Learn how to ask people where they are
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Intro |
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| Virginie: Bonjour tout le monde! Hello everyone. This is Virginie, welcome. |
| Eric: Hi, Virginie. This is Eric. Where Are You in France? So in this lesson what are we going to be looking at? |
| Virginie: In this lesson you will learn how to tell where and where your friends are. |
| Eric: In this dialogue, Rob, Sarah, Jules and Giulia are meeting at the park Buttes Chaumont for a picnic. Rob wants to introduce Giulia to Sarah. |
| Virginie: Yes. And this conversation is between Rob and Giulia. |
| Eric: And they're going to be speaking informal French. |
| Virginie: Now, let's listen to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
| Rob: Allô? |
| Giulia: Rob? C’est Giulia. Vous êtes où? |
| Rob: Nous sommes à la grotte. |
| Giulia: D’accord. Jules et Sarah, ils sont là? |
| Rob: Oui, il sont là. |
| Giulia: J’arrive! |
| Eric: One more time with the translation. |
| Rob: Allô? |
| Eric: Hello? |
| Giulia: Rob? C’est Giulia. Vous êtes où? |
| Virginie: Rob, it’s Giulia. Where are you guys? |
| Rob: Nous sommes à la grotte. |
| Eric: We are at the cave. |
| Giulia: D’accord. Jules et Sarah, ils sont là? |
| Virginie: Okay. Are Jules and Sarah there? |
| Rob: Oui, il sont là. |
| Eric: Yes, they are here. |
| Giulia: J’arrive! |
| Virginie: I’ll be right there! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Eric: What was the name of the park that they're going to again? |
| Virginie: Les Buttes Chaumont, The Chaumont hills if you prefer. |
| Eric: And where is it located? |
| Virginie: It's in the 19th arrondissement in Paris. |
| Eric: Our friends are gathering together for a picnic. |
| Virginie: Yes, oui, absolutely, a typical French picnic! |
| Eric: And what do French eat at a typical French picnic? |
| Virginie: Well I think you can guess the main item, Eric. |
| Eric: Wine? |
| Virginie: Oui! Du vin! Wine! |
| Eric: You're allowed to drink alcohol in Parks in France? |
| Virginie: Yes we are, fortunately. Wine on the grass is so enjoyable. |
| Eric: Wow, that sounds really bacchus (adjective???). |
| Virginie: Yes. |
| Eric: So if I go to a picnic this weekend, Virginie, I'm going to bring you some camembert sandwhiches. |
| Virginie: Yes thank you. With some beguette too. |
| Eric: Wow. Sounds like a plan! |
| Virginie: It's nice. You can also bring a jambon beurre. Do you know what a jambon beurre is? |
| Eric: What's a jambon beurre? |
| Virginie: A jambon beurre is a ham sandwich with butter. |
| Eric: Okay sounds good. Well let's listen to some vocabulary. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Virginie: Allô [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Hello, this is used on the phone. |
| Allô [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Allô [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Then. |
| Virginie: à [natural native speed] |
| Eric: At, to or in. |
| Virginie: à [slowly - broken down by syllable]. à [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next. |
| Virginie: Une grotte [natural native speed] |
| Eric: A cave. |
| Virginie: Une grotte [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Une grotte [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Then. |
| Virginie: Là [natural native speed] |
| Eric: There or here. |
| Virginie: Là [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Là [natural native speed] |
| Eric: The next one. |
| Virginie: Arriver [natural native speed] |
| Eric: To arrive. |
| Virginie: Arriver [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Arriver [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Okay. |
| Virginie: Où [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Where. |
| Virginie: Où [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Où [natural native speed] |
| Eric: And finally. |
| Virginie: D'accord [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Okay, I agree. |
| Virginie: D'accord [slowly - broken down by syllable]. D'accord [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| Virginie: What are are looking at today, Eric? |
| Eric: Why don't we explain, first, what Giulia said at the end of the dialog. |
| Virginie: Giulia says ""j'arrive!"" |
| Eric: And this is the French way of saying ""I'll be right there."" |
| Virginie: Yes or ""I'm coming!"" |
| Eric: Literally this is just I arrive. |
| Virginie: Oui. And here we have je which you know dropped its ""e"" because it's in front of a word starting with a vowel. |
| Eric: When je is in front of a word with a vowel, it just become j"". |
| Virginie: And then you have ""arrive"", which is arrive. |
| Eric: So you can just use ""j'arrive"" anytime you want to say ""coming!"" |
| Virginie: Next, we have some phone greetings here, Eric. |
| Eric: We have ""allo?"" |
| Virginie: Allo. |
| Eric: And that's what you say when you pick up your phone in French. |
| Virginie: Oui, directement, directly, you just say allo? |
| Eric: And that's ALLO. |
| Virginie: And then the person who's calling will say ""allo Eric? C'est Virginie!"" |
| Eric: Hello, Eric. This is Virginie. Let's have a little practice here at, Virginie. I'm giving you a call what would you say? |
| Virginie: I would say, Allo? |
| Eric: Allo Virginie? C'est Eric! |
| Virginie: So a quick recap. It's allo then your friend's name… |
| Eric: …and then you can say C'est followed by your name. Great. So let's move on to our grammar. |
Lesson focus |
| Virginie: As we said previously, the focus of this lesson is to ask your friends where you are. |
| Eric: Rob, Sarah and Jules are already at the park and they're waiting for Giulia to get there. |
| Virginie: Giulia is on her way and she wants to make sure where her friends exactly are in the park of Les Buttes Chaumont. |
| Eric: So she calls Rob and asked, Vous êtes où? ""Where are you?"" |
| Virginie: Now in previous lessons we saw that vous is the formal you. |
| Eric: But here vous takes on a slightly different meaning. It's going to be the plural you or like you guys. So, vous in French has two meanings. |
| Virginie: It can be the formal you. |
| Eric: And it can be the plural you, or ""you guys."" |
| Virginie: Exactly. And it all depends on the context. |
| Eric: So to continue her phrase, she uses the verb etre, where are you guys, vous etes. |
| Virginie: And then she adds the little word ou, which we know is where. |
| Eric: But she could also ask the same question in a different way, right? |
| Virginie: Oui, oui, oui she could say ou vous etes as opposed to vous estes ou. |
| Eric: So the word ou can start the question as well. |
| Virginie: And another way she could have said that is ou etes-vous. |
| Eric: This is basically reversing the subject and the verb. |
| Virginie: Yes ou which is where, este which is the verb and vous which is the subject ou etes vous. |
| Eric: This is a slightly more formal way of posing a question, right? |
| Virginie: Yes, it's very, very formal. Very few people actually use it in France. We don't use that form of question really. |
| Eric: Right, who would use it though? |
| Virginie: My grandma would use it. My grandma is this very fancy Parisian lady. So he's very formal with pretty much everyone even me. |
| Eric: Even you, wow. |
| Virginie: Yes. If you ever meet my very grandma out there, you can say, ou etes vous. And she will say charming. |
| Eric: Vous etes charmant. |
| Virginie: Yes. |
Outro |
| Eric: Maybe worth the effort! Well that just about does it for today. Thank you very much for listening. |
| Virginie: Have a great day. Au revoir. |
| Eric: Bye. |
| Virginie: Bye. |
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