Learn how to express confusion
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Brandon: Do French People Usually Say "Good Morning" at Night? I’m Brandon! |
| Yasmine: Bonjour. I'm Yasmine. |
| Brandon: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to read the hours in French. The conversation takes place in a café. |
| Yasmine: It’s between Gauthier and Chloé. |
| Brandon: The speakers are friends, so they’ll be using informal French. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Chloé: Je vis ici depuis trois ans, et je ne comprends toujours pas quand je dois dire « bonne soirée » au lieu de «bonne après-midi». |
| Gauthier: Aux alentours de 18h c’est bon. |
| Chloé: C’est ce que je pensais ! Pourtant, j’ai rencontré une femme étrange qui m’a dit «bonne journée». |
| Gauthier: Quand ? |
| Chloé: A 19h30. |
| Gauthier: C’était peut-être un vampire. |
| Brandon: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| Chloé: Je vis ici depuis trois ans, et je ne comprends toujours pas quand je dois dire «bonne soirée» au lieu de «bonne après-midi». |
| Gauthier: Aux alentours de 18h c’est bon. |
| Chloé: C’est ce que je pensais ! Pourtant, j’ai rencontré une femme étrange qui m’a dit «bonne journée». |
| Gauthier: Quand ? |
| Chloé: A 19h30. |
| Gauthier: C’était peut-être un vampire. |
| Brandon: Listen to the conversation with an English translation. |
| Chloé: Je vis ici depuis trois ans, et je ne comprends toujours pas quand je dois dire «bonne soirée» au lieu de «bonne après-midi». |
| Brandon: I've been living here for three years, and I still don't know when to start saying "good evening" instead of "good afternoon." |
| Gauthier: Aux alentours de 18h c’est bon. |
| Brandon: at around six p.m. is good. |
| Chloé: C’est ce que je pensais ! Pourtant, j’ai rencontré une femme étrange qui m’a dit «bonne journée». |
| Brandon: That's what I thought! But I met this strange woman who said "Have a nice day" to me. |
| Gauthier: Quand ? |
| Brandon: When? |
| Chloé: A 19h30. |
| Brandon: At seven-thirty p.m. |
| Gauthier: C’était peut-être un vampire. |
| Brandon: Maybe she was a vampire. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Brandon: In the dialog one of the speakers mentioned vampires, do French people believe in supernatural creatures? |
| Yasmine: Well, we used to believe in some Créatures légendaires, or “legendary creatures”, which are now a part of French folklore. For example, the “Croque-Mitaine.” |
| Brandon: ah right… The bogeyman or boogeyman! He must scare French kids too. Do French parents use him to try to frighten kids into behaving? |
| Yasmine: They do! |
| Brandon: Did you ever believe in the supernatural? |
| Yasmine: When I was a kid I believed in the “Dame Blanche” myth. |
| Brandon: Her name means "white lady," right? |
| Yasmine: Yes! She’s a hitchhiker. If the driver picks her up she warns him to be careful just before a bend and mysteriously disappears. But then the Dame Blanche causes a fatal accident in the bend. |
| Brandon: Oh thats an interesting urban legend, I’ve heard a few of them! Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Brandon: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson.The first word is.. |
| Yasmine: depuis [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: since |
| Yasmine: depuis [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Yasmine: depuis [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: Next we have.. |
| Yasmine: comprendre [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: to understand |
| Yasmine: comprendre [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Yasmine: comprendre [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: Next we have.. |
| Yasmine: soirée [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: evening, party |
| Yasmine: soirée [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Yasmine: soirée [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: Next we have.. |
| Yasmine: après-midi [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: afternoon |
| Yasmine: après-midi [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Yasmine: après-midi [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: Next we have.. |
| Yasmine: alentours [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: around, surroundings |
| Yasmine: alentours [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Yasmine: alentours [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: Next we have.. |
| Yasmine: pourtant [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: though |
| Yasmine: pourtant [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Yasmine: pourtant [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: Next we have.. |
| Yasmine: rencontrer [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: to meet |
