Learn how to tell time and count to twenty
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Greg: Hi everyone, I’m Greg. When Should we Meet in France? |
| Mailys: Bonjour tout le monde. This is Mailys. In this lesson, we will learn how to tell time and how to count up to 20. |
| Greg: Jacques and Mireille are continuing their conversation about going out for dinner. |
| Mailys: And they are trying to agree on a time! |
| Greg: They are using informal French. |
| Mailys: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Jacques: Tu préfères 18, 19 ou 20 heures ? |
| Mireille: Euh... je pense que je préfère 19 heures. 18 heures, c'est trop tôt, et 20 heures, c'est trop tard. |
| Jacques: Oui, c'est vrai. Tu préfères 19 heures pile ou bien 19 h 15, 19 h 30 ou 19 h 45 ? |
| Mireille: 7 heures et quart ou 8 heures moins le quart... 7 heures et demie ? |
| Jacques: Parfait! À ce soir, 19 h 30 ! |
| Greg: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Jacques: Tu préfères 18, 19 ou 20 heures ? |
| Mireille: Euh... je pense que je préfère 19 heures. 18 heures, c'est trop tôt, et 20 heures, c'est trop tard. |
| Jacques: Oui, c'est vrai. Tu préfères 19 heures pile ou bien 19 h 15, 19 h 30 ou 19 h 45 ? |
| Mireille: 7 heures et quart ou 8 heures moins le quart... 7 heures et demie ? |
| Jacques: Parfait! À ce soir, 19 h 30 ! |
| Greg: Now let’s hear it with the English translation. |
| Jacques: Tu préfères 18, 19 ou 20 heures ? |
| Jacques: Do you prefer six, seven, or eight o'clock? |
| Mireille: Euh... je pense que je préfère 19 heures. 18 heures, c'est trop tôt, et 20 heures, c'est trop tard. |
| Mireille: Hmm... I think I prefer seven o'clock. Six o'clock is too early, and eight is too late. |
| Jacques: Oui, c'est vrai. Tu préfères 19 heures pile ou bien 19 h 15, 19 h 30 ou 19 h 45 ? |
| Jacques: Yes, that's true. Do you prefer seven sharp, or seven-fifteen, seven-thirty, or seven-fortyfive? |
| Mireille: 7 heures et quart ou 8 heures moins le quart... 7 heures et demie ? |
| Mireille: A quarter past seven or a quarter to eight... Half past seven? |
| Jacques: Parfait! À ce soir, 19 h 30 ! |
| Jacques: Perfect! See you tonight at seven-thirty! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Mailys: In French-speaking countries, instead of adding AM or PM after the time, we usually use the 24-hour system. |
| Greg: It doesn't have the military connotation that it has in English. It's almost always used when an official time is publicly announced, such as for a television show or any public event, especially in writing. |
| Mailys: It's also common for clocks or electronic devices to show the time using this system. But in informal speech, we sometimes just use the 12-hour system when it's clear whether we’re talking about AM or PM. This also allows us to use other informal expressions like "et demie" (half past) and "moins le quart" (a quarter to). |
| Greg: If you plan on visiting a Francophone country, make sure you're familiar with the 24-hour system! But now, let’s move on to the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Greg: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| The first word we shall see is: |
| Mailys: heure [natural native speed] |
| Greg: hour, o’clock |
| Mailys: heure [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys: heure [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Mailys: préférer [natural native speed] |
| Greg: to prefer |
| Mailys: préférer [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys: préférer [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Mailys: penser [natural native speed] |
| Greg: to think |
| Mailys: penser [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys: penser [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Mailys: que [natural native speed] |
| Greg: that |
| Mailys: que [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys: que [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Mailys: trop [natural native speed] |
| Greg: too much, too many |
| Mailys: trop [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys: trop [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Mailys: tôt [natural native speed] |
| Greg: early |
| Mailys: tôt [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys: tôt [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Mailys: tard [natural native speed] |
| Greg: late (in the day) |
| Mailys: tard [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys: tard [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Mailys: vrai [natural native speed] |
| Greg: true |
| Mailys: vrai [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys: vrai [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Mailys: pile [natural native speed] |
