LESSON NOTES

Lower Intermediate S1 #8
Mom, I'm Going!

CONTENTS
2 Informal French
2 English
2 Vocabulary
3 Sample Sentences
4 Grammar
5 Cultural Insight

# 8
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 INFORMAL FRENCH

1. Sweety Aurélie: Maman, j’y vais !

2. Wiz Alice: Au récital littéraire sur Jacques Prévert ?

3. Sweety Aurélie: Non, je vais à la première de Harry Potter.

4. Wiz Alice: Tu y vas accompagnée ?

5. Sweety Aurélie: Je t’y invite comme tu sembles être intéressée !

ENGLISH

1. Sweetie Aurélie: Mom, I’m going.

2. Wiz Alice: To the literary recital on Jacques Prévert?

3. Sweetie Aurélie: No, I'm going to the Harry Potter premiere.

4. Wiz Alice: Are you going there with someone?

5. Sweetie Aurélie: I'll invite you there, as you seem to be interested!

VOCABULARY

Fr e nc h English C lass Ge nde r

intéressé interested adjective masculine

récital recital noun masculine

littéraire literary adjective

sur on, by, about, over preposition

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 première premiere adjective feminine

accompagner to accompany verb

inviter to invite verb

comme as conjunction

sembler to seem verb

maman mom noun feminine

SAMPLE SENTENCES

Maur ice est int ér essé par cet t e Le r écit al est consacr é à Chopin.
annonce.
"T he recital is dedicated to Chopin."
"Maurice is interested in this
announcement."

J e m'inscr is au club lit t ér air e. Le livr e est sur la t able.

"I enroll in the literary club." "T he book is on the table."

La banque est sur la dr oit e.
"T he bank is on the right."
Ce t apis fait t r ois mèt r es sur cinq
mèt r es.
"T his rug is three meters by five
meters."

C'est la gr ande pr emièr e du film de Quel vin pour accompagner ?

Denz el Snipes.
"Which wine to accompany?"
"It's the important premiere of
Denzel Snipes movie."

Il vaut mieux êt r e seul que mal Il t 'invit e?

accompagné.
"Does he invite you?"
"It is worth more to be alone than
badly accompanied."

T u es sympa comme lui. Il semble êt r e heur eux.

"You are nice as he is." "He seems to be happy."

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Ma maman t r availle.

"My mom works."

GRAMMAR

Pr eposit ion à + place

We use many French verbs with the preposition à as in:

aller à Paris "to go to Paris"

inviter à une fête "to invite to a party"

There are many others verbs that require the preposition à followed by a place. For example:

aller à "to go to"

retourner à "to return to"
venir à "to come to"
manger à "eat at"

Pr eposit ion: à, à la, à l', au, aux

If the verb requiring the preposition à is followed by a:

Feminine noun- use à la

Masculine noun- use au (à le doesn't exist)

Noun with a vowel- use à l'

Plural noun- use aux

Examples:

un cinéma- Il va au cinéma. "He goes to the cinema."

une réunion- Je pense à la réunion. "I think of the meeting."
Les Etats-Unis- Nous envoyons des lettres aux Etats-Unis. "We send letters to the United
States."

Pr onoun y + place, concept or object s.

We use the pronoun y to avoid to reapeat an information, as in :

Places :

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This pronoun is really important and used everyday. It's common to leave the house saying
J'y vais !, literally "I'm going". This means one's leaving the house for shopping, school, office
or any place.

The rule is simple : y replace the place and comes directly after the personnal pronoun.

Je vais à Paris. J'y vais. "I go to Paris. I go there"

Il a mangé un plat délicieux dans ce restaurant. Il y a mangé un plat délicieux. "He ate a
delicious dish in this restaurant. He ate a delicious dish there"

Concept s and object s :

Using y with concepts and objects are mainly used with the verbs réfléchir "to reflect", penser
"to think", méditer "to ponder"...

Je réfléchis à mon avenir. J'y réfléchis. "I'm thinking about my future. I'm thinking about it."
Je pense à la fête de ce weekend. J'y pense. "I'm thinking about the next weekend's party. I'm
thinking about it."

Pense à ta valise. Penses-y. "Think about preparing your luggage. Think about it."
Pense à ranger ton bureau. Penses-y. "Think about tidying you desk. Think about it."

Here, penses-y means "don't forget to do it".

CULTURAL INSIGHT

J acques Pr éver t

He was a French poet and screenwriter. He was born in 1900 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Paris, and
died at the age of seventy-seven. Prévert participated actively in the surrealist movement. His
poems are often about life in Paris and life after the Second World War. French instructors
teach his poems in their schools and they frequently appear in French language textbooks
throughout the world. French singers, including Yves Montand and Édith Piaf among others,
as well as the American singer Joan Baez , have sung some of Prévert's poems.

Prévert's poems were published in his books: Paroles ("Words," 1946), Histoires ("Stories,"
1963), Spectacle (1951), La Pluie et le beau temps ("Rain and Good Weather," 1955), Fatras
(1971), and Choses et autres ("Things and Others," 1973).

Prévert wrote many classic screenplays for the film director Marcel Carné. Among the films
were Drôle de drame ("Biz arre, Biz arre," 1937), Quai des brumes ("Port of Shadows," 1938), Le
jour se lève ("Daybreak," 1939), Les Visiteurs du soir ("The Night Visitors," 1942) and Les
enfants du paradis ("The Children of Paradise," 1945). His poems were also the basis for the
movie La Seine a rencontré Paris ("The Seine Meets Paris," 1957), written by the documentary
film director Joris Ivens, in which the singer Serge Reggiani was the narrator.

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