Follow a young Swiss woman who has just moved to a new city as she asks an older Canadian gentleman for directions to a restaurant. You will repeat every sentence of the story and learn the two key verbs to be and to have in the present tense. See today's words with pictures and subtitles: watch the French video lessons by level on YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/@FrenchShadowLearning/playlists 0:00 Welcome0:48 Arriving in a New City6:04 A Stranger by the Window9:44 Lunch Plans14:32 The Whole Story16:24 Check Your Understanding17:42 See you tomorrow Learning faster with the videos: every lesson style in this podcast has an illustrated version on YouTube, new every day from A1 to C2, with the French and English on screen. Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@FrenchShadowLearningA short lesson every day on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/frenchshadowlearning/ Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7uMYIdqggWZESoxrSRWRpa / Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/french-shadow-daily/id6825121598 / YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@FrenchShadowLearning Full transcript WelcomeHost: Welcome to French Shadow Daily, I'm your host, and this is French Story Time at level A1, the beginner level. Today a young woman is lost in a new city and asks a stranger for directions. Along the way we meet the two most important verbs in French: to be and to have.Co-host: Bonjour à tous ! Aujourd’hui, une histoire à Lyon. = Hello everyone! Today, a story in Lyon.Host: Here is how it works. After each French sentence you hear a tone, and in that pause you say the sentence out loud, even if you are cooking or walking the dog. Then I explain every word you need, so there is nothing to look up.Host: Our heroine comes from Switzerland, she has just arrived in a new city, and she has an appointment to get to. Let's meet her. Arriving in a New CityA: Je m’appelle Léa et j’ai vingt-huit ans. = My name is Léa and I'm twenty-eight years old.Host: My name is Léa and I am twenty-eight years old. Two useful pieces here, so let's take them one at a time.A: je m’appelle = my name isHost: My name is, literally I call myself. This is the standard way to introduce yourself in French. The double l does not change the l sound; it tells you the e before it is open, like the e in bed.A: j’ai vingt-huit ans = I'm twenty-eight years oldHost: Here is a big difference from English. In French you do not say you are twenty-eight, you say you have twenty-eight years. The verb is to have, and the last little word means year. So age always uses to have, never to be.A: Je suis suisse, je suis de Lausanne. = I'm Swiss, I'm from Lausanne.Host: I am Swiss, I am from a city on a Swiss lake. So she comes from the French-speaking part of Switzerland. And now we have both our star verbs in two sentences, so let me explain them once, properly.Host: First, the verb to be. Listen to the six forms: I am, you are, he is, we are, you are in the plural or polite form, they are.Co-host: je suis, tu es, il est, nous sommes, vous êtes, ils sont. = I am, you are, he is, we are, you are, they are.Host: Notice how different each form sounds. The one you will use most today is the first one, I am, and the polite you are. Now the verb to have, same order: I have, you have, he has, we have, you have, they have.Co-host: j’ai, tu as, il a, nous avons, vous avez, ils ont. = I have, you have, he has, we have, you have, they have.Host: These two little verbs are in almost every French sentence. Keep your ears open through the story: to be for who you are and where you are from, to have for your age and for things you own.A: Je suis arrivée à Lyon hier soir. = I arrived in Lyon last night.Host: I arrived in this city last night. This is the past, built with to be plus arrived, a pattern you met recently. Today, just enjoy the meaning. The last two words mean yesterday evening, so last night.A: Je cherche le restaurant « Le Poisson Vert ». = I'm looking for the restaurant "The Green Fish".Host: I am looking for a restaurant with a colourful name. The verb is a regular -er verb, and the name gives us two new words.A: je cherche = I'm looking forHost: I look for, I am looking for. It is the everyday word for looking for your keys, a street, a job. And there is no word for "for" after it in French, you look for the thing directly.A: le poisson vert = the green fishHost: The green fish. The word for fish has a sharp, hissing s sound in the middle; with a buzzing z it would mean poison, which you do not want on a menu. Green comes after the noun, and its final t is silent in the masculine.A: J’ai un rendez-vous à midi et demi. = I have an appointment at half past twelve.Host: I have an appointment at half past twelve. To have again, and this time she really does own something: an appointment.A: un rendez-vous = an appointmentHost: An appointment or a meeting. In English this word sounds romantic; in