aient fini leurs devoirs avant de les emmener au parc.
Brandon: "I am waiting for my children to finish their homework before taking them to the park." What if we’re waiting patiently, is there a different verb we can use?
Yasmine: Use "patienter." Il patiente en lisant un magazine dans la salle d'attente du docteur.
Brandon: “He waits patiently while reading a magazine in the doctor's waiting room.” What if someone is getting ahead of us and we need to tell them to wait? Is it the same? In English we usually just say “wait!”
Yasmine: You can use attends! to say "wait!" but it's informal.
Brandon: Then we should only use it with people we’re close with, like friends or relatives. Okay, let’s move onto the lesson focus.

Lesson focus

Brandon: In this lesson, you'll learn how to discuss dates and the timing of events.
Yasmine: In the dialogue we had Il y aura 29 jours en février cette année,
Brandon: meaning “There will be twenty-nine days in February this year.” To answer questions about time, it’s helpful to know the days of the week and the months of the year in French. Note that the months of the year in French are very similar to those in English, but the days of the week aren’t.
Yasmine: The days are dimanche, lundi, mardi, mercredi, jeudi, vendredi, and samedi.
Brandon: That’s Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday in French.
And how about the months?
Yasmine: The months are Janvier, Février, Mars…
Brandon: “January,” “February,” “March,”
Yasmine: Avril, Mai, Juin….
Brandon: “April,” “May,” “June,”
Yasmine: Juillet, Août, Septembre...
Brandon: “July,” “August,” “September,”
Yasmine: Octobre, Novembre, Décembre.
Brandon: “October,” “November,” and “December.” All the days and months are in the lesson notes, so you can practice at your own pace. But Yasmine, how do we talk about the days of the month? What are the ordinal numbers? I think it’s not that different from counting to ten.
Yasmine: Right. Except for premier/première, which is “first,” you can make ordinal numbers using the french numbers + the ending -ième.
Brandon: Can you show us how?
Yasmine: Sure. We have deuxième,troisième,quatrième..
Brandon: Which are “second,” “third,” and “fourth.” Listeners, You can find all the ordinal numbers in the lesson notes. Now, don't forget that we place these ordinal adjectives before the noun.
Yasmine: For example, la troisième bouteille, or la cinquième question.
Brandon: “The third bottle” or “the fifth question.” With these words, you can address the specific dates.
Yasmine: For example, Le 12 octobre.
Brandon: “October 12th .”
Yasmine: Le 15 décembre.
Brandon: “December 15th.” For more examples, check the lesson notes.

Outro

Brandon: Thank you for listening, everyone. See you next time!
Yasmine: À bientôt!

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