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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Virginie: Salut!
Eric: Eric here. Top Five Most Useful Phrases for Learning French.
Virginie: Today, you will learn the five top phrases to help you learn French.
Eric: These are going to be very useful as you start learning.
Virginie: Yes whether you study French in a classroom or with friends, these phrases will help you to get involved in a conversation.
Eric: They can also help when you are getting around in France. Okay, so here they are.

Lesson focus
Virginie: Je ne comprends pas.
Eric: I don’t understand.
Virginie: Vous pouvez répéter lentement s’il vous plaît?
Eric: Can you please repeat slower, formal version.
Virginie: Tu peux répéter lentement s’il te plaît?
Eric: Can you please repeat slower, informal version.
Virginie: Qu’est-ce que que ... veut dire?
Eric: What does blank mean?
Virginie: Comment on dit … en français?
Eric: How do you say blank in French?
Virginie: Vous pouvez m’aider s’il vous plaît?
Eric: Can you please help me, formal version.
Virginie: Tu peux m’aider s’il te plaît?
Eric: Can you please help me, informal version. Okay so let’s go a little bit slower Virginie.
Virginie: Okay. Je ne comprends pas.
Eric: I don’t understand.
Virginie: Vous pouvez répéter lentement s’il vous plaît?
Eric: Can you please repeat slower, formal version.
Virginie: Tu peux répéter lentement s’il te plaît?
Eric: Can you repeat slower please, informal version.
Virginie: Qu’est-ce que que ... veut dire?
Eric: What does blank mean?
Virginie: Comment on dit … en français?
Eric: How do you say blank in French?
Virginie: Vous pouvez m’aider s’il vous plaît?
Eric: Can you please help me, formal version.
Virginie: Tu peux m’aider s’il te plaît?
Eric: Can you help me please, informal version. Okay so let’s take a closer look at these phrases.
Virginie: Yes. The first one “je ne comprends pas” can be used in all occasion, all situations.
Eric: And this is going to be very useful because French people are going to assume you are fluent if you say: bonjour!
Virginie: Yeah and they might start a fast conversation with you.
Eric: With a bunch of idioms that you don’t understand.
Virginie: So don’t hesitate to cut them off by saying: Je ne comprends pas.
Eric: Okay. So let’s see how the sentence is structured.
Virginie: Yes the verb “comprendre” in French means to understand. “Je comprends” is “I understand”.
Eric: And then to put this in a negative form, we are going to put the verb “comprendre” in between the two words “ne” and “pas”.
Virginie: And the result is: Je ne comprends pas.
Eric: Great. Phrase #2.
Virginie: Vous pouvez répéter lentement s’il vous plaît? can be said in two ways, right Eric?
Eric: Exactly. The formal and the informal way depending on who you are speaking with.
Virginie: Imagine you are in a classroom and you need your teacher to repeat what he just said.
Eric: Or you are at the metro booth asking for directions.
Virginie: Well in those situations, you need to be formal, you will then say: Vous pouvez répéter lentement s’il vous plaît?
Eric: Can you be slower please.
Virginie: Now before we analyze this phrase closer, Eric will give you the informal form.
Eric: If you are talking to your French brother in law or say your friend, you are going to be saying: Tu peux répéter lentement s’il te plaît.
Virginie: Yes remember in French, you use “vous” in formal situations and “tu” in informal situations.
Eric: Now here your intonation is very important too. Since it’s a question, you are going to have to raise your voice at the end of the sentence: Vous pouvez répéter lentement s’il vous plaît?
Virginie: This is important because otherwise it will sound like a statement not a question.
Eric: So literally if we break down the phrase, it means “you”.
Virginie: Vous.
Eric: “Can”
Virginie: Pouvez.
Eric: “Repeat”
Virginie: Répéter.
Eric: “Slowly”.
Virginie: Lentement.
Eric: “Please”.
Virginie: S’il vous plaît.
Eric: Great. Okay so let’s get on to our third phrase: Qu’est-ce que blank veut dire?
Virginie: What does blank mean?
Eric: For example: Qu’est-ce qu’une voiture veut dire?
Virginie: A car.
Eric: You see French people automatically answer when you ask this question. Let’s try it again: Qu’est-ce qu’un micro veut dire?
Virginie: A microphone. Now you might be wondering what the heck is this “qu’est-ce que” thing at the beginning of the sentence.
Eric: Well “qu’est-ce que” is a very easy way to make any sentence into a question in France. This is going to be spelled q-u-apostrophe-e-s-t-dash-c-e-space-q-u-e. Qu’est-ce que.
Virginie: Now if you look at the end of the question, you have these two words “veut” and “dire”.
Eric: And “veut dire” means literally “to say” but in our context it means “means”.
Virginie: Okay for example: Une voiture veut dire “a car”. “Une voiture means a car”, and if you say “ça veut dire” you say, “it means”.
Eric: Okay let’s repeat that one last time Virginie. Qu’est-ce qu’une voiture veut dire?
Virginie: Ca veut dire “a car”.
Eric: Okay and our fourth phrase is: Comment on dit blank en français?
Virginie: It’s one way to ask for French word. For example, par exemple: Comment on dit “a car” en français?
Eric: How to say a car in French.
Virginie: Une voiture.
Eric: Okay that’s an easy one: Comment on dit “a dog” en français?
Virginie: Un chien.
Eric: It works.
Virginie: Yeah so just say you know “comment” means “how” and it’s spelled c-o-m-m-e-n-t and “on” in this case is the equivalent of “one” in English.
Eric: So this is just going to be “how does one say”: Comment on dit?
Virginie: So this phrase can definitely be used in any context with anybody.
Eric: And people are always going to be willing to help you with the meanings of words.
Virginie: Yeah that’s true. I guess we all like to show off our knowledge right?
Eric: Probably. What is our last phrase in the list Virginie?
Virginie: It is: Vous pouvez m’aider s’il vous plaît?
Eric: Little slower, one more time.
Virginie: Vous pouvez m’aider s’il vous plaît?
Eric: Can you help me please. That’s the formal version.
Virginie: Yes and it’s very useful everywhere. For example, in the classroom with your teacher, in the street to ask for directions.
Eric: This is also useful for nonlinguistic purposes. For example, if you want to have somebody help you bring up some heavy bags at the stairs: Vous pouvez m’aider s’il vous plaît?
Virginie: Yeah it’s just a way to ask for help. Again just like our second phrase, there are two ways of addressing it depending on who you are talking to.
Eric: Exactly. The same old thing. It will be either the formal “vous pouvez” or the informal “tu peux” when you are talking to a friend.
Virginie: Yes although people love when foreigners use “tu” instead of “vous”. It’s so cute.
Eric: But you may not want to be cute.
Virginie: All right. Then make sure you don’t mix up “tu” and “vous”.
Eric: So what about the last part of the sentence “m’aider”?
Virginie: Well it’s the “help me” part of the phrase. “M’” stands for “me” and “aider” means “to help”.
Eric: This grammatical structure is going to be a little different in French than in English. You are placing the pronoun before the verb here “m’aider”, instead of in English, “help me” you are saying “me help”.

Outro
Virginie: Thank you Eric. Well I think you guys are all set with your five phrases to get around France.
Eric: You should be perfectly ready for trip to France.
Virginie: And thank you for listening to us.
Eric: Take care, everyone.

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