Learn useful French specific partitive pronouns
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Jason: Do You Love French Macaroons? C’est Jason. Jason here! |
| Ingrid: Bonjour à tous, Ingrid here! |
| Jason: In this lesson, you’re going to learn how to use French specific partitive pronouns that can all be translated by the word “some” in English. |
| Ingrid: Yes Jason, this lesson will be very useful to talk about things currently, because contrary to English, in French, you have to use articles for each subject that you are mentioning. So today, we’ll see how to use these partitive articles “du”, “de la” and “des” that are all used to designate things that are not easy to count or define. |
| Jason: Seems interesting, in fact they are all synonyms of “some” but as usual, you’ll see that French is a bit more complicated than English! |
| Ingrid: And our conversation today is very typical for French as it is about French pastries! The dialog is between Joséphine and her grandson Julien. |
| Jason: And I guess they’ll be using informal French, right? |
| Ingrid: Yes as it is a conversation between two family members. So let’s listen to it! |
| DIALOGUE |
| 1st time: natural native speed: |
| (In Joséphine’s house, with her grandson Martin) |
| Joséphine: Veux-tu de la tarte Julien? |
| Julien: Oui s'il te plait mamie j'en veux bien avec du chocolat dessus. Joséphine: Quel gourmand! Heureusement, j'ai aussi préparé des macarons, tu en veux aussi? |
| Julien: Il y a de la crème dedans? |
| Joséphine: Oui j'ai fait ma recette spéciale, avec de la chantilly. |
| Julien: Super, c'est encore meilleur avec de la chantilly! |
| (1 time slowly) |
| (In Joséphine’s house, with her grandson Martin) |
| Joséphine: Veux-tu de la tarte Julien? |
| Julien: Oui s'il te plait mamie j'en veux bien avec du chocolat dessus. Joséphine: Quel gourmand! Heureusement, j'ai aussi préparé des macarons, tu en veux aussi? |
| Julien: Il y a de la crème dedans? |
| Joséphine: Oui j'ai fait ma recette spéciale, avec de la chantilly. |
| Julien: Super, c'est encore meilleur avec de la chantilly! |
| (1 time natural native speed with the translation) |
| (In Joséphine’s house, with her grandson Martin) |
| Joséphine: Veux-tu de la tarte Julien? |
| Do you want some pie Martin? |
| Julien: Oui s'il te plait mamie j'en veux bien avec du chocolat dessus. |
| Yes grandma I’d like some, with some chocolate on it please. |
| Joséphine: Quel gourmand! Heureusement, j'ai aussi préparé des macarons, tu en veux aussi? |
| What a greedy person! Fortunately I also baked some macaroons, do you want some of those too? |
| Julien: Il y a de la crème dedans? |
| Is there some cream inside? |
| Joséphine: Oui j'ai fait ma recette spéciale, avec de la chantilly. |
| Yes, I did my special recipe with Chantilly! |
| Julien: Super, c'est encore meilleur avec de la chantilly! |
| Great! They're even better with Chantilly! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Jason: Mmm macaroons, Ingrid! They're so delicious! |
| Ingrid: Yes Jason I agree! It’s always hard to stop eating them once you have started! |
| Jason: Do macaroons come from France? |
| Ingrid: Yes, and more exactly from the famous French pastry brand “La Durée”, do you know this Maison? |
| Jason: Yes I do, there are stores in many countries now! |
| Ingrid: Yes and however at the beginning in the 19th century, they only had one store in a very high-class district of Paris. They quickly became famous thanks to their macaroons. They were also the first to create tearooms in France. |
| Jason: And what about today? I guess they have many stores in Paris? |
| Ingrid: They have 6 stores in Paris but the most famous is the one located on the Champs-Elysées, which is the longest avenue in Paris. If our listeners have the opportunity to go there, it’s worth it! |
| Jason: Yes, because you will have the best macaroons ever! |
| Ingrid: Yes but not only is this store really beautiful, with decoration inspired by the 19th century, it’s amazing! |
| Jason: Okay, so everyone if you go to Paris, don’t miss it! |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Okay, so now, let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| The first expression we shall see is: |
| Tarte [natural native speed] |
| Meaning “Pie” |
| Tarte [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Tarte natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Gourmand [natural native speed] |
| Meaning “Greedy” |
| Gourmand [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Gourmand [natural native speed] |
| J’en veux bien [natural native speed] |
| Meaning “To agree/to accept” |
| J’en veux bien [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| J’en veux bien [natural native speed] |
| Recette [natural native speed] |
| Meaning “Recipe” |
| Recette [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Recette [natural native speed] |
| Encore meilleur [natural native speed] |
| Meaning “Even better” |
| Encore meilleur [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Encore meilleur [natural native speed] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Let's have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Jason: The first word is? |
| Ingrid: “Tarte”, which means “pie”. |
| Jason: Could you say it again slowly for our listeners? |
| Ingrid: (Slowly) « Tarte » |
| Jason: And now at natural speed |
| Ingrid: (Natural speed) « Tarte» |
| Jason: Great! So Ingrid, can you give us examples of different pies flavor in French? |
| Ingrid: You have the “tarte aux pommes” which is the “apple pie”, the “tarte aux abricots” that is the “apricot pie” and also the “tarte au citron” which is the lemon one. |
| Jason: Okay, next word? |
| Ingrid: “Gourmand” that means “greedy”. You can use it to describe someone who is eating a lot, especially sweet food. |
| Jason: Could you say it again slowly for our listeners? |
| Ingrid: (Slowly) « Gourmand » |
