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Lesson

66

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LEARN FRENCHBY PODCASTAUDIO PODCASTSFOR LEARNERS OF FRENCH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

“How are you?…”

2 © Plus Publications. All rights reserved.

Lesson 66Level : beginner. “How are you ?…”

• “Commentallez-vous?“: [“How are you ?“]• “Çava?“: [“How are you ?“]• “(Pas)trèsbien.“: [“(Not)verywell.”]• “Ilfaitbeau.”: [“It’sfine.”]• tout,toute,tous,toutes: [all, every]

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Where you see thissymbol…

…it’syourturnto repeat what you’veheard.Thenwe’llrepeat once more.

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 first listen to a short role-play between …

Monsieur Vuillerot

… andMadame Domur

Monsieur Vuillerot Bonjour Madame Domur. 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-vous ?

[≈ How are you ? (Literally, ‘How are you going ?’)]

Before we can ask questions like ‘Comment allez-vous ?’, we must familiarise ourselves fully with aller (to go). Study the present tense, below :

aller – to goje vaistu vasil / elle / on vanous allonsvous allezils / elles vont

past participle : allé

Note Comment allez-vous ?

[≈ How are you ? (Literally, ‘How are you going ?’)]

Note En plus, il fait beau.

[= Furthermore, it’s fine.]

Listen carefully ! The ‘s’ on ‘plus’ is sometimes pronounced and is sometimes silent. In this case, the ‘s’ is pronounced.

Note En plus, il fait beau.

[= … it’s fine.]

The verb faire often means ‘to do’, ‘to make’, etc. In relation to the weather, however, it means : ‘It’s (fine, warm, cold, etc).

Note … alors, tout va bien.

[= … so, everything is going fine/well.]

Consider additional examples with alors :

Alors, tu trouve ça comment ? [So, how are you finding that ?]

Alors, quoi de neuf ? [So, what’s new ?]

Alors, tu fais quoi ce week-end ? [So, what’re you doing this weekend ?]

Note … , tout va bien.

[= … everything is going well.]

bon (= good) is an adjective. bien (= well) is an adverb :

Il joue bien. [= He plays well.]

Elle chante bien. [= She sings well.]

Note C’est vrai que il ne pleut pas aujourd’hui.

[= It’s true that it’s not raining today.]

© Plus Publications. All rights reserved. 3

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eLesson 66Level : beginner. “How are you ?…”




One more time, let’s hear this exchange.




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


Note … il ne pleut pas

[= it isn’t raining]

The verb pleuvoir (= to rain) is invariable. That is, it does not have a full conjugation like other verbs. We find only the ‘il…’ part of the verb.

Note … mon portable.

[= my mobile.]

Note that we may also hear ‘mon téléphone portable’. More often than not, however, we find the shorter form.

Note Allô ?…

[= Hello ?…]

Allô is used when saying ‘Hello’ on the telephone, rather than in general.

Note Toute la famille va bien.

[= All [members of] the family are well.]

Note that the singular form of the verb aller is used in French, in combination with the singular noun la famille.

Note Attends !

[= Wait !]

This is the Imperative (command) form of attendre (= to wait).

j’attendstu attendsil / elle / on attendnous attendonsvous attendezils / elles attendent

past participle : attendu

Note

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).]

appeler – to callj’appelletu appellesil / elle / on appellenous appelonsvous appelezils / elle appellent

Watch it! There is just one ‘l’ in the 1st and 2nd person plural.

Note Je te rappelle …

[= I’ll call you back (later).]

The verb appeler means ‘to call’. If we add an ‘r’ to the beginning of the verb, we get rappeler which means ‘to call (someone) again’ or ‘call (someone) back’.

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 future).

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.]

“Comment allez-vous ?”

“Ça va ?”

“(Pas) très bien.”




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Now, a basic – but essential – expression is “How are you?” That is…

Comment allez-vous? Comment allez-vous?

That’s the formal form of the question we might use if addressing a neighbour we don’t know that well, for example. If, on the other hand, we were addressing a friend – someone we did know well – we could ask :

Comment vas-tu?Comment vas-tu?

Or, simply…Ça va?Ça va?

Finally, if we were asking about someone else – a mutual friend called Jacques, for example, we would ask :

Et Jacques, il va bien?…Et Jacques, il va bien?…

Supposing the doctor was asking a woman about her daughter, his question might be :

Et votre fille, Jacqueline, comment va-t-elle?Et votre fille, Jacqueline, 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, if you are very well, you would say :

Très bien, merci.Très bien, merci.

On the other hand, if things aren’t 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 well”, would be…

Pas très bien.Pas très bien.

Note Ça va ?

[≈ How are you ?]

The cedilla accent (l’accent cédille) is important and ensures that – before the vowels a, o and u – the ‘ç’ is pronounced like the English ‘s’, rather than as a ‘k’.

Note … votre fille

[= … your daughter]

Depending on the context, une fille is :1. a girl, or2. a daughter.

Listen carefully to the pronunciation ! The double-l in une fille sounds like the ‘y’ in the English word ‘yes’.

Note … comment va-t-elle ?

[= … how is she ?]

