INTRODUCTION |
Brandon: What's Your French Opinion? I’m Brandon. |
Yasmine: Bonjour. I'm Yasmine. |
Brandon: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to express agreement and disagreement. |
Brandon: This conversation takes place at a newspaper company. |
Yasmine: It’s between Aude and Florine |
Brandon: The speakers are co-workers, so they’ll be using informal French. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
DIALOGUE |
Aude : Nous ne pouvons imprimer ça. |
Florine : Je ne suis pas d'accord. C'est très important. |
Aude : Je te comprends mais ce n'est pas nouveau comme information. |
Florine : C'est un article d'opinion ! |
Brandon: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
Aude : Nous ne pouvons imprimer ça. |
Florine : Je ne suis pas d'accord. C'est très important. |
Aude : Je te comprends mais ce n'est pas nouveau comme information. |
Florine : C'est un article d'opinion ! |
Brandon: Listen to the conversation with English translation |
Aude : Nous ne pouvons imprimer ça. |
Aude: We can't print this. |
Florine : Je ne suis pas d'accord. C'est très important. |
Florine: I disagree. It's very important. |
Aude : Je te comprends mais ce n'est pas nouveau comme information. |
Aude: I see your point but it is not new information. |
Florine : C'est un article d'opinion ! |
Florine: It is an opinion article! |
POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
Brandon: So the two coworkers were giving their opinions about a news article. Yasmine, what is France’s best-selling newspaper from the regional daily press sector? |
Yasmine: Well.. I think it’s Le canard enchainé. That’s a famous satirical newspaper with many opinion pieces. |
Brandon: I see. And which newspapers would you recommend to our listeners? |
Yasmine: Well, if you’re interested in reading a French newspaper, you should check out Libération, which is a political newspaper. Or you can also try Metro, which you can get for free, and it has more pictures than other newspapers. |
Brandon: Those are some good tips. Okay, now onto the vocab. |
VOCAB LIST |
Let’s take a look at some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
Brandon: The first word is.. |
Yasmine: pouvoir [natural native speed] |
Brandon: can, to be able to |
Yasmine: pouvoir [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
Yasmine: pouvoir [natural native speed] |
Next we have.. |
Yasmine: très [natural native speed] |
Brandon: very |
Yasmine: très [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
Yasmine: très [natural native speed] |
Next we have.. |
Yasmine: important [natural native speed] |
Brandon: important |
Yasmine: important [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
Yasmine: important [natural native speed] |
Next we have.. |
Yasmine: comprendre [natural native speed] |
Brandon: to understand |
Yasmine: comprendre [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
Yasmine: comprendre [natural native speed] |
Next we have.. |
Yasmine: information [natural native speed] |
Brandon: information |
Yasmine: information [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
Yasmine: information [natural native speed] |
Next we have.. |
Yasmine: nouveau [natural native speed] |
Brandon: new |
Yasmine: nouveau [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
Yasmine: nouveau [natural native speed] |
Next we have.. |
Yasmine: article [natural native speed] |
Brandon: article |
Yasmine: article [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
Yasmine: article [natural native speed] |
and last is... |
Yasmine: opinion [natural native speed] |
Brandon: opinion |
Yasmine: opinion [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
Yasmine: opinion [natural native speed] |
KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
Brandon: Let's have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. First up is... |
Yasmine: imprimer |
Brandon: Which means "to print" |
Yasmine: Imprimer is a regular verb. It is conjugated with the auxiliary verb avoir in the past form. |
Brandon: Yasmine, this word actually has two meanings, right? |
Yasmine: Yes. One is literal and the other metaphoric. The first meaning is “to print,” or “to publish,” For example, J'imprime mon rapport de stage |
Brandon: meaning “I am printing my training report.” |