| Jason: And now in natural speed |
| Ingrid: (Natural speed) « Gourmand » |
| Jason: And is there another meaning? |
| Ingrid: Yes, as France is the country of cook and gastronomy, “gourmand” can also simply mean a “food lover”, someone who loves good dishes, so in fact it can be a bit confusing. |
| Jason: Great so here, be careful about the context! |
| Ingrid: Yes exactly. For example you can say “Qu’est qu’il est gourmand” that obviously means “He is so greedy, it’s crazy!” or “Cet homme est gourmand, il connait tous les bons restaurants” that means “this man is a food lover, he knows every good place to eat”. |
| Jason: Okay it’s clear. Then the next expression is? |
| Ingrid: “J’en veux bien” that literally means “Yes I want some”. In French, we often use the expression “vouloir bien” when we agree with something. But when we add the word “bien” it often means that you accept with conditions. |
| Jason: Can you give us some examples with “bien vouloir”? |
| Ingrid: For example, you will use it in “Je veux bien y aller, mais pas longtemps” which means “I agree to going but not for long”. Here you accept the suggestion but you have a condition, you don’t want to stay for a long time – it’s not a total agreement. |
| Jason: Exactly! “J’en veux bien avec du chocolat dessus” it implies that the chocolate is needed. |
| Ingrid: Great and listeners please refer to our lesson notes for more explanations on this interesting expression! |
| Jason: You’re right! And what is our next word? |
| Ingrid: It is “recette” which means “recipe” when you are cooking something. For example “Je vais faire la recette de ma grand-mère” which means “I’m going to make my grandma’s recipe”. |
| Jason: Is there another common meaning for this word? |
| Ingrid: Yes it also means “to bring in money.” For example when a store is closing at the end of the day, employees count “today’s takings” in French we say “la recette du jour”. |
| Jason: Okay, and what is our last expression? |
| Ingrid: It is “C’est encore meilleur” which means “That’s even better”. Here, the word “encore” serves to emphasize the word meilleur which means “better”. There are many expressions in French that use it, such as “C’est encore mieux en vrai” which means “that’s even better for real”. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Jason: So our grammar will be: how to use the French specific partitive articles used to talk about things that you cannot count easily. In French these kind of articles are indispensables to make correct sentences. |
| Ingrid: Yes Jason contrary to English, you’ll see that words like "du" , "de la", or "des” that are all translations of “some” in English are essential in French. |
| Jason: So thanks to this lesson, you will be able to say "some", "with some” and to ask for something properly in French, using "I want some", "with some", "Is there some?" |
| Ingrid: Exactly, these partitive articles are necessary only for things that are difficult to count or abstract things. When it’s not very specific then you will have to use the articles we are going to learn. |
| Jason: So for example, in our dialog, what is the first partitive article we have? |
| Ingrid: We heard “Veux-tu de la tarte?” Here, the words “de la” define the word « tarte », which means « some pie ». |
| Jason: And how do you know you have to use “de la”? |
| Ingrid: In fact, as the word “tarte” is feminine and singular in French, you will use “de la” to define it. “De la” means “some” but only for feminine/singular words. You cannot say “de la” with the word “sucre” which is “sugar” because it’s a masculine word. |
| Jason: So for feminine/singular things which are not easy to count or for abstract things you use “de la” before them? |
| Ingrid: Yes, that's right! It is the case for things that are complicated to divide, for example food like soup, cream, flour etc… In the example of “tarte”, Joséphine is talking about the pie in general, not about only one portion of it, that’s why she uses “de la”. |
| Jason: What about masculine singular words then? Which partitive is it? |
| Ingrid: It is our 2nd example in our dialog, it is “du” as in “Avec du chocolat dessus” that means “With some chocolate on it”. You see here, as “chocolat” is masculine/singular, we use “du”. |
| Jason: Okay so this is also the translation of “some”. |
| Ingrid: Yes but the main difference is that in English we often drop the “some,” for example you could also say “with chocolate on it”. But in French remember it’s impossible to forget it – you cannot say “avec chocolat”, it sounds really incorrect! |
| Jason: Okay so with masculine singular things that are not easy to count like chocolate here, use “du”. |
| Ingrid: Exactly! Here Martin is not asking for one or two chocolates, he’s asking for some chocolate in general, that’s why he uses “du”. |
| Jason: And last but not least what about plural things? |
| Ingrid: For them it’s easy as there is no difference between masculine and feminine: for all plural things difficult to count or abstract, use “des”, as in “J’ai prepare des macarons” that means “I cooked some macaroons”. You see here too we could drop the “some” in English and just say “I cooked macaroons”. |
| Jason: Yes but in French you cannot drop it, “des” is mandatory, remember that! |
| Ingrid: You’re right! So for every plural things not clearly defined you use “des” for example “Elle a des idées bizarres” which means “She has strange ideas” here the word 'ideas' is plural and it’s abstract so use “des”. |
| Jason: So now you can talk and ask many things, that’s great! |
| Ingrid: Yes and you should definitively have a look on lesson notes as everything is detailed! |
| Jason: Great so now, if you want macaroons you can say… |
| Ingrid: “Je veux des macarons!!” |
Outro |
| Jason: So see you soon everyone for next lesson! A bientôt! |
| Ingrid: Yes everybody à bientôt ! |
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