Learn about relative pronouns
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Gabriella: Bonjour chers auditeurs! Je m'appelle Gabriella. Bienvenue à FrenchPod101.com. A Delicious French Mother’s Day Surprise. |
| Jeremy: Moi, c'est Jeremy. |
| Gabriella: Let's get started. Quel est le sujet de la leçon d'aujourd'hui ? |
| Jeremy In this lesson, you’ll learn about relative pronouns. The conversation is a page of Marc’s diary. |
| Gabriella: Ok, donc c'est une conversation familière ? |
| Jeremy: Oui, et Marc raconte qu’il a fait une surprise à sa mère… |
| Gabriella: So let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Marc: (écrit dans son journal) Aujourd'hui, c'est la fête des Mères. |
| C'est vraiment une personne formidable à qui j'ai vraiment envie de faire plaisir. |
| C'est pour ça que je lui ai cuisiné un quatre-quarts aujourd'hui, pour lequel j'ai passé beaucoup de temps. |
| Je l'ai fait en forme de coeur, car c'est ce à quoi elle me fait penser. |
| Quand elle l'a eu, elle a fait un grand sourire qui m'a fait chaud au coeur. |
| Bientôt, c'est la fête des Pères. Je ne sais pas ce que je vais préparer... |
| Gabriella: Now let's hear it with the English translation. |
| Marc: (écrit dans son journal) Aujourd'hui, c'est la fête des Mères. |
| Marc: (writing in his diary) Today is Mother's Day. |
| C'est vraiment une personne formidable à qui j'ai vraiment envie de faire plaisir. |
| She really is an astounding person whom I really want to please. |
| C'est pour ça que je lui ai cuisiné un quatre-quarts aujourd'hui, pour lequel j'ai passé beaucoup de temps. |
| That's why I baked a pound cake cake for her today, which took me a while to do. |
| Je l'ai fait en forme de coeur, car c'est ce à quoi elle me fait penser. |
| I gave it a heart shape, because that's what she reminds me of. |
| Quand elle l'a eu, elle a fait un grand sourire qui m'a fait chaud au coeur. |
| When she got it, she had a big smile that warmed my heart. |
| Bientôt, c'est la fête des Pères. Je ne sais pas ce que je vais préparer... |
| Soon it will be Father's Day. I don't know yet what I'll be doing. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Gabriella: Mmh, un quatre-quart… C’est tellement bon ! |
| Jeremy: Oui, c’est tout simple à faire, en plus ! |
| Gabriella: Do you have a recipe? |
| Jeremy: Sure! Basically, you just need eggs, butter, sugar, and flour. |
| Gabriella: According to the name, it must be in equal quantities, right? |
| Jeremy: C’est ça ! Each ingredient must be the same weight as the eggs. |
| Gabriella: Seems really easy. Can you fill it? |
| Jeremy: The French don’t stuff it, but they put some flavor in it, like vanilla, lemon, or orange. |
| Gabriella: Sounds good. It reminds me of the time I tasted one once with zests of lemon and orange. |
| Jeremy: You can do that too. C’est délicieux! |
| Gabriella: Ok! Dear listeners, you can find the complete recipe in the lesson notes! |
| Jeremy: Bon appétit tout le monde ! |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Gabriella: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| Gabriella: The first word we shall see is... |
| Jeremy: formidable [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: astounding |
| Jeremy: formidable [slowly - broken down by syllable] formidable [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Jeremy: cuisiner [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: to cook |
| Jeremy: cuisiner [slowly - broken down by syllable] cuisiner [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Jeremy: quatre-quarts [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: pound cake |
| Jeremy: quatre-quarts [slowly - broken down by syllable] quatre-quarts [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Jeremy: passer du temps [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: to take a while |
| Jeremy: passer du temps [slowly - broken down by syllable] passer du temps [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Jeremy: en forme de [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: in the shape of, shape |
| Jeremy: en forme de [slowly - broken down by syllable] en forme de [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Jeremy: faire penser à [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: to remind of |
| Jeremy: faire penser à [slowly - broken down by syllable] faire penser à [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Jeremy: faire chaud au coeur [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: to warm one’s heart |
| Jeremy: faire chaud au coeur [slowly - broken down by syllable] faire chaud au coeur [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: And last... |
| Jeremy: préparer [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: to prepare, to make |
| Jeremy: préparer [slowly - broken down by syllable] préparer [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Gabriella: Let’s take a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. What’s the first word? |
| Jeremy: Le quatre-quart, again! |
| Gabriella: Literally, it’s “the four-quarters cake", or “pound cake.” |
| Jeremy: This cake is really simple to bake, that’s why children learn this one at school or at home. |