Yasmine: It also has the meaning of “to imprint itself,” as in Ce projet donne l'occasion aux jeunes d'imprimer leur identité |
Brandon: meaning “This project provides an opportunity for young people to imprint their identity.”And there’s one additional meaning - “to understand.” |
Yasmine: But if you say to someone Est-ce que tu imprimes bien ce que je te dis? meaning “Did you really take in what I just said?” you may seem rude. It's informal language, so be careful who you use it with. In this situation, imprimer means “understand.” |
Brandon: I see. What’s the next word? |
Yasmine: Next we have.. être d’accord |
Brandon: This means "to agree with". Can you break down the phrase,? |
Yasmine: Sure! être is one of the most common French verbs. |
Brandon: Its conjugation is irregular and it means “to be.” |
Yasmine: D'accord" is an interjection and literally means "alright, okay." D'accord is made up of de meaning "from" and accord meaning "agreement." D'accord means "all right." |
Brandon: If you agree, or are in "accord" with someone, you need to use.. |
Yasmine: ...être plus the d'accord form. |
Brandon: Let’s look at some examples. How do you say “I agree”? |
Yasmine: You can say... Je suis d'accord. |
Brandon: What about “we agree”? |
Yasmine: In that case, you can say Nous sommes d'accord. |
Brandon: But listeners, if someone asks you directly if you agree with him and it’s for a casual situation, sometimes you don't need to say this. |
Yasmine: That’s right, you don’t need to say être + d'accord in full. D'accord is enough. In this case, it means "okay". D'accord is invariable. But, it is still possible to answer Je suis d'accord. |
Brandon: Then how do you say “to disagree?” |
Yasmine: Ne pas être d'accord means “to disagree.” It's the negative form of être d'accord. |
Brandon: Ok, good to know. The next phrase is.. |
Yasmine: article d'opinion |
Brandon: Meaning "opinion piece.” Can you break this down? |
Yasmine: Sure. Article is a noun meaning "article." Opinion means "point of view." D' comes from the French preposition de. |
Brandon: You can use this to express possession with names and nouns. |
Yasmine: That’s right. "De" becomes "d' because "opinion" starts with a vowel. Un article d'opinion is an article written by a reporter who is sharing their point of view or their opinion about a theme. |
Brandon: It can be about politics, fashion, or cinema...Many written newspapers and magazines have an opinion column. Okay, now let’s move on to the grammar. |
Lesson focus
|
Brandon: In this lesson, you'll learn how to show agreement and disagreement in French. |
Yasmine: We already learned some phrases in the previous section. In France, you can say 'Je suis d'accord' when you agree with the other person’s opinion. And now, let’s take a look at more examples to show your agreement. |
Brandon: What's the first one? |
Yasmine: First we have Je suis pour |
Brandon: meaning “I’m for..” |
Yasmine: Then, you can say what you agree with, for example, Je suis pour toi. |
Brandon: meaning “I’m for you” or “I’m in agreement with you.” How do you say “I’m against”? |
Yasmine: You can say Je suis contre using the preposition contre instead of pour. |
Brandon:Okay, and what’s next? |
Yasmine: Next we have Je suis favorable.. |
Brandon: meaning “I'm in favor.” |
Yasmine: And if you want to say “I’m not in favor of..” you can say Je suis défavorable by adding dé to the adjective favorable. |
Brandon: Are there any other phrases? |
Yasmine: We also have Je suis de.. |
Brandon: It literally means “I’m with..” and you can use it the same way as “I agree with.” For example.. |
Yasmine: Je suis de son avis. |
Brandon: “I agree with him.” Or literally “I’m with him.” |
Yasmine: Conversely, you can say Je ne suis pas de son avis..meaning “I’m not with him” too. |
Brandon: And sometimes, you might want to say “He’s right.” or “She’s right. That would be... |
Yasmine: Il a raison or Elle a raison, |
Brandon: meaning “He’s right, or “She’s right”, for when you agree with someone. If you don’t, you can say.. |
Yasmine: Il a tort or Elle a tort, |
Brandon: meaning “He’s wrong” or She’s wrong.” Listeners, make sure to check the PDF lesson notes for more expressions and examples. |
Outro
|
Brandon: Well, that’s all for this lesson. Thanks for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
Yasmine: À bientôt! |
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