Learn how to talk about how often you do something
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Brandon: What's Your Daily Routine in France? I’m Brandon! |
| Yasmine: Bonjour. I'm Yasmine. |
| Brandon: so, what are we going to learn in this lesson? |
| Yasmine: In this lesson, you'll learn how to talk about your daily routine using frequency adverbs. |
| Brandon: The conversation takes place in a car. |
| Yasmine: It’s between Ingrid and Pierre. |
| Brandon: Since the speakers are friends, they’ll be speaking informal French. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Ingrid : Qu'est ce que tu fais tous les jours ? |
| Pierre: Le matin, je me brosse toujours les dents. |
| Ingrid: Bien. |
| Pierre: Le soir aussi je me brosse les dents. |
| Ingrid: Et l'après-midi tu joues aux jeux vidéo ? |
| Pierre: Non, d'habitude je fais mes devoirs l'après-midi. |
| Brandon: Let’s listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| Ingrid : Qu'est ce que tu fais tous les jours ? |
| Pierre: Le matin, je me brosse toujours les dents. |
| Ingrid: Bien. |
| Pierre: Le soir aussi je me brosse les dents. |
| Ingrid: Et l'après-midi tu joues aux jeux vidéo ? |
| Pierre: Non, d'habitude je fais mes devoirs l'après-midi. |
| Brandon: Now, let’s hear it with the English translation. |
| Ingrid : Qu'est ce que tu fais tous les jours ? |
| Ingrid : What do you do everyday? |
| Pierre: Le matin, je me brosse toujours les dents. |
| Pierre: In the morning, I always brush my teeth. |
| Ingrid: Bien. |
| Ingrid: Good. |
| Pierre: Le soir aussi je me brosse les dents. |
| Pierre: In the evening, I also brush my teeth. |
| Ingrid: Et l'après-midi tu joues aux jeux vidéo ? |
| Ingrid: And in the afternoon, do you play video games? |
| Pierre: Non, d'habitude je fais mes devoirs l'après-midi. |
| Pierre: No, I usually do my homework in the afternoon. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Brandon: Well, it seems that Pierre really tries to take care of his teeth. What’s the typical practice in France for taking care of your teeth? |
| Yasmine: Well, French people generally brush their teeth, or se brosser les dents, three times a day after every meal. They gargle right after that, too, but few French people use floss. |
| Brandon: When I was young, my parents helped me brush my teeth. How do French kids learn about brushing their teeth? |
| Yasmine: French kids learn to brush their teeth as early as possible. Once a dentist came to my class to explain how to brush our teeth correctly. Since then, I’ve always tried to brush my teeth for as long as possible to keep them healthy. |
| Brandon: Okay, now on to the vocabulary. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Brandon: Let’s review the vocabulary words from this lesson. The first word is... |
| Yasmine: ...aujourd’hui. [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: “Today.” |
| Yasmine: Aujourd’hui. [slowly - broken down by syllable] Aujourd’hui. [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: Next we have... |
| Yasmine: ...organiser. [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: “To organize.” |
| Yasmine: Organiser. [slowly - broken down by syllable] Organiser. [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: Our next word is... |
| Yasmine: ...brosser. [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: “To brush.” |
| Yasmine: Brosser. [slowly - broken down by syllable] Brosser. [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: The next one is... |
| Yasmine: ...toujours. [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: “Always; anyway; still.” |
| Yasmine: Toujours. [slowly - broken down by syllable] Toujours. [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: Next... |
| Yasmine: ...jouer. [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: “To play.” |
| Yasmine: Jouer. [slowly - broken down by syllable] Jouer. [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: The next word is... |
| Yasmine: ...jeux vidéo. [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: “Video game.” |
| Yasmine: Jeux vidéo. [slowly - broken down by syllable] Jeux vidéo. [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: Next we have... |
| Yasmine: ...habitude. [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: “Habit.” |
| Yasmine: Habitude. [slowly - broken down by syllable] Habitude. [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: The next one is... |
| Yasmine: ...devoirs. [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: “Homework.” |
| Yasmine: Devoirs. [slowly - broken down by syllable] Devoirs. [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: Next... |
| Yasmine: ...dent. [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: “Tooth.” |
| Yasmine: Dent. [slowly - broken down by syllable] Dent. [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: Our last word is... |
| Yasmine: ...après-midi. [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: “Afternoon.” |
| Yasmine: Après-midi. [slowly - broken down by syllable] Après-midi. [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 word is... |
| Yasmine: ...brosser. |
| Brandon: Meaning "to brush." |
| Yasmine: Brosser is a pronominal verb, meaning that it’s conjugated with the addition of a reflexive pronoun. A reflexive pronoun can be me, te, se, nous, vous, or se. For example, you can use the pronoun me to say, j'aime me brosser les cheveux. |
