Learn how to use many common phrases
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Virginie: Bonjour! |
| Eric: Eric here! Counting 1-20. In this lesson, you will learn about numbers and counting from 1 to 20 in French. |
| Virginie: And our dialogue takes place during a factory inventory. |
| Eric: So what kind of items can you count 1 by 1 in French? |
| Virginie: How about wine bottles? |
| Eric: Wine bottles, excellent! Ok, so let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Agnès: Un, deux, trois, quatre, cinq, six, sept, huit, neuf, dix. |
| Someone: Onze, douze, treize, quatorze, quinze, seize. |
| Agnès: dix-sept, dix-huit, dix-neuf, vingt! |
| Eric: One more time, a little bit slowly. |
| Virginie: Encore une fois, plus lentement. |
| Agnès: Un, deux, trois, quatre, cinq, six, sept, huit, neuf, dix. |
| Someone: Onze, douze, treize, quatorze, quinze, seize. |
| Agnès: dix-sept, dix-huit, dix-neuf, vingt! |
| Eric: How about in English. |
| Agnès: Un, deux, trois, quatre, cinq, six, sept, huit, neuf, dix. |
| Eric: One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. |
| Someone: Onze, douze, treize, quatorze, quinze, seize. |
| Eric: Eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen. |
| Agnès: dix-sept, dix-huit, dix-neuf, vingt! |
| Eric: seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Virginie: Ok, so there are not a lot of items in that factory! |
| Eric: Right! There's only 20. Let's say it's a small wine bottle factory. |
| Virginie: Yeah, they probably don't make a lot of money. |
| Eric: What kind of money are they not making, I guess that'd be the Euro, right? I guess they don't have any many Euros. |
| Virginie: You mean in France? Yeah, the currency in France is the euro, but it used to be the Franc. |
| Eric: When did they switch currencies? |
| Virginie: In 2001, with the EU. |
| Eric: That must have been pretty weird. |
| Virginie: Yes, at first it was really confusing. Especially because the rate wasn't a round count. |
| Eric: What was it then, a fraction? |
| Virginie: It was like 1 euro equals 6.5 francs. |
| Eric: That's very weird. So it must have been very hard with small amounts of money, everything must have seemed so cheap! |
| Virginie: Yeah, that was the tricky part. But the prices actually went up in France. |
| Eric: Really? So the currency is smaller, but the price is actually higher. |
| Virginie: Right! |
| Eric: I heard that the most affected country in EU was Italy, where the prices raised something like 30%. |
| Virginie: Yeah, I know, that's quite a lot. |
| Eric: Ok. Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Virginie: un [natural native speed] |
| Eric: one |
| Virginie: un [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Virginie: un [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Virginie: deux [natural native speed] |
| Eric: two |
| Virginie: deux [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Virginie: deux [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Virginie: trois [natural native speed] |
| Eric: three |
| Virginie: trois [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Virginie: trois [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Virginie: quatre [natural native speed] |
| Eric: four |
| Virginie: quatre [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Virginie: quatre [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Virginie: cinq [natural native speed] |
| Eric: five |
| Virginie: cinq [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Virginie: cinq [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| Eric: Let's have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Virginie: You know what I suggest, Eric? I suggest that we spell the first 5 numbers for our listeners, what do you think? |
| Eric: I think it's a great idea, let's go for it! |
| Virginie: Ok, let's start with one, un. |
| Eric: And that's spelled UN. |
| Virginie: And then you have two, which is deux. |
| Eric: Which is spelled DEUX. |
| Virginie: Three, which is trois. |
| Eric: Spelled TROIS |
| Virginie: Four, which is quatre. |
| Eric: Spelled QUATRE. |
| Virginie: And finally, we have five, which is cinq. |
| Eric: CINQ. |
| Virginie: Right! |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Virginie: OK now here's what we're going to have you all do out there. No matter where you are, no matter if you’re at home, on the subway, in your car, we want you to talk to yourself. |
| Eric: That's right, talk to yourself. |
| Virginie: Yes, don’t worry if people think you look like you’re crazy. |
| Eric: Basically, Virginie is going to read out each number, and you have to repeat after her. |
| Virginie: OK here we go. I'm gonna count from 1 to 10, and the game is, you repeat after me. |
| Eric: Let's go! |
| Virginie: Un, deux, trois, quatre, cinq, six, sept, huit, neuf, dix. |
| Eric: So now we're gonna take on the number from 11 to 20. |
| Virginie: Same thing here, I'm gonna read out these numbers, and you guys will repeat after me. Onze, douze, treize, quatorze, quinze, seize |
| Eric: And I wanna stop you right there, and point out that these numbers aren't following any pattern, but they're all ending in a Z sound, as you heard from Virginie. |
| Virginie: Right, from 11 to 16, from onze to seize. |
| Eric: But after this point, there's gonna be a fixed pattern to the words, right? |
| Virginie: Yes, absolutely, so these numbers are: dix-sept, dix-huit, dix-neuf, vingt. |
| Eric: So what they are literally saying is ten seven, ten-eight, ten-nine. So as you've just learned, dix is 10, and sept is 7, so 17 is dix-sept. |
| Virginie: And 18 is dix-huit, 10 (dix) and 8 (huit). |
| Eric: And finally, dix-neuf for 19. |
| Virginie: And our last number would be 20, which is vingt, and it's spelled VINGT. |
| Eric: And actually this brings back to our French wine bottle theme, because the word in French for wine is vin. |
| Virginie: Oh, yes, so if you guys need to say, I have 20 bottles of wine, you'll just say j'ai vingt bouteille de vin. |
| Eric: I have 20 bottles of wine, j'ai vingt bouteille de vin. Bouteille is bottle, vin is wine, and vingt is 20. |
| Virginie: Thank you, Eric! |
Outro |
| Virginie: I think that's it for today. |
| Eric: Goodbye! |
| Virginie: Bye! Au revoir! |
Comments
HideHow long did it take you to learn to count to 20 in your native language?
