French for Beginners: Lesson 2 - Backward Investors - podcast episode cover

French for Beginners: Lesson 2 - Backward Investors

Nov 26, 201225 min
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Summary

In this French lesson, Valerie continues teaching Jacques, focusing on fundamental grammar. The episode reviews the verb 'être', introduces and conjugates 'avoir' (to have), explores useful idiomatic expressions with 'avoir', and explains how to form the negative with 'ne... pas'. The lesson also covers the expression 'il y a' (there is/are) in affirmative, negative, and question forms, all within a lively dialogue context.

Episode description

Topics covered: 

  • Basic verb negation
  • Indefinite articles
  • Avoir in the present
  • Avoir and idiomatic expressions
  • Il y a

Welcome to the Language Theater! Bienvenue! Do you remember my name? That’s right, je m’appelle Jean-Paul. I hope you really enjoyed Act I and are ready for Act II. Are you ready? Oh, one more thing: review the flashcard before listening to the play. These new words will be used in the play and you should memorize them. They will also be used in our coming acts. 

Well, let’s begin! Today Valérie, our French teacher, is having another lesson with Jacques. Let’s see how much he remembers from his first lesson! Enjoy the show!

Transcript

Welcome to Language Theater

Welcome to the language theater. Bienvenue. Do you remember my name? That's right. Je m'appelle Jean-Paul. I hope you really enjoyed Act 1 and are ready for Act 2. Are you ready? Oh, one more thing. Review the flashcard before listening to the play. These new words will be used in the play and you should memorize them. They will also be used in our coming acts. Well, let's begin.

Today, Valérie, our French teacher, is having another lesson with Jacques. Let's see how much he remembers from his first lesson. Enjoy the show.

Reviewing the Verb Être

Bonjour, Jacques. Bienvenue. Bonjour, Valerie. Ça va? Oui, ça va, merci. Jacques, vous êtes en retard. En retard? No, no, Jacques. It's not what you think. Vous êtes en retard. You are late. Oh, oui. Pardon. Je suis très, très sorry. I didn't even have time to eat breakfast. It's all right, Jacques. It happens. I just wasn't sure if you had decided to quit. Quit? Never. I'm not a quitter.

Je suis un fighter. You'll see. I'm glad. Vous êtes déterminé. Learning a language requires a great deal of determination and self-discipline. Which I have. Je suis just a little upset this morning. Vous êtes juste un peu perturbé ce matin? Pourquoi? Why? Je suis perturbé? Oui. Pourquoi, Jacques? Well, if you really want to know. But I can't tell you en français. My problème... Compliqué. Je suis sûr que vous êtes capable d'expliquer en français. Repeat, s'il vous plaît.

Sûr que vous êtes capable d'expliquer en français. capable, able, expliquer, explain? Excellent, Jacques. Vous êtes intelligent. You see, Valerie, je suis... En effet, Jacques, vous êtes déterminé. Je suis capable d'expliquer en français. Je suis déterminé. I tell you who else is determined, though. My investors. Ils sont déterminés to make my project fail. They're just not modern enough in their thinking. Ils sont stupides.

Ils sont so backward. OK, Jacques. Let's use another term to describe les investisseurs. Instead of stupid, you could say... Idiots. Les investisseurs sont idiots. Parfait. I was thinking of something a bit more polite. How about arriérer? That means backward or limité. Limité. Oui, c'est bien. Les investisseurs sont limités. How would you tell them that? Vous êtes limité. Très bien. And why do you think they are limited? Well, I met them once and...

To be honest, they weren't too excited about my concept. They told me to make a few changes and to present it again today. I think I can convince them, especially the few women investors. I feel they liked it better than the men. It's probably because they've been on a few embarrassing dates themselves. Probably. There's quite a lot of victims out there. Mon restaurant will put an end to that.

Bonne chance, Jacques. What about us? Are we limited? Non, nous sommes pas limités. Non, non, hang on. Nous ne sommes pas limités. I see you remember how to conjugate a verb in the negative form. Très bien! We will talk about it today too. Now, let's conjugate the whole verb. Être with limité as an adjective. Je suis limité. Let's change the adjective, shall we? D'accord. Use any words you like. D'accord. Je suis déterminé. Tu es intelligent. Il est perturbé. Il est capable. Nous sommes...

