Learn how to introduce, identify, and describe things using the popular French phrases, c'est and il or elle est
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Sam: Hi! My name is Sam and I’m joined here by… |
| Céline: Céline. |
| Christophe: et Christophe. |
| Sam: How Nice of You to Remember... umm... Someone's Birthday! In this lesson, you’ll learn how to wish someone a happy birthday and tell the difference between C'est (C “apostrophe” est) and elle and some vocab about time. |
| Céline: The conversation takes place in an office between Alice and her co-worker, Zacharie. |
| Sam: The speakers know each other, therefore, they’ll be speaking informally. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Collègues: Joyeux anniversaire. Joyeux anniversaire Alice..... |
| Wiz Alice: Non, non, non… ce n’est pas mon anniversaire aujourd’hui. |
| Lazy Zacharie: Quoi? |
| Wiz Alice: Oui, mon anniversaire, c’est vendredi. Aujourd’hui, c’est l’anniversaire d'Anne. |
| Lazy Zacharie: Quel âge elle a? |
| Wiz Alice: Elle a 40 ans. |
| Sam: One more time, slowly. |
| Female: Encrore une fois, lentement. |
| Collègues: Joyeux anniversaire. Joyeux anniversaire Alice..... |
| Wiz Alice: Non, non, non… ce n’est pas mon anniversaire aujourd’hui. |
| Lazy Zacharie: Quoi? |
| Wiz Alice: Oui, mon anniversaire, c’est vendredi. Aujourd’hui, c’est l’anniversaire d'Anne. |
| Lazy Zacharie: Quel âge elle a? |
| Wiz Alice: Elle a 40 ans. |
| Sam: One more time with the English. |
| Céline: Encore une fois avec l’anglais. |
| Collègues: Joyeux anniversaire. |
| Alice: Joyeux anniversaire, Alice. |
| Sam: Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you. |
| Wiz Alice: Non, non, non… ce n’est pas mon anniversaire aujourd’hui. |
| Sam: No, no, no! Today's not my birthday. |
| Lazy Zacharie: Quoi? |
| Sam: What? |
| Wiz Alice: Oui, mon anniversaire, c’est vendredi. Aujourd’hui, c’est l’anniversaire d'Anne. |
| Sam: Yeah, my birthday is on Friday. It's Anne's birthday today. |
| Lazy Zacharie: Quel âge elle a ? |
| Sam: How old is she? |
| Wiz Alice: Elle a 40 ans. |
| Sam: She is forty years old. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Sam: So guys, let me ask you a question. |
| Christophe: Oui Sam je t’écoute. |
| Sam: Okay. When at someone’s birthday, do you really emphasize like “happy birthday” or you’re just like “happy birthday.” How would you say “happy birthday” to somebody? |
| Christophe: On dit juste “joyeux anniversaire”. |
| Céline: Joyeux anniversaire. |
| Sam: Joyeux anniversaire? Would you say it like with a really happy intonation or is it not a big deal? |
| Céline: Of course! Of course with a happy intonation. |
| Sam: Do you have birthday cake? |
| Céline: Oui bien sûr. |
| Sam: What about birthday ice cream cake? |
| Céline: No, no, birthday cake. |
| Sam: Okay, I understand. One more question: do you have the party on the same day as your birthday or is it before or after or… |
| Christophe: Never before. |
| Céline: Yeah, you shouldn’t. It’s bad luck in France. So the same day or the day after or one week after. |
| Sam: Okay. Kind of the same thing in America. |
| Céline: Ah bon? |
| Sam: It’s not bad luck but we usually just celebrate it as close to the birthday as possible. Only makes sense, huh? |
| Christophe: Yeah. Sure. |
| Sam: Now let’s move on the vocabulary and phrases from this lesson. The first item is… |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Céline: Un anniversaire [natural native speed] |
| Sam: A birthday. |
| Céline: Un anniversaire [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Un anniversaire [natural native speed]. |
| Sam: Next… |
| Céline: Ce n'est pas. [natural native speed] |
| Sam: It’s not. |
| Céline: Ce n'est pas. [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Ce n'est pas. [natural native speed]. |
| Sam: Next… |
| Christophe: Aujourd’hui [natural native speed]. |
| Sam: Today. |
| Christophe: Aujourd’hui [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Aujourd’hui [natural native speed]. |
| Sam: Next… |
| Céline: Quoi. |
| Sam: What. |
| Céline: Quoi. Quoi. |
| Sam: Next… |
| Christophe: Vendredi [natural native speed] |
| Sam: Friday |
| Christophe: Vendredi [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Vendredi [natural native speed]. |
| Sam: Next… |
| Céline: quel âge [natural native speed]. |
| Sam: How old. |
| Céline: quel âge [slowly - broken down by syllable]. quel âge [natural native speed]. |
| Sam: Next… |
| Christophe: an. |
| Sam: Age (as in number of years). |
| Christophe: an [slowly - broken down by syllable] an [natural native speed] |
| Sam: Next… |
| Céline: Joyeux (-euse) [natural native speed]. |
| Sam: Happy or joyous. |
| Céline: Joyeux (-euse) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Joyeux (-euse) [natural native speed]. |
| Sam: Now let’s look at the vocabulary usage from this lovely lesson. The first item is… |
