Learn how to use the gender and number of pronominal verbs
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Gabriella: Bonjour tout le monde ! Je m'appelle Gabriella. A Very Dark French Joke! |
| Jeremy: Moi, c'est Jeremy. |
| Gabriella: Let's get started. Quel est le sujet de la leçon d'aujourd'hui ? |
| Jeremy: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to make pronominal verbs agree with their reflexive object in gender and number. The conversation is between Vincent and Philipp, an American co-worker. |
| Gabriella Ok, donc c'est une conversation formelle ? |
| Jeremy: Oui, et Vincent va devoir expliquer l’humour français à Philipp... |
| Gabriella: Oulà ! Ok, let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Collègue: ...Et là, il lui répond "Si le chat n'est plus sur Mamie, c'est qu'elle est froide!" |
| (Rires de tout le monde) |
| Philippe : Mais ce n'est pas drôle, c'est horrible ! Pourquoi vous riez ? |
| Vincent : Ah, c'est l'humour français. On aime beaucoup l'humour noir, ou même se moquer des gens. Ce n'est pas méchant, dans le fond. |
| Philippe : Je ne comprends pas, vous vous moquez, mais pas méchamment ? |
| Vincent : C'est ça ! Comme tout le monde le fait, c'est normal. Il y a des humoristes français célèbres qui étaient très bons - Coluche, Desproges... Et des acteurs aussi, comme Jean Dujardin, qui est connu en France pour son "Brice de Nice.".. |
| Philippe : Je trouve les blagues françaises pas très amusantes quand même.... |
| Gabriella: Now let's hear it with the English translation. |
| Collègue: ...Et là, il lui répond "Si le chat n'est plus sur Mamie, c'est qu'elle est froide!" |
| Colleague: ...And here, he answered to him, "If the cat is not on Granny anymore, it means that she's cold!" |
| (Rires de tout le monde) |
| (Everybody starts laughing) |
| Philippe : Mais ce n'est pas drôle, c'est horrible ! Pourquoi vous riez ? |
| Philippe: But it's not funny, it's horrible! Why are you all laughing? |
| Vincent : Ah, c'est l'humour français. On aime beaucoup l'humour noir, ou même se moquer des gens. Ce n'est pas méchant, dans le fond. |
| Vincent: Ah, that's the French sense of humor. We love dark humor, or even making fun of people. In fact, there's nothing mean about it. |
| Philippe : Je ne comprends pas, vous vous moquez, mais pas méchamment ? |
| Philippe: I don't understand. You're making fun of each other, but not maliciously? |
| Vincent : C'est ça ! Comme tout le monde le fait, c'est normal. Il y a des humoristes français célèbres qui étaient très bons - Coluche, Desproges... Et des acteurs aussi, comme Jean Dujardin, qui est connu en France pour son "Brice de Nice.".. |
| Vincent: That's it! Because everybody does it, it's normal. There are many good French humorists-Coluche, Desproges...and some actors as well, like Jean Dujardin, who became famous in France thanks to his "Brice de Nice." |
| Philippe : Je trouve les blagues françaises pas très amusantes quand même.... |
| Philippe: I don't find French jokes particularly funny though... |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Gabriella: It’s a weird joke! |
| Jeremy: Oui, mais peut-être une des plus connues en France! |
| Gabriella: I often hear people complaining about French humor. |
| Jeremy: Les Français aiment beaucoup l’humour noir. There are some French humorists known for their dark humor. |
| Gabriella: Who are they? |
| Jeremy: The most famous is probably Pierre Desproges. He managed to make people laugh about death, war, and many atrocities because of his perfect command of French. |
| Gabriella: En effet, c’est assez sombre... |
| Jeremy: He used to say “you may laugh about everything, but not with everyone”, though. |
| Gabriella: Easy to understand! That’s wise. |
| Jeremy: He was a wise man, really smart. By the way, to be ironic and to appreciate dark humor is a sign of good education in France! |
| Gabriella: How come! Vraiment? |
| Jeremy: Oui, car il faut beaucoup de culture générale pour faire de l’humour noir et le comprendre. |
| Gabriella: D’accord, j’ai compris. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Gabriella: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| Gabriella: The first word we shall see is... |
| Jeremy: froid [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: cold |
| Jeremy: froid [slowly - broken down by syllable] froid [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Jeremy: drôle [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: funny |
| Jeremy: drôle [slowly - broken down by syllable] drôle [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Jeremy: humour noir [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: dark humor |
| Jeremy: humour noir [slowly - broken down by syllable] humour noir [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Jeremy: se moquer [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: to make fun |
