Dialogue

Vocabulary (Review)

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Lesson Transcript

Intro

Virginie: Bonjour a tous.
Eric: Eric here! Phrases You Don’t Want on Your French License Plate. In this lesson you will learn about feminine articles and tell and ask about origins.
Virginie: This conversation takes place by the river of Seine in Paris.
Eric: Rob is meeting Sarah for a walk on the banks of the Seine.
Virginie: Yes. And Rob has short term memory issues and asks her again where she's from.
Eric: The speakers are friends. Therefore the dialog is going to be again in informal French. Okay, let's start the conversation.

Lesson conversation

Rob: Tu viens d'où, déjà?
Sarah: Je viens de Toulouse, Midi-Pyrénées.
Rob: Midi-Pyrénées, c'est une région?
Sarah: Oui, c'est la région du cassoulet!
Rob: J'adore le cassoulet!
Sarah: Beurk!
Eric: One more time with the translation.
Rob: Tu viens d'où, déjà?
Eric: Where are you from again?
Sarah: Je viens de Toulouse, Midi-Pyrénées.
Virginie: I am from Toulouse, Midi-Pyrénées!
Rob: Midi-Pyrénées, c'est une région?
Eric: Midi-Pyrénées, is that a region?
Sarah: Oui, c'est la région du cassoulet!
Virginie: Yes, it's the region of the cassoulet!
Rob: J'adore le cassoulet!
Eric: I love cassoulet!
Sarah: Beurk!
Virginie: Eww!
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Virginie: So, Eric have you ever tried cassoulet?
Eric: I have, I have. It's good.
Virginie: Maybe a little heavy?
Eric: If you don't know what cassoulet is, it is a regional dish from southwest of France.
Virginie: And it's composed of beans, duck, and a lot of fat.
Eric: And the Southwest is known for its foie gras too, right Virginie?
Virginie: Yes, it's foie gras and it's rugby too.
Eric: Oh yes?
Virginie: Yes. The Toulouse team is very famous
Eric: And have you ever played rugby Virginie?
Virginie: No it's too violent for me, a little bit like American football.
Eric: Okay. Well is Southwestern in France very touristy?
Virginie: Well it is, but less than the Cote D'azur - the Riviera
Eric: With Canes, nice, Monaco.
Virginie: Yes the Riviera is beautiful.
Eric: Okay, so let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson.
VOCAB LIST
Eric: Okay, so let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. What do we have first?
Virginie: Venir de [natural native speed]
Eric: To come from, to have just.
Virginie: Venir de [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Venir de [natural native speed]
Eric: Next.
Virginie: Une région [natural native speed]
Eric: And area or a region.
Virginie: Une région [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Une région [natural native speed]
Eric: Okay.
Virginie: Le cassoulet [natural native speed]
Eric: Cassoulet, a duck and bean dish.
Virginie: Le cassoulet [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Le cassoulet [natural native speed]
Eric: Next.
Virginie: Déjà [natural native speed]
Eric: Already.
Virginie: Déjà [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Déjà [natural native speed]
Eric: Okay.
Virginie: Une [natural native speed]
Eric: A, feminine.
Virginie: Une [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Une [natural native speed]
Eric: Next.
Virginie: La [natural native speed]
Eric: The, feminine.
Virginie: La [slowly - broken down by syllable]. La [natural native speed]
Eric: Okay.
Virginie: Adorer [natural native speed]
Eric: To be fond of or to love.
Virginie: Adorer [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Adorer [natural native speed]
Eric: And finally.
Virginie: Berk [natural native speed]
Eric: Phew, yuck.
Virginie: Berk [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Berk [natural native speed]
KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES
Eric: Okay, so let's take a look at this vocabulary.
Virginie: Yes. Let's take at the word deja.
Eric: Deja means already and is spelled DEJA.
Virginie: Deja usually means already, but in our dialogue it means again.
Eric: Right. As in ""what did you say, again?""
Virginie: Yes Rob asks Sarah ""tu viens d'ou deja?
Eric: Where are you from again?
Virginie: Rob forgot that he already asked her when he first met her.
Eric: Right. Do you have another example to use deja?
Virginie: Yes when you don't remember somebody, you say ""qui c'est dejq'?
Eric: Who is this again? Remember we saw the question who is this in a previous lesson.
Virginie: It's simple. You put deja at the end of your sentence.
Eric: Now what about the last word that she says at the end of the dialogue?
Virginie: Oh, yes. It's berk! She is disgusted.
Eric: Like ewww in English.
Virginie: We say it all the time in France.
Eric: Once I heard someone say Berk c'est degueulasse.
Virginie: Oh yes degueulasse, it's a popular word too. But watch out, it's very familiar.
Eric: Okay I see. What does that mean exactly?
Virginie: It means ""gross"". De-gueu-lasse.
Eric: Great. It's always good to hear some French slang.

Lesson focus

Virginie: Now what about our grammar point? Today we'll talk about the feminine articles.
Eric: And this is basically going to follow similar rule as the masculine article which we saw the last time.
Virginie: So the feminine articles in French are une, UNE and la, LA.
Eric: Une is the indefinite and la is the definite.
Virginie: So now remember the rule...
Eric: …when you talk about something general, or something that exists among other things…
Virginie: …then you will say ""une"" indefinite.
Eric: Do you have an example, Virginie?
Virginie: In the dialog Rob asked ""c'est une region?"" talking about the midi pyrenees region.
Eric: He's asking ""Is it a region?""
Virginie: Right, c'est une region? Which implies ""is it a region in France?
Eric: Among all the other regions. Therefore he's using the indefinite article. What about the definite article La?
Virginie: La is used to talk about things that are specific, or already mentioned by the people engaged in the conversation.
Eric: Right. So for example Sarah says when she talks about her region ""c'est la region du cassoulet!""
Virginie: Yes. It's the region of the cassoulet!
Eric: She specifies which region it is exactly.
Virginie: And she uses LA. She defines her region as the one that makes cassoulet.
Eric: Okay. Do you have another example?
Virginie: Yes. Well, imagine you visit Toulouse.
Eric: Okay.
Virginie: And you see a nice street, right? Street in French is femal and is rue (syllables) RUE, la rue. What will you say?
Eric: Well, I guess you would say- C'est une belle rue. (syllable+belle translation)
Virginie: Right. C'est une belle rue, this is a nice street. C'est une belle rue.
Eric: It is a nice street among other streets.
Virginie: You use the indefinite article un. And now I will answer, oui, c'est la rue Bonaparte.
Eric: So literally, you're saying, this is the Bonaparte Street.
Virginie: Exactly, definite article. There is only one Bonaparte Street in Toulouse.
Eric: Right, okay. Now I have a question about the verb venir.
Virginie: Yes, what is it?
Eric: Well we've learned that it means to come. But today it is followed by another little word.
Virginie: Yes, it's followed by de, it's a preposition, and here it means from.
Eric: So, Sarah says je viens de, I come from.
Virginie: Yes. And Rob, right before asked, ""tu viens d'ou?
Eric: And this means where are you from?
Virginie: Yes and in this sentence ou, means where.
Eric: Can we hear this one more time, Virginie?
Virginie: Tu viens d'ou?
Eric: You come from where?

Outro

Eric: Okay, That's all we have for today. Thank you very much, everyone.
Virginie: Thank you for listening. Meric! Au revoir!
Eric: Goodbye.

Grammar

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