Learn the many ways to conjugate the French verbs with the -er ending in the present tense
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Sam “Kill videogames, got werewolf.” And I’m joined here by Céline and Alex. Hello, guys! |
| Alex: Bonjour, bonjour. |
| Céline: Bonjour. |
| Sam: Welcome back! What’s the focus of today’s lesson? |
| Alex: The focus of this lesson is vocabulary about playing cards and conjugate verbs. |
| Céline: And the conversation takes place in an apartment in France. |
| Sam: Okay, c’est parti, let’s go! So, shall we start today’s conversation now, guys? |
| Alex: Bien sûr. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Céline: Vous jouez? Vous somnolez? |
| Sylvain: Non, je regarde les règles. |
| Céline: Tu joues? |
| Sylvain: Non, Stéphane pioche. |
| Céline: Ah bon. |
| Sam: One more time, slowly. |
| Sylvain: Encore une fois, lentement. |
| Céline: Vous jouez? Vous somnolez? |
| Sylvain: Non, je regarde les règles. |
| Céline: Tu joues? |
| Sylvain: Non, Stéphane pioche. |
| Céline: Ah bon? |
| Sam: One more time, with the English. |
| Sylvain: Encore une fois, avec l’anglais. |
| Céline: Vous jouez? Vous somnolez? |
| Sam: “Are you playing? Are you drowsy?” |
| Sylvain: Non, je regarde les règles. |
| Sam: “No, I’m looking at the rules.” |
| Céline: Tu joues? |
| Sam: “Are you playing?” |
| Sylvain: Non, Stéphane pioche. |
| Sam: “No. Stéphane, draw a card.” |
| Céline: Ah bon. |
| Sam: “Oh, really?” |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Sam: So, guys, what are the most popular games in France? |
| Alex: Well, it depends, if you are with family you can play card games as “la belotte”, “le rami”, “le poker”. |
| Céline: “Le poker” with your family? |
| Alex: Of course, why not? |
| Céline: I won’t bet money with my family. |
| Alex: I would. |
| Sam: You don’t have to. You can play for cookies or peanuts. |
| Céline: Oh, that’s not poker. |
| Alex: Anymore. |
| Céline: Poker is money. Come on. |
| Sam: You can’t gamble with your family. Are drinking games popular in France? |
| Céline: Yes, of course. And we also have a strip poker. |
| Alex: What is that? C’est quoi? |
| Céline: So instead of betting money, you just take off your clothes. |
| Alex: I wouldn’t do this. |
| Céline: No, I’m sure you would. |
| Alex: I wouldn’t. I’m too shy. |
| Sam: Maybe the trick is to wear many layers of clothes. |
| Céline: That’s what I do. |
| Sam: What about twister? Do you play twister? |
| Céline: What it is a twister? |
| Alex: Yeah. |
| Sam: Well, in America, whiteboard, colored dots and you spin the wheel. So, for example, maybe a left hand will land on a green dot. And maybe there’s another red dot or another color behind you and you spin again, and you have you put your right foot, maybe behind your leg or hand. |
| Céline: Ah bon? |
| Sam: Yeah. It’s a really cool game. |
| Alex: Never heard about this. |
| Céline: Non, moi non plus. |
| Sam: Now, let’s move onto the vocabulary and phrases from this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Sam: The first item is? |
| Céline: Jouer. |
| Sam: “To play”. |
| Céline: Jouer. Jouer. |
| Sam: Next. |
| Alex: Somnoler. |
| Sam: “To drowse”. |
| Alex: Somnoler. Somnoler. |
| Sam: Next. |
| Céline: Regarder. |
| Sam: “To watch” or “to look”. |
| Céline: Regarder. Regarder. |
| Sam: Next. |
| Alex: Règles. |
| Sam: “Rules”. |
| Alex: Règles. Règles. |
| Sam: Next. |
| Céline: Vous jouez? |
| Sam: “Are you playing?” |
| Céline: Vous jouez? Vous jouez? |
| Sam: Next. |
| Céline: Somnoler. |
| Sam: “To doze off”. |
| Céline: Somnoler. Somnoler. |
| Sam: Next. |
| Céline: Vous somnolez? |
| Sam: “Are you dozing off?” |
| Céline: Vous somnolez? Vous somnolez? |
| Sam: Next. |
| Alex: Pioche. |
| Sam: “Draw a card”. |
| Alex: Pioche. Pioche. |
| Sam: Next. |
| Céline: Tu joues? |
| Sam: “Are you playing?”, informal version. |
| Céline: Tu joues? Tu joues? |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Sam: Now let’s have a look at the vocab and phrases from this lesson. The first item is? |
| Alex: Vous jouez? Vous somnolez? |
| Sam: “Are you playing? Are you dozing off?” |
| Alex: As it is probably the start of the game, Sandrine is trying to energize everybody. |
| Sam: Which word is “playing”? |
| Alex: “Jouer” for “playing” and “dozing off” for “somnoler”. So, let’s have a few examples with “jouer”. |
| Céline: Je joue au poker. |
| Sam: “I play poker.” |
| Céline: Et je joue de la guitare. |
| Sam: “And I play the guitar.” Is that true? Okay. I have a question. Why “au poker” and “de la guitare”? |
| Alex: Because in French, you always use “de”, “du”, “de la” when you’re talking about an instrument. |
