Learn French numbers 10 through 100 and become acquainted with very large French numbers as well
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Sam: Your Attention, Please. |
| Céline: Votre attention s’il vous plaît! Bonjour c’est Céline. |
| Alex: Bonjour, c’est Alexandre. |
| Sam: So guys, what's the backdrop for today's lesson? |
| Céline: Today we are in a... |
| Alex: In a department store. |
| Céline: Department store? |
| Alex: Yes. |
| Céline: Yes. |
| Sam: An announcement over the loudspeaker about the "big sale." |
| Céline: Bravo, Sam. |
| Sam: Ok. Shall we start? |
| Alex: On y va. |
| Sam: Let's go. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Sylvain: Votre attention, s’il vous plaît! |
| Sylvain: Vingt pour cent de soldes sur les T-shirts. |
| Sylvain: Trente pour cent sur les pantalons, |
| Sylvain: Quarante sur les chaussettes, |
| Sylvain: Cinquante sur les chaussures, |
| Sylvain: Soixante sur les robes! |
| Sylvain: Profitez jusqu’à quatre-vingt pour cent de soldes sur tout le magasin! |
| Sam: One more time, slowly. |
| Céline: Encore une fois lentement. |
| Sylvain: Votre attention, s’il vous plaît! |
| Sylvain: Vingt pour cent de soldes sur les T-shirts. |
| Sylvain: Trente pour cent sur les pantalons, |
| Sylvain: Quarante sur les chaussettes, |
| Sylvain: Cinquante sur les chaussures, |
| Sylvain: Soixante sur les robes! |
| Sylvain: Profitez jusqu’à quatre-vingt pour cent de soldes sur tout le magasin! |
| Sam: One more time with the English |
| Céline: Encore une fois avec l’anglais. |
| Sylvain: Votre attention, s’il vous plaît! |
| Sam: Your attention, please! |
| Sylvain: Vingt pour cent de soldes sur les T-shirts. |
| Sam: Twenty percent off on shirts; |
| Sylvain: Trente pour cent sur les pantalons, |
| Sam: Thirty percent off on pants; |
| Sylvain: Quarante sur les chaussettes, |
| Sam: Forty percent off on socks; |
| Sylvain: Cinquante sur les chaussures, |
| Sam: Fifty percent off on shoes; |
| Sylvain: Soixante sur les robes! |
| Sam: Sixty percent off on dresses! |
| Sylvain: Profitez jusqu’à quatre-vingt pour cent de soldes sur tout le magasin! |
| Sam: Enjoy up to eighty percent off in the entire store! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Sam: So how often do you have big sales in France? |
| Alex: Usually, it's twice a year. Right, Céline? |
| Céline: Tout à fait. En été et en hiver. |
| Sam: Summer and winter only? |
| Céline: Oui! |
| Sam: No big spring sale? Or no... |
| Céline: Non. Sometimes in some shops, but the sales are only twice a year, because it's regulated by the government. |
| Sam: Oh. |
| Céline: Also, in France, you can negotiate the price. |
| Sam: Oh, you can bargain. |
| Céline: You can bargain. |
| Sam: At any shop? |
| Alex: In some of the shops, of course. |
| Céline: Yes. But you should try. |
| Alex: I don't think you would bargain buying a “Dolce &Gabbana” for example. |
| Sam: You might. You can try. |
| Céline: You can try. Yeah, maybe. If you buy two dresses. Ha-ha. |
| Alex: You get a third one free, right? |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Céline: Ok, let's check the vocab. |
| Sam: Ok. Sounds good. The first item is? |
| Céline: Robes. |
| Sam: Dresses. |
| Céline: Robes. Robes. |
| Sam: Next. |
| Alex: Chaussures. |
| Sam: Shoes. |
| Alex: Chaussures. Chaussures. |
| Sam: Next. |
| Céline: Chaussettes. |
| Sam: Socks. |
| Céline: Chaussettes. Chaussettes. |
| Sam: Next. |
| Alex: Pantalons. |
| Sam: Trousers. |
| Alex: Pantalons. Pantalons. |
| Sam: Next. |
| Céline: Sur. |
| Sam: On, by, about, or over. |
| Céline: Sur. Sur. |
| Sam: Next. |
| Alex: Pour cent. |
| Sam: Percent. |
| Alex: Pour cent. Pour cent. |
| Sam: Next. |
| Céline: Attention. |
| Sam: Attention. |
| Céline: Attention. Attention. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Sam: Shall we check the vocab usage now? |
| Céline: Tout à fait. First we have the word "attention." |
| Sam: The meaning is obvious here, "attention." |
| Alex: It is a feminine noun to alert someone of a danger or tell someone to concentrate on something. |
| Céline: In the dialogue, "Votre attention, s'il vous plaît." |
| Alex: Which means "Your attention please." |
| Sam: How about our next item? I think it's "s'il vous plaît." |
| Alex: Ok. "S'il vous plaît" is one of the most polite words, meaning "please." |
| Céline: The "s'il vous plaît" is a formal form as a "vous" is inserted. |
| Alex: And the informal is "s'il te plaît." To follow is the word "chaussettes." |
| Céline: Oui. “Les chaussettes de l’archiduchesse sont-elles sèches et archi-sèches?” |
