Learn how to talk about basic character traits
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Brandon: Can You Describe Your Friend in French? I’m Brandon. |
| Yasmine: Bonjour. I'm Yasmine. |
| Brandon: In this lesson, you'll learn to describe character traits using adjectives. The conversation takes place in a house. |
| Yasmine: It’s between Fleur and Louise, who are at a party. |
| Brandon: The speakers are friends, so they’ll be using informal French. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Fleur : Qui est ta meilleure amie ? |
| Louise : Elle s'appelle Victoria. Nous nous sommes rencontrées à l'école il y a 10 ans. |
| Fleur : Comment est-elle ? |
| Louise : Elle est très intelligente et sympa. Elle est un peu timide. |
| Fleur : Timide ? C'est intéressant. Tu es très extravertie ! |
| Brandon: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| Fleur : Qui est ta meilleure amie ? |
| Louise : Elle s'appelle Victoria. Nous nous sommes rencontrées à l'école il y a 10 ans. |
| Fleur : Comment est-elle ? |
| Louise : Elle est très intelligente et sympa. Elle est un peu timide. |
| Fleur : Timide ? C'est intéressant. Tu es très extravertie ! |
| Brandon: Listen to the conversation with English translation |
| Fleur : Qui est ta meilleure amie ? |
| Fleur: Who is your best friend? |
| Louise : Elle s'appelle Victoria. Nous nous sommes rencontrées à l'école il y a 10 ans. |
| Louise: Her name is Victoria. We met at school ten years ago. |
| Fleur : Comment est-elle ? |
| Fleur: What is she like? |
| Louise : Elle est très intelligente et sympa. Elle est un peu timide. |
| Louise: She is very smart and nice. She is a little bit shy. |
| Fleur : Timide ? C'est intéressant. Tu es très extravertie ! |
| Fleur: Shy? That is interesting. You are very outgoing. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Brandon: French people like to greet each other with kisses on the cheek, right? |
| Yasmine: That’s right. In a situation like we had in the dialogue, you can expect to see a lot of light kisses exchanged. |
| Brandon: French families, friends, and some colleagues exchange kisses on both cheeks when they meet and say goodbye to each other. They also do it to congratulate or thank someone. This is because kissing is not perceived as inappropriate, right? |
| Yasmine: Exactly. And we exchange kisses in public spaces too. Friends and lovers may show as much affection as they want, up to a certain degree, of course. |
| Brandon:Okay, now let’s move onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Let’s take a look at some of the words and phrases from this lesson... |
| Brandon: The first word is.. |
| Yasmine: rencontrer [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: to meet |
| Yasmine: rencontrer [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Yasmine: rencontrer [natural native speed] |
| Next we have.. |
| Yasmine: école [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: school |
| Yasmine: école [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Yasmine: école [natural native speed] |
| Next we have.. |
| Yasmine: comment [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: how |
| Yasmine: comment [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Yasmine: comment [natural native speed] |
| Next we have.. |
| Yasmine: intelligent [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: clever, intelligent |
| Yasmine: intelligent [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Yasmine: intelligent [natural native speed] |
| Next we have.. |
| Yasmine: sympa [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: nice |
| Yasmine: sympa [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Yasmine: sympa [natural native speed] |
| Next we have.. |
| Yasmine: timide [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: shy |
| Yasmine: timide [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Yasmine: timide [natural native speed] |
| Next we have.. |
| Yasmine: intéressant [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: interesting |
| Yasmine: intéressant [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Yasmine: intéressant [natural native speed] |
| And the last word is... |
| Yasmine: extraverti [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: outgoing personality |
| Yasmine: extraverti [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Yasmine: extraverti [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Brandon: Let's have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Yasmine: se rencontrer |
| Brandon: meaning "to meet" |
| Yasmine: Rencontrer literally means "to meet again," |
| Brandon: It’s used to refer to meeting someone accidentally or running into someone. Can you give us an example? |
