Learn how to express ownership of abstract items
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Brandon: Respect Your French Teacher! Brandon here! |
| Yasmine: Bonjour. I'm Yasmine. |
| Brandon: Yasmine, what are we going to learn in this lesson? |
| Yasmine: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to express ownership with the verb avoir, or “to have.” |
| Brandon: The conversation takes place in a cafe. |
| Yasmine: And, it’s between Marie and Jean. |
| Brandon: Since the speakers are friends, they’ll be speaking informal French. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Marie: Mes étudiants ne me comprennent pas du tout. |
| Jean: Vraiment ? |
| Marie: J'ai une grosse responsabilité. Les étudiants sont intelligents. |
| Jean: Ne t'inquiète pas. Tu as le temps. Ils apprendront. |
| Brandon: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Marie: Mes étudiants ne me comprennent pas du tout. |
| Jean: Vraiment ? |
| Marie: J'ai une grosse responsabilité. Les étudiants sont intelligents. |
| Jean: Ne t'inquiète pas. Tu as le temps. Ils apprendront. |
| Brandon: Now, let’s hear it with the English translation. |
| Marie: Mes étudiants ne me comprennent pas du tout. |
| Marie: My students don't understand me. |
| Jean: Vraiment ? |
| Jean: Really? |
| Marie: J'ai une grosse responsabilité. Les étudiants sont intelligents. |
| Marie: I have a big responsibility. The students are smart. |
| Jean: Ne t'inquiète pas. Tu as le temps libre. Ils apprendront. |
| Jean: Don't worry, you have a lot of time to spare. They’ll learn. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Brandon: It seems that Marie really cares about her students. What’s the relationship between students and teachers in France? Do students really respect their teachers? |
| Yasmine: French students must be really polite and respectful to their teachers. For example, French students say vous to their teachers, and the teachers say tu to their students. |
| Brandon: It sounds like they have a very formal relationship. |
| Yasmine: Well, when I was a student, I had to raise my hand if I wanted to speak or ask a question during class. Teachers usually wouldn’t share their personal number or email. If I had a problem with my homework, I couldn't even call my teacher. |
| Brandon: Is it still the same now? |
| Yasmine: Actually these days, French people are showing less respect towards their teachers. Teachers often strike, and this causes their reputation to go down. Although French teachers have a lot of work and stress, people believe they have an easy-going job because they get to take a long summer holiday for two months just like their students. |
| Brandon: Interesting. Okay, now on to the vocabulary. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Brandon: Let’s review the vocabulary words from this lesson. The first word is... |
| Yasmine: ...comprendre. [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: “To understand.” |
| Yasmine: Comprendre. [slowly - broken down by syllable] Comprendre. [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: Next... |
| Yasmine: ...pas du tout. [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: “Not at all.” |
| Yasmine: Pas du tout. [slowly - broken down by syllable] Pas du tout. [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: Our next word is... |
| Yasmine: ...voix. [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: “Voice.” |
| Yasmine: Voix. [slowly - broken down by syllable] Voix. [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: Next... |
| Yasmine: ...responsabilité. [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: “Responsibility.” |
| Yasmine: Responsabilité. [slowly - broken down by syllable] Responsabilité. [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: next... |
| Yasmine: ...étudiant. [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: “Student.” |
| Yasmine: Étudiant. [slowly - broken down by syllable] Étudiant. [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: Next we have... |
| Yasmine: ...intelligent. [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: “Clever; intelligent.” |
| Yasmine: Intelligent. [slowly - broken down by syllable] Intelligent. [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: The next word is... |
| Yasmine: ...oreille. [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: “Ear.” |
| Yasmine: Oreille. [slowly - broken down by syllable] Oreille. [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: Next... |
| Yasmine: ...temps. [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: “Time.” |
| Yasmine: Temps. [slowly - broken down by syllable] Temps. [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: Our final word is... |
| Yasmine: ...apprendre. [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: “To learn.” |
| Yasmine: Apprendre. [slowly - broken down by syllable] Apprendre. [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Brandon: Let's have a closer look at some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first phrase is... |
| Yasmine: ...temps libre. |
| Brandon: Meaning "free time." |
| Yasmine: Libre is an adjective meaning "free," and temps is a noun meaning "time." Altogether it means "free time." |
| Brandon: When can we use this phrase? |
| Yasmine: You can use it when you are talking about a length of time which is unclear, not precise. You need to use the verb avoir, or “to have” with temps libre. For example, j'ai du temps libre cet après-midi. |
| Brandon: Meaning, “I have time to spare this afternoon.” Then, when can we not use this expression? |
