The adjectives sensé(e) and censé(e) are easy to confuse, since they have the same pronunciation and almost the same spelling (in other words, they're homophones). Sensé(e) is related to the English word "sense," and means "sensible," "reasonable," or "sane":
J'étais face à trois personnes que
I was facing three people whom
je considérais comme étant parfaitement sensées.
I considered to be perfectly sane.
Captions 80-81, Le Jour où tout a basculé - Notre appartement est hanté
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Censé(e) might remind you of the words "census," "censor," or "censure," but it means something quite different. It's the word for "supposed," as in "supposed to do something." Just like "supposed to," it's nearly always preceded by the verb "to be" (être) and followed by an infinitive:
On est censé... faire réparer des objets qui ont quelques problèmes.
We're supposed to... bring items that have some problems for repair.
Caption 2, Actus Quartier - Repair Café
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On était censé n'avoir aucun souci,
They were supposed to have no concerns,
avoir des centrales complètement fiables.
to have totally reliable power plants.
Caption 25, Manif du Mois - Fukushima plus jamais ça
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Alors que la police, elle est censée être là pour nous protéger.
While the police are supposed to be there to protect us.
Caption 14, Banlieues françaises - jeunes et policiers, l'impossible réconciliation?
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You can always say supposé(e) instead of censé(e), which might be a little easier to remember:
...son fameux pont
...its famous bridge,
qui était supposé être un lieu où [on] profitait de beaux panoramas.
which was supposed to be a place where you enjoy beautiful panoramas.
Captions 26-27, De nouvelles découvertes avec Marion - Le parc des Buttes Chaumont
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Or you can use the verb devoir, especially in the past tense:
...bien qu'elle se demanda
...although she wondered
en quoi cela devait l'aider à se rendre au bal.
in what way that was supposed to help her get to the ball.
Captions 47-48, Contes de fées - Cendrillon
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Whichever version of "supposed to" you use is perfectly sensé!
At the end of our last lesson, we introduced the question ça te dit (or ça vous dit), which literally means "does it say/speak to you," but is mostly used as an informal way of proposing something to someone. It's more or less equivalent to the English phrase "what do you say":
Du coup, je propose un apéro ce soir chez moi, dix-neuf heures.
So I propose an aperitif tonight at my place, seven p.m.
Ça vous dit?
What do you say?
Caption 62, Le Jour où tout a basculé - Espion dans l'immeuble
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But ça te dit can be translated a number of other ways too, depending on its position in the sentence:
Alors, ça te dit?
So, are you interested?
Caption 68, Le Jour où tout a basculé - J'ai volé pour nourrir mon fils
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Ça te dit qu'on aille boire un thé?
How would you like to go have some tea?
Caption 5, Le Jour où tout a basculé - Mes grands-parents sont infidèles
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At the beginning of a sentence, ça te dit can precede either que or de. But be careful: the phrase ça te dit que requires the subjunctive, as you can see in the example above (qu'on aille). Ça te dit de, on the other hand, simply takes the infinitive:
Ça te dit d'aller boire un thé?
How would you like to go have some tea?
Ça te dit has another meaning too. If you're not sure whether someone is familiar with what you're referring to, you can use the expression to double-check:
Non. Je connais pas Saguenay.
No. I don't know Saguenay.
-Bien, voyons, le fleuve, tout ça...
-Come on, the river, all that...
non, ça te dit rien?
no, that doesn't mean anything to you?
Caption 53, Le Québec parle - aux Français
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C'est situé dans le huitième arrondissement; je ne sais pas si
It's located in the eighth district; I don't know if
ça vous dit quelque chose, mais voilà.
that means anything to you, but there you go.
Caption 18, Paris Tour - Visite guidée de Paris
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Ça vous dit de regarder de nouvelles vidéos sur Yabla?
Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for our next lesson and tweet us @yabla or send your topic suggestions to newsletter@yabla.com.
In Part 2 of "Elle a banni le sucre pendant un an," Danièle Gerkens, a journalist at Elle magazine, talks about the health benefits she experienced after cutting sugar from her diet for one year. When the year was almost up, she was expecting to break her sugar fast with mountains of whipped cream, but it was actually a single piece of dark chocolate that did her in:
Je me disais que j'allais me rouler dans la chantilly, et cetera.
I told myself that I was going to wallow in whipped cream, et cetera.
Et puis en fait, plus ça arrivait,
And then in fact, the closer it came [to the end],
plus je me disais, mais... qu'est-ce que je vais faire?
the more I was wondering, but... what am I going to do?
Captions 102-104, Le Figaro - Elle a banni le sucre pendant un an
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Note the two different translations of je me disais here: "I told myself" and "I was wondering." The reflexive verb se dire can mean a number of things depending on context, namely "to tell/say to oneself" and "to wonder/think." In a sense, these both mean the same thing: when you wonder or think about something, you're telling yourself about it.
When multiple people se disent, they could be thinking about something or telling themselves something, but they could also just be talking to each other:
Christine et Alice sont de meilleures amies. Elles se disent tout.
Christine and Alice are best friends. They tell each other everything.
Se dire can also mean "to say of oneself," or in other words, "to claim to be":
Le Charles de Gaulle,
Charles de Gaulle,
où la direction se dit d'abord victime de son image.
where the management claims first to be a victim of its image.
