Learn how to tell time using minutes
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| Introduction |
| Virginie: Bonjour à tous! |
| Eric: Hello, Eric here. |
| Virginie: Hi, this is Virginie. |
| Eric: You Better Ask Before You Do This in France. |
| Virginie: What are we going to see in this lesson, Eric? |
| Eric: Well, it looks like we are going to be asking how to say what time it is. |
| Virginie: And also we will have a quick review of how to say at what time things happen. |
| Eric: So in this dialogue, Joe is visiting a museum and he is getting tickets at the front. |
| Virginie: I think he is at the Louvre. Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| Eric: C'est parti. Let’s go. |
| Dialogue |
| Joe : Excusez-moi, vous ouvrez à quelle heure ? |
| Agent d'acceuil : À dix heures. |
| Joe : Et quelle heure est-il ? |
| Agent d'acceuil : Neuf heures cinquante. |
| Joe : D'accord, je vais attendre. |
| (10h) |
| Joe : Un ticket, s'il vous plaît. |
| Agent d'acceuil : Ça fait cinq euros. |
| Joe : Tenez. |
| Agent d'acceuil : Cinq euros tout juste. Bonne visite. |
| Joe : Excusez-moi, je peux prendre des photos ? |
| Sécurité : Désolé, pas de photos. |
| Joe : Et une vidéo ? |
| Sécurité : Euh...Oui, c'est bon, je pense. Allez-y. |
| Eric: One more time, a little more slowly. |
| Virginie: Encore une fois, plus lentement. |
| Joe : Excusez-moi, vous ouvrez à quelle heure ? |
| Agent d'acceuil : À dix heures. |
| Joe : Et quelle heure est-il ? |
| Agent d'acceuil : Neuf heures cinquante. |
| Joe : D'accord, je vais attendre. |
| Joe : Un ticket, s'il vous plaît. |
| Agent d'acceuil : Ça fait cinq euros. |
| Joe : Tenez. |
| Agent d'acceuil : Cinq euros tout juste. Bonne visite. |
| Joe : Excusez-moi, je peux prendre des photos ? |
| Sécurité : Désolé, pas de photos. |
| Joe : Et une vidéo ? |
| Sécurité : Euh...Oui, c'est bon, je pense. Allez-y. |
| Eric: One more time, with the translation. |
| Virginie: Encore une fois, avec la traduction. |
| Joe : Excusez-moi, vous ouvrez à quelle heure ? |
| : Excuse me, what time do you open? |
| Agent d'acceuil : À dix heures. |
| : At ten. |
| Joe : Et quelle heure est-il ? |
| : What time is it? |
| Agent d'acceuil : Neuf heures cinquante. |
| : Nine-fifty. |
| Joe : D'accord, je vais attendre. |
| : Okay, I'll wait. |
| Joe : Un ticket, s'il vous plaît. |
| : One ticket, please. |
| Agent d'acceuil : Ça fait cinq euros. |
| : That's five euros. |
| Joe : Tenez. |
| : Here you are. |
| Agent d'acceuil : Cinq euros tout juste. Bonne visite. |
| : Five euros exactly. Enjoy your visit. |
| Joe : Excusez-moi, je peux prendre des photos ? |
| : Excuse me; can I take pictures? |
| Sécurité : Désolé, pas de photos. |
| : Sorry, no pictures. |
| Joe : Et une vidéo ? |
| : How about a video? |
| Sécurité : Euh...Oui, c'est bon, je pense. Allez-y. |
| : Hmmm...yes, it's okay I think. Go ahead. |
| Post Conversation Banter |
| Eric: So Virginie, we had been talking a lot about Paris. Can you tell us what’s in other parts of France? |
| Virginie: Yes. There are many places that are interesting besides Paris in France. For example, there is the Mont Saint-Michel in Brittany. Have you heard of it? |
| Eric: Yeah, I’d been here. It’s amazing. It’s - |
| Virginie: Oh you’ve been there? |
| Eric: Yeah. |
| Virginie: Oh, you know, I’ve never been there. So you have to tell us about it. Yeah. |
| Eric: Well, it’s like this amazing Abbey that’s built on this tiny island, you know, kind of around the coastline. So you kind of climb up these stairs and there is like this beautiful Medieval Abbey. But it’s really impressive from the far because you have this view of a sort of island, it’s like – it’s like the Abbey and the island are merged into one thing. That’s great. |
| Virginie: Okay because I’ve only seen pictures actually and I’ve heard of it a lot and it’s – And I think it’s worth going, definitely. |
| Eric: What else do we have? |
| Virginie: Another attraction is called Le Puy du Fou, which would be the podium of insanity. |
| Eric: This I’d never heard of. What’s that? |
| Virginie: Le Puy du Fou is a historical theme park in Les Epesses, in the heart of the Vendée region of Western France. And what they do is, they have re-enactments of Middle Ages fights with knights and then they come to the Vikings, the Gladiators and it’s really, really funny. |
| Eric: Right. It sounds like medieval times a little bit. |
| Virginie: So what is medieval times, Eric? |