| Yasmine: rencontrer [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Yasmine: rencontrer [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: Next we have.. |
| Yasmine: étrange [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: strange |
| Yasmine: étrange [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Yasmine: étrange [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: Next we have.. |
| Yasmine: femme [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: woman, lady, wife |
| Yasmine: femme [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Yasmine: femme [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: Last we have.. |
| Yasmine: vampire [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: vampire |
| Yasmine: vampire [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Yasmine: vampire [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: alentours |
| Brandon: which is the masculine noun meaning “around,” “neighborhood,” or “surroundings.” |
| Yasmine: When you leave out the “s”, alentour is an adverb meaning “close by.” |
| Brandon: Can you give us an example? |
| Yasmine: Sure! Cet hôtel est situé dans le centre de la capitale, j'ai pu visiter les musées alentour, |
| Brandon: "This hotel is located in the center of the capital, so I was able to visit all the nearby museums.” When would you not use this expression? |
| Yasmine: Well, depending on the context, sometimes dans les environs, one synonym of alentours, might sound more natural. |
| Brandon: can we have an example. |
| Yasmine: Hmmm, let’s say La maison et ses alentours sont magnifiques. |
| Brandon: "The house and its surroundings are beautiful." Okay, next we have... |
| Yasmine: pourtant |
| Brandon: This is an adverb meaning “yet,” “even,” “though,” or “however” and it’s used to express concession and contradiction. It implies that one thing happened when another thing was expected. Can we have an example? |
| Yasmine: Sure. Il semblait pourtant si gentil ! |
| Brandon: "But he seemed so nice!" In this sentence it is implied that he |
| Yasmine: or the pronoun il, |
| Brandon: turned out not to be nice after all. |
| Yasmine: Besides pourtant, the adverbs cependant and néanmoins can also be used to express concession and contradiction. |
| Brandon: Alright, next we have... |
| Yasmine: C'est ce que je pense. |
| Brandon: meaning "That's what I thought!" or literally "That's the thing that I think." |
| Yasmine: The main verb of this sentence is penser, which means "to think." The first word, C'est, means "That's” or “It's." |
| Brandon: You use it for impersonal expressions and general comments. |
| Yasmine: For example, C'est intéressant, |
| Brandon: meaning "It's interesting." Hmm… what if you had an idea that you didn't want to express openly? |
| Yasmine: In this situation you could say C'est ce que je pensais. |
| Brandon: meaning “That’s what I thought.” Can you use this expression to agree with someone’s opinion, then? |
| Yasmine: Yes you can! C'est ce que pensais is a really common expression. |
| Brandon: You can use this expression in both formal and informal language, but you have to be careful because you may sound pretentious. It’s like saying "I was right!" Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Brandon: In this lesson, you'll learn how to read the hours in French |
| Yasmine: In the dialogue, we had.. Aux alentours de 18h c’est bon. |
| Brandon: meaning “at around six p.m. is good.” |
| Yasmine: In French, when telling time, the conjunction et meaning “and,” is used when it is fifteen or thirty minutes after the hour. However et can only be used with the words quart or demi. |
| Brandon: Those mean “a quarter” and “half.” Can you tell us exactly which time expressions go with which part of the day? |
| Yasmine: From one to eleven a.m., use time + du matin. For example, “11.35 a.m.” is il est 11 heures trente-cinq du matin. |
| Brandon: What about from 12.01 to 5.59 p.m? |
| Yasmine: Use time + de l'après-midi. For example, “3.30 p.m.” is Il est 3 heures et demie de l'après-midi. |
| Brandon: And from 6.00 to 11.59 p.m. we use… |
| Yasmine: time + du soir. For example, “8.00 pm” is Il est 8 heures du soir. But note that the time expressions soir and après-midi are interchangeable when you’re referring to late afternoon or early evening. You can say midi when referring to “noon,” and minuit when referring to “midnight”. |
| Brandon How can I say 1.10? |
| Yasmine Une heure dix. |
| Brandon: And to change the hour, simply indicate the number of hours, so 2.10 would be.. |
| Yasmine: Deux heures dix. |
| Brandon: And 3.10 ? |
| Yasmine: That would be trois heures dix. |
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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