Bonjour, Madame Obama et Madame Bruni-Sarkozy!
Bonjour mes étudiants. I hope that you had a wonderful week and that you haven't forgotten what you learned a week ago. If you are new to French Lesson Fridays, you may want to follow this link to last week's lesson.
Okay, first of all, I want to share the final statistics from the poll last week.
Of course, everyone who visited did not vote, but those of you who are interested in attending French class voted. Here are the results:
POLL RESULTS:
Native French speaker - 1%
Non-native Advance French proficiency - 1%
Intermediate proficiency - 30%
Novice - 50%
Zero proficiency -15%
These results really help me in deciding what to teach you. (Even though I don't get why the percentages don't add up to 100!)Thank you for voting! Although you can see who the majority is - Novice and Intermediate, don't worry if you have Zero proficiency, I will try to make it as accessible as possible!
Objectives for today's lesson:
- Vocabulary - Using French greetings and good-byes
- Extension from last week's lesson - more easy adjectives, making your c'est phrases more interesting!
- Your first assignment! (Oui, there is homework:)
Vocabuaire - Greetings & Good-byes
So, I see that many of you LOVE to use French greetings in your blog, which is great. You will find the following information very useful:
Formal language is used when addressed to:
someone older than you
a person in authority, and
(speaking to more than one person - we'll cover this one later)
(I am about to scream the formatting on this is messed up:((
Bonjour = hello, good day, good morning (The best way to say hello formally.)
Bonsoir = Good evening (formal and informal)Bonne nuit = Good night (formal and informal)
Bonne journée = Have a good day (formal and informal)
Bonne soirée = Have a good evening (formal and informal)
Au revoir = Good-bye
A bientôt= see you later, talk to you later, bye (when you know you will be seeing one another soon (formal and informal)A la prochaine = until the next time (we talk), see you (formal and informal)
Examples
Bonne nuit, mes amis (or mes amies if your audience is only female)= Good night, my friends.
Au revoir et à la prochaine = Good-bye and until the next time
Informal language used when addressed to:
someone younger than you (your children for example);
a close friend; family members (your age); your peers
The following are always informal:
Salut (pronounced Sa-loo) = Hi or Bye
Ciao = Bye
Bises= Kisses
Coucou (pronounced coo-coo) = Hey!
Examples:
Salut, Noel = Hi, Noel.
Cou-cou! C'est moi, Judith= Hey! It's me, Judith!
Salut! Bises = Bye! Kisses (like XOXO)
Intermediate/Advanced - Greetings/Good-byes (Warning: If you have no or very little French background, I would skip this next part! If you choose to read it, don't be mad if you get confused!)
I want to share an interesting thing I learned that the French do (especially young, hip French people!)
As you know à plus tard means "see you later,"there are several ways to shorten this just as we shorten "See You Later" in English when we text! The following are VERY informal but fun:
À plus = later (with "tard" dropped off, this is just like us saying "Later"
A+ = later (Now this short cut is a play on French words. As you know plus means "more" and "plus" (as in addition) in French
@+ = later (Here is the creative, shortened way! The plus sign still exists, but they use the @ symbol for the letter "A" Clever, n'est-ce pas?)
More on C'est
ALL LEVELS
Here are a few more easy adjectives:
agréable (nice, pleasant), bizarre (weird, strange, odd), drôle (funny), bête (dumb,silly, stupid), rasoir (boring)
List from last week:
adorable, artistique, chic, classique, comique (funny/comical), fantastique, grave (serious), logique (logical), magnifique, populaire, ridicule, romantique, stupide, unique
Adding an adverb to your c'est phrases for emphasis:
C'est + adverb + adjective.
- absolument = absolument
- assez = quite
- si =so
- tellement = so
- très = very
- un peu = somewhat
Examples
C'est tellement stupide! = It's so stupid!
C'est absolument adorable. = It's absolutely adorable.
C'est assez rasoir. = It is quite boring. (I hope you don't feel that way about this lesson!)
C'est un peu drôle, n'est-ce pas? (It's somewhat funny isn't it?)
Don't forget that you can add n'est-ce pas to the end of these phrases! (See caption for example)
C'est + adverb+ adjective + n'est-ce pas
Okay mes étudiants, here is your HOMEWORK (le devoir):
Look at the last picture in this post (an edited version of the painting Napoleon Bonaparte Crossing the Alps) an obvious parody with the French President Sarkozy riding the white horse. I want you to create a caption for this photo in French using what I've taught you (and if you are more advanced you may use your advanced skills). I have included a sample caption under this image for you. Then share your French caption by leaving a comment on this post! I can't wait to see what you come up with! The sooner you leave a comment, the easier it will be so that you don't use someone else's ideas! If you have any questions, you may also ask here! If you are unsure about leaving a caption, you can at least greet me in French!
A la prochaine!
Joyeuses Pâques! (Happy Easter!)
Both images are from Flickr.