Learn how to build questions using the French word that means "why"
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| Introduction |
| Virginie: Bonjour! C’est Virginie. Hello, everyone. |
| Eric: Hello everyone, this is Eric. Where does your French go from here? |
| Virginie: What are we gonna see in this lesson? |
| Eric: It looks like Joe is a little bit down because he has to leave France. |
| Virginie: Oh, poor Joe. And I think what we gonna cover today is the question with pourquoi. |
| Eric: Why? Why do I have to leave France? |
| Virginie: Why is life so hard? |
| Eric: So the front desk worker at the hotel is offering some sage advice about how to cope. |
| Dialogue |
| Réceptionniste : Bonjour Monsieur. |
| Joe : Je voudrais régler la note s'il vous plaît. |
| Réceptionniste : Oui Monsieur. Oh, et vous avez des messages. |
| Joe : Ah oui ? |
| Réceptionniste : Quelque chose ne va pas ? |
| Joe : Je n'ai pas envie de partir. |
| Réceptionniste : Alors pourquoi vous partez ? |
| Joe : Eh bien, parce que j'ai du travail. Et parce que j'habite aux Etats-Unis. |
| Réceptionniste: C'est une bonne raison...pouvez-vous travailler en France ? Vivre ici ? |
| Joe : Euh...peut-être. |
| Eric: One more time, a little more slowly. |
| Virginie: Encore une fois, plus lentement. |
| Réceptionniste : Bonjour Monsieur. |
| Joe : Je voudrais régler la note s'il vous plaît. |
| Réceptionniste : Oui Monsieur. Oh, et vous avez des messages. |
| Joe : Ah oui ? |
| Réceptionniste : Quelque chose ne va pas ? |
| Joe : Je n'ai pas envie de partir. |
| Réceptionniste : Alors pourquoi vous partez ? |
| Joe : Eh bien, parce que j'ai du travail. Et parce que j'habite aux Etats-Unis. |
| Réceptionniste: C'est une bonne raison...pouvez-vous travailler en France ? Vivre ici ? |
| Joe : Euh...peut-être. |
| Eric: One more time, with the translation. |
| Virginie: Encore une fois, avec la traduction. |
| Réceptionniste : Bonjour Monsieur. |
| Eric: Good morning, sir. |
| Joe : Je voudrais régler la note s'il vous plaît. |
| Eric: I would like to check out, please. |
| Réceptionniste : Oui Monsieur. Oh, et vous avez des messages. |
| Eric: Yes, sir. Also, you have some messages. |
| Joe : Ah oui ? |
| Eric: Oh yes? |
| Réceptionniste : Quelque chose ne va pas ? |
| Eric: Is there something wrong, sir? |
| Joe : Je n'ai pas envie de partir. |
| Eric: I don't feel like leaving. |
| Réceptionniste : Alors pourquoi vous partez ? |
| Eric: So why are you leaving? |
| Joe : Eh bien, parce que j'ai du travail. Et parce que j'habite aux Etats-Unis. |
| Eric: Well, because I have to work. And because I live in the United States. |
| Réceptionniste: C'est une bonne raison...pouvez-vous travailler en France ? Vivre ici ? |
| Eric: That's a good reason. Can you work in France? Live here? |
| Joe : Euh...peut-être. |
| Eric: Well... maybe. |
| Post Conversation Banter |
| Virginie: So Eric? |
| Eric: Yeah? |
| Virginie: Do you think Joe is gonna ever come back to France? |
| Eric: He seems like he has French in his blood now, so I don’t know, he seems like he wants to go back. We will have to see. Does he need some sort of visa or passport? |
| Virginie: Yeah. Well he probably needs a passport for sure. If he wants to work in France he will need a visa, but a business visa. |
| Eric: Exactly. Well, are there a lot of expatriates in France? |
| Virginie: There are a lot of expatriates in France. There are a lot of Americans in Paris and on the Riviera. But otherwise, there are expatriates from other countries from the EU. |
| Eric: Right, if you have an EU passport you can go anywhere else in the EU, right? |
| Virginie: Yeah, you can work anywhere, you can live anywhere, you don’t need a visa. |
| Eric: So what was the EU agreement that made this all possible? |
| Virginie: It is called the Schengen agreement and it’s from 97 and signed by all the EU countries and basically what they did is they opened the borders to all the people who live in an EU country. So if for example, I, Virginie, want to work in Spain I can go. |
| Eric: So you Virginie can work in Spain? |
| Virginie: Yeah, I can live in Spain even without working too. |
| Eric: Can you receive social benefits in Spain? |
| Virginie: Only if you work. I mean – yeah, you can. I mean if some |
| Eric: Can you get back unemployment in Spain? |
| Virginie: That will be according to the Spanish rules, and you only can get unemployment if you worked for a while, which makes sense. |
| Eric: Right, okay. No free loading then I guess, okay. |
| Virginie: No, no, you can’t just show up and get money from the government. But you are allowed to stay, poor but you are allowed to. |
| Eric: That’s great. Do a lot of people do this? Do a lot of people go – I mean where are the numbers? Like has most of Belgium left and gone elsewhere or, you know? |