The function of the -t- is to facilitate pronunciation and prevent a ‘collision’ of two vowels. The same applies to the ‘il…’ part of the verb :

Et Daniel, comment va-t-il ?

Note

“Il fait beau.”

tout / toute


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eLesson 66 : ThursdayLevel : beginner. “How are you ?…”




In our original exchange, Madame Domur said she was very well. In particular, she said : “… and then, the weather is beautiful, so all is well”. Let’s hear, once again, what she said. First we heard :

En plus, il fait beau.En plus, il fait beau.

So, in relation to the weather, “it’s beautiful” or “it’s fine” is simply “il fait beau”. And then, “all is well” is :

Tout va bien.Tout va bien.

“All” or “everything” is …touttout

That’s the masculine form of this word. A little later in the dialogue, we heard :

Toute la famille va bienToute la famille va bien

That’s “All the family are well”. In this case, we hear :toutetoute

That’s the feminine form of the adjective because we are talking about all the family and …

la famillela famille

… is a feminine word.

Note Tout va bien.

[= Everything / all is (going) well.]

In fact, there are four variants of tout, depending on the gender (that is, masculine or feminine) and number (that is, singular or plural) of the noun to which it refers. Consider additional examples below :

… avec tout le sucre [m] qu’on trouve dans les aliments de nos jours. [= … with all the sugar that one finds in food nowadays.]

… devant toute la classe [f]. [= … in front of the whole class.]

Ma mère va à la messe tous les matins [m pl]. [= My mother goes to mass every morning.]

Tu vois toutes les cochonneries [f pl] qu’elle avale ? [= Do you see all the junk that she eats ?]

Note Il fait beau.

[= It’s fine.]

Study the following weather-related expressions, too, also based on the verb faire :

Il fait mauvais. [= (the opposite of ‘il fait beau’) The weather is bad.]

Il fait chaud.* [= It’s hot.]

Il fait froid.* [= 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.




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In this lesson we’ve concentrated on how to ask how someone is. But there are other interesting expressions and vocabulary, too. You can find that information in the accompanying Lesson Guide, available from our website at www.learnfrenchbypodcast.com. Amélie, let’s listen to this dialogue one last time to reinforce everything we’ve heard today.




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


That’s it for now. Until next time…A la prochaine.

Note Allez, à plus tard !

[≈ Ok then, until (I talk to you) later !]

Grammatically speaking, Allez is the Imperative (command) form of the verb aller. Literally, it is the form of the verb we will use when ordering someone to … ‘Go!’

However, Allez is very frequently used when ‘wrapping up’ a conversation in which case it equates to the English ‘Ok, then…’ or ‘Right, then …’.

Of course, we’ll hear it around us at a football match, too, where French supporters will vociferously encourage their players with shouts of “Allez! Allez!…”

Note …, à plus tard !

[≈ …, until (I talk to you) later !]

Consider the following, also : À ce soir !

[= Until (I talk to you / see you) this evening !]

À demain ! [= Until (I talk to you / see you) tomorrow !]

Note Je ne peux pas …

[= I can’t …]

This is the 1st person singular of the Present tense of pouvoir (= to be able). Study the full conjugation of the verb, below :

pouvoir – to be ableje peuxtu peuxil / elle / on peutnous pouvonsvous pouvezils / elles peuvent

past participle : pu


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eLesson 66Level : beginner. “How are you ?…”


Ifyouunderstoodourlesson,thenyoushouldbeabletotranslate…

1. And Claire… how is she?2. Yes… they’re well. [Suppose you’re talking about David and Diane.]3. He can’t talk to you for the moment.4. They can’t talk to you for the moment.5. It’s warm today.6. It’s raining.7. He’ll call you back later.8. 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.)

Now

it’s

your

turn

…

Vocab extra !• bonjour ..................hello• aller .......................to go• comment…? ........how…?• vous .......................you• très ........................very• bien .......................well• merci .....................thank you• plus,en~ ..............furthermore• alors .......................so, then• tout ........................all, everything• vrai ........................true• c’est .......................it’s• oui .........................yes• pleuvoir .................to rain• aujourd’hui ............today• portable(m) ..........mobile (phone)• sonner ...................to ring• mon .......................my• allô ........................hello [on

telephone]• famille(f) ..............family• attendre .................to wait• pouvoir ..................to be able• parler .....................to speak, to

talk• pour .......................for• moment(m) ..........moment• rappeler .................to call again• tard ........................late• plus ........................more• prochaine,àla~ ...until next time• jouer ......................to play• trouver ...................to find• quoi .......................what• neuf[adj] ...............new• chanter ..................to sing• répondre ................to answer• chaud .....................hot• froid .......................cold• sucre(m) ...............sugar• aliment(m) ...........item of food• jour,denos~s .......nowadays• devant ...................in front of• classe(f) ................class• messe(f) ...............mass• matin(m) ..............morning• cochonneries(fpl) .junk (food)• avaler .....................to swallow• voir ........................to see

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LEARN FRENCH BY PODCAST LEARN . FRENCH BY PODCAST. AUDIO PODCASTS FOR LEARNERS . OF FRENCH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE ... in French, in combination with the singular noun la famille. Note