| Yasmine: You can’t use it if you want to be more specific. For example, if you want to say that you’re free at a certain time, you have say, je suis. Here’s an example: je suis libre de 14h à 18h. |
| Brandon: Meaning, “I’m free from two o’clock to six o’clock in the afternoon. |
| Yasmine: That’s right. You can't say, j'ai du temps libre de 14h à 18h. |
| Brandon: Got it. Can you give us a sentence with our phrase? |
| Yasmine: Sure! Le mercredi , j'ai du temps libre, donc je vais à la piscine. |
| Brandon: Meaning, "On Wednesday, I have free time, so I go to the pool." Okay, next we have... |
| Yasmine: ...avoir des responsabilités. |
| Brandon: Meaning "to have responsibilities." |
| Yasmine: Avoir is a verb meaning “to have” and responsabilités is a noun in plural form. Des is the indefinite article in plural form. |
| Brandon: When can we use this phrase? |
| Yasmine: Avoir des responsabilités sounds very formal, so you’ll want to use it in a formal conversation. If you’re talking with friends it's better to say, je suis responsable. For example, je suis responsable de mes enfants. |
| Brandon: Meaning, “I am in charge of my children.” Okay, can you give us an example with our phrase? |
| Yasmine: Sure! Je dois m'occuper de mes enfants, j'ai des responsabilités. |
| Brandon: "I have to take care of my children; I have responsibilities." |
| Yasmine: You’ll see that responsabilités needs to be in the plural form, but if you’re talking about a specific subject, you can use it in the singular form. Compare these two sentences: durant mon stage j'ai eu des responsabilités très variées. |
| Brandon: Meaning, "During my internship I had a range of responsibilities." |
| Yasmine: And this one: j'ai la responsabilité de ce dossier. |
| Brandon: "I have responsibility for this file." This one is more specific. Okay, next we have... |
| Yasmine: ...pas du tout. |
| Brandon: Meaning "not at all." |
| Yasmine: Pas du tout is a negative expression, so you don’t want to use this with a stranger. It may sound rude. However, if you want to say "not at all" in a casual situation, you can simply say, pas du tout. |
| Brandon: I see. What should we use in a more formal situation? |
| Yasmine: If you want to refuse an invitation politely, you can say, malheureusement je ne suis pas disponible. |
| Brandon: Meaning, “Unfortunately, I'm not available.” Now, how can we use our key phrase? |
| Yasmine: You can use it alone, or with a verb. For example, you can say, je n'ai pas aimé du tout. |
| Brandon: Meaning, "I didn't like it at all." |
| Yasmine: Here, you can put the verb aimer, “to like,” between pas, “not” and du tout, “at all.” If you have an object, you can put the expression pas du tout between the verb and the object. For example, you can say, je ne sais pas du tout skier. |
| Brandon: Meaning, "I don't know how to ski at all." Yasmine, can you give us some more examples? |
| Yasmine: Sure! Here’s a question and answer. Veux tu aller au cinéma ? Pas du tout. Je n'aime pas les films. |
| Brandon: Meaning, "Will you go to the movies?" "Not at all. I don’t like movies." |
| Yasmine: You can also use pas du tout in a positive way. For example, cela ne me dérange pas du tout. |
| Brandon: Meaning, “It does not bother me at all.” |
| Yasmine: It's a double negative-sentence because you are using ne and pas du tout. |
| Brandon: Okay, now on to the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Brandon: In this lesson, you'll learn about using the verb "to have." |
| Yasmine: In the dialogue, Marie said, j'ai une grosse responsabilité. Les étudiants sont intelligents. |
| Brandon: Meaning, “I have a big responsibility. The students are smart.” Yasmine, which word means “to have?” |
| Yasmine: Well, in French, the verb for “to have” is avoir. It's a very common irregular verb, just like être. Let’s review the conjugation for this verb in the present tense. |
| Brandon: Good idea. Yasmine will you the French word, and I’ll give you the English translation. |
| Yasmine: J’ai. |
| Brandon: “I have.” |
| Yasmine: Tu as. |
| Brandon: “You have.” |
| Yasmine: Il a. |
| Brandon: “He has.” |
| Yasmine: Nous avons. |
| Brandon: “We have.” |
| Yasmine: Vous avez. |
| Brandon: “You have.” |
| Yasmine: Ils ont. |
| Brandon: “They have.” |
| Yasmine: Here’s one important point about the pronunciation. The verb sounds the same with tu and il or elle, for example, tu as and il a. It's important to remember that the letter -a in French never makes an “A” sound. Tu as and il a should not be confused with tu es and il est. As for the plural ils and elles, insert a -z sound before ont, so that it sounds like ils (z)ont. “They have”, and ils sont, “They are” has a written -s instead of the -z sound. |
| Brandon: What about the spelling? |
| Yasmine: Well, for the spelling, the -a in il a sounds the same as the preposition à, such as in à 19 heures, but the preposition has an accent grave. This is so they can be easily told apart. |
| Brandon: Can you give us some examples? |
| Yasmine: Sure! Jacques a une invitation pour Mireille. |
| Brandon: Meaning, "Jacques has an invitation for Mireille." |
| Yasmine: Here’s another one. Vous avez une table pour deux? |
| Brandon: "Do you have a table for two?" |
| Yasmine: Ils ont deux heures. |
| Brandon: "They have two hours." Okay, listeners, be sure to check out the lesson notes for more details. |
Outro |
| Brandon: Well, thank you for listening, everyone. See you next time! |
| Yasmine: À bientôt! |
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