| Virginie: Pretty much everyone lives everywhere. Northern French people go to Germany or Belgium and Southern French people live in Spain or in Italy and it’s hard since Spanish people go to Southern France, you know, like close to the border. |
| Eric: I think Americans have a different mentality about this because we are so used to going – you know, to go to California would be nothing for an American. |
| Virginie: It’s the same country, so yeah. |
| Eric: But I still think – I don’t know, in Europe I think people even if they go to another country you still want – you sort of have more of an attachment to your home? |
| Virginie: Yeah, because it’s different from the states because these are different counties and different cultures. |
| Eric: But even within Germany or something, you may feel way more comfortable in your own region as opposed to Northern Germany or Southern Germany? |
| Virginie: Oh within one country? |
| Eric: Yeah. |
| Virginie: I don’t know about Germans, but |
| Eric: Well I am thinking about French people. |
| Virginie: French people move around within the country a lot too. No, it’s not – I mean they are attached to their hometown, but who isn’t. |
| Eric: Who isn’t, exactly. |
| Virginie: okay. Let’s take a look at our vocabulary. |
| Vocab List |
| Virginie: régler la note [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to check out (hotel) |
| Virginie: régler la note [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Virginie: régler la note [natural native speed] |
| Virginie: avoir envie [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to feel like |
| Virginie: avoir envie [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Virginie: avoir envie [natural native speed] |
| Virginie: pourquoi [natural native speed] |
| Eric: why |
| Virginie: pourquoi [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Virginie: pourquoi [natural native speed] |
| Virginie: partir [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to leave |
| Virginie: partir [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Virginie: partir [natural native speed] |
| Virginie: parce que [natural native speed] |
| Eric: because |
| Virginie: parce que [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Virginie: parce que [natural native speed] |
| Virginie: une raison [natural native speed] |
| Eric: a reason |
| Virginie: une raison [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Virginie: une raison [natural native speed] |
| Virginie: vivre [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to live |
| Virginie: vivre [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Virginie: vivre [natural native speed] |
| Vocab and Phrase Usage |
| Eric: Okay great. So let’s look a little bit closer at the vocabulary. What do we have first? Regler la note. |
| Virginie: Yes, Joy is leaving the hotel. So he has to check out right. So he regler la note, which means to check out. |
| Eric: Right, and I guess literally, regler is “to pay,” la note is “the bill.” So it’s like paying the bill and then you can go. |
| Virginie: Yeah exactly. |
| Eric: You are free to leave. |
| Virginie: We don’t have an actual word for check out. It’s really to pay the bill, regler la note. |
| Eric: And you can also say another word for note, for la note, like in a restaurant, for example ,right? |
| Virginie: Oh in the restaurant, it will be regler l'addition. |
| Eric: L’addition is again the bill, the check. |
| Virginie: Yeah but only at the restaurant. You probably heard before L’addition, s.v.p. Okay, what do we have next? |
| Eric: Partir, to leave. |
| Virginie: Because Joe part. |
| Eric: Joe would say, je pars de France, I am leaving France. |
| Virginie: Je pars de France. |
| Eric: Right. |
| Virginie: I leave from France, basically |
| Eric: From France. |
| Virginie: Another way of using partir, is you want to say I am leaving for vacation, you will say, je pars en vacances. So literally it’s in vacation, en vacances. Je pars en vacances. |
| Eric: Right. And then in our dialogue, we have vous partez, which is the formal question vous. |
| Virginie: That’s the front desk person who talks to Joe and says, vous partez? Vous partez déjà? Are you already leaving? Yeah I think Joe is making everyone sad and depressed in France with his departure. |
| Eric: I know… |
| Virginie: Definitely. So what’s our last word Eric? |
| Eric: Last we have une raison, a reason. |
| Virginie: Where is it in the dialogue? |
| Eric: We had une bonne raison, which is a good reason. |
| Virginie: Une bonne raison. We already know that bon is masculine for “good.” Now, the feminine form of bon is bonne. |
| Eric: Right, because it’s une raison, feminine, we have to use the feminine adjective, une bonne raison. |