| Gabriella: That’s why Marc made one for his mother for Mother’s day! |
| Jeremy: Yes, he gave it a heart shape, but it’s usually a long cake. |
| Gabriella: Like a baguette! Let’s see the next word. |
| Jeremy: The next word is actually an expression - faire chaud au coeur |
| Gabriella: "to warm one’s heart." |
| Jeremy: You can use it to express that you’re happy to see something nice, or when you’ve received a gift. For example, imagine two of your friends finally decided to go out together, you may say -Je les ai vus partir main dans la main, ça m’a fait chaud au coeur. |
| Gabriella: "I saw them parting hand in hand, it warmed my heart." How sweet! |
| Jeremy: Je suis toujours très content quand ça arrive. |
| Gabriella: So, next is cuisiner, "to cook." |
| Jeremy: Yes, but you can also translate as “to bake”. |
| Gabriella: Does the type of food cooked matter? |
| Jeremy: Pas du tout. On peut même se cuisiner un plat. |
| Gabriella: Is it a reflexive verb? |
| Jeremy: Yes, that’s right and it’s standard French. |
| Gabriella: Ok, got it! Let’s move on to the grammar! |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Jeremy: In this lesson, you’ll learn simple relative pronouns – que, qui, lequel, où, dont. |
| Gabriella: They're used to replace subjects, direct and indirect objects, places and time, and possessions. And they have many different translations. Que can be “what”, “which”, “that” or “whom”. |
| Jeremy: Let’s see an example for the first one - Le livre de français que tu m’a donné est intéressant. |
| Gabriella: "The French language learning book you gave me is interesting." |
| Jeremy: Here, que refers to le livre de français. |
| Gabriella: What about places or time? |
| Jeremy: You have to use où, “where”. Imagine you’re going around town with a friend, and you show him a building where your sister had school - C’est l’école où elle a étudié pendant cinq ans. |
| Gabriella: "It’s the school where she studied five years.” |
| Jeremy: Here, où refers to l’école. That’s the same pattern! |
| Gabriella: It’s less difficult than I imagined. |
| Jeremy: Let’s see lequel now. |
| Gabriella: It translates as “what”, “which” or “that”. |
| Jeremy: Especially “which”. Imagine you’re looking for a book in which you drew something to show your friends. You can say - Le livre dans lequel j’ai dessiné un chat a une couverture rouge. |
| Gabriella: "The book in which I drew a cat has a red cover.” |
| Jeremy: We already studied this word in a previous lesson, it should be simple! |
| Gabriella: Je pense aussi ! Well, is it possible to use two or more relative pronouns in the same sentence? |
| Jeremy: Oui, c’est possible ! Let’s see an example, a friend of yours borrowed this book with a red cover… you can say - Le livre que tu m’as emprunté est celui dans lequel j’ai dessiné un chat. |
| Gabriella: "The book you borrowed from me is the one in which I drew a cat.” |
| Jeremy: Que refers to le livre, and lequel refers to celui. |
| Gabriella: But celui refers to the book too. |
| Jeremy: Oui, c’est exact. It might look hard, but with a little practice, it gets easier. |
| Gabriella: Donc, n’hésitez pas à pratiquer dans les commentaires! |
Outro |
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| Jeremy: Bonne chance, et à la prochaine! |
| Gabriella: Thanks for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time. Salut! |
Comments
HideBonjour chers auditeurs ! Est-ce que vous avez déjà goûté le quatre-quarts ?
Hi listeners! Have you ever tasted the French pound cake?
Bonjour Teresa,
J'ai comparé deux recettes (une de la BBC et une de mon livre de cuisine français) et apparemment le pound cake est fait avec du lait alors que le quatre-quarts n'en contient pas. Le pound cake est aussi fait avec du glaçage selon la recette que j'ai trouvée ce qui n'est pas le cas de son cousin français.
J'espère que ça t'aide !
Belle journée,
Marion
Team FrenchPod101.com
Quelqu'un peut-il m'expliquer à quel point le quatre-quarts français et le quatre-quarts anglais sont différents ?! Y a-t-il quelqu'un ici?
Bonjour Val,
You have to guess based on context. In the dialogue of this lesson, for example, we're talking about Mother's Day, so we know "c'est" refers to a woman. It's about logic really -- look for clues within other sentences, and you'll be able to tell! 😄
Bonne journée
Marion
Team FrenchPod101.com
Following up on my last question about using "c'est" to describe a person:
So how am I to know if it means "she is", "He is" or "it is"?
Je suis très désolée pour le répéter.
Bonjour Val,
On utilise "c'est" pour décrire la personne 😉.
Bonne journée
Marion
Team FrenchPod101.com
"C'est vraiment une personne formidable à qui j'ai vraiment envie de faire plaisir."
In the last lesson, there was also an example of this user of "c'est" in place of "Elle est". Why is this? I'm finding it very confusing!
Bonjour Chris,
Le quatre quarts s'appelle comme ça parce-qu'il est uniquement composé de quatre ingrédients (farine, sucre, beurre et œufs) en quantités égales ;-).
Bonne journée,
Marion
Team FrenchPod101.com
Pourquoi c'est s'appelle "Quatre quarts"? Est-ce buerre, sucre, oeuf et farine?