Learn the French verb that means "to do"
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Greg: Hello everyone, I’m Greg. Umbrella for Two in France. |
| Mailys: Bonjour à tout le monde. This is Mailys. In this lesson, we will learn the verb “to do” or “to make” in French, ‘faire’. |
| Greg: Our two lovebirds, Jacques and Mireille, are on a date at an Italian restaurant. |
| Mailys: They are a bit shy, so they end up talking about the weather, using informal French. |
| Greg: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Jacques: C'est un beau restaurant ! |
| Mireille: Oh oui, c'est très joli. |
| Jacques: Hmm... il fait beau aujourd'hui. |
| Mireille: Oui, il y a du soleil et il fait très chaud. |
| Jacques: Il fait 28 degrés et on annonce 3Mais il y a beaucoup de vent. |
| Mireille: C'est vrai, le vent est bon. On annonce aussi de la pluie ce soir. |
| Jacques: Mireille, regarde. J'ai un parapluie pour nous deux. |
| Mireille: Oh Jacques, tu es si romantique... |
| Greg: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Jacques: C'est un beau restaurant ! |
| Mireille: Oh oui, c'est très joli. |
| Jacques: Hmm... il fait beau aujourd'hui. |
| Mireille: Oui, il y a du soleil et il fait très chaud. |
| Jacques: Il fait 28 degrés et on annonce 3Mais il y a beaucoup de vent. |
| Mireille: C'est vrai, le vent est bon. On annonce aussi de la pluie ce soir. |
| Jacques: Mireille, regarde. J'ai un parapluie pour nous deux. |
| Mireille: Oh Jacques, tu es si romantique... |
| Greg: Now let’s hear it with the English translation. |
| Jacques: C'est un beau restaurant ! |
| Jacques: It's a nice restaurant! |
| Mireille: Oh oui, c'est très joli. |
| Mireille: Oh yes, it's very nice. |
| Jacques: Hmm... il fait beau aujourd'hui. |
| Jacques: Hmm...nice weather today. |
| Mireille: Oui, il y a du soleil et il fait très chaud. |
| Mireille: Yes, it's sunny, and it's very hot. |
| Jacques: Il fait 28 degrés et on annonce 3Mais il y a beaucoup de vent. |
| Jacques: It's twenty-eight degrees, but they're announcing thirty-one. But there is a lot of wind. |
| Mireille: C'est vrai, le vent est bon. On annonce aussi de la pluie ce soir. |
| Mireille: That's true; the wind is nice. They're also predicting rain for tonight. |
| Jacques: Mireille, regarde. J'ai un parapluie pour nous deux. |
| Jacques: Mireille, look. I have an umbrella for the both of us. |
| Mireille: Oh Jacques, tu es si romantique... |
| Mireille: Oh Jacques, you are so romantic... |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Mailys: So Greg, the listeners may have noticed that when Mireille and Jacques talked about the weather, they use degrees Celsius. |
| Greg: This is because throughout the French-speaking world, the metric system is used. |
| Mailys: This system was introduced by France in 1799 and later adopted by almost all countries in the world, except the United States. |
| Greg: Unlike the Imperial system that uses feet and inches, the metric system uses meters. Degrees celsius is also used instead of Fahrenheit. |
| Mailys: That means that people use kilometers to tell distances; they measure their height in meters; they weigh themselves in kilograms; and they use liters to measure liquids. |
| Greg: Right. When it comes to the weather, only the Celsius scale is used to tell temperatures. This scale was created by setting the freezing point of water at zero degrees, and the boiling point at 100 degrees. |
| Mailys: Ok, let’s move 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: jolie [natural native speed] |
| Greg: pretty |
| Mailys: jolie [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys: jolie [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Mailys: faire [natural native speed] |
| Greg: to do, to make |
| Mailys: faire [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys: faire [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Mailys: aujourd’hui [natural native speed] |
| Greg: today |
| Mailys: aujourd’hui [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys: aujourd’hui [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Mailys: chaud [natural native speed] |
| Greg: hot |
| Mailys: chaud [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys: chaud [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Mailys: degrés [natural native speed] |
| Greg: degrees |
| Mailys: degrés [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys: degrés [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Mailys: il y a [natural native speed] |
| Greg: there is, there are |
| Mailys: il y a [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys: il y a [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Mailys: vent [natural native speed] |
| Greg: wind |
| Mailys: vent [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys: vent [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Mailys: annoncer [natural native speed] |
| Greg: to announce |