| Brandon: Meaning, "I like to brush my hair." This expresses a reflexive action, that is, the subject performs the action on itself. |
| Yasmine: That’s right. If the subject performs the action on someone or something else, the verb is not reflexive anymore. |
| Brandon: So, how can we use this verb? |
| Yasmine: Well, you can also use brosser if you want to say “to brush; to polish; or to outline.” For example, you can say, brosser un tableau de. |
| Brandon: Meaning, "to paint a picture of." |
| Yasmine: So you can see that this verb has many meanings. And remember, if you’re talking about an action that you perform on yourself, you need to use a reflexive pronoun. For example, je me brosse les dents. |
| Brandon: Meaning, “I’m brushing my teeth.” Now, can you give us another sentence using this verb? |
| Yasmine: Sure! Tout à l'heure j'ai brossé mes chaussures, et maintenant je me brosse les cheveux. |
| Brandon: "Earlier I polished my shoes, and now I am brushing my hair." |
| Yasmine: Also, you should be familiar with a famous French expression using this verb: brosser dans le sens du poil. |
| Brandon: And what does that mean? |
| Yasmine: It means "to butter somebody up." It’s not a rude expression, so you can use it with anyone. |
| Brandon: Okay, next we have... |
| Yasmine: ...jouer. |
| Brandon: Meaning "to play." |
| Yasmine: Jouer is a verb from the first group, and to create the past tense, it’s conjugated with the auxiliary verb avoir. For example, j'ai joué de la flûte ce matin. |
| Brandon: Meaning, “This morning I played the flute.” Can you give us another example? |
| Yasmine: Sure! J'ai plusieurs passe-temps : je joue du piano, je joue au foot avec mes amis et enfin j'aime jouer aux échecs. |
| Brandon: That means: "I have several hobbies: I play piano; I play football with my friends; and then I like to play chess." |
| Yasmine: Jouer is also a pronominal verb. Remember, pronominal verbs use an extra pronoun that’s reflexive, meaning they typically reflect the subject of the verb. Here are two examples. Je me joue du danger. |
| Brandon: “I made light of the risks.” |
| Yasmine: And this one: ce jeu de société se joue avec trois dés. |
| Brandon: “This board game is played with three dice.” Okay, now on to the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Brandon: In this lesson, you'll learn about words that express the frequency of action. You can use these words when talking about your daily routine. |
| Yasmine: In the dialogue, Pierre said, le matin, je me brosse toujours les dents. |
| Brandon: Meaning, “In the morning, I always brush my teeth.” The adverb of frequency in this sentence is “always” or... |
| Yasmine: toujours, and there are many different adverbs of frequency that are useful to know. In French, to talk about the frequency of an action, you need to place the adverb describing the frequency after the verb. Now, let’s go through some different adverbs. |
| Brandon: Check out the lesson notes and follow along with us. Jasmine will give the French word and I’ll give you the English translation. We’re using words along a scale of frequency, from one hundred percent to zero. |
| Yasmine: Toujours. |
| Brandon: “Always.” |
| Yasmine: Habituellement. |
| Brandon: “Routinely.” |
| Yasmine: Souvent. |
| Brandon: “Often.” |
| Yasmine: Quelquefois. |
| Brandon: “Sometimes.” |
| Yasmine: Parfois. |
| Brandon: Also meaning “sometimes.” |
| Yasmine: Rarement. |
| Brandon: “Rarely.” |
| Yasmine: Presque jamais. |
| Brandon: “Almost never.” |
| Yasmine: Jamais. |
| Brandon: “Never.” Now we know how to express the frequency of our actions from “always” to “never.” So, can you give us a sample sentence with one of these words? |
| Yasmine: Of course. Quelquefois je m'endors devant la TV. |
| Brandon: Meaning, “Sometimes, I fall asleep watching the TV.” Are there any rules we need to be aware of when using these words? |
| Yasmine: Yes, when you use jamais, or “never,” you need to use the negative form with the verb. So, you need to place ne in front of verbs starting with a consonant and n' , thats an n with an apostrophe after it, in front of verbs starting with a vowel. |
| Brandon: Can you give us an example? |
| Yasmine: Il ne parle jamais avec moi. Il n'est jamais disponible. |
| Brandon: Meaning, "He never talks to me. He is never available." Are there any useful expressions with these words? |
| Yasmine: Here’s one: ça ne va jamais marcher. |
| Brandon: And what does that mean? |
| Yasmine: It means, "That will never work." It’s an expression that indicates the speaker’s doubts about something. Notice that the phrase contains the word ne marking the negation and jamais, the frequency adverb meaning "never." If you want to say this, or to say that something will never happen or that you will never do something in the future, be sure to use the near future verb tense. |
| Brandon: How do we do that? |
| Yasmine: The near future verb tense is called l'indicatif futur. It requires the auxiliary verb aller, meaning "to go," followed by the main verb in the infinitive form with a negative statement. |
| Brandon: Okay, let’s hear this phrase again. |
| Yasmine: Ça ne va jamais marcher. |
| Brandon: “That will never work.” |
Outro |
| Brandon: Thank you for listening, everyone. See you next time! |
| Yasmine: À bientôt! |
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