French it is also the dentist, the bank, or a job interview. Here, as we will see, it is lunch.A: à midi et demi = at half past twelveHost: Literally at noon and half. Midday plus a half hour, so twelve thirty. She is on a schedule.A: Mais je ne trouve pas la rue ! = But I can't find the street!Host: But I cannot find the street. Her first little complaint. French says I do not find, where English says I cannot find; the negative simply wraps around the verb, a pattern you already know.A: la rue = the streetHost: The street. That French u sound: round your lips tightly as if to whistle, then say ee. It is worth practising, because you will ask for streets a lot. A Stranger by the WindowA: Il y a un vieux monsieur devant une fenêtre. = There is an old gentleman in front of a window.Host: There is an old gentleman in front of a window. The first three little words mean there is or there are; you will hear them constantly in French, for people, for things, for problems.A: un vieux monsieur = an old gentlemanHost: An old gentleman. Old is one of the few adjectives that goes before the noun in French, and its final x is silent. The second word, gentleman or sir, is the polite word for any man you do not know.A: devant une fenêtre = in front of a windowHost: In front of a window. The first word means in front of, and the last word is window, feminine. The accent in the middle of window marks an old s that disappeared, so it is just a long, open e sound.A: Pardon monsieur, est-ce que vous êtes d’ici ? = Excuse me sir, are you from here?Host: Excuse me sir, are you from here? A polite question to a stranger, so she uses the formal you. The chunk in the middle has no meaning of its own; it simply announces a question, like a spoken question mark at the front.Host: And listen for our verb to be: you are, in the polite form, with a nice z link between the two words. The last word, with d in front, means from here.B: Non, je suis québécois, mais j’habite ici. = No, I'm from Québec, but I live here.Host: No, I am from Quebec, but I live here. So our gentleman is a Canadian who has settled in this French city. Two verbs here: to be for where he comes from, and a regular -er verb for where he lives, with a silent h so the two words slide together.B: C’est à deux cents mètres, à gauche. = It's two hundred metres away, on the left.Host: It is two hundred metres away, on the left. Good news for her, she is very close.B: deux cents mètres = two hundred metresHost: Two hundred metres. In French, hundred takes a plural s when it is a round number like two hundred. The final s in metres is silent, as usual.B: à gauche = on the leftHost: On the left. The ch is a soft sh sound, like in shoe. This is one of the two words you absolutely need for directions; the other one, on the right, comes another day.B: Il y a une porte noire, c’est là. = There's a black door, it's there.Host: There is a black door, it is there. The same three little words again, plus a colour, plus a very handy little ending: it is there.B: une porte noire = a black doorHost: A black door. Door is feminine, so black takes an extra e at the end; you hear the r a little more clearly than in the masculine form, which you use for a black coffee or a black cat. Lunch PlansB: Vous dînez là-bas ? = Are you having lunch over there?Host: Are you having lunch over there? A question made just by raising the voice at the end, no special words. And this verb is our regional touch of the day.B: vous dînez = you're having lunch (in Québec) or dinner (in France)Host: In France this verb means to have dinner, the evening meal. In Canada it means to have lunch, and our gentleman has kept his Canadian habit. She understands anyway, since it is half past twelve. The last two words of the sentence mean over there.B: La viande coûte vingt euros, c’est cher ! = The meat costs twenty euros, that's expensive!Host: The meat costs twenty euros, that is expensive! Our gentleman has firm opinions about prices, as many retired people do.B: la viande = the meatHost: Meat. Not fish, not vegetables, meat in general. The d at the end is pronounced because of the final e. Then the verb costs, then twenty euros; the t of twenty usually stays silent here. And the ending, it is expensive, is a phrase you will say in every French city.A: Oui, avec mon père, il adore le fromage. = Yes, with my father, he loves cheese.Host: Yes, with my father, he loves cheese. So the appointment was never a job interview; it is lunch with dad, who has his priorities straight.A: mon père = my fatherHost: My father. The accent on the e opens the sound, like the e in bed, and the r at the end is pronounced in the back of the throat. Dad in casual French is a different word, but father is what you use with people you do not know.A: le fromage = cheeseHost: Cheese, masculine. In French you keep the article even when you talk about cheese in general: he loves the cheese. The ending is a soft zh sound, like the s in measur