| Mailys: annoncer [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys: annoncer [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Mailys: regarder [natural native speed] |
| Greg: to watch, to look |
| Mailys: regarder [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys: regarder [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Mailys: parapluie [natural native speed] |
| Greg: umbrella |
| Mailys: parapluie [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys: parapluie [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 with ‘chaud’. |
| Greg: ‘chaud’ means “hot”, but only when referring to heat, not for spiciness of food, for example. |
| Mailys: The ‘d’ is silent, but comes out in the feminine when an ‘e’ is added, ‘chaude’. When referring to the temperature of the air, we say ‘faire chaud’. |
| Greg: “It’s really hot today” is |
| Mailys: il fait très chaud aujourd’hui. |
| Greg: To say that there is heat coming from an object or from a place, we say ‘être chaud’. |
| Mailys: For instance, if you get near a stove or boiling water, you say ‘c’est chaud’. |
| Greg: If you are talking about a specific object and the word for it was just used, then you use ‘il est chaud’ or ‘elle est chaude’, depending on the gender. |
| Mailys: If someone asks you how the coffee is, ‘comment est le café’, you could answer ‘il est chaud’. |
| Greg: To say “to be hot” or “to feel hot”, we say |
| Mailys: avoir chaud, |
| Greg: literally this means, “to have heat.” |
| Mailys: Nous avons très chaud. |
| Greg: We are really hot. |
| Greg: Let’s look at another expression... |
| Mailys: Il y a |
| Greg: ‘il y a’ means “there is” or “there are”. The expression doesn’t change regardless of whether the subsequent noun is singular or plural. The negative is... |
| Mailys: ‘il n’y a pas.’ Here are some examples. |
| Mailys: Il y a trois biscuits sur la table. |
| Greg: There are three cookies on the table. |
| Mailys: Il y a beaucoup de vent aujourd’hui. |
| Greg: There’s a lot of wind today. |
| Greg: ‘Il y a’ also means “ago”. |
| Mailys: ‘Il y a trois heures’ means “three hours ago.” |
| Greg: Lastly, the verb ‘regarder’ means “to look at” or “to watch”. Here are some examples. |
| Mailys: Il regarde la fille. |
| Greg: He is looking at the girl. |
| Mailys: Nous ne regardons pas la television. |
| Greg: We are not watching television. |
| Greg: Notice that there is no preposition after the verb, and the object is added immediately after. Mailys, how would you say “she looks at the boy”? |
| Mailys: Elle regarde le garçon. |
| Greg: Ok, let’s go to the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Greg: The focus of this lesson is the verb “faire” in French, which means “to do” or “to make”, some of the most common verbs in any language. |
| Greg: Here is the present tense conjugation. |
| Mailys: je fais |
| Greg: tu fais |
| Mailys: il fait |
| Greg: nous faisons |
| Mailys: vous faites |
| Greg: ils font |
| Greg: So, in French, we don't distinguish between “to do” and “to make” and ‘faire’ means both. Here are a few sample sentences where ‘faire’ means “to make”. |
| Mailys: Je fais de la pizza. |
| Greg: I make pizza |
| Mailys: Vous faites du café? |
| Greg: Are you making coffee? |
| Greg: It also means “to do.” |
| Mailys: Je fais mon travail. |
| Greg: I'm doing my work. |
| Greg: ‘Faire’ is also used in many expressions about daily life activities. |
| Mailys: Faire la cuisine. |
| Greg: To cook. |
| Mailys: Faire la vaisselle. |
| Greg: To do the dishes. |
| Mailys: Faire la lessive. |
| Greg: To do the laundry. |
| Greg: So Mailys, how would you say “Mireille is not cooking”? |
| Mailys: Mireille ne fait pas la cuisine. |
| Greg: Ok. In this lesson's dialogue, we also used ‘faire’ many times to talk about the weather. |
| Mailys: Here are three examples you should try to remember |
| Mailys: Il fait beau. |
| Greg: It’s nice, the weather’s nice. |
| Mailys: Il fait froid. |
| Greg: It’s cold. |
| Mailys: Il fait chaud. |
| Greg: It’s hot. |
| Mailys: ‘Il fait très chaud aujourd’hui’ is “it’s very hot, today.” |
| Greg: In these weather expressions, ‘il’ doesn’t refer to anything. This kind of structure is called impersonal. |
| Mailys: Many verbs about the weather are impersonal. For instance, ‘il pleut’ - “it’s raining” and ‘il neige’, “it’s snowing”. |
| Greg: Finally, be careful not to use the verb ‘faire’ to translate sentences where English uses “to do” to replace a verb in an answer, like “I do, do you?”, or “I do, don't you?” For instance, to say “I love coffee, do you?” you'd say... |
| Mailys: J'aime le café. Et toi? |
| Greg: That’s right. French doesn't use ‘faire’ that way. |
| Mailys: Right. |
Outro |
| Greg: Okay, well that’s it for this lesson! Join us for lesson 8 to hear Jacques talk to his friend Marcel about his girlfriend! |
| Mailys: Oooh, I can’t wait! À bientôt! |
| Greg: See you soon! |
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