In this lesson we’re looking at the verb finir meaning “to finish” or “to end”. Finir is an example of a regular -ir verb. This means that with this lesson not only will you learn to conjugate finir in the present, perfect, imperfect and future tenses, you’ll also learn to conjugate hundreds of other regular -ir verbs! This season of Coffee Break French Verb Fix features a total of 10 lessons, all of which will be included in the podcast feed. Just stay subscribed to the podcast to enjoy each ep...
May 04, 2013•17 min•Season 1Ep. 2
In this lesson we’re looking at the verb parler meaning “to speak” or “to talk”. Parler is an example of a regular -er verb. This means that with this lesson not only will you learn to conjugate parler in the present, perfect, imperfect and future tenses, you’ll also learn to conjugate hundreds, if not thousands of other regular -er verbs! This season of Coffee Break French Verb Fix features a total of 10 lessons, all of which will be included in the podcast feed. Just stay subscribed to the pod...
Apr 25, 2013•16 min•Season 1Ep. 1
Welcome to this introductory episode of the Coffee Break French Verb Fix in which we explain the concepts behind this course and offer an introduction to the whole idea of French verbs: how they work, what it means to conjugate a verb, and the meanings of the four main tenses we’re covering in the course. This show is your weekly fix of Coffee Break French, and through the weekly episodes we’ll help you “fix” your French verbs. We believe that mastering your verbs is the key to developing confid...
Apr 25, 2013•14 min•Season 1Ep. 1
This episode marks the end of an era! It’s the final lesson of Season 3 of Coffee Break French. We first met Alf, Katie and Veronica over 18 months ago and since then hopefully all our listeners have built their confidence and developed their range of expression in the French language. This final episode provides further opportunities for listeners to practise what they’ve learned through a series of translation challenges and, for premium members, a further dictation exercise.Please note that l...
Mar 20, 2012•14 min•Season 3Ep. 40
It’s time for the penultimate episode in this season of Coffee Break French. Our translation challenges this week include further practice on the subjunctive and a couple of examples of the future tense. Please note that lesson 39 of Season 3 was originally known as lesson 339 of Coffee Break French. We have renumbered the lessons of each season as lessons 1-40 to make things more simple for our listeners. This season of Coffee Break French features a total of 40 lessons, all of which will be in...
Mar 11, 2012•13 min•Season 3Ep. 39
This week’s coffee break provides some practice on the tricky pronoun y and some further subjunctives. Please note that lesson 38 of Season 3 was originally known as lesson 338 of Coffee Break French. We have renumbered the lessons of each season as lessons 1-40 to make things more simple for our listeners. This season of Coffee Break French features a total of 40 lessons, all of which will be included in the podcast feed. Just stay subscribed to the podcast to enjoy each episode. If you’d like ...
Mar 05, 2012•14 min•Season 3Ep. 38
We’re back with more translation challenges to help you test your knowledge of the materials covered in Season 3. Please note that lesson 37 of Season 3 was originally known as lesson 337 of Coffee Break French. We have renumbered the lessons of each season as lessons 1-40 to make things more simple for our listeners. This season of Coffee Break French features a total of 40 lessons, all of which will be included in the podcast feed. Just stay subscribed to the podcast to enjoy each episode. If ...
Feb 28, 2012•14 min•Season 3Ep. 37
In this week’s Coffee Break French we provide another opportunity for you to test your translation skills based on what you’ve learned in Season 3. Please note that lesson 36 of Season 3 was originally known as lesson 336 of Coffee Break French. We have renumbered the lessons of each season as lessons 1-40 to make things more simple for our listeners. This season of Coffee Break French features a total of 40 lessons, all of which will be included in the podcast feed. Just stay subscribed to the ...
Feb 19, 2012•16 min•Season 3Ep. 36
We’re back with another lesson of translation challenges to help you practise what you’ve learned in this season of Coffee Break French. Please note that lesson 35 of Season 3 was originally known as lesson 335 of Coffee Break French. We have renumbered the lessons of each season as lessons 1-40 to make things more simple for our listeners. This season of Coffee Break French features a total of 40 lessons, all of which will be included in the podcast feed. Just stay subscribed to the podcast to ...
Feb 12, 2012•12 min•Season 3Ep. 35
In this week's lesson we provide more translation exercises for you based on the constructions, vocabulary and grammar covered in this season. We’ll give you the phrase, followed by some time to work out the answer, and then we’ll talk through the answer, helping you to construct the phrase yourself in French. Please note that lesson 34 of Season 3 was originally known as lesson 334 of Coffee Break French. We have renumbered the lessons of each season as lessons 1-40 to make things more simple f...
