Lesson 3: Casual and formal speech.
Bonjour tout le monde ! Beau temps aujourd'hui, n'est ce pas ? Allez, à vos places, nous allons commencer ! (Hello everybody ! Nice weather today, isn't it ? Come on, go to your seats, we are going to start !)
As the French teacher walked to his desk, the students stopped their chit-chats to do just the same.
"Today, class, we are going to study casual and formal speech. Any question before we start ?"
"Sir, will you teach us something about France ?"
Suddenly, Mr Bonnefoy's face seemed to glow with happiness and pride as his smile grew wide, and his voice loud with enthousiasm.
"Why, of course ! Oh mon Dieu, I'd thought you would never ask ! I've been waiting so long to hear this, you have no idea how much it makes me..."
"Yo, Teach' ! Gotta go back down ta earth now !" A gangsta looking boy called from the back, snickering.
"Now that was just rude, young man. You should know better than interrupting your teacher like this. I will have to give you extra homework."
But the rest of the kids were happy to be spared from one their French teacher's infamous monologue.
"Now... what was I saying... Oh, yes. I will certainly be elated to teach you anything about French culture, history and more. But I don't know where to start... I think I will stick to your questions when you can think of a few. This will be your homework for the next time we meet."
As the blonde man took a pause to allow everyone to write down their homework in their agendas, he waited patiently until each pupil was finished.
"Now then, about casual and formal speech." He turned to the blackboard.
"First, let's see pronouns again:
Moi, je. - Me, I.
As you can see, 'I' in French is the same for both genders.
Toi, tu. You, you.
As you already guessed, we're talking about the casual 'you' here. A 'you' for aquitances, friends, people with whom you can talk at ease.
An example: Toi qui aimes les pommes, Arthur, en voudrais-tu quelques unes ?
You who likes apples, Arthur, would you like to have some ?
Lui, il. Him, he.
For men.
Elle, elle. Her, she.
For women.
Nous, nous. On, on. Us, we.
Now allow me to explain: as you can see there are two 'us' in French: the regular one (nous) and the casual one (on). But beware: 'nous' belongs to plural, while 'on' is singular.
An example: Nous sommes trois.- We are three.
On est trois. - We're three. (Do not translate litteraly, it would not make any sense)
Vous, vous. You, you.
Here again, I'll try a few examples to make my point:
a) Commes vous êtes beaux dans vos nouveaux costumes, les enfants ! - How beautiful you are in your new costumes, kids !
See, there is a 'you' for adressing several people.
b) Comme vous êtes beau dans ce nouveau costume, monsieur ! - How beautiful you are in this new costume, sir !
This is a 'you' to adress someone formally. And as such, the conjuguaison in that form of speech is plural, just like for the 'you' in a).
Eux, ils. Them, they.
For men.
Elles, elles. Them, they.
For women.
Everything okay so far, kids ? Are you sure ? Perfect then. We will continue this lesson next time. Now I will just add this before class is over: remember not to confuse the different you's since there is one for casual speech (tu), one for formal speech (vous), and one to use when talking to several people in the same time (vous).
I wish you all a great day, see you next week, same time, same place, dearies !"
So, you've probably figured it out: I'm running out of inspiration for future lessons so I hope you could suggest a few topics to me, would it be grammar, history, culture, anything. I'm counting on you, guys !