Caption 29, Le Journal - Hôpital ultra-moderne à Burkina Faso
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Or se dire can simply mean "to be said," which has a few different connotations. Here Danièle is (somewhat cheekily) talking about something she thinks is taboo and can't be mentioned in public. Believe it or not, she's referring to her love of milk chocolate!
Je sais, ça se dit pas, mais j'adorais ça.
I know you're not supposed to say it, but that's what I loved.
Caption 112, Le Figaro - Elle a banni le sucre pendant un an
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In its most general sense, se dire refers to anything that "is said" in everyday language:
Par contre,
On the other hand,
"faire le beau" se dit d'un chien qui se tient sur les pattes arrière
"faire le beau" is said of a dog that stands on its hind legs
pour réclamer un sucre.
to beg for a lump of sugar.
Captions 24-25, Margaux et Manon - Emplois du verbe faire
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"Je n'ai pas des biscuits": ça se dit en français? -Non. Il faut dire: "je n'ai pas de biscuits".
Can you say je n'ai pas des biscuits in French? -No. You have to say je n'ai pas de biscuits [I don't have any cookies].
Don't confuse ça se dit with ça te dit (or ça vous dit in the plural), which means "how does that sound" or "how would you like..." (literally, "does it speak to you"):
Ça te dit de réviser les multiples sens de l'expression "se dire"?
How would you like to review the multiple meanings of the expression se dire?
At the end of the second installment of Le Jour où tout a basculé - J'ai volé pour nourrir mon fils, Sarah uses an interesting construction to express remorse about something she did at work:
Et j'avais beau me dire que je l'avais fait pour Nino,
And even though I told myself that I'd done it for Nino,
j'avais vraiment honte.
I was really ashamed.
Captions 54-55, Le Jour où tout a basculé - J'ai volé pour nourrir mon fils
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Beau means "beautiful" or "handsome," but the expression "avoir beau + infinitive" doesn't have anything to do with beauty. It can mean a variety of things depending on context, but it generally describes a failed effort or something done in vain. Sometimes it's just a synonym of bien que, malgré, or quoique ("even though" or "although"), as in the example above:
T'as beau le travailler, ça ne vient pas.
Even though you work at it, it doesn't come.
Caption 67, Alsace 20 - Laurent Chandemerle, l'homme aux 100 voix
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Ça a beau être une pizzeria,
Although it's a pizzeria,
nos prix sont assez élevés pour le commun des mortels.
our prices are pretty high for the everyday mortal.
Caption 5, F&F Pizza - Chez F&F
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Or it can correspond to the English expressions "no matter what" or "no matter how hard":
Elle a beau faire, son copain la critique toujours.
No matter what she does, her boyfriend always criticizes her.
J'ai beau trimer,
No matter how hard I slave away,
sans toi ma vie n'est qu'un décor qui brille, vide de sens.
without you my life is just decor that shines, empty of meaning.
Caption 19, Indila - Dernière danse
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When used with the verb essayer (to try), it means "try as one might":
Et j'ai eu beau essayer de le convaincre
And try as I might to convince him
d'arrêter ses enfantillages, rien à faire.
to stop his childish games, it was useless.
Captions 6-8, Le Jour où tout a basculé - Mes grands-parents sont infidèles
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And when used with être (to be), the expression is often translated as "may be" or "may well be":
Yseult a beau être jeune,
Yseult may be young,
elle sait bien où elle veut aller.
[but] she knows exactly where she wants to go
Caption 5, Watt’s In - Yseult : La Vague Interview Exclu
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Tu as beau être désolé, tu m'as blessé profondément.
You may well be sorry, but you hurt me deeply.
Note that, while the English requires a "but" in both of these sentences, there's no need for a mais in the French. So you wouldn't say: Yseult a beau être jeune, mais elle sait bien où elle veut aller.
Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for our next lesson and tweet us @yabla or send your topic suggestions to newsletter@yabla.com.
There are two new videos dealing with food on Yabla this week. The first is the latest episode of Le Jour où tout a basculé, which focuses on a struggling frozen-food worker and her difficult son. The second is an interview with Christian Le Squer, the head chef at the three-Michelin-starred restaurant Le Cinq. Both videos contain a good number of interesting food-related words, which we'll go over in this lesson.
1. Des pâtes
Y a quoi pour le dîner? -Des pâtes.
What's for dinner? -Pasta.
Captions 3-4, Le Jour où tout a basculé - J'ai volé pour nourrir mon fils
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"Pasta" is a singular noun, but when you say you're having pasta for dinner, you don't mean you're just having one piece of pasta, right? That's why you say des pâtes (plural) in French when talking about a pasta meal. Une pâte (singular) refers to one piece of pasta, and it's also the word for "paste," "pastry," and "dough." Don't confuse it with le pâté, which means—you guessed it—"pâté."
2. Bouffer
Pourtant, ça empêche pas mes potes de bouffer de la viande.
Even so, that doesn't stop my buddies from eating meat.
Caption 49, Le Jour où tout a basculé - J'ai volé pour nourrir mon fils
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This is a very common slang word meaning "to eat." You can use it instead of the standard verb manger when speaking informally. And instead of la nourriture (food), you can say la bouffe.
3. Des plats surgelés
Sarah, quarante-cinq ans,
Sarah, forty-five years old,
est secrétaire dans une société de fabrication de plats surgelés.
is a secretary at a frozen-food manufacturing company.