Jan 09, 2012•16 min•Season 3Ep. 34
This episode is the first of eight lessons which focus on consolidating what you’ve learned in the past 32 lessons. We’ll be testing your grammar and vocabulary with a series of guided translation exercises: we’ll give you a phrase to translate into French and then work through the solution with you.Please note that lesson 33 of Season 3 was originally known as lesson 333 of Coffee Break French. We have renumbered the lessons of each season as lessons 1-40 to make things more simple for our list...
Dec 23, 2011•12 min•Season 3Ep. 33
It’s time to listen to the final section of Katie’s diary which she has kept throughout her time spent in Nice. In this week’s lesson we’ll be hearing about her plans for the future and we’ll find out if these plans include Jérôme! Please note that lesson 32 of Season 3 was originally known as lesson 332 of Coffee Break French. We have renumbered the lessons of each season as lessons 1-40 to make things more simple for our listeners. This season of Coffee Break French features a total of 40 less...
Dec 08, 2011•18 min•Season 3Ep. 32
In this new edition of Coffee Break French we’ll be starting our farewells for Katie. We’ll cover the first part of her text in this lesson and then complete it in lesson 332. Please note that lesson 31 of Season 3 was originally known as lesson 331 of Coffee Break French. We have renumbered the lessons of each season as lessons 1-40 to make things more simple for our listeners. This season of Coffee Break French features a total of 40 lessons, all of which will be included in the podcast feed. ...
Dec 01, 2011•14 min•Season 3Ep. 31
It’s five years since we launched the first lesson of Coffee Break Spanish, and since then we’ve served up millions of language lessons to learners around the world through our podcasts, our enhanced lessons and our ebooks. We’re delighted today to announce five new courses, and we’ll also be letting you know about a few exciting projects which are due to be launched early in 2012. Spanish ¡Empecemos con el español! On the 18th October 2006 we began with Spanish, and we’re doing the same today. ...
Oct 18, 2011•7 min
It’s time for another lesson of Coffee Break French and this week we join Alf in his final text. He has been writing a diary over eight weeks while he has been renovating his new house in the south of France and attending daily French lessons with Veronica and Katie, the two other protagonists of our series. In this week’s text he tells us about the party he organised for his classmates. Please note that lesson 30 of Season 3 was originally known as lesson 330 of Coffee Break French. We have ren...
Oct 15, 2011•13 min
In this latest lesson of Coffee Break French we’ll be joining Veronica and listening to her final text. She has been learning French in Nice along with Katie and Alf and in this final text she updates us on what she has been doing and tells us of some important decisions she has taken. Please note that lesson 29 of Season 3 was originally known as lesson 329 of Coffee Break French. We have renumbered the lessons of each season as lessons 1-40 to make things more simple for our listeners. This se...
Sep 15, 2011•18 min
This week's lesson offers an analysis of the second part of Katie’s latest text. As usual, we’ll be covering a range of expressions and grammar points. The free version of this lesson includes the recording of Katie’s text along with explanations of the language she uses to help you understand the text. Please note that lesson 28 of Season 3 was originally known as lesson 328 of Coffee Break French. We have renumbered the lessons of each season as lessons 1-40 to make things more simple for our ...
Aug 31, 2011•18 min•Season 3Ep. 28
In this week's episode we're looking at the first part of Katie’s latest text in which she updates us on what’s she’s been getting up to in Nice. In this episode we’ll be looking at a variety of grammatical topics including the relative pronouns ce que and ce qui , and we’ll also consider some examples of the future perfect tense. The second part of Katie’s text will be analysed in the next lesson. Please note that lesson 27 of Season 3 was originally known as lesson 327 of Coffee Break French. ...
Aug 21, 2011•16 min•Season 3Ep. 27
We return to Alf’s story this week on Coffee Break French and his wife, Jennifer, has finally arrived in France. Alf has been preparing for her arrival, both with the house renovations and he’s even learned to cook! As usual there are plenty of useful expressions and interesting grammar points in this week’s lesson. In addition, following many requests from our members, the extended version of this week’s lesson features an introduction to a new tense, the Past Historic, which is a narrative ten...
Jul 10, 2011•14 min•Season 3Ep. 26
This week on Coffee Break French Veronica is feeling a bit down in the dumps: elle a le bourdon ce soir ! She has been doing some thinking about her future and the fact that she is accro au travail – addicted to her work. This episode provides lots of examples of interesting grammar and vocabulary in use, and you’ll learn about question formation, reported speech and lots more! Please note that lesson 25 of Season 3 was originally known as lesson 325 of Coffee Break French. We have renumbered th...