| Christophe: Anniversaire. |
| Céline: Yes, birthday as well as in English anniversaire, is used to refer to the celebration of birth or marriage. |
| Sam: Great! |
| Céline: Oui. Next is a group of words, “ce n'est pas.” |
| Sam: That means “it is not.” |
| Christophe: It is the negative form of c’est. |
| Sam: Can you provide us with a short dialogue with the phrase “ce n'est pas”? |
| Céline: Okay. Let’s say we are playing Tarot. It’s a card game with 78 cards played by teams of two. |
| Christophe: And I say to Céline, ce n’est pas ton tour. |
| Céline: Yeah. He’s telling me, “it’s not your turn.” |
| Christophe: Fantastique. Next is the word “quoi”. |
| Sam: …which means “what.” |
| Christophe: It is the informal form of qu’est-ce que. |
| Céline: Yeah. And it’s mainly used to ask about something. Quoi in informal situation can be used to ask for clarification when you didn’t understand someone. |
| Christophe: But it is impolite in the formal situation. |
| Sam: Oh, that’s great to know. |
| Céline: So next we have the phrase quel âge. |
| Christophe: This is the best to learn as one element to ask for the age. |
| Sam: quel âge, how old. Or if you said, quel âge elle a? |
| Céline: Oui tout à fait. quel âge elle a is in the dialogue. |
| Sam: Oh. It means “how old is she?” |
| Céline: “How old is she.” Exactement. |
| Sam: Finally, the last word, an. |
| Céline: It means “years.” |
| Christophe: There is another word to refer to years, which is année. |
| Céline: The only difference is that année has a notion of length of time that an doesn’t have. |
| Sam: Maybe an example would make things clearer for us. |
| Céline: Okay. Je suis allée en France il y a 2 ans. |
| Sam: “I went to France two years ago.” |
| Céline: J’ai vécu deux années à Paris. |
| Sam: “I lived in Paris for two years.” |
| Céline: In the last example, the word année stress on the fact of length of time passed. |
| Sam: Interesting. Okay, guys. Now, shall we move on to our grammar point? |
| Céline: oui. |
| Sam: Okay. C’est parti. Let’s go. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Christophe: Often, some students have trouble with the usage of “c’est” and “il est” when writing or speaking. |
| Sam: Okay. So it sounds like our grammar point is going to help our students differentiate between c’est and il est. |
| Céline: Oui. Let’s have a look at each one. C’est is composed of two years – ” c’ “ and the verb form “est”. |
| Christophe: The “ c’ ” is the contraction of the demonstrative pronoun “cela” referring to an object far away previously mentioned. |
| Céline: It is contracted to its first letter C, followed by an apostrophe in front of the verb starting with a vowel as it is with the verb être in the third person singular, in “c’est”. |
| Sam: Okay. But when do we use this “c’est”? |
| Christophe: In the dialogue, it is used to state the day as in c’est vendredi and the celebration c’est l’anniversaire d’Anne. |
| Generally speaking, c’est is used to identify something or someone. |
| Céline: For its form, you can observe that the phrase c’est is always followed by a noun. |
| Sam: Oh, wow, I get it. It’s like a grammatical ID. What about il est? |
| Christophe: il est is an incomplete phrase with the masculine personal pronoun il followed by être in the third person singular form. |
| Céline: The phrase il est indicates a quality of a person or thing. It is always used with an adjective. |
| Sam: For example? |
| Céline: Let’s say I’m talking about you. Let’s say I’m talking about you. Il est sympa. I’m describing that you have a nice way of being. |
| Christophe: On the other hand, I could also say C’est un homme sympa. In this case, I express the same idea, but here identify and defined the man. |
| Sam: Oh, thank you. That’s very clear. |
| Céline: Yeah. And we are nice today, right? |
| Christophe: Maybe. |
| Céline: Oh mon Dieu. Okay. So Sam, c’est quand ton anniversaire? |
| Sam: Oh. When’s my birthday? It’s a secret. |
| Christophe: Why a secret? |
| Sam: Oh, I’m just joking. My birthday? February 4th. Le 4 de février. |
| Céline: le 4 février. |
| Sam: Le 4 février. |
| Céline: Et toi Christophe? |
| Christophe: Me? |
| Céline: Oui toi. |
| Christophe: Le 12 novembre. |
| Céline: Et moi c’est le 21 octobre. So don’t forget. |
| Sam: So let’s recap. My birthday is February 4th, Christophe’s is November 12th, and Céline is October 20th. |
| Céline: Twenty-first! |
| Sam: Oh, I forgot already! |
| Céline: Oh mon Dieu! |
| Sam: So it’s the 21st. All you listeners, you can still send us a gift if you have time. |
| Céline: Oui. |
Outro |
| Sam: But I think that’s a good place to end today’s lesson. So thank you, guys! |
| Céline: oui merci beaucoup Sam et merci Christophe. |
| Christophe: merci Céline. merci Sam. |
| Sam: Merci. Au revoir. |
| Céline: A bientôt! |
| Christophe: Au revoir. |
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