LEARN FRENCH BY PO POD D C A ST AUDIO PODCASTS FOR LEARNERS OF FRENCH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE
Lesson
66
“How are you?…”
Plus Publications Bramley Douglas Road Cork Ireland (t) 353-(0)21-4847444 () 353-(0)21-4847675 (e) editor@learnrenchb editor@learnrenchbypodcast.com ypodcast.com (i) www.learnrenchb w ww.learnrenchbypodcast.com ypodcast.com
Lesson 66 : Thursday, June 21st, 2007 Level : beginner. beginner. “How “How are you ?…” ?…” • • • • •
e u g o l a i D
“Commentallez“Commenta llez-vous vous?“ ?“:: [“How are you ?“] “Ça “Ç ava va? ?“ “:: [“How are you ?“] “(Pas) “(P as)tr très èsbien. b ien.“ “:: [“(Not)verywell.”] “Ilfa “Il fait itbeau. b eau.”: [“It’sne.”] tout,tout tout, toute,to e,tous,t us,toutes outes:: [all, every]
Hello, and welcome back to LFBP. My name is Hugh Nagle and with me is Amélie Verdier. Bonjour Amélie. Bonjour ! It’s been a while since we’ve had a beginner lesson. In this short lesson, Lesson 66, we’ll see how to ask how someone is and we’ll hear a little about the weather, too. Let’s frst listen to a short role-play between … Monsieur Vuillerot … and Madame Domur
Monsieur Vuillerot Madame Domur
Bonjour Madame Domur. Bonjour Monsieur Vuillerot. Comment allez-vous ? Monsieur Vuillerot Très bien, merci. Et vous, comment allez-vous ? Madame Domur Je vais bien. En plus, il fait beau, alors, tout va bien. Monsieur Vuillerot Oui, c’est vrai qu’il ne pleut pas aujourd’hui. (un téléphone portable sonne) Madame Domur Ah, excusez-moi, c’est mon portable. Allô ? Ah… Bonjour Marie ! Alors, comment ça va? … Moi, ça va. Oui oui, toute la famille va bien. Attends, je ne peux pas te parler pour le moment, je te rappelle plus tard. Ok ? Allez, à plus tard !
Note Comment allez allez-vous -vous ? [≈ How are you ? (Literally, ‘How are you going ?’) ] Beore we can a sk questions like ‘ Comment allezvous ?’, we must amiliarise ourselves ully with aller (to go). Study the present tense, below :
aller – to go je vais tu vas il / elle / on va nous allons vous allez ils / elles vont past participle : allé
Note Comment allez-vous ? [≈ How are you ? (Literally, ‘How are you going ?’) ]
Note Note Note … alors alors,, tout va bien. [= … so, everything is going fne/well.]
Where you see thissymbol… …it’syourturn to repeat what you’veheard. Thenwe’ll repeat once more.
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Consider additional examples with alors : Alors, tu trouve ça comment ? [So, how are you fnding that ?] Alors, quoi de neu ? [So, what’s new ?] Alors, tu ais quoi ce weekend ? [So, what’re you doing this weekend ?]
… , tout va bien bien.. [= … everything is going well.] bon (= good) is an adjective. bien (= well) is an adverb : Il joue bien bien.. [= He plays well.] Elle chante bien bien.. [= She sings well.]
Note
En plus plus, il ait beau. [= Furthermore, it’s fne.] Listen careully ! The ‘s’ on ‘plu pluss’ is sometimes pronounced and is sometimes silent. In this case, the ‘s’ is pronounced.
Note En plus, il ait beau. beau. [= … it’s fne.] The verb aire oten means ‘ to do’, ‘to make’, etc. In relation to the weather , however, it means : ‘It’s (fne, warm, cold, etc).
C’est vrai que il ne pleut pas aujourd’hui. [= It’s true that it’s not raining today.]
© Plus Publications, 2007. All rights reserved. reser ved.
Lesson 66 : Thursday, June 21st, 2007 Level : beginner. beginner. “How “How are you ?…” ?…” • • • • •
“Commentallez“Commenta llez-vous vous?“ ?“:: [“How are you ?“] “Ça “Ç ava va? ?“ “:: [“How are you ?“] “(Pas) “(P as)tr très èsbien. b ien.“ “:: [“(Not)verywell.”] “Ilfa “Il fait itbeau. b eau.”: [“It’sne.”] tout,tout tout, toute,to e,tous,t us,toutes outes:: [all, every]
e u g o l a i D
One more time, let’s hear this exchange.