Jul 02, 2011•15 min•Season 3Ep. 25
This week we’re offering a special treat for our free subscribers: the extended version of our lessons is normally only available to subscribers, but this week we’re giving this extended version away free to our non-members to let you know what you’re missing! The extended version features the same basic content as the free lesson, but there are over 15 minutes of extra explanations, examples and tests to help you understand more of the language covered. This season of Coffee Break French featur...
Jun 18, 2011•33 min•Season 3Ep. 24
In this week’s lesson we’ll continue with Alf’s text from last week. There are some fantastic examples of preceding direct objects in this week’s show, and you’ll have the opportunity to practise ne … rien and ne … que . Please note that lesson 24 of Season 3 was originally known as lesson 324 of Coffee Break French. We have renumbered the lessons of each season as lessons 1-40 to make things more simple for our listeners. This season of Coffee Break French features a total of 40 lessons, all of...
Jun 18, 2011•16 min•Season 3Ep. 24
Today's episode is the first of two lessons which focus on Alf’s latest text which has lots of interesting language points to discuss. Alf has been attending cookery lessons in Nice and he reports back on this in this week’s episode. Language points include lots more preceding direct object examples and the intriguing use of que l’on instead of qu’on ! Please note that lesson 23 of Season 3 was originally known as lesson 323 of Coffee Break French. We have renumbered the lessons of each season a...
Jun 10, 2011•14 min•Season 3Ep. 23
In this week's episode of Coffee Break French we hear about Veronica’s exciting weekend at the Monaco Grand Prix. We’ll be hearing about the party she attended at the house of one of her clients. We will be hearing more examples of the subjunctive along with a couple of interesting preceding direct objects! Please note that lesson 22 of Season 3 was originally known as lesson 322 of Coffee Break French. We have renumbered the lessons of each season as lessons 1-40 to make things more simple for ...
Jun 01, 2011•19 min•Season 3Ep. 22
In this week's lesson we’ll be hearing from Alf, one of our three students learning French in Nice. Alf will be telling us about a chance meeting he had with his neighbour and his new interest in the game of pétanque , French boules. Please note that lesson 21 of Season 3 was originally known as lesson 321 of Coffee Break French. We have renumbered the lessons of each season as lessons 1-40 to make things more simple for our listeners. This season of Coffee Break French features a total of 40 le...
May 23, 2011•17 min•Season 3Ep. 21
This week we’re testing you on what you’ve learned in the first twenty episodes of season 3. We’re providing you with a series of sentences in English to translate into French, and you’ll be encouraged to think of the grammatical constructions and vocabulary which have been covered in the texts of Veronica, Alf and Katie. You’ll have 20 seconds to work out each translation and then Mark will talk through the translation and talk about the language contained in the example. Please note that lesso...
Apr 25, 2011•19 min•Season 3Ep. 20
We rejoin Veronica this week in our series of episodes coming from our featured learners in the south of France. “Veronica” has been getting to know one of her clients and, as we’ll be finding out this week, she has been invited to a party at this client’s house. In terms of the language covered in this episode, you’ll hear further examples of the subjunctive, and we’ll also be discussing the concept of transitive and intransitive verbs. Please note that lesson 19 of Season 3 was originally know...
Apr 17, 2011•20 min•Season 3Ep. 19
We knew you’d be desperate to find out how Katie got on at the Cannes Film Festival with Jérôme, so we’re sticking with Katie’s diary entries this week. In this episode you’ll hear a full account of her evening in Cannes with Jérôme and his parents, and you’ll also hear how things have developed between Katie and Jérôme… In terms of the language covered in this episode, we’ll be taking a look at further examples of direct and indirect object pronouns, more examples of the subjunctive, and lots m...
Apr 09, 2011•19 min•Season 3Ep. 18
We’re returning to Katie’s texts this week and we’ll be hearing her exciting news about her forthcoming visit to the Cannes Film Festival, thanks to Jérôme’s mother. In this episode we’ll be covering more examples of vouloir que with the subjunctive, and we’ll also hear an example of préférer que which follows a similar pattern. There’s even a conditional perfect thrown in too! Please note that lesson 17 of Season 3 was originally known as lesson 317 of Coffee Break French. We have renumbered th...
Mar 28, 2011•18 min•Season 3Ep. 17
This week we’re consolidating what we’ve learned so far about the subjunctive in French. We’ll categorise the examples we’ve heard so far in the texts of Alf, Katie and Veronica, and Mark will walk you through some further examples including pour que , pourvu que, bien que , and many more. We’ll learn about situations when you use the subjunctive which relate to demands and wishes, and we’ll also cover situations involving opinions and emotions. This episode will help you to get to grips with th...
Mar 06, 2011•18 min•Season 3Ep. 16