| Eric: Well, it’s our American version sort of the same thing of you know, you go and you eat and you watch some jousting, yeah that’s that kind of thing. |
| Virginie: Ah okay, yeah I guess it’s part of the same thing. |
| Eric: Have you been or no? |
| Virginie: No, I have never been, again. I am not a good tourist in my own country. That’s for sure. |
| Eric: Me neither in America. |
| Virginie: Okay. So let’s take a look at the vocabulary. |
| Vocab List |
| quel/quelle/quels/quelles [natural native speed] |
| which, what |
| quel/quelle/quels/quelles [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| quel/quelle/quels/quelles [natural native speed] |
| l'heure [natural native speed] |
| time (on the clock) |
| l'heure [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| l'heure [natural native speed] |
| ouvrir [natural native speed] |
| to open |
| ouvrir [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| ouvrir [natural native speed] |
| dix heures [natural native speed] |
| ten o'clock |
| dix heures [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| dix heures [natural native speed] |
| attendre [natural native speed] |
| to wait |
| attendre [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| attendre [natural native speed] |
| cinq [natural native speed] |
| five |
| cinq [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| cinq [natural native speed] |
| tout juste [natural native speed] |
| exactly |
| tout juste [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| tout juste [natural native speed] |
| prendre [natural native speed] |
| to take |
| prendre [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| prendre [natural native speed] |
| une photo (photographie) [natural native speed] |
| a photo |
| une photo (photographie) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| une photo (photographie) [natural native speed] |
| une vidéo [natural native speed] |
| a video |
| une vidéo [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| une vidéo [natural native speed] |
| penser [natural native speed] |
| to think |
| penser [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| penser [natural native speed] |
| bon [natural native speed] |
| okay |
| bon [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| bon [natural native speed] |
| euh... [natural native speed] |
| well... |
| euh... [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| euh... [natural native speed] |
| Vocab and Phrase Usage |
| Eric: Let's see the verb "ouvrir", to open. |
| Virginie: Yes there are so many things one can open. |
| Eric: It is indeed a useful verb. |
| Virginie: OK, here we are at a museum. |
| Eric: So Joe asks at what time they open. |
| Virginie: His question is "a quelle heure vous ouvrez? |
| Eric: By now you know that "a quelle heure" means "at what time" |
| Virginie: And the second part, "vous ouvrez", means "you open" |
| Eric: Literally, At what time you open? |
| Virginie: Remember that French questions don't necessarily need the verb and subject reversed. So it's vous ouvrez. |
| Eric: Now although Ouvrir ends with "IR", it is conjugated like an "ER" verb. |
| Virginie: Let's see how we would say, for example, "I open a bottle." |
| Eric: OK. J'ouvre une bouteille. |
| Virginie: Une bouteille is a bottle. |
| Eric: And I open is "j'ouvre". I let you guess why the e in je is dropped and was replaced by an apostrophe. |
| Virginie: Yes we've talked about this many times in previous lessons. |
| Eric: So, again |
| Virginie: It's "j'ouvre une bouteille" |
| Eric: Alright, what's our next word |
| Virginie: It's more like a phrase, its "allez-y". |
| Eric: And that's "go ahead" |
| Virginie: Yes, that's what the security person tells Joe when he asks if he can take a video. |
| Eric: Allez-y. |
| Virginie: You can say allez-y in many other contexts, bien sur. |
| Eric: To let someone go, |
| Virginie: Or To tell someone to start something. |
| Eric: Now in our dialogue the security guard uses the formal "go ahead" |
| Virginie: Yes. He doesn't know Joe. |
| Eric: What would I tell a friend? |
| Virginie: You would say "vas-y". |
| Eric: OO sounds very different. |
| Virginie: Oui. But it's literally the same as "allez-y" |
| Eric: And you probably recognized the verb aller, to go. |
| Virginie: OK let's talk about "euh" |
| Eric: Vas-y Virginie, go ahead. |
| Virginie: OK. You probably hear me say "euuuuuuh" all the time when I look for my English words. |
| Eric: Yes it's true. So it's some kind of punctuation thing, right? |
