Learn how to pronounce U, EU, and OU
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Gabriella: Bonjour chers auditeurs! Je m'appelle Gabriella. Discovering New Worlds in the French Library! |
| Jeremy: Moi, c'est … |
| Gabriella: Let's get started. Quel est le sujet de la leçon d'aujourd'hui ? |
| Jeremy: In this lesson, you’ll learn about the pronunciation of “u”, “ou” and “eu” from a conversation between Laure and Vincent, and a librarian. |
| Gabriella: Ok, donc c'est une conversation formelle ? |
| Jeremy: Oui, Laure et Vincent veulent s’inscrire dans une bibliothèque. |
| Gabriella: So let’s listen to the conversation and see what they like to read. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Bibliothécaire: Bonjour, comment puis-je vous aider ? |
| Laure : Bonjour, nous souhaiterions nous inscrire à la bibliothèque. |
| Bibliothécaire : Bien sûr, remplissez ce formulaire. (pause) Quel genre de littérature aimez-vous ? |
| Vincent : J'aime bien les polars, la science-fiction et les biographies... |
| Laure : Moi, c'est plutôt la bande dessinée, la science-fiction et la fantasy, mais j'aime bien quelques romans actuels et le théatre. |
| Bibliothécaire : Très bien, donc au rez-de-chaussée, vous trouverez les livres jeunesse, la bande dessinée et les arts. Au premier étage, la littérature française, le théatre et la poésie ; au second, les littératures de l'imaginaire, l'histoire, les sciences et techniques. N'hésitez pas à venir me poser des questions ! |
| Gabriella: Now let's hear it with the English translation. |
| Bibliothécaire: Bonjour, comment puis-je vous aider ? |
| Librarian: Hello, how can I help you? |
| Laure : Bonjour, nous souhaiterions nous inscrire à la bibliothèque. |
| Laure: Hello. We would like to register with the library. |
| Bibliothécaire : Bien sûr, remplissez ce formulaire. (pause) Quel genre de littérature aimez-vous ? |
| Librarian: Of course! Could you please complete this form? (pause) What type of literature do you fancy? |
| Vincent : J'aime bien les polars, la science-fiction et les biographies... |
| Vincent: I like thrillers, science fiction, and biographies... |
| Laure : Moi, c'est plutôt la bande dessinée, la science-fiction et la fantasy, mais j'aime bien quelques romans actuels et le théatre. |
| Laure: As for me, it's comics, science fiction, and fantasy, but I also like some of the modern novels and plays. |
| Bibliothécaire : Très bien, donc au rez-de-chaussée, vous trouverez les livres jeunesse, la bande dessinée et les arts. Au premier étage, la littérature française, le théatre et la poésie ; au second, les littératures de l'imaginaire, l'histoire, les sciences et techniques. N'hésitez pas à venir me poser des questions ! |
| Librarian: Great, well, on the ground floor you'll find the children's, the comics, and the arts sections; on the first floor, the French literature, play, and poetry sections; and on the second floor, the fiction, history, science, and technical writing. Don't hesitate to come and ask me if you have any questions. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Gabriella: It seems it’s easy to find whatever you want in a French library! |
| Jeremy: En effet, on trouve toutes sortes de livres ! Comics, novels, short stories… And now even DVDs and music albums! |
| Gabriella: What sort of literature do the French like? |
| Jeremy: Probably biographies, historical novels, and fantastic stories. |
| Gabriella: J’ai vu aussi beaucoup de polars… |
| Jeremy: Oui, c’est un genre très apprécié aussi. Actually, we’ve been used to these different kinds of literature since we were children. |
| Gabriella: What about comics ? |
| Jeremy: La bande dessinée est très populaire en France ! Il y en a toujours dans les bibliothèques. |
| Gabriella: I like manga, is it popular? |
| Jeremy: Oui, les adolescents, mais aussi les adultes, lisent des manga en France. But it’s sometimes hard to find it in libraries in France. |
| Gabriella: Too many volumes per series, I guess… |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Gabriella: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| Gabriella: The first word we shall see is... |
| Jeremy: inscrire [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: to register |
| Jeremy: inscrire [slowly - broken down by syllable] inscrire [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Jeremy: remplir [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: to fill (up), to fill in, to fulfill, to carry out |
| Jeremy: remplir [slowly - broken down by syllable] remplir [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Jeremy: genre [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: category, kind |
| Jeremy: genre [slowly - broken down by syllable] genre [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Jeremy: biographie [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: biography |
| Jeremy: biographie [slowly - broken down by syllable] biographie [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Jeremy: bande dessinée [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: comic book, graphic novel |