Captions 34-35, Le Jour où tout a basculé - J'ai volé pour nourrir mon fils
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Des plats surgelés are frozen foods, but the term literally means "frozen dishes." Surgelé(e) is mostly used in food contexts and is often interchangeable with the related adjective congelé(e). The more general word for "frozen" is simply gelé(e).
4. Le couvert
Une quarantaine de couverts...
About forty place settings...
Caption 9, Christian Le Squer - Je ne fais que goûter!
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Couvert is the past participle of the verb couvrir (to cover), but when used as a noun (le couvert) it means "place setting" or "cutlery." This makes sense if you think about it, since when you set a table, you cover it with plates, glasses, and silverware. In fact, the phrase mettre le couvert means "to set the table," or literally, "to put down the place setting."
5. Torréfier
Faut la faire torréfier.
It's got to be roasted.
Caption 23, Christian Le Squer - Je ne fais que goûter!
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Christian Le Squer is referring to a hazelnut (une noisette) that he thinks needs to be roasted. Torréfier is mainly used when talking about roasting nuts or coffee beans. When you're roasting meat or vegetables, you use the verb rôtir or faire rôtir.
6. Une entrée
...viande, poisson, entrée, et sucrée.
...meat, fish, starters, and sweets.
Caption 34, Christian Le Squer - Je ne fais que goûter!
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In American English, "entrée" is another word for "main course." But une entrée actually means an "appetizer" or "starter" in French. It also means "an entrance." To remember this difference in meaning, just think of an appetizer as the "entrance" to a meal. If you'd like to learn the history of the word "entrée" in English, check out this interesting blog post.
And for more food-related words, see this Yabla lesson.
Lionel is back with his cousin Jean-Pierre, who, in addition to being a wildlife expert, is also a dog expert. With the help of his trusty border collie, Chic, Jean-Pierre gives Lionel some helpful pointers on training dogs.
In part two of the series, Jean-Pierre gives Chic a number of basic dog commands, which Chic performs perfectly. We'll go over some of those commands in this lesson. You may want to revisit our lessons on the imperative mood before reading on, since most of the commands are in that mood.
We'll start with the most basic ones—"come," "look," and "sit":
Viens! Regarde. Viens. Assis!
Come! Look. Come. Sit!
Captions 31-33, Lionel - au club canin
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Of the above commands, can you spot the one that isn't in the imperative? If you guessed assis, you're correct! Assis is in fact the past participle of the verb s'asseoir (to sit) and literally means "seated." Jean-Pierre could also have said assieds-toi (sit), which is the true imperative of the verb s'asseoir, but assis is more commonly used as a command for dogs.
Jean-Pierre uses another past participle as a command a few captions later:
Allez, couché.
Go on, lie down.
Caption 39, Lionel - au club canin
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Couché is the past participle of coucher (to go to bed), but to a well-trained dog, it's a command to "lie down."
After Jean-Pierre throws a ball, he says:
Prends! Voilà. Apporte.
Catch! That's it. Fetch.
Captions 50-52, Lionel - au club canin
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Prends and apporte are imperative forms of the verbs prendre (to take) and apporter (to bring). So it makes sense that they also mean "catch" and "fetch."
Jean-Pierre uses another word for "catch" at another point in the video:
Tu sais attraper, là?
Can you catch, there?
Caption 35, Lionel - au club canin
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Finally, he tells Chic to heel, or, literally, to "come to foot":
Viens au pied, là.
Come to foot [heel], there.
Caption 45, Lionel - au club canin
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You'll also find a fair number of races de chiens (dog breeds) mentioned in this video:
un teckel - a dachshund
un dalmatien - a Dalmatian
un chien de chasse - a hunting dog
un berger allemand - a German shepherd
un chien terrier - a terrier (un terrier also means "a burrow")
un bâtard - a mutt
And of course, there's un border collie, like Chic!
Daniel Benchimol concludes his latest video, on the town of Montmorency, a little differently than he usually does. He introduces us to Philippe, the man behind the scenes of Daniel's numerous travel videos. Philippe does it all: he films, he directs, he edits. Daniel uses some basic film terminology in his description of Philippe:
Laissez-moi vous présenter mon compagnon de tournage, Philippe,
Let me present to you my filming companion, Philippe,
qui réalise, qui monte
who directs, who edits,
et qui fait l'ensemble de ce que vous ne voyez pas.
and who does everything that you don't see.
Captions 47-48, Voyage en France - Montmorency
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Tournage comes from the verb tourner, which, as you might have guessed, means "to turn." But in movie parlance, tourner means "to film" (and le tournage means "filming" or "film shoot"). To remember this, just think of film reels turning on an old movie camera.
We discussed the verb réaliser in a previous lesson. Among its many meanings is "to direct" a film or stage production. The related word réalisateur (masculine) or réalisatrice (feminine) means "director" or "filmmaker"—in other words, the person who "realizes" the film.
Yabla has a lesson on monter as well! Its basic meanings are "to climb" and "to put up," but monter can also mean "to edit" a film. The English word "montage" refers to a specific technique of combining short clips to form a continuous sequence, but the French le montage refers more generally to the "editing" of a film.
Another Yabla video takes us to Concarneau in Brittany, where a film crew documented the town's rich maritime heritage. You'll find some interesting film-related words at the beginning of the video:
Moteur!
Action!