Oh, sorry. on retard merci jacques well we have reviewed the verb être thanks to you investors

Introducing the Verb Avoir

Let's learn about le verbe avoir, to have. Avoir is as important as le verbe être. Like être. It is a verb and an auxiliary or helping verb. And like être again, it is irregular. It changes at every person. It is also useful to form many idiomatic expressions that we will talk about in our second part of grammar lesson. We will need a good knowledge of all personal pronouns, though. No problem. Here they are. Je, tu, il, elle. These are the singular ones. Then, nous, vous,

Il, elle. These are the plural ones. Parfait. So, we will use them for avoir now. Vous êtes prêt? Oui. Here is avoir au présent. J'ai. Tu as. Il, elle a. Nous avons. It's very irregular. I told you. Now it's your turn, Jacques. And please, tell me more about your restaurant. In French, as much as you can, of course. J'ai... J'ai un problème. Vous avez un problème. C'est bien. The sentence is good, not the fact that you have a problem. Oh, OK. Continue. J'ai un problème. Tu as...

Vous avez the solution. J'ai la solution? Ah bon? Non, it's just a sentence. J'ai la solution. Vous avez la solution. So... Nous avons la solution. Il a a meeting. Il a une réunion. Il a une réunion.

Idiomatic Expressions with Avoir

Il a peur? It's one of the idiomatic expressions you can form with avoir. Literally, it translates... He has fear. So it means he is scared. Il a peur? Oui, il a peur. That's a bit strong maybe. Let's say il a un... Peu peur. Good. Let's recap. J'ai un problème. Tu as la solution. Il a une réunion. avec les investisseurs. Il a un peu peur. Elle a good ideas for the réunion avec les investisseurs.

Elle a des bonnes idées. Try, we have. You have, they have now. Nous avons un leçon de français before the... Réunion avec les investisseurs. Vous avez... Vous avez... Vous avez besoin de respirer. You have need of breathing or you need to breathe if you are nervous. Vous avez besoin de respirer si vous êtes nerveux. Oui, j'ai besoin de respirer because je suis nerveux. Inspirez. Expirez. Inspirez. Expirez, Jacques. Breathe in, breathe out. Inspirez, expire. OK. Vous avez besoin...

de respirer. Ils ont des questions. Beaucoup de questions. Les investisseurs ont beaucoup de questions. Ils ont des doutes. Do they have doubts? Ils ont des doutes about mon restaurant. Et vous ? Vous avez des doutes ? Non, j'ai confiance. Vous avez confiance dans votre idée ? Oui, j'ai confiance. Dans votre idée. Non, dans mon idée. Ou j'ai confiance dans mon idée. Vous avez le pouvoir. J'ai le pouvoir. Parfait.

It seems you are good to go with le verbe avoir and with la réunion avec les investisseurs. Merci, Valerie. We will practice more. avoir and idiomatic expressions in our second part of the grammar lesson.

Negative Form of Avoir

Now that we have already covered avoir au présent, I'd like to talk more about avoir in the negative form. as well as the idiomatic expressions you can form with avoir. Those are really useful but they can be a bit confusing because of the English. In English, for example, we say I am hungry using to be or être. In French, we say I have hunger or j'ai. It's the same for I am thirsty. In French, I have thirst. It's also the same for...

I'm hot and I'm cold, right? J'ai chaud. J'ai froid. Vous avez raison, Jacques. This one too. You are right. It's you have right in French. Or my three favorite words. Or tout a raison. Let's practice our eight idiomatic expressions. Which ones haven't we mentioned? J'ai besoin de... J'ai peur de... They mean I need... And I'm scared of. C'est bien. And one last one, Jacques. OK, OK. J'ai tort. There it is. Voilà. Bravo.

