The purpose of this technical commentary is to help the user arrive at a deeper understanding of the sample excerpt and how conversational French works in general.
This sample illustrates, once again, all the typical features of French conversations that I’ve already discussed in a post onhow to use these real-life examples. I keep saying this : spoken conversational French is actually quite simple and much easier than written French. It’s the rapid flow of words and the extraneous material that do learners in.
General comments
In this particular excerpt, here are a couple of things to listen for:
1. Notice how this unscripted conversation flows easily with the help of the little words or phrases such as : « voilà », « exactement », « d’accord ».
2. Since this is an informal conversation between two friends, they systematically use the « tu » verbs forms or le tutoiement. There is not one « vous » here.
3. The pronoun on generally replaces nous in spoken French but here it is used mostly in the indefinite sense of ‘people in general’ as in : « on fait son site Internet comme une boutique »
4. Since the conversation is about past events, the most common verb tenses are the imparfait (« j’étais »), the passé composé (« j’ai commencé ») and the present (« on fait »). There are some subjunctives (« il faut que j’aille », « que ce soit »), one future (« ils n’apprendront nulle part ailleurs ») and one conditional (« que j’aimerais te poser »).
4. Pay attention to how two very common construction « c’est… » and « il y a » are omnipresent.
5. Notice, once again, the high frequency of just a few verbs : être, avoir, faire, aller, venir, dire, mettre.
Technical commentary
(1) Remember that in French to ask a question is « poser une question » and not « *demander une question. » Notice also here how the e in « te poser » has nearly completely disappeared. This happens a lot with unstressed e.
(2) Note the pronunciation of « oui » here. The equivalent of a ya or yeah in colloquial English.
(3) « Avoir envie de » means to want or desire. It is often used just by itself to mean wanting to go to the toilet, as in « J’ai très envie, où sont les toilettes ? »
(4) Here is a typical example of how « c’est » that I’ve discussed at length here is used instead of a plain « est ».
(5) Note how the answer starts with the marker « Ben tout d’abord ».
(6) I couldn’t make out what was said here.
(7) Cyrille Lignac is a well-known restaurant owner and chef on French television.
(8) « pis » is a colloquial form of « puis » (then or and).
(9) Notice how « il n’est pas » has become « il est pas » in informal spoken French.
(10) Note the two distinct uses of the word « monde ». Un « maximum de monde » (a maximum of people) and « le monde entier » (the whole world). A common phrase is : « Il y a beacoup de monde » (There are many people.)
(11) One of the many uses « là » for ‘at this point or moment’.
(12) The very common colloquial form of « bien » (well, so).
(13) In « …que ça se passe » we have an excellent example that great pronoun « ça » (it) referring to some kind of action on the Internet.
(14) Note how « Tu as pris » becomes « T’as pris »
(15) Remember that the nouns « l’expérience’ is feminine but since it starts with a vowel, the possessive adjective « ta » becomes « ton ».
(16) The verb « packager » is derived from the technical use of the English term in the vocabulary of marketing. The verb « emballer » is used more in the sense of ‘to wrap up a package’.
The speaker could have said « tu les as packagés » where the « les » would refer to « savoir » and « expérience ». Instead, he considers these two words as synonymous and uses « tu l’as packagée ». I’ve made « packagée » agree with the gender of « expérience ».
(17) If you’ve read my blog post on how to answer closed questions in French, here is an excellent example of an affirmative answer.
(18) It seems that the speaker is referring to « l’expérience » and therefore uses the pronoun « la ».
(19) « D’accord » here is basically a filler or pause marker, a sort of ‘I see’. Very common is spoken French
(20) « tout le monde » is ‘everybody’. Note the great use of the pronominal verb « se payer » in the sense of ‘afford’.
(21) The subjunctive « que ce soit » announces a list of options. If the list is short, the « que ce soit » is often repeated.
(22) « avec bite et couteau » ‘a dick and a knife’ is a very colourful and somewhat vulgar expression that means ‘using limted means’. Here is a detailed explanation of the origins of this expression : http://www.expressio.fr/expressions/avec-ma-bite-et-mon-couteau.php
(23) « comme on dit » ‘as they say’ is typically used when one says something that is maybe a bit off-colour or unusual. It’s a way of shifting the blame.
