Lesson One (source: Erik T. Mueller )

The basics of spoken French on a daily basis - more or less

When I first arrived in France while in high school, I was surprised to learn
that ne is often omitted in spoken French:

written French           spoken French         English

________________________ _____________________ ____________________________

Il n'est pas très cher.  Il est pas très cher. It's not very expensive.

Je ne sais pas.          Je sais pas.          I don't know.

Je ne vois plus Corinne. Je vois plus Corinne. I don't see Corinne anymore.

Cela ne sert à rien.     Ca sert à rien.       It's of no use.

Ne bouge pas!            Bouge pas!            Freeze!

ne is never deleted in written French.

In French before a vowel, le and la become l', que

becomes qu', and so on. In spoken French there are even more
contractions:

Je ne sais pas.         J'sais pas.       I don't know.

Tu es fou.              T'es fou.         You're crazy.

Il ne faut pas le dire. Faut pas le dire. You shouldn't say it.

tout ce qu'ils font     tout ce qu'i'font everything they do

peut-être               p't'êt'           maybe

J'sais pas is pronounced jsaispas. It is often contracted
further to ché pas and in the extreme becomes simply
chpas. To sound authentic, you must pronounce the ch sound
twice, and say chché pas. Je suis is also shortened to

chchuis.

Questions are formed without the inversion or est-ce que usually
taught in French class:

written French         spoken French             English

______________________ _________________________ ____________________

Qui est-ce?            C'est qui? or Qui c'est?  Who is it?

Où vas-tu?             Où tu vas?                Where are you going?

                       or Tu vas où?

Comment t'appelles-tu? Tu t'appelles comment?    What's your name?

                       or Comment tu t'appelles?

Quel âge as-tu?        T'as quel âge?            How old are you?

                       or Quel âge t'as?

A rising voice pitch or intonation is used in yes/no questions such as the
following, to distinguish them from declarative sentences:

Ne trouves-tu pas?  Tu trouves pas?     Don't you think?

Est-elle sortie?    Elle est sortie?    Did she leave?

Extra pronouns at the beginning or end of the sentence are very often used for
emphasis:

Ché pas, moi.        I dunno.

Moi, ché pas.        I dunno.

Moi, j'pense que...  I think...

C'est important, ça. That's important.

Ca, c'est important. That's important.

Conversational tics

There are some very common reflex-like phrases. To express agreement:

C'est ça.           That's right.

Effectivement.      Indeed.

En effet.           Right.

Justement.          Exactly./As a matter of fact, yes./That's the thing.

Tout à fait.        Absolutely.

Absolument.         Absolutely.

Exactement.         Exactly.

Exact./C'est exact. That's right./That's correct.

Voilà.              Right./There you are.

Bien sûr.           Of course.

Eh oui.             I'm afraid so./You got it.

Bon.                Fine. (can also mean "fine!" as in not fine)

D'accord.           OK.

oui is pronounced a variety of ways. Listening to my coworkers talking
on the phone, I noticed they would say oui (yes) at first and
then ouais (yeah). The first oui was more of a "Yes, how
may I help you?" or "Yes, got it" and the later ouais

more of a "Yes, right."

The ee sound in oui-for that matter all final ee and
oo (as in tout) sounds in French-are often pronounced with an
extra air hissing/blowing sound or constricted flow of air.

oui is often pronounced with what sounds to me like a "smiling" sound.

When interjecting ouais while the other person is speaking, to indicate
you are following, it is often pronounced by inhaling air into the mouth
instead of exhaling from the lungs as is normally the case.

Ways of saying what:

Comment?                 What?

Quoi? (less formal)      What?

Hein? (even less formal) Huh?

Pardon? (more formal)    Pardon?

Oui?                     What?

Comment ça?              What do you mean?

C'est à dire?            What do you mean?

C'est quoi, ça?          What's that?

Some other very frequent short phrases:

Ah bon?             Really?

Bien sûr.           Yeah, right. (said ironically to express disbelief)

Ca y est?           So, are you ready?/Are you all set?/Got it?

Ca y est.           There we are./That's it./I'm all set./Got it!

Ca va.              I'm OK.

Ca se voit.         It shows./You can tell.

Ca va de soi.       That goes without saying.

Ca n'a rien à voir. That has nothing to do with it./No comparison./

                    It's like night and day.

C'est ça?           Is that it?

C'est pas grave.    That's all right./It doesn't matter.

C'est evident.      It's obvious.

C'est pas evident.  It's not so easy. (to do, to figure out)

C'est pas vrai !    I can't believe it!/You've got to be kidding!

Je n'en sais rien.  I have no idea.

Je ne sais plus.    I don't know anymore.

Je m'en fous.       I couldn't care less.

Même pas.           Not even.

On y va?            Shall we go?

Où ça?              Where?

Qu'est-ce que tu racontes?  What are you talking about?