Séance de tournage sur le port de Concarneau.
Filming session on the Concarneau harbor.
En face de l'objectif, le maître du port.
In front of the camera lens, the harbormaster.
Captions 1-3, Télévision Bretagne Ouest - Concarneau: Un tournage sur la vie maritime
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Moteur usually just means "motor" or "engine," but here it means "Action!" This is actually a shortened version of the phrase silence, moteur, action! (literally, "silence, motor, action!"), the French equivalent of "lights, camera, action!" You can also say moteur, ça tourne, action! ("motor, it's filming, action!").
You might be wondering what a "camera lens" has to do with an "objective." If you consider that un objectif also means "an aim," the relationship might be clearer. A filmmaker or photographer aims their camera lens at their subject, so it makes sense that objectif is the word for "camera lens."
Check out this lesson for some more French film words.
Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for our next lesson and tweet us @yabla or send your topic suggestions to newsletter@yabla.com.
Our friend Lionel is known for his witty puns and excellent comedic timing. He even filmed a standup set for Yabla! Apparently, a good sense of humor runs in his family. In Lionel's latest video, his cousin Jean-Pierre cracks a joke about the Vosges mountain range:
Y a une blague à propos de...
There's a joke about...
justement des Vosges du Nord.
precisely about the Northern Vosges.
Quand on voit pas les Vosges du Nord,
When you don't see the Northern Vosges,
c'est qu'il pleut.
it's because it's raining.
Et quand on les voit bien, c'est qu'il va pleuvoir.
And when you see them clearly, it means that it's going to rain.
Captions 85-90, Lionel - à Lindre-Basse
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If you didn't laugh at Jean-Pierre's joke, you probably had to be there (near the Northern Vosges, that is).
Une blague doesn't only refer to a verbal joke. It can also be a trick or a prank you play on someone:
On va leur faire une bonne blague!
We're going to play a nice trick on them!
Caption 23, Il était une fois - Notre Terre - 9. Les écosystèmes
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Une farce and un tour are the other words for "trick," "prank," or "practical joke":
Une farce joyeuse et de franche gaieté.
A joyous prank with uninhibited gaiety.
Caption 10, Il était une fois... l’Homme - 6. Le siècle de Périclès
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Ils ont plus d'un tour dans leur sac.
They have more than one trick in their bag [up their sleeves].
Caption 34, Il était une fois... la vie - 14. La bouche et les dents
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There's also another word for "joke": une plaisanterie. This example explains what happens in your body when you laugh at a joke:
Vous savez que ce sont les lèvres glottiques
You know that it's the glottic folds
qui sous l'effet d'une plaisanterie se mettent à vibrer.
that start vibrating when a joke is told.
Captions 8-9, Le Journal - Les effets bénéfiques du rire!
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So how do you say "to crack a joke" or "to tell a joke" in French? You can either say raconter une plaisanterie or raconter une blague:
Il aime raconter des plaisanteries [or des blagues] grivoises.
He loves to tell dirty jokes.
But if you're talking about "joking" or "joking/messing around," then you use the verbs plaisanter or blaguer:
Ils blaguaient tout le temps pendant leur enfance.
They always used to joke around when they were little.
Tu plaisantes! Je ne crois pas ça. -Non, je ne plaisante pas!
You're kidding! I don't believe that. -No, I'm not kidding!
Thanks for reading! We'll be back soon with a new lesson. Sans blague! (No joke!)
Animals are generally (and perhaps unjustly) considered to be less intelligent than humans, which explains why the French word bête can mean both "beast" and "stupid":
Après tout, c'est bête la guerre.
After all, war is stupid.
Caption 25, Il était une fois: les Explorateurs - 15. Bruce et les sources du Nil
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The related noun bêtise can mean anything along the lines of "stupidity" or "idiocy." You can use it in a general sense to talk about "something stupid":
Après les parents, ils me disent, quand ils font une bêtise...
Later the parents tell me, when they do something stupid...
Caption 56, Banlieues françaises - jeunes et policiers, l'impossible réconciliation?
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Or you might use it to refer to something more specific, such as a mistake. Une bêtise isn't just any old mistake, but a particularly stupid one:
Vous allez réparer vos bêtises.
You're going to repair your stupid mistakes.
Caption 31, Il était une fois: Notre Terre - 9. Les écosystèmes
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Of course, if you tell someone he or she has made a stupid mistake, you could be implying that the person him or herself is stupid. Une erreur is a more neutral word for "mistake" that doesn't connote stupidity:
Elle fait une terrible erreur.
She's making a terrible mistake.
Caption 4, Le Jour où tout a basculé - Mes grands-parents sont infidèles
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The plural bêtises is often used to refer to "nonsense," "mischief," or any kind of naughty behavior:
Arrête tes bêtises.
Stop your nonsense.
Mais si on fait des bêtises, on sait jamais...
But if we get into mischief, you never know...
Caption 90, Actu Vingtième - Le Repas des anciens
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If you argue with someone over des bêtises, you're arguing over nothing:
Mes enfants se disputent toujours pour des bêtises.
My kids are always arguing with each other over nothing.
When it comes to learning a language, there's no such thing as a stupid mistake. So don't fret if you forget an accent mark or type in the wrong word in a Yabla game—you've just made a simple erreur, not une bêtise!
For fun, here's an 80s throwback for you: Sabine Paturel's "Les Bêtises," which was a smash hit in France in 1986.