Note
Monsieur Vuillerot Madame Domur
Bonjour Madame Domur. Bonjour Monsieur Vuillerot. Comment allez-vous ? Monsieur Vuillerot Très bien, merci. Et vous, comment allez-vous ? Madame Domur Je vais bien. En plus, il fait beau, alors, tout va bien. Monsieur Vuillerot Oui, c’est vrai qu’il ne pleut pas aujourd’hui. (un téléphone portable sonne) Madame Domur Ah, excusez-moi, c’est mon portable. Allô ? Ah… Bonjour Marie ! Alors, comment ça va? … Moi, ça va. Oui oui, toute la famille va bien. Attends, je ne peux pas te parler pour le moment, je te rappelle plus tard. Ok ? Allez, à plus tard !
… il ne pleut pas [= it isn’t raining] The verb pleuvoir (= to rain) is invariable. That is, it does not have a ull conjugation like other verbs. We fnd only the ‘ il…’ part o the verb.
Note … mon portable. [= my mobile.] Note that we may also hear ‘mon téléphone portable’. More oten than not, however, we fnd the shorter orm.
Note Allô ?… [= Hello ?…]
Note
Allô is used when saying ‘Hello’ on the telephone, rather than in general.
Note
Toute la amille va bien. [= All [members o] the amily are well.]
Note that the singular form o the verb aller is used in French, in combination with the singular noun la amille.
Je ne peux pas te | donner des suggestions | dire que … [= say to you that …] | répondre … [= answer you]
Note Je te rappelle … [= I’ll call you back (later).] The verb appeler means ‘to call’. I we add an ‘ r’ to the beginning o the verb, we get rappeler which means ‘ to call (someone) again’ or ‘call call (someone) back’ . Where you see thissymbol… …it’syourturn to repeat what you’veheard. Thenwe’ll repeat once more.
Note, also, in this context the Present tense in French is used to convey the Future in English : I will call you back (at some point in the uture).
Je te rappelle à huit heures du soir. [= I’ll call you back at 8 p.m.] Je te rappelle demain. [= I’ll call you back tomorrow.]
© Plus Publications, 2007. All rights reserved.
Note Je te rappelle rappelle … [= I’ll call you back (later).] appeler – to call j’appe appellllee appelllles es tu appe appellllee il / elle / on appe nous appe appellons vous appe appellez ils / elle appe appellllent ent Watch it! There is just one ‘ l ’ in the 1st and 2nd person plural.
Note Attends ! [= Wait !] This is the Imperative (command) orm o attendre (= to wait). j’attends tu attends il / elle / on attend nous attendons vous attendez ils / elles attendent past participle : attendu
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Lesson 66 : Thursday, June 21st, 2007 Level : beginner. beginner. “How “How are you ?…” ?…” • • • • •
e u g o l a i D
“Commentallez“Commenta llez-vous vous?“ ?“:: [“How are you ?“] “Ça “Ç ava va? ?“ “:: [“How are you ?“] “(Pas) “(P as)tr très èsbien. b ien.“ “:: [“(Not)verywell.”] “Ilfa “Il fait itbeau. b eau.”: [“It’sne.”] tout,tout tout, toute,to e,tous,t us,toutes outes:: [all, every]
Now, a basic – but essential – expression is “How are you?” That is… Comment allez-vous? Comment allez-vous?
“Comment allez-vous ?”
Ça va ? [≈ How are you ?] The cedilla accent (l’accent cédille) is important and ensures that – beore the vowels a, o and u – the ‘ ç’ is pronounced like the English ‘ s’, rather than as a ‘ k’.
That’s the ormal orm o the question we might use i addressing a neighbour we don’t know that well, or example. I, on the other hand, we were addressing a riend – someone we did did know know well – we could ask : Comment vas-tu? Comment vas-tu? Or, simply… Ça va? Ça va?
Note
“Ça va ?”
Note … comment va va-t-t-eelle ? [= … how is she ?] The unction o the -t- is to acilitate pronunciation and prevent a ‘collision’ o two vowels. The same applies to the ‘il…’ part o the verb :
Finally, i we were asking about someone else – a mutual riend called Jacques, or example, we would ask : Et Jacques, il va bien?… Et Jacques, il va bien?…
Et Daniel, comment va-tva -t-ilil ?