Bonjour Aarna,
Thank you for the lovely comment, I'm glad you enjoyed the lesson!
Belle journée,
Marion
Team FrenchPod101.com
Thanks for this lesson you all. Im counting out loud and in my head everywhere.
Bonjour Yemi,
Thanks for your message.
Counting from 1 to 20 in French is really great. Are you ready to count to 100 now? 😊
Bonne journée,
Jonathan
Team FrenchPod101.com
Learning the numbers from 1 to 20 was easy for me.
I just missed the spelling for 14. I have taken note of it now. Thanks!
Bonjour Richard,
I think you have to find a mnemonic way of remembering these that works for yourself. Quatorze isn't too far off from quatre, for exemple, that may be a way. You'll have to find something else for quinze. Maybe try to remember that that it sounds a bit like quatorze, plus one (the "un" sound in quinze). Again, you need to find something that works for you. 😉
Belle journée,
Marion
Team FrenchPod101.com
I have difficulty remembering fourteen and fifteen for some reason. Any suggestions for memorizing those numbers?
Bonjour Frido,
That's a very good idea! For sept, it's actually quite easy:
ss è tt. Basically, you have the "ss" sound, then the same sound as in et (and) and finally a strong T (it's important to make it strong so it's easier to understand you). I hope this helps!
Belle journée,
Marion
Team FrenchPod101.com
The only one I don’t really understand is Sept. (Seven)
Listening in normal speed I hear “seth” and half the speed I hear “seph”.
I started to count my workouts in French.
It’s not only cool but it’s making my exercises easier as well.
It really helps to remember everything.
Bonjour Kate,
That's a really good idea!
Bonjour Akash,
Merci pour ton commentaire 😄
Belle journée,
Marion
Team FrenchPod101.com
Uff, je ne sais pas!- Too young to remember.
I train my skill in numbers with my address and phone number, it's helpful and practical in my case
Bonjour Nathaniel,
Thank you so much for your lovely comment!
Belle journée,
Marion
Team FrenchPod101.com
Bonjour, Merci Beaucoup for helping me learn 1-20 in French. after a day of Practice, I feel confident in saying 1-20 in French. I will continue using spaced repetition to help retain the information 😊
Bonjour Jacy,
French and Spanish are very similar languages, you're right! 😉
Bonne journée,
Marion
Team FrenchPod101.com
I thought counting in French would be hard, but it turns out, its very similar to counting in spanish! Where I live, we count in spanish sometimes especially when buying stuff from stores, so I learned this pretty quickly! 😮
Bonjour Shelley,
Thank you so much for your lovely comment, I hope you have a great time learning with us!
Bonne journée,
Marion
Team FrenchPod101.com
Chers, J'aime beaucoup ce que j' etude avec vous!!!! I studied some French decades ago in school. Since then, I have always had the desire to begin again with the most basic French, re-learn all that
I studied then, and gradually advance & improve my skill. I hope that eventually I may learn enough French that I will be able to read, write, speak, and understand the spoken French. (The *most difficult* part of this for me is trying to understand the spoken French, parce que les personnes Francais parlent la langue tres vite!) I am embarking on an adventure of love, because I would love to be (reasonably) proficient in the French language. Thank-you all so very much for making FrenchPod 101 available in a way that is accessible and also affordable for ordinary people such as myself.
Bonjour Lars,
Oh, that's funny! I had no idea. 😄
Bonne journée,
Marion
Team FrenchPod101.com
Hello Judy and Jeff,
Thank you for posting.
It seems the audio works fine in this lesson.
Could you check if you have a free lifetime account? Those who have a free lifetime account can access only up to lesson 3 for free. If you have a basic or premium membership, please let me know which error message you see on the screen. It’d be great if you could send us an email at contactus@frenchpod101.com so we can look at the issue closely.
Let us know if you have any questions.
Cheers,
Ali
Team FrenchPod101.com