In our previous lessons on the French conditional, we briefly mentioned si (if) clauses, which express the possibility or likelihood of an event. These are comparable to "if/then" constructions in English, as in "if you didn't want to go, then you should have said something" or "if I rest now, I'll have more energy later." French si clauses are made up of two parts: a condition (e.g. "if I rest now") and a result ("I'll have more energy later"). They come in three different forms, each expressing different likelihoods and employing different verb tenses and moods. Let's break them down one by one.
1. Si + present-tense verb
The first type of si clause describes a possible or likely event. It expresses what could or will probably happen if a present condition is met. When the "condition" part (si + verb) of the clause is in the present tense, the "result" part can be in the present, imperative, or future:
Si on surveille pas, elle les prend
If we don't watch, she takes them
et puis elle les fait tomber un par un.
and then makes them fall one by one.
Caption 23, Angers 7 - Un lama en plein appartement
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Donc si vous pouvez éviter de sortir, évitez.
So if you can avoid going out, avoid it.
Caption 7, Alsace 20 - Météo des Maquilleurs
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Même aujourd'hui, si on me fait chanter, je chanterai.
Even today, if you make me sing, I'll sing.
Caption 55, Actu Vingtième - Le Repas des anciens
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2. Si + imperfect verb
The second type describes something that's contrary to the present situation or unlikely to happen. Here the si is followed by an imperfect verb and the "result" part of the clause requires the conditional:
Si on avait pas tant de bénévoles... cela serait pas possible.
If we didn't have so many volunteers... it wouldn't be possible.
Captions 34-35, Farmer François - Le stand de légumes
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Je pourrais aller au cinéma avec toi si je n'étais pas malade.
I could go to the movies with you if I weren't sick.
As you can see from the above example, the "result" doesn't always have to follow the "condition"—it can just as easily be placed before it. So we could rewrite the "Farmer François" sentence as: Cela serait pas possible si on avait pas tant de bénévoles (it wouldn't be possible if we didn't have so many volunteers). As long as both parts of a si clause are in the right tense/mood, it doesn't matter which comes first.
3. Si + pluperfect verb
The final type of si clause is a lot like the second type, but a bit more complex. It describes something that's contrary to a past event—for instance, something you wish had happened or regret not having done. In other words, it expresses an impossibility. The pluperfect is paired with the past conditional here:
Si j'avais su, je serais venu avec deux chevaux.
If I had known, I would have come with two horses.
Caption 50, Il était une fois - Les découvreurs - 13. Stephenson
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Hier j'aurais levé le bras
Yesterday I would have raised my arm
pour appeler le taxi si j'avais d'abord soigné mon épaule.
to hail the taxi if I had treated my shoulder first.
Captions 39-41, Le saviez-vous? - Le mode du conditionnel
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To learn about some other meanings of si besides "if," check out this lesson. And if you have any suggestions for future lesson topics, feel free to tweet us @yabla or email us at newsletter@yabla.com.
As Patricia mentions in her recent video, the French conditional mood only comes in two tenses: present and past. While the present conditional expresses something you would do, the past conditional expresses something you would have done. We discussed the present conditional in our previous lesson, so now we'll focus on the past.
The past conditional is a compound tense, which means it's made up of multiple parts. Two parts, to be exact: an auxiliary verb (avoir or être) in the conditional, plus the past participle of the main verb. Here's an example of the verb pouvoir (to be able to) in the past conditional:
On aurait pu les cuire individuellement, mais euh, là ça va le faire.
We could've cooked them individually, but uh, here, this'll do it.
Caption 49, 4 Mains pour 1 Piano - Médaillon de Homard
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Like most verbs, pouvoir combines with the auxiliary verb avoir (to have) in compound past tenses. But as Patricia explains in another video, some verbs combine with être (to be) in those instances, such as the verbs aller (to go) and naître (to be born):
Je serais allé à la plage mais il faisait trop froid.
I would have gone to the beach, but it was too cold.
L'histoire officielle dit que ce drapeau serait né
Official history says that this flag was supposedly born
sous la Révolution française de dix-sept cent quatre-vingt-neuf.
under the French Revolution of seventeen eighty-nine.
Captions 6-7, Le saviez-vous? - Histoire du drapeau français
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The important thing to remember is that in the past tense, you only need to conjugate the auxiliary verb in the conditional, not the main verb (so you wouldn't say on aurait pourrait or je serais irais, for instance).
It's easy to confuse the past conditional with the pluperfect (or plus-que-parfait) tense, which is used to describe things that happened in the remote past. Both constructions contain an auxiliary verb followed by a past participle (in the pluperfect, the auxiliary verb is in the imperfect tense, not the conditional), and you'll often find both of them in sentences containing si (if) clauses:
Hier, j'aurais levé le bras
Yesterday, I would have raised my arm
pour appeler le taxi si j'avais d'abord soigné mon épaule.
to hail the taxi if I had treated my shoulder first.
Captions 39-41, Le saviez-vous? - Le mode du conditionnel
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We'll talk about si clauses in further detail in a future lesson. In the meantime, you might want to check out the song Si by Zaz, which contains a good number of si clauses and verbs in the conditional.
In her latest lesson, Patricia introduces the conditional mood, used to describe hypothetical situations. Unlike the indicative mood, which refers to definite, certain actions or events, the conditional refers to anything indefinite or uncertain. The French conditional generally corresponds to "would" in English—"would go," "would say," "would run," etc.