(24) Sébastien continues the the joke by saying that the two implements (« bite » and « couteau » are the professional tools of a webmaster. Notice that he says « c’est » instead of « ce sont ». Both forms are correct.
(25) « Et donc et puis » ‘So’ here also serves as a filler and conversational marker. Notice as well that the speaker does not say « je me suis dit que ben…». He seems to be quoting himself and says « je me suis dit ben… », omitting the « que ».
(26) « et bon » is a typical conversational marker.
(27) Notice here a whole series of « on ». But instead of the common use for « nous » or ‘us’, here it refers to an indefinite or abstract person. In formal English, this would be the pronoun ‘one’ but in spoken English it would most likely be translated as ‘you’.
(28) The speaker starts out with « j’ai » and then decides to change the verb. Note, interestingly, that he does not say « je me suis dit qu’il y a… ». He omits the « qu(e) » that would normally be required here. I suspect that we are seeing a trend similar to what is happening in English where the connector ‘that’ is regularly omitted after verbs, e.g. I think there are other ways to do this.
(29) The speaker probably wanted to say « il faut ».
(30) « plein de » ‘full of’ is an idiomatic way of may ‘many’.
(31) « sur le cul » ‘on my ass ‘ is a bit vulgar of saying ‘to be surprised’. Definitely not to be used in formal French.
(32) « qui te parle que… » would be considered by purists a improper usage of the verb « parler ». The proper verb would have been « dire ».
(33) Notice the construction here : « n’importe quel produit tu peux le vendre… » where the subject « n’importe quel produit » becomes the object pronoun « le ». This could have be said : « tu peux vendre n’importe quel produit… »
(34) English-speakers, take note the pronunciation of « budget » in French. The « d » is clearly articulated, unlike the pronunciation in English. Similarly, « suggestion » in French is not pronounced like ‘suggestion’ in English.
(35) The speaker is here quoting himself
(36) The speaker decides to change verbs.
(37) Note the use of the pronominal verb « se mettre à » in the sense of ‘to opt for’ or ‘to go with’.
(38) « d’ailleurs » here means ‘as a matter of fact’.
What to incorporate into your own French conversation speaking style
As with all the real-life case studies, there is a wealth of material that you can incorporate into your own speaking style. But do keep in mind that this is informal language and may not be appropriate for all situations.
If you see a sentence or phrase you like, just take it. Put it on a flash card and repeat systematically until you can start using it spontaneously. Here are a couple of ideas to consider:
1. This excerpt is good practice of the tu verb forms, but do not mix them up with the vous forms. This is a big problem with speakers of English who are accustomed to one form ‘you’.You could practice substituting vous verb forms for the tu forms here.
2. Your passé composé and imparfait verb forms have to be rock-solid, in addition to the present tense of course. All the other tenses can be avoided to some extent, but these three are the foundation of spoken French.
3. In additional to the usual conversational markers and fillers like « voilà » and « c’est ça », here are some suggestions of phrases that you might want to adapt and make your own:
La première question que j’ai envie de te poser, c’est…
Ben tout d’abord, au depart donc, j’étais…
Je me suis dit (que)…
Tout le monde ne peut pas se payer…
Comme tout le monde, j’ai fait…
– …comme on dit
Donc voilà et…et c’est comme ça que j’ai connu …
Moi, je sais communiquer, je sais comment donner de la voix, je sais comment m’exprimer, mais écire, faire une stratégie marketing, je ne savais pas.
Related Posts
1. How to use the real-life examples.
2. How To Use The Awesome French Pronoun “ça”
Stanley Aléong is a polyglot, author, musician, language coach in French, English and Spanish, language workshop facilitator and organizer of French-English conversation meetups in Montreal, Canada. He likes to share his passion for languages and believes that anybody can learn to speak a foreign language well with the right methods and tools. He has also invented a cool visual learning tool called the Essential French Wall Chart Calendar. Reach him at info@langcal.com.