| Alex: It's very complicated. I can do this. |
| Céline: Can you try? |
| Sam: It's a tongue-twister. |
| Céline: Yeah! |
| Sam: A tongue-twister and a half. |
| Alex: Yeah, but I think we should translate it, because it's very complicated. “Les chaussettes de l’archiduchesse sont-elles sèches, archi-sèches?”. What does it mean? Sam, please, give us a translation. “Les chaussettes de l’archiduchesse”. What does it mean? |
| Sam: The arch duchess' socks. |
| Alex: Sont-elles sèches? |
| Sam: Are they dry? |
| Alex: archi-sèches? |
| Sam: Or really dry? |
| Céline: Exactement. |
| Alex: Voilà! |
| Céline: Tongue-twister in French, I mean the minute we don't care about the meaning but we care about the pronunciation and we have some news, Sam. Very soon we will have tongue-twisters to help our listeners to pronounce the French. |
| Sam: Oh wow! |
| Alex: I'm not good at this. Céline, you will do this yourself. |
| Céline: Of course I will. |
| Sam: The tongue-twister. |
| Alex: Thank you. |
| Céline: C’est un peu difficile hein. It's a little bit difficult for a newbie level, but please it's a big challenge. So "chaussettes" is to talk about the piece of clothing on your feet. |
| Alex: In other words, "socks." Not to omit "chaussette" is feminine. It is "une chaussette." |
| Sam: Ok. |
| Céline: As well as "chaussures." |
| Sam: "Chaussures." So "socks" and "shoes." |
| Céline: Here again about feet. "Chaussures" is a feminine noun and means shoes, as you said. Finally we have the group of words "pour cent." |
| Sam: Percent. Related to percentage and statistics. |
| Alex: And probabilities. I have no interest for this. |
| Céline: In the dialogue, it's "trente pour cent," "quarante pour cent," "cinquante pour cent," "soixante pour cent," "jusqu'à quatre-vingt pour cent de soldes." |
| Sam: 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80% off? |
| Céline: Yes. |
| Sam: Big sale. |
| Céline: Yes. But before going shopping, let's get into the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Sam: Ok. Talking about percentage and probabilities, we'll continue with numbers, but this time by tens. |
| Alex: And when someone is referring to numbers by the ten, we call them “les dizaines”. |
| Céline: There isn't any direct translation. The closest will be "ten or so". |
| Sam: The first one is "dix." |
| Alex: Yes, then "vingt." |
| Céline: It reminds me of high school. I didn't get many of them. |
| Sam: I don't see the connection. |
| Céline: Well in high school, students are graded from 0 to 20. "Vingt", twenty, being the best grade you can get. |
| Sam: Oh! You don't do it from 0 to 100 like in America? |
| Alex: No. |
| Céline: Not 0 to 100. |
| Sam: So you go 0 through 20. Is it the same in elementary school? |
| Alex: No. It is from 0 to 10. De zéro à dix. I think there are changes nowadays to the letters A, B, C, et cetera. |
| Céline: Ok. So now, following twenty there is "trente" as in “les trente glorieuses”, the glorious thirty. It refers to the 30 prosperous years after the Second World War in 1945 in France. |
| Alex: And it is derived from “les trois glorieuses”, "three glorious days," the three days of revolution in July 1830 in France when King Charles X, the French Bourbon monarch was overthrown and his cousin Louis Philippe, the Duke of Orleans, was named. The fact that both Louis and Charles ruled by hereditary right, rather than popular consent was the first of two triggers for “les trois glorieuses”. |
| Céline: “Oh mon Dieu, ça va Alex?” He wants to show his history skills. |
| Alex: Yeah. I know a lot of things. I love history. |
| Sam: Wow. That was impressive. |
| Céline: Yeah! Wow. |
| Alex: N’est-ce pas! |
| Céline: Ok, then comes "quarante," forty, and "cinquante," fifty, and then "soixante et soixante-dix." |
| Alex: Multiply four by twenty, and you have "quatre-vingt." |
| Céline: And add ten again and you have "quatre-vingt-dix." |
| Alex: And finally "cent." |
| Sam: One hundred. |
Outro |
| Sam: Ok. That's a good place for us to end today's lesson. But before we go, I should remind our listeners to go to the learning center where they can hear the natural speed of our numbers, and they can also hear it broken down syllable by syllable. So, therefore, they can improve their pronunciation and listening for these numbers. |
| Céline: C’est fantastique. |
| Alex: N’est-ce pas? |
| Sam: Ok. So until next time... |
| Céline: Merci beaucoup. |
| Sam: Au revoir. |
| Alex: Merci à tous! A la prochaine! |
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