French Blabla

Hey guys, bonjour à tous et bienvenue pour un nouvel épisode de podcast. How is your French going? Now that summer is over and we get back in the daily groove of things with work and school, have you found a place in your busy schedule for your French studies? I hope so and if you haven't, let's take advantage of the few minutes we have together to improve your French. Thank you for sharing your precious time with me.

I was thinking about my students from my Let's Talk conversation class. Check it out if you want to practice your French. I noticed that when they speak, a lot of them tend to rely on the same words, the same structures, over and over again.

There's nothing wrong about it, especially when we start learning, but there are other words and other structures that we use a lot in spoken French. However, it's difficult to know which ones to choose, because when you open a grammar book and you look for certain types of words, you're overwhelmed with a list of a dozen words… which one to choose? and especially which ones are actually common in daily French? There's no way to know.

Today let me give you two words that you're not even going to find in books or in class.

Bonjour à tous, thank you for taking a few minutes out of your very busy life to listen to my story today. Before we start I'd like to thank Checkmate king two for his very kind review on apple podcast. He was a bit puzzled with the format of the podcast and I can understand. So if you're new here, welcome to the French Blabla community and welcome to you too Checkmate King two.

In today's episode, we will see all the words we need to talk about the puppet theatre. As for the grammar focus, we will, review a few of the time words. If you're interested in the transcription, all the vocab and the grammar focus, head over to frenchblabla.org to download the study guide.

In this episode

• Discover a French cultural nugget
• Learn the vocabulary of the puppet theatre
• Review time words
• A challenge for you to shine

Music by Podington Bear

Coucou à tous ! Bienvenue pour le dernier épisode d'un petit tour de France. Avec la fin du mois d'août arrive aussi la fin de notre capsule estivale. Today is our last episode and the 5th city we're going to visit. If you've just jumped on the bandwagon, better later than never or in French, mieux vaut tard que jamais, you're very welcome to participate. Let me introduce you to how this series works. In the 4 previous episodes, we traveled to 4 different French cities and no, sorry to disappoint but Paris isn't one of them. The game is to guess which town it was using all the clues from the episodes. Now that they've all been released, send me an email with your 5 guesses and see if you were correct. As always, you can, of course, download the transcription of today's episode on frenchblabla.org.

Bonjour à tous, thanks for tuning in today, I hope you're ready for a new episode. Last year, yes, a long time ago, I started a small series called "Don't say this, say that instead". The goal here was to expand your vocabulary with natural words as well as explaining to you the subtleties of all the possibilities you had. It was pretty popular, at least the statistics and the emails you sent me say so. If you don't know what I'm talking about, go check episode 36 to learn a weird French sound and episode 33 to stop saying yes all the time. In the light of all this, I've decided to do a third instalment… there might be a fourth one too, but let's not put the cart before the horse.

As the title suggests, we're going to learn what to say when somebody says "merci" to you. Because yes, there are numerous ways you can answer. Let's start, shall we?

Coucou à tous et bienvenue dans notre série spéciale de l'été "un petit tour de France". Last week, you discovered the third city and today, we'll visit the fourth one. If you're new here, first welcome and let me introduce you to how this series works. This summer, we're not gonna do another short story, we're going to play a game together where we will travel to several French cities. But I'm not going to tell you which town it is. You will need to guess using all the clues from the episode. We will visit 5 places. After all the episodes have been released, send me a message with your 5 guesses and see if you were correct. This is our third city now, could you guess the two first ones? I'm really curious. As always, you can, of course, download the transcription of today's episode on frenchblabla.org.

Coucou à tous et bienvenue dans notre série spéciale de l'été "un petit tour de France". Last week, you discovered the second city and today, we'll visit the third one. If you're new here, first welcome and let me introduce you to how this series works. This summer, we're not gonna do another short story, we're going to play a game together where we will travel to several French cities. But I'm not going to tell you which town it is. You will need to guess using all the clues from the episode. We will visit 5 places. After all the episodes have been released, send me a message with your 5 guesses and see if you were correct. This is our third city now, could you guess the two first ones? I'm really curious. As always, you can, of course, download the transcription of today's episode on frenchblabla.org.

Bonjour à tous et bienvenue pour un nouvel épisode.

In the last episode, I said that I wasn't very enthusiastic about the Olympic Games. It still stands true but without them I wouldn't have discovered this gem. I never knew something like that existed and I had to tell you about it. After this episode, please tell me in the comment section if you knew about this sport.

Today there won't be any grammar focus as the episode is beaming with vocabulary. If you'd like to learn more about your car and what the different parts are called, then stay tuned. We won't obviously go into deep mecanic vocabulary but if I tell you the word steering wheel and you look at me completely confused, then yes, this is the kind of useful words we will study together. How about the brake? What is it called in French? No clue? Ok! Stay with me.

As usual, everything can be found in the study guide, the transcription, the vocabulary and the writing challenge. Go download it on frenchblabla.org

Music by Podington Bear

Coucou à tous et bienvenue dans notre série spéciale de l'été "un petit tour de France". Last week, you discovered the first city and today, we'll visit the second one. If you're new here, first welcome and let me introduce you to how this series works. This summer, we're not gonna do another short story, we're going to play a game together where we will travel to several French cities. But I'm not going to tell you which town it is. You will need to guess using all the clues from the episode. We will visit 5 places. After all the episodes have been released, send me a message with your 5 guesses and see if you were correct. You can, of course, download the transcription of today's episode on frenchblabla.org.

Today, we're going to talk about a topic that I'm not really enthusiastic about. Then, you're gonna wonder why do I bother doing a whole episode about it? Simply because it's a big thing going on and it's a classic part of the French life in summer. It will be also be a good excuse for new and interesting vocabulary. Speak of the devil or rather of the wolf, as we say in French, we will see the words and phrases related to the Olympic games as well as some connected to le Tour de France. As for the grammar focus, it will be for the B levels today. We will, indeed, review the words to contrast. In French, we call them les marqueurs de concession. Check them out in your grammar book if you're not sure about them. If you're interested in the transcription, all the vocab and the grammar focus, head over to frenchblabla.org to download the study guide.

Music by Podington Bear

Bonjour à tous et bienvenue dans notre série spéciale de l'été "un petit tour de France". Last year, if you remember, I shared with you a special series called La Saga de l'Ete, which was a short summer story about a bench in the south of France and the unfortunate event that happens to him and his friends. I say him because he's the main character and he talks. Go listen to it if you haven't. The transcription is also available for every part of the series. This summer, we're not gonna do another short story, we're going to play a game together where we will travel to several French cities. But I'm not going to tell you which town it is. You will need to guess using all the clues from the episode. We will visit 5 places. After all the episodes have been released, send me a message with your 5 guesses and see if you were correct. You can, of course, download the transcription of today's episode on frenchblabla.org. And you know what? There's even a little grammar focus, so if you want to review the use of the pronoun Y, this episode is for you.