| Jeremy: se moquer [slowly - broken down by syllable] se moquer [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Jeremy: méchant [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: bad, mean |
| Jeremy: méchant [slowly - broken down by syllable] méchant [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Jeremy: humoriste [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: humorist |
| Jeremy: humoriste [slowly - broken down by syllable] humoriste [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Jeremy: amusant [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: funny |
| Jeremy: amusant [slowly - broken down by syllable] amusant [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Jeremy: quand même [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: though, all the same |
| Jeremy: quand même [slowly - broken down by syllable] quand même [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Jeremy: comprendre [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: to understand |
| Jeremy: comprendre [slowly - broken down by syllable] comprendre [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: And last... |
| Jeremy: blague [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: joke |
| Jeremy: blague [slowly - broken down by syllable] blague [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. Alors, quels mots apprenons-nous aujourd'hui? |
| Jeremy: Le premier mot est l’expression “quand même”. At the beginning of a sentence, it stands for “even though”. |
| Gabriella: Ok, do you have an example ? |
| Jeremy: Quand même elle aurait échoué, elle aurait pu continuer ses études. |
| Gabriella: "Even though she failed, she should go on with her studies." I assume there is another meaning? |
| Jeremy: At the end of the sentence, it stands for “though” or “anyway”. Peu importe ce qu’elle aurait pu faire, elle a échoué quand même. |
| Gabriella: "No matter what she would've done, she failed anyway." Ok, what’s our second word? |
| Jeremy: Se moquer. |
| Gabriella: "To make fun of," "to laugh at." It’s a pronominal verb, right? |
| Jeremy: Oui, c’est un verbe pronominal. It can also mean “to ignore”. Je me moque des limitations de vitesse. |
| Gabriella: "I don’t care about speed limits." And what about moquer? |
| Jeremy: It translates as “to mock”. It's slightly different and mainly used in literature and formal French. |
| Gabriella: Ok! And the last word is… |
| Jeremy: Humoriste, which is the same in English. |
| Gabriella: A humorist is someone who does one man shows… |
| Jeremy: Oui, mais il peut aussi être écrivain, chanteur… |
| Gabriella: Oh, ok, so it’s someone that tells stories in order to make people laugh. |
| Jeremy: Exactement! Cet humoriste raconte beaucoup de situations comiques. |
| Gabriella: "This humorist describes a lot of comical situations." Great! Let’s move on to the Grammar now! |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Jeremy: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to make pronominal verbs agree with their reflexive object in gender and number. |
| Gabriella: Sounds hard… |
| Jeremy: Pas du tout, c’est plutôt simple, en fait ! We'll see one of the most common conjugations - the compound past. |
| Gabriella: Ok, how is the sentence formed? |
| Jeremy: First, the subject, then the reflexive pronoun, then the verb être associated with the past participle. For example, I can say Je me suis couché. |
| Gabriella: "I went to bed." But if I say that, as a female, I would add an “e” at couchée |
| Jeremy: C’est exactement ça ! But if the pronoun isn't, or doesn't, refer to a direct object, one need not make the participle agree with it in gender or number. |
| Gabriella: Mmmh, est-ce que tu as un exemple ? |
| Jeremy: Elle s’est lavée. |
| Gabriella: "She washed herself." |
| Jeremy: There is an “e” in lavée, because the subject and the object is a girl. |
| Gabriella: Ok, and if she’s not the object? |
| Jeremy: Elle s’est lavé les cheveux. |
| Gabriella: "She washed her hair." There’s no extra “e” in lavé this time. |
| Jeremy: Because the object is cheveux, the "hair". |
| Gabriella: Ok, je vois. Do you have any tip to make it easier? |
| Jeremy: Bien sûr ! Il faut se demander “qui” ou “quoi” - Elle lave qui? Elle lave quoi ? |
| Gabriella: Ok, so if the answer is the same as the subject, it does agree in gender and number. If not, it doesn't. |
| Jeremy: C’est parfait. Voilà un exemple - Les enfants se sont moqués du petit garçon dans la cour. |
| Gabriella: "The children made fun of the little boy in the playground." |
| Jeremy: Ce n’est pas très compliqué, cela demande juste un peu d’entraînement. |
| Gabriella: Chers auditeurs, n’hésitez pas à pratiquer dans les commentaires! |
Outro |
|---|
| Jeremy: Bonne chance, et à la prochaine! |
| Gabriella: Remember to check the lesson notes, and we’ll see you next time. Salut! |
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