| Virginie: Exactly. Yes and remember it’s one of those adjectives that go before the noun. Can we put in the sentences? |
| Eric: Well you could say, c'est une bonne raison pour partir. |
| Virginie: It’s a good reason to leave, c'est une bonne raison pour partir. Maybe another sentence? |
| Eric: Well, we could say, why would you want to learn French, you could say, ma femme est française, c'est une bonne raison pour apprendre le français. |
| Virginie: My wife is French, it’s a good reason to learn French. |
| Eric: Can you say it one more time? |
| Virginie: Ma femme est française, c'est une bonne raison pour apprendre le français. |
| Eric: My wife is French, it’s a good reason to learn French. |
| Virginie: Yeah, so remember that to learn is apprendre. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Virginie: What do we have for grammar today? |
| Eric: Avoir envie de. |
| Virginie: The expression in French avoir envie de means “to feel like.” For example, I feel like eating. I know we always use the verb eating but at least you guys know it. |
| Eric: That’s important as well. |
| Virginie: J’ai envie de, and then it’s followed by the infinitive form of your verb. |
| Eric: So literally “I feel like eating.” |
| Virginie: Well… |
| Eric: You are going to have to have the proposition to formula that takes de, j’ai envie de. |
| Virginie: In our dialogue, Joe says |
| Eric: Je n'ai pas envie de partir. |
| Virginie: I don’t feel like leaving. So you already know that negation in French, we’ve seen that over and over in previous lessons. So if you want to use it with to feel like, j’ai envie de, you will say, Je n'ai pas envie de partir, “I don’t feel like leaving.” But avoir envie de can also be followed by a noun, right. What if you feel like a banana? |
| Eric: J’ai envie d'une banane. |
| Virginie: J’ai envie d'une banane. I feel like a banana. J’ai envie de soleil, I feel like sun. |
| Eric: Right. So you can also designate an object. You want a banana, you want some cake, whatever it is J’ai envie de [blank]. |
| Virginie: Yeah exactly. Okay then what do we have? |
| Eric: Well, we promised we would talk to you a little bit about forming questions. So how do you say why? |
| Virginie: Oh, the French for why is pourquoi. In the dialogue, the receptionist says, pourquoi vous partez? |
| Eric: Why are you leaving? |
| Virginie: It’s very easy to use, right? You just have pourquoi at the beginning of your sentence, and your subject, and your verb, and there you are. Pourquoi vous partez? |
| Eric: But if you want to say because, parce que. |
| Virginie: Yeah. |
| Eric: In example, Joe answers parce que j'ai du travail, “because I have to work,” et parce que j'habite aux Etats-Unis, “and because I live in the United States.” |
| Virginie: So be careful parce que is two words. It’s parce and then que. |
| Eric: Parce, and then the space, que. |
| Virginie: And it’s also very easy to use. |
| Eric: Now, we have another way of making questions with the phrase est-ce que. You’ve probably heard that before. It’s going to be something sort of equivalent to, is it that. |
| Virginie: So what do you do for example? Remember the front desk person in our dialogue says Pourquoi vous partez? But he could also have said, pourquoi est-ce que vous partez? |
| Eric: And this is basically the same question. It’s just a slightly different form. |
| Virginie: And it’s not more or less formal. It’s just the exact same meaning and the exact same value. |
| Eric: We just want to bring it to your attention because you will hear it, pourquoi est-ce que… |
| Virginie: vous partez? |
| Eric: Exactly. |
| Virginie: Pourquoi est-ce que |
| Eric: soleil est jaune? |
| Virginie: Why is the sun yellow? That’s true. |
| Eric: Deep… |
| Virginie: That’s such a good question, yeah. Pourquoi est-ce que je suis là? |
| Eric: Why am I here? |
| Virginie: Exactly. |
| Eric: Very deep now, okay. |
| Virginie: Just remember that est-ce que at the very beginning of the question as we saw in previous lessons will be a yes/no question. Est-ce que tu veux du vin? Do you want some wine? But est-ce que used with pourquoi and other interrogative adjectives will just be another way of asking a question. |
| Eric: Exactly. |
| Virginie: Yes. |
Outro |
| Eric: I think we are about done. Thank you very much for listening to our entire series of Gengo talks. |
| Virginie: Thank you. It was a real pleasure to teach you some French and hopefully you will go ahead and become fluent very soon. |
| Eric: We wish you the best of luck. |
| Virginie: Thank you very much and have a great day, merci. Au revoir! |
| Eric: Au revoir! |
| Virginie: Bye bye. |
| Eric: Bye. |
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