| Greg: sharp |
| Mailys: pile [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys: pile [natural native speed] |
| Last: |
| Mailys: parfait [natural native speed] |
| Greg: perfect |
| Mailys: parfait [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys: parfait [natural native speed] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Greg: Let’s take a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Mailys: Let's start by looking at the word ‘trop’, which means “too much or too many when used after a verb. For example, ‘Je mange trop’, “I eat too much.” |
| Greg: When it's used before an adjective or an adverb, it means “too.” |
| Mailys: ‘Il est trop tôt’, meaning “it's too early.” |
| Greg: It doesn't mean too in the sense of as well, only in the sense of excessively. |
| Greg: Let's now look at ‘tôt’ meaning “early”, and ‘tard’ meaning “late”. They only mean early or late in the day, not ahead or behind schedule. You'd use them to say that's it's too early for supper, or too late to go out, but not when someone arrives early or late. |
| Mailys: For instance, ‘18 heures, c’est trop tôt’ |
| Greg: Which means “6 o'clock is too early”, |
| Mailys: et 20 heures, c’est trop tard. |
| Greg: means “and 8 o'clock is too late.” |
| Greg: Let's now look at ‘parfait’ meaning “perfect.” |
| Mailys: It's also the name of a famous dessert. |
| Greg: We don't pronounce the final ‘t’, but in the feminine, an ‘-e’ is added, making the silent ‘t’ pronounced. Here are some example sentences |
| Mailys: Les biscuits sont parfaits! |
| Greg: The cookies are perfect! |
| Mailys: J'aime la cuisine, elle est parfaite! |
| Greg: I love the kitchen, it's perfect! |
| Greg: Let's now turn to the verb ‘préférer’, meaning “to prefer”. |
| Mailys: It's a regular verb, but there's a small irregularity in the spelling of the second ‘é’ - it changes to ‘è’ when it's in the last syllable of the word. Listen to the pronunciation and check the lesson notes to make sure you learn the right spelling. |
| Mailys: je préfère |
| Greg: I prefer |
| Mailys: tu préfères |
| Greg: you prefer |
| Mailys: il préfère |
| Greg: he/she/it prefers |
| Mailys: nous préférons |
| Greg: we prefer |
| Mailys: vous préférez |
| Greg: you (all) prefer |
| Mailys: ils préfèrent |
| Greg: they prefer |
| Great! Now let’s move on to the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Greg: The focus of this lesson is telling time. We will also learn how to count to 20. |
| Mailys: The French equivalent of “o'clock” is ‘heures’, which also means “hours”. So, ‘sept heures’ is either “7 o'clock” or “7 hours”. |
| Greg: You can also add ‘pile’ to mean “sharp”. |
| Mailys: ‘Deux heures pile’ means “2 o'clock sharp”. |
| Greg: To add minutes, simply add the number after. |
| Mailys: To say 3: 10, just say ‘trois heures dix’. You can also say ‘trois heures et dix minutes.’ |
| Greg: When giving the time, always use the preposition ‘à’ before the time. |
| Mailys: ‘À douze heures’ means “at 12 o'clock.” |
| Greg: To indicate that the time is a number of minutes before the hour, we use ‘moins’, which means “less” or “minus”. |
| Mailys: ‘deux heures moins 10’ is “10 to 2”. |
| Greg: The word for “quarter” is ‘quart’. |
| Mailys: 10 heures moins le quart |
| Greg: a quarter to 10 |
| Mailys: 9 heures et quart |
| Greg: a quarter past 9. |
| Greg: For half, we say ‘demie’. |
| Mailys: À 8 heures et demie |
| Greg: At half past 8 |
| Mailys: À 11 heures moins quart |
| Greg: At a quarter to 11 |
| Mailys: Note that you can't use ‘quart’ and ‘demie’ with the 24-hour system, so only up to 12 o'clock. |
| Greg: Lastly, ‘minuit’ and ‘midi’ mean “midnight” and “noon”. You can use ‘et’ and ‘moins’ with both these words. |
| Mailys: Il est midi moins le quart. |
| Greg: It's a quarter to 12. |
| Mailys: À minuit et demi. |
| Greg: At 12: 30 am. |
| Greg: Let’s now look at the numbers 11 to 20. |
| Mailys: onze |
| Greg: 11 |
| Mailys: douze |
| Greg: 12 |
| Mailys: treize |
| Greg: 13 |
| Mailys: quatorze |
| Greg: 14 |
| Mailys: quinze |
| Greg: 15 |
| Mailys: seize |
| Greg: 16 |
| Mailys: dix-sept |
| Greg: 17 |
| Mailys: dix-huit |
| Greg: 18 |
| Mailys: dix-neuf |
| Greg: 19 |
| Mailys: vingt |
| Greg: 20 |
| Greg: All numbers 11 to 16 end with ‘-ze’. |
| Mailys: [in French] 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16. |
| Greg: 17 to 19 are compounds of ‘dix’ plus the second digit. |
| Mailys: [in French] 17, 18, 19. |
Outro |
| Greg: Ok, that should do it for this lesson! Join us for the next lesson to find out if Jacques will be able to book a table for himself and Mireille at the right time! |
| Mailys: À bientôt! |
| Greg: See you soon! |
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