Learn some common French slang terms, and how to ask how someone is doing
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Sylvain: Bonjour je m’appelle Sylvain. |
| Celine: Et moi c’est Celine. |
| Sam: Sam here! Bonjour à tous. Are We Feeling a Little Rude Today? In this lesson, you’ll learn how to greet close friends with the verb aller and its various form. |
| Celine: The conversation is between teenagers, Aurélie and Daniel. |
| Sam: The speakers know each other very well, therefore, they will be speaking informally. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Sweety Aurélie: Hé Danny. Comment ça va ? |
| Pimple Daniel: Ça va, merci. Et toi ? |
| Sweety Aurélie: Ça roule Raoul ! |
| Pimple Daniel: Oui, si tout va bien, on va bien ! |
| English Host: Now let’s try that again slowly. |
| Sweety Aurélie: Hé Danny. Comment ça va ? |
| Pimple Daniel: Ça va, merci. Et toi ? |
| Sweety Aurélie: Ça roule Raoul ! |
| Pimple Daniel: Oui, si tout va bien, on va bien ! |
| English Host: Now let’s try that with the English. |
| Sweety Aurélie: Hé Danny. Comment ça va ? |
| Sam: Hey, Danny. What’s up? |
| Pimple Daniel: Ça va, merci. Et toi ? |
| Sam: I'm okay thanks, and you? |
| Sweety Aurélie: Ça roule Raoul ! |
| Sam: I'm all right. |
| Pimple Daniel: Oui, si tout va bien, on va bien ! |
| Sam: Yes, if everything is well, we are well! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Sylvain: Slang. |
| Sam: So guys, slang isn’t necessary a curse word or a bad word; slang is a casual language you can use with your friends or a special coded language. |
| Celine: Sylvain… |
| Sylvain: Oui? |
| Celine: …I know that you always say one word in French, and that’s “I don’t care”, je m’en bats... |
| Sylvain: les... |
| Celine: je l’en bats les what? |
| Sylvain: This won’t be translated or… |
| Celine: Yes, of course, it will! je m’en bats what? Can you say it in French? |
| Sylvain: No. It’s kind of impossible to say it; it’s hard. |
| Celine: No, it’s not hard. Je m’en tape le coquillard. |
| Sylvain: Je m’en tape le coquillard avec des spatules de crevettes. This was an expression of my grandmother. And you have to think it’s about the beginner of the first of the word and before that je m’en tape le coquillard avec des spatules de crevette. |
| Sam: I think that means “I hit the shell with the spatula or my tie?” |
| Sylvain: No, no. Shrimp. |
| Sam: I hate the shrimp. |
| Sylvain: No, no, spatula for shrimp. |
| Celine: Okay. Let’s translate later, right? |
| Sam: Yeah. Okay. |
| Sylvain: That work. Let’s do it later. |
| Celine: There’s another word like je kiffe. |
| Sylvain: Ah ouais je kiffe trop! |
| Celine: Je kiffe… Je la kiffe. |
| Sam: Je la kiffe? |
| Celine: She rocks. |
| Sylvain: Or more generally, “I have pleasure to do something.” |
| Celine: Je kiffe. |
| Sylvain: Je kiffe trop le cinéma. |
| Celine: This is really casual, slang. French slang. And it comes from north Africa. |
| Sam: We have a similar expression in English like something is mad cool or it’s very cool. |
| Celine: Ah, mad cool. We have c’est mortel. |
| Sylvain: mortel. But mortel is just a normal vocabulary adverb used in different context. |
| Sam: Okay. Interesting. |
| Celine: Sylvain. |
| Sylvain: Like, for example, we have c’est trop de la balle. |
| Celine: ah oui c’est de la balle. |
| Sylvain: c’est de la balle. |
| Celine: It’s a bullet. I think the better translation is “it’s a bullet”. It means… |
| Sylvain: So cool. |
| Celine: …it rocks, too. It’s cool. |
| Sam: That means it’s like really, really cool. |
| Celine: Really cool, c’est de la balle. |
| Sam: Like, extremely cool. |
| Celine: Yeah. |
| Sylvain: C’est trop de la balle. But the problem with slang, it’s a language of youngs. |
| Celine: Yeah. Young. Yeah. |
| Sylvain: Young teenagers. After two weeks, no use anymore. |
| Celine: We still use it in French. |
| Sam: We still use it. |
| Celine: Yeah, we use it in France. |
| Sylvain: For kiffe, for example, it was 100 years before it was really used and suddenly stopped to be used once more. |
| Sam: It disappeared and re-appeared again. |
| Sylvain: Yeah, yeah. |
| Celine: Yeah. Okay. So why don’t we check the vocab? |
| Sam: Sounds like it’s a good idea to me. |
| Celine: You’re sleepy today. |
| Sam: No, I’m not sleepy. |
| Celine: Yes, you are. |
| Sylvain: Beginning. |
| Sam: I’m never sleepy. |
| Celine: Okay. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Sam: Let’s look at the first word . |
| Sylvain: Ça [natural native speed] |
| Sam: It. |
| Sylvain: Ça [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Ça [natural native speed]. |
| Sam: Next… |
| Celine: Va [natural native speed] |
| Sam: Go. |
| Celine: Va [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Va [natural native speed]. |
| Sam: Next… |
| Celine: aller. |
| Sam: To go. |
| Celine: aller. [slowly - broken down by syllable] aller. [natural native speed] |
| Sam: Next… |
| Sylvain: Merci [natural native speed]. |
| Sam: Thank you. |
| Sylvain: Merci [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Merci [natural native speed]. |
| Sam: Next… |
| Celine: Et toi [natural native speed]. |
