Learn French phrases for medical emergencies
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| INTRODUCTION |
| Brandon: Do You Need a Doctor 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 get help in French. |
| Brandon: This conversation takes place in the street |
| Yasmine: It is between Guillaume and Victor. |
| Brandon: The speakers aren't friends, so the speakers will be using formal French. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Guillaume : Vous allez bien ? |
| Victor : Non, j'ai besoin d'aide. |
| Guillaume : Que s'est-il passé ? |
| Victor : Mon ami est blessé à la hanche. Où est l'hôpital le plus proche ? |
| Guillaume : Par ici. C'est à côté. Je vais vous y emmener. |
| Brandon: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| Guillaume : Vous allez bien ? |
| Victor : Non, j'ai besoin d'aide. |
| Guillaume : Que s'est-il passé ? |
| Victor : Mon ami est blessé à la hanche. Où est l'hôpital le plus proche ? |
| Guillaume : Par ici. C'est à côté. Je vais vous y emmener. |
| Brandon: Listen to the conversation with an English translation. |
| Guillaume : Vous allez bien ? |
| Guillaume: Are you alright? |
| Victor : Non, j'ai besoin d'aide. |
| Victor: No, I need help. |
| Guillaume : Que s'est-il passé ? |
| Guillaume: What happened? |
| Victor : Mon ami est blessé à la hanche. Où est l'hôpital le plus proche ? |
| Victor: My friend has injured his hip. Where is the nearest hospital? |
| Guillaume : Par ici. C'est à côté. Je vais vous y emmener. |
| Guillaume: This way. It’s close by. I’ll take you there. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Brandon: There are three main emergency services in France, right? |
| Yasmine: Right. We have the SAMU (Service d'Aide Médicale d'Urgence), the pompiers "fire department," and the police. |
| Brandon: The SAMU is a national, publicly run emergency service that deals only with very serious cases. The SAMU provides both ambulances and specialist medical teams. What are the important numbers that our listeners should remember? |
| Yasmine: First, we have 112 or 112. |
| Brandon: It’s the European emergency number. It is not just the emergency number in France, so you can call this number anywhere in the EU if you have an emergency. As for French emergency numbers, I think 15 is for medical emergencies and 17 is for police, right? |
| Yasmine: That’s right. And if you find a missing child, you can call 116000 – the missing children line. |
| Brandon: Good to know. Okay, let’s move onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Brandon: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Yasmine: aller bien [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: “to be well” |
| Yasmine: aller bien [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Yasmine: aller bien [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: Next we have.. |
| Yasmine: ami [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: “friend” |
| Yasmine: ami [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Yasmine: ami [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: Next we have.. |
| Yasmine: besoin [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: “a need” |
| Yasmine: besoin [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Yasmine: besoin [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: Next we have.. |
| Yasmine: aide [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: “help” |
| Yasmine: aide [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Yasmine: aide [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: Next we have.. |
| Yasmine: blessé [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: “injured” |
| Yasmine: blessé [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Yasmine: blessé [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: Next we have.. |
| Yasmine: hôpital [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: “hospital” |
| Yasmine: hôpital [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Yasmine: hôpital [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: Next we have.. |
| Yasmine: à côté [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: “next door, nearby, close by” |
| Yasmine: à côté [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Yasmine: à côté [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: The last word is.. |
| Yasmine: emmener [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: “to bring, to take with” |
| Yasmine: emmener [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Yasmine: emmener [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Brandon: Let's have a closer look at some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first word is... |
| Yasmine: aller bien |