| Yasmine: Sure! J'ai rencontré ton cousin en ville |
| Brandon: This means “I ran into your cousin in town.” |
| Yasmin: Rencontrer also means “to be introduced to,” “to have a meeting with,” “to receive” and “to play against.” For example, you can say.. J'ai rencontré ma belle famille pour la première fois hier.. |
| Brandon: .. meaning “Yesterday I met my in-laws for the first time.” If you want to use the French equivalent of "get together with," you have to use a different verb, which is... |
| Yasmine: se retrouver. |
| Brandon: For example, |
| Yasmine: Je retrouve mes amis au cinéma |
| Brandon: meaning “I'm meeting my friends at the cinema.” Okay, what’s the next word? |
| Yasmine: Next we have.. extraverti |
| Brandon: meaning "outgoing" |
| Yasmine: Extraverti is an adjective. In feminine form, it's extravertie. |
| Brandon: This is a common adjective to describe someone who's outgoing and social. |
| Yasmine: And extraverti may also be used in a negative way. |
| Brandon: It may describe a person who shows their emotions loudly and shamelessly. If you want to use this adjective in a positive way, you have to qualify it. For example.. |
| Yasmine: Il est extraverti mais je trouve que c'est une qualité .. |
| Brandon: ..meaning “He is extroverted but I think it is a quality.” |
| Yasmine: Extraverti is similar to exubérant, which means “exuberant.” The meaning is the same. |
| Brandon: Okay, now let’s move on to the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Brandon: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to describe people or things in French using adjectives. More specifically, you’ll learn how to describe someone or something properly by making the adjective agree with the word it is qualifying. |
| Yasmine: The big difference here is that in French, we have to make the adjective agree with the word it's qualifying in gender and number. |
| Brandon: To make this agreement properly, you always have to ask yourself which word the adjective is qualifying. For example.. |
| Yasmine: Elle est grande et mince. |
| Brandon: meaning "She is tall and thin." You have to ask yourself who is tall and thin first. The answer is SHE, so you have to put the adjectives in the feminine singular form. Let’s take a look at another example. |
| Yasmine: Il est assez gros, plutôt petit. |
| Brandon: meaning "He is quite fat and small." Here, you have to ask yourself who is fat and small. The answer is HE. so you have to put the adjectives in the masculine singular form. Now let’s take a look at some more adjectives. First, we’ll learn how to describe someone or something with adjectives. |
| Yasmine: To easily describe someone or something in French, you can use the verb être and add an adjective just after it: |
| Brandon: Can you give us some examples? |
| Yasmine: Sure. For people, we have Elle est grande meaning "She is tall" or Il est gros meaning "He is fat." For things or places, the example is Ce paysage est magnifique meaning "This landscape is wonderful." Again, the structure is really simple - être + adjective. |
| Brandon: The pattern is the same for every person and also in the negative form. Next, let’s see another pattern.. |
| Yasmine: When you’re making simple sentences like subject + verb être + adjective, the basic rule in French is to make the adjective agree with the subject of the sentence. |
| Brandon: Contrary to English, which doesn't require this agreement, in French you have to be careful about the gender and number of the subject. If the subject is masculine and singular, the adjective will be in a masculine/singular form. For example.. |
| Yasmine: Il est grand. |
| Brandon: meaning "He is tall." The same sentence with a masculine plural subject, for example, is... |
| Yasmine: Ils sont grands. |
| Brandon: Meaning "They are tall." Even if you don't hear it, there is an “-s” at the end of the word. You have to add this “-s” to the adjective to make it masculine and plural. Now let’s hear the same sentence with a feminine singular subject.. |
| Yasmine: Elle est grande. |
| Brandon: "She is tall." Here, you have to add an “-e” to the adjective to make it feminine and singular. Now the same sentence with a feminine plural subject: |
| Yasmine: Elles sont grandes. |
| Brandon: "They are tall." Here, you have to add an “-es” to the adjective to make it feminine and plural. |
| Yasmine: Listeners, please note that many adjectives already have an -e even in the masculine form, so their form is the same for both masculine and feminine. |
| Brandon: Also, be sure to check the lesson notes for more examples and information about this topic. |
Outro |
| Brandon: Well, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Yasmine: À bientôt! |
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