And that means I am wrong. Vous avez raison, Jacques. Now, just briefly remind me how to form the negative for verbs in French. You need two words, ne and pas. And where do you place them? Ne goes before the verb and pas right after. Could you give me an example with... Avoir. Oui. Elle a would become elle n'a pas in the negative form. What would j'ai be in the negative? Je n'ai pas. Très bien. You didn't forget to change ne into n apostrophe. How about to say avoir?

in the negative form for me. Okay. N'avons pas, vous n'avez pas, ils n'ont pas, elles n'ont pas. Voilà! Very impressive, Jacques! Let's speak French now. J'ai faim. That's right. You didn't eat breakfast. J'ai envie d'un croissant. Vous avez raison. There is nothing like a good buttery croissant. You too? Tu as faim? Non, Jacques. Je n'ai pas faim. But don't forget to use vous. When you address me. Oui, pardon. Vous avez soif? Oui, un peu. Vous avez besoin d'un café? Oui, avec plaisir. Me.

J'ai besoin d'un café to wake up. Let's practice with il and elle. D'accord? Il a peur de la réunion avec les investisseurs. He needs to breathe. He has a good idea. He is able to convince investors. He is determined. Jacques, now please use the verb avoir. Elle a raison. Elle a de la patience avec Jacques. Très bien. Now, let's do. Nous et vous. Nous avons une leçon de français this morning. Vous n'avez pas leçon everyday. Bien, il et elle.

Maintenant Ils n'ont pas envie de listen to my ideas Ils n'ont pas creativity Ils n'ont pas inspiration Ils ont Obsession for numbers and profit. Are we back to the investor, Jacques? Oui, they inspire me today. They are helping you through this lesson. Ils ont de l'influence. I depend on them for my project. That's why I can't get my mind off this meeting. It stresses me out more than I thought it would. Don't worry, Jacques. You are very resourceful.

I'm sure you will find a way to convince them. Merci, Valerie. Let's continue with our French expressions. Do you remember the first expression you learnt? Oui, it was a bon. Very short and cute expression. Isn't it, Jacques? Short, yes. I don't know about cute. So, what is the expression for today? It's going to be a really short one as well. Short, but efficient.

Learning the Expression Il Y A

I like that. Vous êtes prêt? Oui, je suis prêt. Il y a. Il y a. Très bien, Jacques. What does that mean? It means there is, or... Very cute! I like it. So, you see, Jacques, the a in the expression is the verb avoir that you learnt today. In English, it literally means... There is. Did you notice that I use un, une and des after il y a? Try to use it in a few sentences. I see. Il y a Jack. Jack a un restaurant. Il y a un chef in the cuisine. Il y a des serveurs.

Il y a a big line to come in. Il y a des journalistes. Il y a good reviews in the magazine. Il y a awards on the wall. Excellent, Jacques! Now, let's try to use the same expression in the negative. Il n'y a pas de problème. I like your confidence. Note, Jack, that in the negative, il n'y a pas must be followed by d'eux only. Il n'y a pas d'eux. OK. You turn. Very good. Faux pas. Very smart.

Merci. Merci. Keep going, Jacques. Il n'y a pas de soupe du jour. Clever. Il n'y a pas de joie de vivre. Ah bon? Il n'y a pas de... joie de vivre if il n'y a pas de soupe du jour. I love soup too. That's a selling argument. Il n'y a pas de bon appétit in a bad restaurant. True. C'est très bien, Jacques. Now, let's use ilia as a question. You could just say ilia with a question tone to ask is there or...

Adair, for example. Il y a des toilettes? Let me try. Il y a un bon menu. Il y a un chef de cuisine. Il y a... Des serveurs? Il y a un problème? Non, Jacques. Il n'y a pas de problème. I think you are ready for your rendez-vous. avec les investisseurs what do you think je suis prêt j'ai confiance je n'ai pas peur il y a doux potentiel dans mon concept Il n'y a pas de problème. Bonne chance, Jacques. Bonne route. Good luck. Merci beaucoup. Au revoir.

Episode Wrap-up and Study Tips

This is the end of Act II. C'est la fin de l'acte II. Jacques is quite a character, huh? But he is a serious student, and he is very determined to learn French. He is very courageous, too. Well, my friends, study the grammar lessons, take quizzes, and practice pronunciation on our website. All these will help you retain new material and keep up with our good friend Jacques. Don't forget that there are certain things you just have to learn by heart.

especially the many irregular verbs. We hope you had a nice time with us. À la prochaine! Until next time, À bientôt!

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