Supposing the doctor was asking a woman about her daughter, his question might be : Et votre flle, Jacqueline, comment comment va-t-elle? Et votre flle, Jacqueline, comment comment va-t-elle? So, let’s remember these expressions. They rely heavily on the verb “aller” which literally means “to go”. In response to these questions, various answers are possible. Amélie, i you are very well, you would say : Très bien, merci. Très bien, merci. On the other hand, i things aren’t aren’t going going so well, you might say : Je ne vais pas trop bien. Je ne vais pas trop bien. … or, simply : Pas trop bien. Pas trop bien. Here we have ‘pas trop bien’. That’s “not too well”. “Not very very well”, well”, would be… Pas très bien. Pas très bien. Where you see thissymbol… …it’syourturn to repeat what you’veheard. Thenwe’ll repeat once more.
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Note “(Pas) très bien. bi en.””
… votre flle [= … your daughter] Depending on the context, une flle is : 1. a girl, or 2. a daughter. Listen careully to the pronunciation ! The double-l in une fllllee sounds like the ‘ y’ in the English word ‘ yes’.
Note
© Plus Publications, 2007. All rights reserved. reser ved.
Lesson 66 : Thursday, June 21st, 2007 Level : beginner. beginner. “How “How are you ?…” ?…” • • • • •
“Commentallez“Commenta llez-vous vous?“ ?“:: [“How are you ?“] “Ça “Ç ava va? ?“ “:: [“How are you ?“] “(Pas) “(P as)tr très èsbien. b ien.“ “:: [“(Not)verywell.”] “Ilfa “Il fait itbeau. b eau.”: [“It’sne.”] tout,tout tout, toute,to e,tous,t us,toutes outes:: [all, every]
e u g o l a i D
In our original exchange, Madame Domur said she was very well. In particular, she said : “… and then, the weather is beautiul, so all is well”. Let’s hear, once again, what she said. First we heard : En plus, il ait beau. En plus, il ait beau.
“Il ait beau.”
Il ait beau. [= It’s fne.] Study the ollowing weather-relat weather-related ed expressions, too, also based on the verb aire :
So, in relation to the weather, “it’s beautiul” or “it’s fne” is simply “il ait beau”. And then, “all is well” is : Tout va bien. Tout va bien. “All” or “everythin “everything” g” is … tout tout That’s the masculine orm o this word. A little later in the dialogue, we heard : Toute la amille va bien Toute la amille va bien That’s “All the amily are well”. well”. In this thi s case, we hear : toute toute That’s the eminine orm o the adjective because we are talking about all the family and family and … la amille la amille … is a eminine word.
Note
tout / toute
Il ait mauvais. [= (the opposite of ‘il fait beau’) The weather is bad.] Il ait chaud.* [= It’s hot.] Il ait roid.* [= It’s cold.] * Note that these expressions apply to the weather . They are not used when describing objects that are hot or cold. Nor are they used when describing one’s own physical state.
Note Tout va bien. [= Everything / all is (going) well.] In act, there are four variants o tout, depending on the gender (that is, masculine or eminine) and number (that is, singular or plural) o the noun to which it reers. Consider additional examples below :
… avec tout le sucre [m] qu’on trouve dans les aliments de nos jours. [= … with all the sugar that one fnds in ood nowadays.] … devant toute la classe [] [].. [= … in ront o the whole class.] Ma mère va à la messe tous les matins [m pl]. pl]. [= My mother goes to mass ever y morning.] Tu vois toutes les cochonneries [ pl] qu’elle avale ? [= Do you see all the junk that she eats ?]
Where you see thissymbol… …it’syourturn to repeat what you’veheard. Thenwe’ll repeat once more.
© Plus Publications, 2007. All rights reserved.
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Lesson 66 : Thursday, June 21st, 2007 Level : beginner. beginner. “How “How are you ?…” ?…” • • • • •
e u g o l a i D
“Commentallez“Commenta llez-vous vous?“ ?“:: [“How are you ?“] “Ça “Ç ava va? ?“ “:: [“How are you ?“] “(Pas) “(P as)tr très èsbien. b ien.“ “:: [“(Not)verywell.”] “Ilfa “Il fait itbeau. b eau.”: [“It’sne.”] tout,tout tout, toute,to e,tous,t us,toutes outes:: [all, every]
In this lesson we’ve concentrated on how to ask how someone is. But there are other interesting expressions and vocabulary, too. You can fnd that inormation in the accompanying Lesson Guide, available rom our website at www.learnrenchbypodcast.com. Amélie, let’s listen to this dialogue one last time to reinorce everything we’ve heard today.