| Jeremy: bande dessinée [slowly - broken down by syllable] bande dessinée [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Jeremy: fantasy [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: fantasy |
| Jeremy: fantasy [slowly - broken down by syllable] fantasy [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Jeremy: théâtre [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: theater |
| Jeremy: théâtre [slowly - broken down by syllable] théâtre [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Jeremy: rez-de-chaussée [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: first floor, street level |
| Jeremy: rez-de-chaussée [slowly - broken down by syllable] rez-de-chaussée [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Jeremy: imaginaire [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: imaginary world, fantasy |
| Jeremy: imaginaire [slowly - broken down by syllable] imaginaire [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: And last... |
| Jeremy: poésie [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: poetry |
| Jeremy: poésie [slowly - broken down by syllable] poésie [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Gabriella: Let’s take a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. Jeremy, what’s our first word ? |
| Jeremy: Rez-de-chaussée. In the US, it refers to the first floor. |
| Gabriella: So premier étage in French would stand for the second floor? |
| Jeremy: C’est exact, et ainsi de suite. |
| Gabriella: I already heard something like à l’étage. |
| Jeremy: It means “upstairs”, it usually refers to the upper floor. You can say je monte à l’étage. |
| Gabriella: “I’m going upstairs.” |
| Jeremy: You can also find the expression à l’étage du dessus or à l’étage du dessous. |
| Gabriella: "Upstairs" and "downstairs." Ok! What’s the next word? |
| Jeremy: Bande dessinée. |
| Gabriella: It’s a "comic book," right? I’ve heard the French label the different types of comic books? |
| Jeremy: C’est vrai. Bande dessinée refers to the European comics, especially French and Belgian comics. |
| Gabriella: What about the US comics? |
| Jeremy: They are called simply comics! And for Asian ones, it depends on the country. |
| Gabriella: So manga for Japanese comics, and…? |
| Jeremy: Manhua for the Chinese comics, and Manhwa for the Korean ones. But everyone tends to say manga for all of them! |
| Gabriella: I see! It’s easier. What’s our last word? |
| Jeremy: Imaginaire. |
| Gabriella: "imaginary"? What does it stand for? |
| Jeremy: It’s used to describe a certain part of literature - fantastic, fantasy and science-fiction stories. |
| Gabriella: Is it the same as “fiction stories”. |
| Jeremy: It’s a part of it, yes. but this word specifically refers to these three types of novels and short stories. |
| Gabriella: Ok, got it! Let’s move onto the grammar! |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Jeremy: In this lesson, you’ll learn about the pronunciation of “u”, “ou” and “eu”. |
| Gabriella: Oh, I used to mix them up so often when I started to learn French! |
| Jeremy: The French use a lot of different vowels; it can be really confusing |
| Gabriella: Ok, let’s start with “U”. Can you give us some common words ? |
| Jeremy: Tu, “you”, chute “fall”, dur “hard”. I'll give an example - Il y croyait beaucoup, aussi la chute a été dure. |
| Gabriella: "He believed in it so much that the fall was hard.” |
| Jeremy: Bien sûr, remplissez ce formulaire. |
| Gabriella: “Of course, could you please complete this form." |
| Jeremy: Passons au son “ou” maintenant. Il est proche de “u”. |
| Gabriella: Oui, c’est pas très facile au début. |
| Jeremy: You'll see it’s easier than it seems! |
| Gabriella: Let’s see some words. |
| Jeremy: Roue, “wheel”, tourner “to turn”, genou “knee”... La roue tourne toujours! |
| Gabriella: “The wheels are always turning.” Est-ce que tu as un exemple avec les sons U et OU ? |
| Jeremy: Oui, bien sûr ! Elle porte une jupe courte au-dessus du genou. |
| Gabriella: "She wears a short skirt, above the knees." It’s clear now! |
| Jeremy: Our last sound is “eu”. (pronounce it like in fleur), like in jeune, heure, club, fleur… |
| Gabriella: “Young”, “hour”, “club” and “flower”. Un exemple ? |
| Jeremy: Je passe deux heures par jour au club de go. |
| Gabriella: “I spend two hours a day at the go club.” |
| Jeremy: There is another “eu” in French, but we'll learn it in another lesson! |
| Gabriella: I think I got it! But I also heard “u” pronounced “eu” and “ou”, can you explain why? |
| Jeremy: Because the words concerned are loan words, so the French tend to pronounce them as close to the native pronunciation as possible. |
| Gabriella: C’est pour ça que “club” se dit club en Français! |
| Jeremy: Exact. With a little practice, it will get easier. |
| Gabriella: Bien sûr! Chers auditeurs, n’hésitez pas à pratiquer dans les commentaires! |
Outro |
|---|
| Gabriella: That’s all for this lesson. |
| Jeremy: Thanks for listening, et à la prochaine! |
| Gabriella: Salut! |
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