Vas-y !             Go ahead!

Synonyms for good

In English, every few years the word for good changes: Before I was
born, things were jimdandy, hunky-dory, peachy-keen,
nifty, the cat's pajamas. In the 60's, they were groovy,

heavy, in, and neat. In the 70's, cool,
hip, the most, and out of this world. In the 80's,
awesome, killer, happening, hot, and

totally rad. In the 90's, rockin, slammin, huge,
fat, strong, and to die for (with cool making
a comeback).
There are many such words and they vary regionally
and from crowd to crowd. Life is (was?) wicked pisser in Boston,

bitchen and tubular in California, brill, grand,
smashing, and glitter in England.

The same is true in French. Besides bien and bon, the most
frequent adjectives meaning good nowadays are génial,

sympa, sublime, super, and cool.
C'est génial !
C'est sympa !
Ta robe, elle est sublime !
Young kids say extra and géant. (There's a
cereal called Extra and the slogan for La Géode, a
planetarium dome in Paris, is C'est géant !

Géant does also mean giant.)

[Scott Dolan]

Good lord!

I can't read half the shit in that post!

[GoodSpeak]

My son is in French II at his high school and he tells me the toughest part is getting the proper accent right.

[kenny weir]

Kiwis have looooong memories:

Tu as une Cabane au Canada aussi?

Originally Posted by Scott Dolan

Good lord!

I can't read half the shit in that post!

En effet, it's translated en anglais

[Cem]

Originally Posted by Les batailles d'ailleurs

Ne bouge pas! Bouge pas! Freeze!

Basic French for criminals, perhaps?

[Scott Dolan]

effet

My thoughts exactly.

Originally Posted by Cem

Basic French for criminals, perhaps?

Bouge pas, Cem!

Bouge pas, Cem!

C'est ça

It's seulement basic français

[bluenoter]

So! Have you come to teach us French?



And what should we call you for short?

[Scott Dolan]

Les.

Originally Posted by bluenoter

So! Have you come to teach us French?



And what should we call you for short?

Surprise! Surprise!

J'ai vu Godard il y a une jour!

Pas de short pour moi...ok, then: lbda

[Scott Dolan]

Holy moly.......

Originally Posted by bluenoter

[b][font=Times New Roman][size=3]So! Have you come to teach us French?

Not you.

US

We'll apprendre.

Oui.

[bluenoter]

Originally Posted by Les batailles d'ailleurs

J'ai vu Godard il y a une jour!

Ah bon? How did he look?

[Scott Dolan]

This woman has more aliases than I do.

[GoodSpeak]

Howza 'bout this:

Originally Posted by bluenoter

Ah bon? How did he look?

toujours en lunettes il y a 42 années

The word extrême (extreme, total) is currently very
popular in the mass media. There is a television series called
Extrême Limite (Extreme Limit) and an ice cream called


Extrême. Even insurance is advertised as being
extrême.

Slightly older expressions still used are: chouette,
épatant, fabuleux, formidable, formide,
fumant, impeccable, impec. Using the prefixes


hyper-, super-, méga-, archi-, and
ultra-, more words can be formed: super-bon, super-bien,
hyper-chouette, super-sympa, méga-génial.

terrible can mean good or bad depending on the context.
Originally the word meant inspiring terror and it is still used with
this meaning. Then around 1587 it acquired the meanings of dreadful and
awful. And since 1664, the word also means tremendous, so that
more recently one might hear c'est un type terrible (he's a fantastic
guy) or c'est pas terrible (it's not so great).


terrible is not so different from the English mean and
bad, which can also mean either good or bad.

C'est le pied ! means It's a blast! or It's the most!

C'est le top ! or C'est top ! means It's the best!

C'est classe ! means That's classy!

More lasting and neutral words-similar to English fabulous,


fantastic, great, incredible, marvelous,
sensational, superb, wonderful, and so on-are:
excellent, exceptionnel, extraordinaire, fabuleux,


fantastique, incroyable, louable, magnifique,
merveilleux, sensationnel, and superbe.

On a cereal box with a bear on it, it says C'est oursement bon !


inventing the new adverb oursement by analogy to vachement (slang
for very)-vache means cow and ours means


bear.

There are also many ways of saying bad. Ca craint is That's
no good or That's worrying and craignos means


scary/worrying.
C'est chiant is That sucks, and Ca me fait chier means
That pisses me off.
C'est con is That's stupid. (The French expressions in this
paragraph are stronger than the English translations I have given. Use with
discretion.)

Hedges

English speakers punctuate their sentences with like, well,
um, and you know. Words such as these might seem meaningless but
there is a certain utility to them. French has similar words.

You very often hear quoi at the end of a sentence. It's an exclamation
and hedge word which doesn't have a single equivalent in English:

Elle est jolie, quoi.            She's sort of pretty.

La vie, quoi!                    Life, you know what I mean!

