Learn how to ask "Can you speak English?"
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| INTRODUCTION |
| In today's lesson, we'll cover another extremely important phrase, "Can you speak English?" Using this phrase, as opposed to speaking English at someone, is important for many reasons. For one, if the party you're speaking to doesn't understand English, at least they'll be able to understand what you're asking. Furthermore, it shows a lot of respect to show that you took the effort to learn even a little bit of the language. And for these reasons and many more, we're going to cover this phrase. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| In French, "Do you speak English?" is Parlez-vous anglais? Parlez-vous anglais? |
| Let's break it down by syllable: Par-lez-vous ang-lais? |
| Now, let's hear it once again, Parlez-vous anglais? |
| The first word, Par-lez, means "speak." |
| Let's break down this word and hear it one more time. |
| Par-lez, and parlez. |
| This is followed by Vous, which in French is "you." |
| Vous. Vous, and vous. |
| To recap, we have Parlez-vous. |
| This is followed by Anglais. |
| Anglais. Anglais. |
| So, altogether, we have Parlez-vous anglais? |
| Literally, this means "Speak you, English?" And, is translated as "Do you speak English?" |
| Now, let's try a different language. How about German? "Can you speak German?" Parlez-vous allemand? Parlez-vous allemand? |
| The word for "German" is Allemand. |
| Let's break down this word and hear it one more time. Alle-mand, and allemand. |
| Hear just the word for the language changes, the rest is the same. |
| Nowadays in France, English is studied at schools. So, the number of speakers is increasing. However, there are still many people who don't speak English very well. Mostly, older people. Though many French people had to study English for several years in school, some still cannot speak it very well. When it comes to teaching foreign languages, the French school system favors reading and writing more than speaking. So, French people often feel very timid about speaking English. However, once you get people going, they usually do fairly well. So, the trick is to be patient. |
Outro |
|---|
| Okay. To close out today's lesson, we'd like for you to practice what we've just learned. I'll provide you with the English equivalent of the phrase and you're responsible for saying it out loud in French. You'll have just a few seconds before I give you the answer. So, bonne chance. That means "good luck" in French. Okay. Here we go. |
| "Do you speak English?" |
| Parlez-vous anglais? |
| Parlez-vous anglais? |
| Parlez-vous anglais? |
| "Do you speak German?" |
| Parlez-vous allemand? |
| Parlez-vous allemand? |
| Parlez-vous allemand? |
| This is the end of today's lesson. See you soon! À bientôt! |
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