| Sam: “And you.” This is the informal version of “and you”. |
| Celine: Et toi [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Et toi [natural native speed]. |
| Sam: Next… |
| Sylvain: Ça roule [natural native speed]. |
| Sam: It's going. |
| Sylvain: Ça roule [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Ça roule [natural native speed]. |
| Sam: Next… |
| Celine: Oui [natural native speed]. |
| Sam: Yes. |
| Celine: Oui [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Oui [natural native speed]. |
| Sylvain: Tout [natural native speed]. |
| Sam: All. |
| Sylvain: Tout [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Tout [natural native speed]. |
| Sam: Next… |
| Celine: Bien [natural native speed]. |
| Sam: Well. |
| Celine: Bien [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Bien [natural native speed]. |
| Sam: Next… |
| Sylvain: On [natural native speed] |
| Sam: (Informal) we. |
| Sylvain: On [slowly - broken down by syllable]. On [natural native speed]. |
| Celine: So let’s have a look at the usage for some of the words and sentences. The first word we’ll look at is comment “how”. |
| Sylvain: Comment va Robert? |
| Sam: “How is Robert?” |
| Celine: Exactement. Comment can be placed at the end but we will look at that later today. |
| Sam: The next word is used to express gratitude, merci. |
| Sylvain: Par exemple, For example, merci pour ton aide. |
| Celine: “Thanks for your help”. |
| Sam: Okay. |
| Sylvain: Next phrase is “ça va”. |
| Sam: “Fine”. This expression has a nuance. It can also be used as a question. How is it possible? Celine, could you use it in context, please? |
| Celine: ça va, Sylvain? |
| Sam: oui ça va. |
| Sylvain: “Yes, I’m fine”. It’s a very common way to ask how a friend is. |
| Sam: Wow. Only the intonation tells us if it’s a statement or question. |
| Sylvain: That’s right. |
| Celine: Exactement. You also have the option to add “comment” and say comment ça va? |
| Sam: I’m lazy. I think I’ll just say or use the form ça va. For example, ça va Sylvain? |
| Sylvain: oui ça va, ça va, j’ai un peu du mal à lire le texte mais ça va. |
| Celine: “I’m fine.” |
| Sam: Great. |
| Celine: So to conclude our vocabulary usage, the last word is “bien”. |
| Sam: That word means “well”. Let’s see that in the sentence, please. |
| Sylvain: Tout est bien qui finit mal. |
| Celine: Ben voyons... all is well which ends badly. Mais non Sylvain, it’s “tout est bien qui finit bien”. C’est un proverbe. |
| Sylvain: Tout est bien qui finit bien. Désolé. |
| Sam: It’s a proverb which means “All that’s well which ends badly”. |
| Celine: No. |
| Sylvain: No, no, no. |
| Céline: C’est pas possible! |
| Sam: No? Oh, I’m so sorry. “All that’s well which ends well”. |
| Sylvain: That’s right. |
| Celine: Exactement. |
| Sam: Sorry. I was just playing with words. |
| Celine: What’s wrong with you today? |
| Sam: Nothing. |
| Celine: Yes. |
| Sam: I’d better eat my doughnut I think. |
| Sylvain: I will try mine also. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Sam: Okay. Let’s look at some grammar. There’s a word which appears a lot in our lesson. It’s “va”. Can you tell us more about “va”? |
| Sylvain: Good grammar question. It’s a verb. The infinitive is “aller”. |
| Sam: Doesn’t va mean “to go”? |
| Celine: Exactement. If you’ll translate literally comment ça va “how it goes”, it seems strange to the ear. |
| Sylvain: Its best match is “how is it going” or more commonly “how are you?” |
| Sam: So it’s like saying “how is it going?” “How are you doing?” Okay. You mentioned also something with “comment”. |
| Celine: Oui, comment can be put at the start or at the end of the question. |
| Sylvain: “Comment ça va?” or “ça va comment?”. You cannot use the “pronom tu” to ask how someone is. |
| Sam: For example? |
| Sylvain: comment tu vas? |
| Celine: Je vais bien. |
| Sam: How are you? |
| Celine: I’m fine. |
| Sam: Thanks to that wonderful insight. |
| Celine: But remember, this is the informal. |
| Sam: That’s right. |
| Celine: Right? |
| Sam: So you’re going to use informal language. |
| Sylvain: Some time. |
| Celine: Yeah. No. Of course we do. |
| Sam: Okay. |
| Celine: French people are cool, too. |
| Sam: Really? |
| Celine: I said “too”. So that means Americans are cool. |
| Sam: Oh, okay. Sorry. |
| Sylvain: The pressure is going up in the studio. |
| Sam: I got a sad look when I said that. I don’t know. |
| Sylvain: Okay. No worries then. |
| Sam: Hey, guys, one more thing. Can you give me the first, second, and third person conjugation for the verb aller before we go? |
| Sylvain: With pleasure. Singular je vais… |
| Sam: “I go”. |
| Celine: tu vas. |
| Sam: “You go”. |
| Sylvain: il va? |
| Sam: “He goes.” |
| Celine: elle va. |
| Sam: “She goes”. |
| Celine: ça va. |
| Sam: “It goes”. |
Outro |
| Sam: Okay. Thanks, guys. Don’t forget, guys, there’s more in the PDF. So before I open my doughnut, I think we should wrap up. That does it for today’s lesson. Thanks for the lesson today, guys. |
| Celine: Merci, bonne journée! |
| Sylvain: A bientôt! |
| Sam: See you later. Bye-bye. |
| Celine: Bye! |
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