| Virginie: That's sort of a "well..." Yes, it marks a hesitation, you know, when you're thinking of what you're saying. |
| Eric: So the English equivalent would be "well" |
| Virginie: I remember that at school they would teach us not to say "euh" during a class presentation. |
| Eric: Oh, and why is that? |
| Virginie: Because first it doesn't sound very nice, and then I show you don't know your subject by heart. |
| Eric: Oh I see. We'll see if Virginie says "euh" a lot today. |
| Virginie: Let's see some grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Virginie: First of all, let's review the way to say at what time things happen. |
| Eric: OK. To ask "AT what time do you open? Joe says |
| Virginie: A quelle heure vous ouvrez? |
| Eric: Literally At which hour you open? |
| Virginie: Yes, don't forget to say a before quelle heure. |
| Eric: Again, that's A quelle heure? |
| Virginie: OK. When you answer this question, you will also need to start with "a". |
| Eric: Can you give us an example Virginie? |
| Virginie: Oui. For example in our dialogue, the ticket person answers "a 10h00," |
| Eric: and that's "at ten" |
| Virginie: So remember to say "a" then the time , here it's "dix", and then the word "heure". |
| Eric: A dix heures. |
| Virginie: OK now we're going to see how to say what time it IS |
| Eric: And how to ask for the time |
| Virginie: Yes let's see how to ask for the time first., |
| Eric: IN the dialogue after the ticket person tells Joe that they open at ten, joe asks "and what time is it?" |
| Virginie: and that's ion French "et quelle heure est-il? |
| Eric: Ok. So to ask the time in French, you will say "which hour is it? |
| Virginie: Quelle heure est-il |
| Eric: That's a reversed question with est-il, is it. |
| Virginie: But you can also say it without reversing the verb est and the subject il |
| Eric: quelle heure il est? |
| Virginie: Which hour it is? |
| Eric: You can say it either way in any kind of situation |
| Virginie: Let's break it down, Quelles/Which heure/hour il/it est/is. |
| Eric: Now you need to know how to answer that question. |
| Virginie: Right. So, to tell the time in French, it's pretty easy |
| Eric: You just take the "il est" form the question |
| Virginie: And then you say the time |
| Eric: For example |
| Virginie: Il est 11 heures |
| Eric: It's 11 o'clock. |
| Virginie: Now in our dialogue the ticket person says "il est 9h50" |
| Eric: It's nine fifty. |
| Virginie: There are other ways to say the time in French, but we are talking about the easiest one. |
| Eric: Yes, you just say the hour first, here it's neuf, nine |
| Virginie: Then the hour is followed by the word heure "hour" |
| Eric: So far so good |
| Virginie: and after that, you just say the minutes. |
| Eric: Here it's fifty |
| Virginie: Cinquante. |
| Eric: Now we know that you probably don't know how to count inFrench |
| Virginie: You can learn with our Basic Bootcamp lesson counting from 1 to 10 and from 10 to 100. |
| Eric: Let's try with another time. How about "it is 10:25 |
| Virginie: Well, first of all, 25 in French is vingt-cinq |
| Eric: So it will be "il est 10h25” |
| Virginie: It is 10:25 |
| Eric: Now with 12, noon |
| Virginie: OK. Noon in French is Midi. |
| Eric: it is noon is Il est midi |
| Virginie: Now if you want to say "it is 12:50, you will have to say it is noon fifty |
| Eric: And that's "il est midi 50. |
| Virginie: Now that we saw noon, let's see how to say midnight. |
| Eric: Midnight is "minuit" |
| Virginie: Again, minuit. So if you want to say it's 12:50 at night, you will say |
| Eric: Il est minuit 50 |
| Virginie: Literally it is midnight 50 |
| Eric: Now you need to do an important thing. |
| Virginie: Yes, the French use the military time. |
| Eric: They count their hours fr0m 1 to 24. |
| Virginie: So all the hours between noon and midnight will be counted as 13, 14, 15 etc. |
| Eric: For example, if it's 3pm, you will say |
| Virginie: Il est quinze heures. |
| Eric: Literally it is fifteen o'clock. |
| Virginie: But now, French people don't necessarily use the military time. |
| Eric: So you can also say "il est trois heures," it's three o'clock for 3pm. |
| Virginie: OK. For more details about the time, you can read the lesson notes. |
| Eric: We hope that it will help you out! |
Outro |
| Virginie: OK, this lesson is over. |
| Eric: Thank you for listening. |
| Virginie: Thank you very much, merci ! Bye-bye! |
| Eric: Au revoir ! |
Comments
Hide