Voilà quoi./Et puis voilà quoi.  And that's about it. (= no more to say)

C'est une espèce de légume quoi. It's kind of a vegetable thingy.

You often hear quoi at the end of a summarizing sentence after a
long explanation-similar to in short and in other words in
English.

espèce de, which means kind of or type of, is also
very frequently used for insults:

Espèce de con!     You stupid idiot! (stronger in French)

Espèce d'imbécile! You fool!

[Dr Dave]

I ran into French kids in Epernay a few years back who'd point at my super-duper Trek bicycle and say "Nickel!" A friend told me it translated literally as "chrome" and meant "cool!"

[Jazzzoline]

Staying out of this thread

Originally Posted by Jazzzoline

Staying out of this thread

if you had pirated the thread, it would have been most welcome

Tipping in restaurants (audio link)

Restaurants - Tipping
French Listening Comprehension
Transcript

Here is the transcript of the discussion about tipping in French restaurants which you can read before, while, or after listening to the audio file.

Comment ça se passe, pour le pourboire ? Le service est compris en France, mais est-il d'usage de laisser plus que ce qui est indiqué sur la note ? Quel est l'usage ? Comment font les clients, en général ?

Alors bon, je dirais que j'ai une assez longue expérience parce que j'ai quand même trente ans de métier. Le pourboire, évidemment, c'est à l'appréciation de la clientèle. Le service est compris en France. Mais donc, dans de petits établissements, généralement, il est de bon ton de laisser quelque chose quand on est content, surtout du service, mais je dirais de l'ensemble de la prestation. Mais, ceci dit, c'est vraiment laissé à l'appréciation du client. Et il est vrai que cet usage s'est malheureusement un petit peu perdu.

Comment expliquer ça, que l'usage s'est perdu ? Parce que ça, tous les restaurateurs le disent. Pour quelle raison est-ce qu'on laisse de moins en moins d'argent ? Le savez-vous ?

J'ai pas d'analyse très fine sur le sujet, mais bon, je dirais que... peut-être que les gens, comme ils ont de plus en plus le, le loisir de sortir, donc ils ont peut-être un peu plus de sollicitations à, à plein de niveaux.

Mais ce qui est singulier, c'est que dans certaines corporations, comme... je pense aux coiffeurs, eux, au contraire, les pourboires ont tendance à être un petit peu augmentés, ou tout au moins se sont stabilisés, et nous c'est complètement dégringolé, c'est du..., en l'espace de dix ans, ça a diminué par trois* quoi, je veux dire, c'est, c'est dingue. Mais bon... ceci dit, le service est compris, il n'y a rien à dire, quoi. Le principal, c'est que le client revienne, demande une petite carte, et qu'il revienne, hein, je veux dire. Après, c'est...

Restaurants - Tipping
French Listening Comprehension
Study Guide

Take a look at the following for help with any vocabulary and grammar that you might not have understood in the discussion about tipping in French restaurants, then take the test.

Vocabulary		Grammar
dégringoler	to fall, plunge	se perdre (to get lost)	pronominal verbs
dingue (informal)	crazy	j'ai pas	informal negation
un métier	trade, occupation
un pourboire	tip, gratuity
la prestation	service
singulier	strange, curious
Ça a diminué par trois	literally "That has diminished by three" but meaning "That has diminished to a third / gone down by two thirds." This formula is common in spoken French, though it would be more correct to say Ça a été divisé par trois.
ceci dit	this expression should be used to introduce something that a person wants to say, like "let me say this" in English. In this audio file, ceci dit was used, incorrectly but colloquially, to mean "that said" in reference to something that has already been said. The correct expression for this is cela dit.

French Language Restaurants - Tipping French Listening Comprehension Test How well did you understand the discussion about tipping in French restaurants? Take this test to find out, in French or English. Examen en français Test in English Examen en français 1. Depuis combien de temps travaille cet homme dans des restaurants ? 2. Où devrait-on surtout donner des pourboires ? 3. Pourquoi est-ce que l'usage du pourboire se perd ? 4. Quel métier voit plus de pourboires qu'avant ? 5. Qu'est-ce qui est plus important que le pourboire ? Réponses

[moneyp]

I'm writing all this down. Keep 'em coming!

[Alastair]

Originally Posted by Les batailles d'ailleurs

There are many such words and they vary regionally
and from crowd to crowd. Life is (was?) wicked pisser in Boston,

bitchen and tubular in California, brill, grand,
smashing, and glitter in England.

I don't think anyone ever suggested that life was "glitter" in England. Unless they were child molesting, of course.

link to an image which may cause offence

Originally Posted by mone peterson

I'm writing all this down. Keep 'em coming!

dictionnaire français

[bluenoter]

Alastair--

That's pretty offensive. Would you mind linking to it instead?

[Alastair]

If you like, although I'm sure I've seen worse on here. I'll edit.