| Sam: Got it. So, what if I want to say “I play the drums”? |
| Alex: Je joue de la batterie. “Batterie” is feminine, so it is “de la”. |
| Céline: Sam, you have to keep reviewing our previous lessons about feminines and masculines. |
| Sam: Oh, you’re so right Céline, sorry, next item? |
| Céline: Next is the phrase “Non je regarde les règles”. |
| Sam: “No, I’m looking at the rules.” |
| Céline: Je regarde: “I’m looking.” |
| Alex: Je regarde la jolie fille. |
| Sam: “I’m looking at the pretty girl.” |
| Céline: Always. But, here it’s about rules. Les règles. |
| Sam: So, in French, “at” doesn’t translate? |
| Céline: No, you can’t say “Je regarde à les règles.” “Je regarde” plus something or someone. |
| Alex: For example: “Je regarde la télé”. |
| Sam: “I’m watching television.” So, “to watch” and “to look” mean the same thing in French? |
| Céline: Yes, same. And to dive inside the French culture, the slang is “mater”. |
| Sam: “To check out”. |
| Alex: For example: “Je mate la jolie fille.” |
| Sam: “I’m checking out the pretty girl.” |
| Céline: You like examples, man. |
| Sam: I like these examples, too. So guys, do you play by the rules? |
| Alex: Of course. Je suis les règles. I follow the rules, always. |
| Céline: Moi aussi. Me too. |
| Sam: You follow the rules? It depends on the rules. |
| Céline: By the way, “règle” in French is also “a ruler” and it adds also another meaning and I think it’s really important and useful for our feminine listeners to know about it. “Règles” is the monthly cycle of women. I mention it because I had some trouble in foreign countries trying to explain this in another language. So, I guess it is an important word to learn, from a woman’s point of view. |
| Sam: Well, yes. Thanks for the information. I don’t think we need examples for that, thought. |
| Alex: Okay, finally we have “ah bon” which means “well” or “oh, really?” |
| Sam: Ah bon? Joke. Anyway, Céline this is one of your favorite phrases, right? Ah bon? |
| Céline: Yes, I always say “ah bon”. It’s one of my favorites. |
| Alex: And this is called an interjection and we used it when we’re surprised about something. Okay. Céline, did you know that nine out of ten people in France watch TV every day? |
| Céline: Ah bon? |
| Sam: “Ah, really?” And what does the one left do? |
| Céline: He plays cards. |
| Sam: Fantastique! Now we understand why these lessons are about games. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Sam: So guys, how about we look at the grammar, okay? |
| Alex: Bien sûr. |
| Céline: Oui Sam. So, this is, as always, an important part of the lesson, so pay attention my sweet friends. |
| Alex: And today we’re going to study about verbs. As you may already know, there are three groups of verbs in French, but today we’re going to talk about the first verb group. |
| Sam: Okay, what do we have to know about the first verb group? |
| Céline: The first group includes all the verbs ending by “er” except the verb , “to go”, which is an irregular verb. Their conjugation is pretty simple. You just have to learn the ending. |
| Sam: That’s all? |
| Alex: That’s all! C’est tout! |
| Céline: Let’s have a look at two verbs from the dialogue. “Jouer”, “to play” and “somnoler”, “to doze off”. |
| Alex: These are two verbs ending with E-R, “er” so the conjugation at the singular would be? |
| Céline: Je joue. |
| Sam: “I play”. |
| Céline: Je somnole. |
| Sam: “I doze off”. |
| Alex: To conjugate French verbs, you just have to take out the ending E-R, “er”, and replace it with the conjugated ending form for each tense and personal, singular or plural. |
| Sam: So, if I way to say “we play”? |
| Céline: Nous jouons. |
| Sam: “We look at”. |
| Alex: Nous regardons. |
| Sam: Yes, same ending, O-N-S. |
| Alex: And the same for all verbs from the first group. Very easy! C’est simple! |
| Sam: Yes, very easy. |
| Céline: And for all the conjugation, have a look at our PDF. |
| Sam: Great. Is that all for today’s grammar? How about the other verb groups? |
| Céline: That’s for next week, Sam. |
| Alex: Bien sûr. |
Outro |
| Sam: Okay, well I guess we have to wait until the next week. So, until the next time… |
| Céline: Au revoir! |
| Alex: Merci à vous tous, au revoir! |
| Sam: Au revoir. |
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Comments
HideBonjour Shelley,
Je t'en prie ! :-)
Belle journée,
Marion
Team FrenchPod101.com
Belle journee, Marion,
Merci beaucoup pour etre expliquer❤️
Bonjour Shelley,
"écouter" ne s'utilise jamais avec "à". J'écoute de la musique, j'écoute la radio, j'écoute un chanteur, etc.
