French Lesson 2
Language Lessons Paco: Educational and Entertaining. :)
SETTING:
Suppose you meet Mr. Bertrand in front of your building, who is just the person you were looking for. He has a friendly face and can tell you where to find a taxi stand.
CONVERSATION:
A) Tiens, bonjour, Monsieur/Madame. Comment allez-vous ce matin?
B) Très bien, merci, et vous?
A) Ça va.
B) Excusez-moi, mais où est la station de taxis?
A) A droite, vous voyez? Elle est à côté du café.
B) Du café?
A) Il est là-bas.
B) Ah oui! Je vois. Merci beaucoup.
A CLOSER LOOK:
tiens well
comment how
allez from the verb aller: to go
ce this
matin (le) morning
très very
bien well
merci thank you
et and
ça va everything is OK
excusez moi excuse me
où where
est is
mais but
station de taxis taxi station
à droite on the right
là there
voyez from the verb voir: to see
elle she
à côté de next to
il he
là-bas over there
beaucoup very much
VOCABULARY NOTES:
tiens: from the verb tenir: to hold, is often used at the beginning of a sentence to focus the attention of the listener and means: well.
Comment allez-vous?: How are you? In this expression, as in the less formaI Comment çava?, the verb aller: to go is used and not the verb to be as in English. It's a bit similar to the colloquial English expression: How is it going?
est: (he, she, it) is, from the verb être: to be.
Elle: she/it. In the conversation elle refers to la station de taxis (f).
Il: he/it. In the conversation il refers to le café (m).
du: contraction of de + le, meaning of the.
beaucoup: means both much and many
*The audio and the information for this video came from the Foreign Service Institute (FSI) which is in the public domain.