| Brandon: meaning "to be well." |
| Yasmine: Aller is one of the most common French verbs. |
| Brandon: It’s an irregular verb and literally means "to go." |
| Yasmin Bien is an adverb and means "well" or "fine." This expression is used to ask common questions as well as to answer them. For example, when someone asks you Comment vas-tu ? Tu vas bien? |
| Brandon: This means "How are you? Are you ok?" |
| Yasmine: You can answer with Je vais bien. |
| Brandon: "I'm doing well." There’s another very common French expression, right? |
| Yasmine: Yes, we have ça va. |
| Brandon: It can be both a question and an answer, but it is informal. |
| Yasmine: Don’t ask ça va? to anyone that you don't know well! |
| Brandon: Can you give us an example? |
| Yasmine: Sure. Salut ! Ca va? |
| Brandon: "Hi! How's it going?" |
| Yasmine: Ca va, merci! |
| Brandon: "I'm fine, thanks!" Okay, what’s the next word? |
| Yasmine: Se passer, |
| Brandon: meaning "to take place." |
| Yasmine: This phrase is made of se, the third person singular and plural reflexive pronoun, and passer, |
| Brandon: which is a verb meaning “to go,” “to come,” or “to pass.” It’s a passive impersonal construction. It‘s an impersonal verb despite the reflexive pronoun, and not an intransitive verb. |
| Yasmine: We make this distinction in order not to confuse se passer and passer . |
| Brandon: The first means "to happen,” “to go on,” or “to take place" while the second means "to pass,” or “to spend." Can you give us some examples? |
| Yasmine: Sure. Qu'est-ce qui se passe? |
| Brandon: "What's going on?" |
| Yasmine: And we have.. passer de bons moments |
| Brandon: "to have a good time." What if we want to say “to go?” |
| Yasmine: It's better to use the verb aller. For example, Je vais à l'école. |
| Brandon: "I'm going to school.” Okay, Listener’s you can find a complete list of vocabulary in the lesson notes. Ok let’s move onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Brandon: In this lesson, you’ll learn about French phrases for medical emergencies. We'll show you some useful phrases in case you need medical assistance. |
| Yasmine: First, we have J'ai besoin d'aide. |
| Brandon: "I need help.” Can you break down this expression? |
| Yasmine: Sure. The first word, j'ai, is the contracted form of je"I" and ai, which is the conjugated form of avoir, |
| Brandon: meaning "I have." |
| Yasmine: It’s followed by besoin, |
| Brandon: which is French for "need." |
| Yasmine: To sum it up, we have J'ai besoin. |
| Brandon: Literally, this means "I have a need." The next word means "help." |
| Yasmine: Right. D'aide. |
| Brandon: It seems like we could use the same pattern to say “I need a doctor.” |
| Yasmine: That’s right. You can say J'ai besoin d'un médecin. |
| Brandon: That means "I need a doctor." Okay, what’s the next phrase? |
| Yasmine: S'il vous plaît, amenez-moi chez le médecin. |
| Brandon: "Please take me to the doctor." If you need a doctor or would like someone to take you, you can say this. |
| Yasmine: We already know that s'il vous plaît is "please." Then we have amenez, which means something like "bring" and moi means “me.” |
| Brandon: So literally, this means "please bring me." It’s followed by chez, which in French means something like "the house of" or "the place of." |
| Yasmine: Right. So since le médecin, is "doctor," chez le médecin would be… |
| Brandon: “The place of the doctor,” so a clinic or hospital. Okay, we have another important expression, which is.. |
| Yasmine: S'il vous plaît, appelez-moi une ambulance. |
| Brandon: meaning "Please call an ambulance." Can you break this down? |
| Yasmine: Again we have “please,” S'il vous plaît, and it’s followed by appelez. |
| Brandon: That means "call," so we’re politely saying “please call.” |
| Yasmine: Then again we have moi, and une, meaning "a." Finally we have "ambulance.” |
| Brandon: That’s French for “ambulance.” But what about when we get to the doctor? Can you give us some ways to explain what’s wrong? |
| Yasmine: Here’s one. J'ai mal à la tête. |
| Brandon: “I have a headache.” |
| Yasmine: First we have J'ai meaning “I have.” It’s followed by mal. |
| Brandon: That literally means "bad," but in this context it means “pain”. So “I have pain.” |
| Yasmine: The next word is à meaning "in" and la tête, which is French for "head." So altogether we have J'ai mal à la tête. |
| Brandon:"I have pain in the head", or, more naturally,"I have a headache." |
| Yasmine J'ai mal can be used with other words to explain a lot of symptoms, so check out the lesson notes to learn more expressions. |
Outro |
| Brandon: Okay, that’s it for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone. See you next time! |
| Yasmine: À bientôt! |
Comments
Hide