Conjugating the conditional is fairly straightforward. You just take the infinitive form of the verb and add the ending -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, or -aient (though there are some exceptions to this rule). Let's take the verb parler (to talk) as an example:
je parlerais (I would talk) nous parlerions (we would talk)
tu parlerais (you [sing.] would talk) vous parleriez (you [pl.] would talk)
il/elle parlerait (he/she would talk) ils/elles parleraient (they would talk)
You may have noticed that these endings are the same as those used in the imperfect tense. In fact, you'll often see the conditional paired with the imperfect in si (if) clauses:
Que ferais-tu si tu gagnais à la loterie?
What would you do if you won the lottery?
Si j'avais soigné mon épaule,
If I had taken care of my shoulder,
je lèverais mon bras.
I would raise my arm.
Captions 14-15, Le saviez-vous? - Le mode du conditionnel
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(J'avais soigné is actually a pluperfect construction, which Patricia reviews in another video.)
The conditional isn't only found in si clauses. You can also use it to express a request or a wish:
Pardon, excusez-moi,
Sorry, excuse me,
est-ce que vous pourriez m'aider à traverser la rue?
could you help me cross the street?
Caption 22, Cap 24 - Alessandro Di Sarno se met à nu !
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Je voudrais juste une rose.
I would just like a rose.
Caption 11, Bande-annonce - La Belle et La Bête
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As we discussed in a previous lesson, the conditional can also be used to express uncertainty or to report something you heard from someone else. In this case it's often translated with words like "apparently," "supposedly," "reportedly," etc.:
Le rire serait aussi bénéfique que le sport.
Laughter is apparently as good for you as sports.
Caption 16, Le Journal - Les effets bénéfiques du rire!
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In our next lesson, we'll show you how to construct the conditional in the past tense. In the meantime, be sure to check out Patricia's video on the future tense, which has a similar conjugation pattern to the conditional. You wouldn't want to get them confused!
C'est and il/elle est are two common expressions used to describe people or things in French. Though they have the same meaning (he/she/it is), they're not interchangeable. So how do you know when to use which? It all depends on what comes after the verb est (is). Let's look at some examples.
Il est (masculine) and elle est (feminine) are primarily used before an adjective alone, or before an adverb and adjective (such as très intelligent):
Il s'appelle André. Il est très intelligent.
His name is André. He's very smart.
They're also used to describe someone's nationality, religion, or profession:
Elle est japonaise. Elle est bouddhiste. Elle est chimiste.
She is Japanese. She is Buddhist. She is a chemist.
Note the difference between the French and the English in that last sentence. You don't need an indefinite article (un, une) after il/elle est when talking about someone's profession. So you don't say elle est une chimiste, but simply elle est chimiste.
C'est is used in pretty much every other circumstance. You'll find it before a modified noun, such as mon ami:
Il s'appelle André. C'est mon ami. [Not: il est mon ami.]
His name is André. He's my friend.
Or before a disjunctive pronoun (moi, toi, lui, etc.):
Ah, oui, c'est moi. -C'est toi mais c'est vrai!
Oh, yes, it's me. -It's you, but it's true!
Caption 63, Actus Quartier - Fête de quartier Python-Duvernois
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L'État, c'est moi.
The State, it is I (or "I am the State").
(attributed to King Louis XIV of France)
C'est can also come before a standalone adjective (such as c'est vrai in the example above), but only when you're making a general statement about a situation. If you're referring to something specific, then you use il/elle est:
Cette histoire n'est pas inventée. Elle est vraie.
This story isn't made-up. It's true.
If you're describing a group of people or things, then you need to use the plural forms of c'est and il/elle est. These are ce sont and ils/elles sont (they are):
Ah, ce sont les fameuses pommes de terre, euh... violettes.
Oh, these are the famous, uh... purple potatoes.
Caption 37, 4 Mains pour 1 Piano - Médaillon de Homard
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Ne vous approchez pas des ours. Ils sont très dangereux.
Don't go near the bears. They are very dangerous.
Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for our next lesson and tweet us @yabla or send your topic suggestions to newsletter@yabla.com.
In a recent lesson, we talked about the words bon/bonne and mauvais/mauvaise, which respectively mean "good" and "bad," but can also mean "right" and "wrong" depending on context. It's easy to confuse these with the words bien and mal, which have similar meanings ("well" and "badly/poorly") but different functions.
Bon/bonne and mauvais/mauvaise are adjectives, which means they change according to the number and gender of the noun they modify:
Alors justement je crois que c'est vraiment une très bonne chose...
So, exactly, I think that it's really a very good thing...
Caption 56, Alsace 20 - 100 recettes pour 100 vins
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Il y a eu la destruction de la partie de maison existante
There was the destruction of the existing part of the house
qui était en très mauvais état.
that was in very bad shape.
Caption 22, Thomas - Thomas et sa maison
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On the other hand, bien and mal are adverbs, which can modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs. Unlike adjectives, these never change in French:
...un grand orfèvre parisien que Balzac connaissait bien.
who was a great Parisian goldsmith whom Balzac knew well.
