[Drapeaux] You too can learn French !
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Created by Jacques LΘon
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Lesson 7 - D'o∙ viens-tu (Where do you come from)
Some sound files of this lesson are not available yet but I thought that it
was worth releasing this lesson because I know how eager to learn French
you are. The missing sound files will be added very soon.
Lesson plan :
1. Vocabulary
2. Conversation
3. Notes on Vocabulary
4. Liaisons Guidelines
1.Vocabulary
Noms (Nouns)
* ici (here)
* lα (there)
* un pays (country)
* une ville (city, town)
* la citoyennetΘ (citizenship)
* une destination (destination)
* une origine (origin)
Verbes (Verbs)
* [headphone]venir (to come)
* [headphone]aller (to go)
* aller α (to go to)
* venir de (to come from)
* voyager (to travel)
* Ωtre nΘ (to be born)
Adjectifs (Adjectives)
* loin (far)
* prΦs (close)
PrΘpositions (Prepositions)
* de (from)
* α (to)
Conjonctions (Conjunctions)
* quel/quelle/quels (what)
2. Conversation
La famille Dupont a de nouveaux voisins. Pierre rencontre le fils de ses
voisins.
The Dupont Family has new neighbours. Pierre meets the son of his
neighbours.
Pierre : Bonjour. Je m'appelle Pierre. Comment t'appelles-tu ?
Pierre : Hello, my name is Pierre. What is your name ?
Peter : Je m'appelle Peter
Peter : My name is Peter.
Pierre : D'o∙ est-ce que tu viens ?
Pierre : Where do you come from ?
Peter : Je viens d'Angleterre. Mes parents sont anglais.
Peter : I come from England. My parents are english.
Pierre : Super ! Est-ce que tu viens de Londres ?
Pierre : Wonderful ! Do you come from London ?
Peter : Oui. Je suis nΘ α Londres.
Peter : Yes. I was born in London.
Pierre : Tu parles bien franτais. Moi, je ne parle pas anglais.
Pierre : You speak French very well. As far as I am concerned, I don't
speak English.
3. Notes on Vocabulary
Countries and Citizenship
In French, as in English, the first character of country names must be
uppercase, while the uppercase is not required for the citizenship. Example
(refer to the " additional vocabulary " section for more country names) :
Country Citizenship
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France franτais (French)
Belgique (Belgium) belge (Belgian)
Suisse (Switzerland) suisse (Swiss)
Angleterre (England) anglais (English)
Allemagne (Germany) allemand (German)
Italie (Italy) italien (Italian)
Espagne (Spain) espagnol (Spanish)
Irlande (Ireland) irlandais (Irish)
Russie (Russia) russe (russian)
╔tats Unis d'AmΘrique (USA) amΘricain (American)
Canada (Canada) canadien (Canadian)
QuΘbec (Quebec) quΘbΘcois (Quebecer)
Chine (China) chinois (Chinese)
Japon (Japan) japonnais (Japanese)
Note that, as opposed to English, the citizenship cannot be easily derived
from the country name. Citizenship is similar to an adjectif [je suis
franτais (I am French)]. Consequently, citizenship must be in accordance
with the gender and the number of the people considered. Example :
* Elle est anglaise (She is English)
* Mes amis sont amΘricains (My friends are American)
* Les chinois et les chinoises ne sont pas grands (Chinese men and women
are not tall)
As same as citizenship, the way French people call the inhabitants of a
city is not straight forward. The list below provides some examples :
City Inhabitant
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Paris parisien
Marseilles marseillais
Lyon lyonnais
Lille lillois
Toulouse toulousain
Bruxelles bruxellois
GenΦve (Geneva) genΦvois
Rome romain
Londres (London) londonien
Berlin berlinois
New York new-yorkais
PΘkin (Beijing) pΘkinois
There are some striking irregular examples :
City Inhabitant
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Saint ╔tienne stΘphanois
Saint Malo malouin
Bordeaux bordelais
Madrid madrilΦne
Moscou moscovite
Prepositions de and α
When used with verbs expressing a movement, the preposition de means from,
while α means to. Therefore, they are both key prepositions in French
language. Examples :
* venir de (to come from)
* aller α (to go to)
More precisely, de and α refer to locations and not to movements. de refers
to the origine of the movement and α refers to the destination. To
illustrate that, consider the following expression : d'ici α lα [d'ici is
the contraction of de ici] which means from here to there (ici = here, lα =
there).
Note that de and α have both different meanings depending on the verb they
are associated with or their role in the sentence. For instance, we have
already mentioned (see lesson 6) that de is used to express the genitive
relationship between two words.
4. Liaisons Guidelines
Pierre : Bonjour. Je m'appelle Pierre. Comment t'appelles-tu ?
Peter : Je m'appelle Peter
Pierre : D'o∙ est-ce que tu viens ?
Peter : Je viens d'Angleterre. Mes parents sont anglais.
Pierre : Super ! Est-ce que tu viens de Londres ?
Peter : Oui. Je suis nΘ α Londres.
Pierre : Tu parles bien franτais. Moi, je ne parle pas_anglais.
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