Monsieur Vuillerot Madame Domur
Bonjour Madame Domur. Bonjour Monsieur Vuillerot. Comment allez-vous ? Monsieur Vuillerot Très bien, merci. Et vous, comment allez-vous ? Madame Domur Je vais bien. En plus, il fait beau, alors, tout va bien. Monsieur Vuillerot Oui, c’est vrai qu’il ne pleut pas aujourd’hui. (un téléphone portable sonne) Madame Domur Ah, excusez-moi, c’est mon portable. Allô ? Ah… Bonjour Marie ! Alors, comment ça va? … Moi, ça va. Oui oui, toute la famille va bien. Attends, je ne peux pas te parler pour le moment, je te rappelle plus tard. Ok ? Allez, à plus tard ! That’s it or now. Until next time… A la prochaine.
Note Allez, à plus tard ! [≈ Ok then, until (I talk to you) later !] Grammatically speaking, All Allez ez is the Imperative (command) orm o the verb aller. Literally, it is the orm o the verb we will use when ordering someone to … ‘ Go!’ However, Allez is very requently used when ‘wrapping up’ a conversation in which case it equates to the English ‘ Ok, then…’ or ‘Right, then …’. O course, we’ll hear it around us at a ootball match, too, where French supporters will vocierously encourage their players with shouts o “Allez! Allez!…”
Note Je ne peux pas … [= I can’t …] This is the 1st person singular o the Present tense o pouvoir (= to be able). Study the ull conjugation o the verb, below :
pouvoir – to be able je peux tu peux il / elle / on peut nous pouvons vous pouvez ils / elles peuvent past participle : pu
Note …, à plus tard ! [≈ …, until (I talk to you) later !] Where you see thissymbol… …it’syourturn to repeat what you’veheard. Thenwe’ll repeat once more.
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Consider the ollowing, also : À ce soir ! [= Until (I talk to you / see you) this evening !]
À demain ! [= Until (I talk to you / see you) tomorrow !]
© Plus Publications, 2007. All rights reserved. reser ved.
Lesson 66 : Thursday, June 21st, 2007 Level : beginner. beginner. “How “How are you ?…” ?…” • • • • •
“Commentallez“Commenta llez-vous vous?“ ?“:: [“How are you ?“] “Ça “Ç ava va? ?“ “:: [“How are you ?“] “(Pas) “(P as)tr très èsbien. b ien.“ “:: [“(Not)verywell.”] “Ilfa “Il fait itbeau. b eau.”: [“It’sne.”] tout,tout tout, toute,to e,tous,t us,toutes outes:: [all, every]
e u g o l a i D
Vocab extra ! • bonjou bonjourr ..................hello • all aller er .......................t .......................too g o • comme comment… nt…?? ........how…? • vou vouss .......................you • tr très ès ........................very • bie bienn .......................well • mer merci ci .....................t .....................thank hank you • plus plus,en ,en~ ..............urthermore • alo alors rs.......................s .......................so, o, then • tou toutt........................al ........................all,l, everything • vra vraii ........................true • c’ c’est est .......................it’s •oui .........................yes • pleuv pleuvoir oir .................to rain • aujour aujourd’hui d’hui............today • portabl portable(m) e(m) ..........mobile (phone) • sonn sonner er ...................to ring • mon.......................my • all allôô ........................h ........................hello ello [on
Ifyouunderstoodourlesson,thenyoushouldb Ifyouunderstoodourles son,thenyoushouldbeabletotran eabletotranslate slate…
telephone]
… n r u t r u o y s ’ t i w o N
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.
• famil famille(f) le(f) ..............amily • atte attendre ndre.................to wait • pouvoi pouvoirr ..................to be able • parler.....................t .....................too speak, to
And Claire… how is she? Yes… they’re well. [Suppose you’re talking about David and Diane.] He can’t talk to you or the moment. They can’t can’t talk to you or the moment. It’s warm today. It’s raining. He’ll call you back later. They’ll call you back later. See how you have fared in the exercise above by clicking on the graphic. (Note that we wait a few days after a lesson has been released before posting the answers to exercises on our website.)
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• pou pourr .......................or • momen moment(m) t(m) ..........moment • rappel rappeler er .................to call again • tar tardd ........................late • plu pluss........................more • prochaine,àla~ ...until next time • jou jouer er ......................t ......................too play • trouv trouver er ...................to fnd • quo quoii .......................what • neuf[adj] [adj]...............new • chant chanter er ..................to sing • répon répondre dre................to answer • cha chaud ud.....................hot • fro froid id .......................cold • sucre sucre(m) (m) ...............sugar • alime aliment(m nt(m)) ...........item o ood • jour,denos~s.......nowadays • devan devantt ...................in ront o • class classe(f) e(f) ................class • mess messe(f) e(f) ...............mass • mati matin(m) n(m) ..............morning • cochonneries(fpl) .junk (ood) • aval avaler er.....................t .....................too swallow • voi voirr ........................t ........................too see
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