Caption 28, Exposition - Balzac, architecte d'intérieurs
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Il paraît que les voyages en train finissent mal en général
It seems that train rides generally end badly
Caption 54, Grand Corps Malade - Les Voyages en train
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Just as it's ungrammatical to say "whom Balzac knew good" and "train rides generally end bad" in English, in French you can't say que Balzac connaissait bon or les voyages en train finissent mauvais. You have to use bien/mal.
Bien and mal can also function as nouns. In philosophical terms, they refer to "good" and "evil":
Quelle est la différence entre le bien et le mal?
What is the difference between good and evil?
But they have more down-to-earth meanings as well. For instance, the plural les biens means "goods," as in commodities or possessions. And mal can also refer to illness or harm, as in the expressions avoir mal and faire mal:
J'ai mal à l'oreille.
I have an earache.
Ne me fais pas mal!
Don't hurt me!
In everyday speech, bon and bien are also used as interjections, in which case they're more or less interchangeable. They both correspond to the English interjection "well" in this context:
Eh bien, j'espère que vous avez passé un bon moment, ici, sur Arles.
Well, I hope you had a good time here, in Arles.
Caption 21, Arles - Un Petit Tour d'Arles
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Bon, il y a des raisons personnelles évidemment qui jouent.
Well, obviously there are personal reasons that come into play.
Caption 17, Alphabétisation - des filles au Sénégal
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It's sometimes hard to tell the difference between good and bad, but at least now you know the difference between bon, mauvais, bien, and mal!
Stay tuned for our next lesson and tweet us @yabla or send your topic suggestions to newsletter@yabla.com.
In this lesson, we're going to discuss a somewhat tricky aspect of French color words. Like the vast majority of adjectives, most French color words agree in gender (masculine or feminine) and number (singular or plural) with the noun they modify. Let's take the adjective noir (black) as an example:
Ils peuvent être noirs.
It can be black.
Caption 11, Le saviez-vous? - Le vocabulaire de la tête
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Ensuite vous avez mon écharpe noire, une simple étole.
Then you have my black scarf, a simple wrap.
Caption 9, Fanny parle des saisons - S'habiller en hiver
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In the first sentence, noir modifies the masculine plural noun cheveux ("hair" is always plural in French), so it takes the masculine plural ending -s (noirs). In the second sentence, noir modifies the feminine singular noun écharpe, so it takes the feminine singular ending -e (noire).
However, certain color adjectives are invariable—that is, they never change regardless of the gender and number of the noun. All of these adjectives are derived from nouns. Take orange for example. As in English, in French orange refers to both the color and the fruit (une orange). Though you can certainly have de multiples oranges (multiple oranges), the adjective form of the word never changes, even in the plural:
J'ai acheté des chaussures orange.
I bought orange shoes.
On the other hand, rouge (red) isn't invariable (since it's not derived from a noun), so it does change in the plural:
Tu as acheté des chaussures rouges.
You bought red shoes.
Another common color adjective that never changes is marron. Un marron is a chestnut, but when used as an adjective, it just means "brown":
Regardez ces chiens. Ils sont marron?
Look at these dogs. Are they brown?
Caption 52, Leçons avec Lionel - Couleurs
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The other word for brown, brun, is variable. In this example, it modifies the feminine plural noun feuilles (leaves):
De tas de feuilles à moitié mortes...
Lots of half-dead leaves...
Un jour vertes, un jour brunes
One day green, one day brown
Captions 9-11, Stromae - Bienvenue chez moi
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There's another word for "chestnut" too! It's une châtaigne. The related adjective châtain is variable and is often used to describe hair color:
Ils peuvent être châtains.
It can be chestnut-colored.
Châtain, c'est marron.
"Chestnut" is brown.
Captions 12-13, Le saviez-vous? - Le vocabulaire de la tête
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Some other invariable color adjectives are: abricot (apricot), ardoise (slate), argent (silver), azur (azure), brique (brick), bronze (bronze), café (coffee), caramel (caramel), champagne (champagne), chocolat (chocolate).
There's one more instance of invariability you should be aware of when dealing with color words. When you use more than one adjective to designate a single color (like "light blue," "dark green," etc.), neither of the adjectives changes according to the noun it modifies. For example:
Il a les yeux bleu clair et les cheveux brun foncé.
He has light blue eyes and dark brown hair.
But:
Il a les yeux bleus et les cheveux bruns.
He has blue eyes and brown hair.
As you may have noticed, like many other adjectives, color adjectives always follow the noun in French. See our previous lesson for more information on that. And for a good introduction to colors in French, check out Lionel's video on the subject.
Thanks for reading! Stay tuned and tweet us @yabla or send your topic suggestions to newsletter@yabla.com.
In a recent video, Lionel samples some beer at a local market in the town of Toul. In classic Lionel fashion, he delivers a witty pun:
Quand on boit de la bière Coin Coin
When you drink "Coin Coin" [Quack Quack] beer,
il faut vivre dans une pièce sans coins.
you need to live in a room without corners.
Captions 36-37, Lionel - Les bières artisanales Coin Coin
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The name of the beer is derived from the onomatopoeic expression coin coin, or "quack quack," as in the sound a duck makes. When not repeated, the word coin has several meanings. As Lionel demonstrates, un coin usually means "a corner." He's talking specifically about the corner of a room, but un coin can also be a street corner:
Au coin de la rue Fabre et de la rue Laurier.
At the corner of Rue Fabre [Fabre Street] and Rue Laurier [Laurier Street].