Belle journée,
Marion
Team FrenchPod101.com
Bonjour, FrenchPod😊
Aujourdhui, nous apprends qu'on dit:
"je regarde (quelque chose)"
et on ne dit pas:
"je regarde a' (quelque chose)."
J'ai une question:
Peut-t-on dit
"j'ecoute (quelque chose)"
ou
"j'ecoute a' (quelque chose)" ?
Si je veux dire "listen to (quelque chose)"?
Bonjour Anna,
Merci pour ton commentaire !
Bonne journée
Marion
Team FrenchPod101.com
Le professeur semble donner une tres difficile leçon.
II y a une étudiant seule dans le dialogue.
Bonjour Anna,
"somnolez" n'est pas impoli avec "vous", non.
Bonne journée
Marion
Team FrenchPod101.com
Somnolez semble impoli pour “Vous”
“Tu” es à un ami.
J’ai regarde le texte.
Je préfère dire “Tu”.
“ Somnolez” semble pour un ami
Bonjour Cristina,
Sorry about that!
Bonjour Amy,
You're very welcome! :-)
Bonne journée
Marion
Team FrenchPod101.com
Thank you, Marion. I understand now.
Bonjour Amy,
Comment sais-tu is actually incorrect, but here's the difference between the two: in the second sentence, you have a pronoun "le", replacing the piece of information that was talked about previously.
For example:
-- J'ai appris que tu avais rompu avec Marine (I found out you broke up with Marine)
-- Comment le sais-tu ? (how do you know that?)
-> Here, "le" is used as a pronoun to replace the fact that one of the speaker broke up with Marine.
As for "Comment sais-tu", it basically means "How do you know" but without the pronoun, the sentence is incomplete and begs the question, "how do you know what?"
Hope it's a bit clearer now! ;-)
Bonne journée,
Marion
Team FrenchPod101.com
Dear FrenchPod101
I came across the following two phrases :
1. Comment sais-tu ?
2. Comment le sais-tu ?
What is the difference between the two phrases?
Thank you in advance for your response.
Sam being a macho with the period example. What a pity!
Bonjour Josh,
Oui, tu as raison ! About 90% of the French verbs belong to the 1st group. 😉
Bonne journée,
Marion
Team FrenchPod101
Bonjour tout le monde!
If I am not mistaken, most of the verbs en Francais belong to the First Group right? If so, then this makes conjugations in le présent de l'indicatif less difficult.
Merci beaucoup!
Bonjour Michael,
You're right, sometimes finding equivalents with similar notions in two different languages can be a bit tricky!
Bonjour Chris,
No unfortunately we haven't implemented this feature yet, so you do have to check back every now and then.
Bonne journée,
Marion
Team FrenchPod101
Hey,
Just wanted to know (or test) whether you get notifications when someone replies to your comment?
In the very first few lines of conversation.... you say that "ah bon" = "ah well". That last phrase 'Ah well' is complicated and is most often used to describe a small surrender. For example " you must obey the rules", "Non". Ah well... OK.
Bonjour Shaun et merci pour votre message !
Malheureusement je ne connais aucun des jeux que vous avez cité 😭 Je suis désolée !
Je ne joue pas à beaucoup de jeux de plateaux il faut dire... Mais j'aime beaucoup Risk et Andore.
Peut-être les connaissez-vous ?
A très bientôt et bonne journée !
Marie Alice
Team FrenchPod101.com