Caption 39, Canadian Chocolate Seller - Chocolats
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The other word for "corner" in French is angle (which literally means "angle," as you may have guessed). So you could just as easily say l'angle de la pièce (the corner of the room) or l'angle de la rue (the street corner).
Sometimes, un coin can refer not simply to a street corner, but to a broader area of a town or city:
De l'extérieur, on dit que c'est un coin... un quartier chaud.
Outsiders say that this is an area... a rough neighborhood.
Caption 29, Actus Quartier - Fête de quartier Python-Duvernois
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Or it can have a more general locational meaning, like "spot" or "place":
J'ai trouvé un coin sympa au bord de l'eau.
I found a nice spot on the waterfront.
There's also the adjectival phrase du coin, which refers to all things local:
Pas de polémique: qu'ils soient du coin ou qu'ils viennent de loin...
No argument: whether they're from around here or from far away...
Caption 14, Le Journal - Un automne bien chaud
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Nous sommes allés au bistrot du coin.
We went to the local bistro.
Coin is a false cognate of the English word "coin." The word for "coin" is pièce, which also means "room," as in Lionel's example above. Try not to get them confused!
C'est la pièce de dix euros, euh, qui représente la région.
It's the ten-euro coin, uh, that represents the region.
Caption 2, Normandie TV - La pièce de 10 euros bas-normande
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You can find many expressions featuring coin on this page. Keep them dans un coin de la tête (at the back of your mind) for whenever you speak French!
Tweet us @yabla or send your topic suggestions to newsletter@yabla.com.
We all know that when you're angry about something, it's better to talk about your emotions than to keep them pent up inside. If you ever need to vent in French, there are several constructions you can use to express your anger.
Two of these constructions employ the French word for anger, la colère (related to the English word "choleric," meaning "bad-tempered" or "irritable"). As in English, there's a distinction in French between being angry (être en colère) and getting angry (se mettre en colère, literally, "to put oneself in anger"):
J'étais très en colère contre Harold.
I was very angry at Harold.
Caption 28, Le Jour où tout a basculé - Notre appartement est hanté
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Elle devenait nerveuse, elle se mettait en colère.
She became nervous, she got angry.
Caption 3, Le Jour où tout a basculé - Mon père n'est pas mort
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Note the preposition contre in the example above. Whereas in English you can be angry "at" or "with" someone, in French you're angry "against" someone.
If you're really angry about something, you can use the construction fou/folle de (which we discussed in a previous lesson):
Elles sont folles de colère, folles de rage, horripilées.
They are wild with anger, raging mad, incensed.
Captions 52-54, Le saviez-vous? - Les synonymes
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Besides expressions with colère, the other main way of describing anger in French is with the adjective fâché(e) (angry) or the reflexive verb se fâcher (to get angry):
Tu es fâché contre Léon?
Are you angry with Leon?
Caption 2, Les zooriginaux - Léa jacta est
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Ça va, vieux, te fâche pas!
It's OK, old pal, don't get upset!
Caption 22, Il était une fois... L’Espace - 3. La planète verte
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Don't confuse the adjective fâché(e) with the adjective fâcheux/fâcheuse, which has a slightly more subdued meaning. It can mean anything along the lines of "annoying," "unfortunate," "regrettable," or "aggravating":
C'est fâcheux qu'il ne puisse pas venir.
It's unfortunate that he can't come.
We hope there was nothing in this lesson that made you angry! Stay tuned for our next lesson and tweet us @yabla or send your topic suggestions to newsletter@yabla.com.
In the latest segment of his tour of L'Isle-Adam, Daniel makes repeated use of the common expression il s'agit de:
Il s'agit tout simplement de la plus grande piscine fluviale de France.
Quite simply, it is the largest river pool in France.
Caption 7, Voyage en France - L'Isle-Adam
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Il s'agissait du Tarzan de l'époque, le célèbre Johnny Weissmuller.
It was the Tarzan of the time, the famous Johnny Weissmuller.
Caption 13, Voyage en France - L'Isle-Adam
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We could rewrite the above sentences with the expression c'est/c'était: C'est tout simplement la plus grande piscine fluviale..., C'était le Tarzan de l'époque.... But whereas c'est simply means "it is," il s'agit de can also mean "it's about" or "it's a question of." You can use it to specify something you just mentioned:
Il s'agit de voir où sont les abus.
It's a question of seeing where the abuses are.
Caption 13, Le Journal - Contrôle des prix alimentaires
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La seule prison qui se trouve dans Paris intra-muros,
The only prison located within Paris itself,
il s'agit de la prison de la Santé.
namely, the Santé [Health] Prison.
Captions 20-21, Voyage dans Paris - Le Treizième arrondissement de Paris
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Or you can use it to describe the content of something, for example a movie. Here's a very basic synopsis of the movie Jaws:
Dans ce film, il s'agit des attaques de requin.
This movie is about shark attacks [literally: "In this film, it's about/it's a question of shark attacks"].
S'agir is an impersonal verb, which means it can only be conjugated with the pronoun il. So you couldn't say, Ce film s'agit des attaques de requin, even though that might seem like a more direct translation of the English.
The best way to understand the nuances of il s'agit de is to hear it in context. You can do a Yabla search to find all the videos containing this extremely common expression.
Stay tuned for our next lesson and tweet us @yabla or send your topic suggestions to newsletter@yabla.com!
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