LESSON NOTES

Lower Intermediate S2 #18

Discovering New Worlds in the
French Library!

CONTENTS
2 French
2 English
3 Vocabulary
3 Sample Sentences
4 Vocabulary Phrase Usage
5 Grammar
8 Cultural Insight

# 18
COPYRIGHT © 2013 INNOVATIVE LANGUAGE LEARNING. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
 FRENCH

1. Bibliothécaire : Bonjour, comment puis-je vous aider ?

2. Laure : Bonjour, nous souhaiterions nous inscrire à la bibliothèque.

3. Bibliothécaire : Bien sûr, remplissez ce formulaire. (pause) Quel genre de littérature

aimez -vous ?

4. Vincent : J'aime bien les polars, la science-fiction et les biographies...

5. Laure : Moi, c'est plutôt la bande dessinée, la science-fiction et la fantasy,

mais j'aime bien quelques romans actuels et le théatre.

6. Bibliothécaire : Très bien, donc au rez -de-chaussée, vous trouverez les livres
jeunesse, la bande dessinée et les arts. Au premier étage, la
littérature française, le théatre et la poésie ; au second, les
littératures de l'imaginaire, l'histoire, les sciences et techniques.
N'hésitez pas à venir me poser des questions !

ENGLISH

1. Librarian: Hello, how can I help you?

2. Laure: Hello. We would like to register with the library.

3. Librarian: Of course! Could you please complete this form? (pause) What type
of literature do you fancy?

4. Vincent: I like thrillers, science fiction, and biographies...

5. Laure: As for me, it's comics, science fiction, and fantasy, but I also like
some of the modern novels and plays.

CONT'D OVER

FRENCHPOD101.COM LOWER I NT ERMEDI AT E S 2 #18 - DI S COVERI NG NEW WORLDS I N T HE FRENCH LI BRARY! 2

6. Librarian: Great, well, on the ground floor you'll find the children's, the
comics, and the arts sections; on the first floor, the French
literature, play, and poetry sections; and on the second floor, the
fiction, history, science, and technical writing. Don't hesitate to
come and ask me if you have any questions.

VOCABULARY

Fr e nc h English C lass Ge nde r

poésie poetry noun feminine

imaginary world,
imaginaire fantasy noun masculine

rez -de-chaussée first floor, street level noun masculine

théatre theater noun masculine

fantasy fantasy noun feminine

comic book, graphic

bande dessinée novel noun feminine

biographie biography noun feminine

inscrire to register verb

to fill (up), to fill in, to

remplir fulfill, to carry out verb

genre category, kind noun

SAMPLE SENTENCES

Mon gr and-pèr e a demandé ma Cet enfant a un imaginair e t r ès r iche.

gr and-mèr e en mar iage en écr ivant
de la poésie.
"T his child has a very rich imaginary
world."
"My grandfather proposed to my
grandmother by writing poetry."

FRENCHPOD101.COM LOWER I NT ERMEDI AT E S 2 #18 - DI S COVERI NG NEW WORLDS I N T HE FRENCH LI BRARY! 3

Les appar t ement s au r ez -de-
chaussée sont t r ès pr at iques, mais
br uyant s.
"First floor apartments are very
convenient but noisy."
Le t héat r e n’int ér esse plus
beaucoup les jeunes de nos jour s.
"T heater doesn’t interest a lot of
young people nowadays."

La fant asy est un genr e lit t ér air e Angoulême est la ville fr ançaise de la
t r ès à la mode depuis la sor t ie des bande dessinée.
films “Le Seigneur des Anneaux”.
"Angoulême is the French town
"Fantasy is a kind of literature that dedicated to comics."
has become famous since the
movies "T he Lord of the Rings"
were released.

J ’aime beaucoup lir e des biogr aphies J 'ai r empli le bullet in d'inscr ipt ion.
de gr ands hommes du XXe siècle.
"I filled in the subscription form."
"I really enjoy reading biographies
about the great men of the
twentieth century."

J 'ai r empli la bout eille d'eau. Quel genr e de filles aimes-t u?

"I filled up the water bottle." "What kind of girls do you like?"

VOCABULARY PHRASE USAGE

Rez-de-chaussée

This phrase is used to talk about the first floor (in the U.S.), which is the street level in France.
Premier étage will be the second floor, and so on. The French can also say à l'étage, which
stands for "upstairs" to talk about the upper floor. Here are common expressions used daily:

à l'étage du dessus - "upstairs," "on the floor above"

à l'étage du dessous - "downstairs," "on the floor below"

Monter à l'étage - "to go upstairs"

Bande dessinée

This word in French stands for "comic book." It refers to the general concept of comic strips,

FRENCHPOD101.COM LOWER I NT ERMEDI AT E S 2 #18 - DI S COVERI NG NEW WORLDS I N T HE FRENCH LI BRARY! 4

but there is also a difference made depending on the origin of the comic.

Comics from Europe, especially from France and Belgium, will be called bande dessinée.
Comics from the U.S. and UK will be called comics, even if they're not super hero stories. For
comics from Asia, it depends on the country:

Japan: manga

China: manhua

Korea: manhwa

If you're looking for a comic book but are not sure about the exact term, you can just say:

1. Je recherche une bande dessinée...

"I'm looking for a comic book..."

And then add the title or the author's name.

Imaginaire

This word is used in the dialog to talk about fiction books in French, gathering science
fiction, fantasy, and fantastic stories into one group. The French words are quite easy:

Science fiction - "science fiction"

Fantasy - "fantasy"

Fantastique - "fantastic"

Fantasy, in French, refers to Lord of the Rings-type stories, with dragons, barbarians, quests,
and magic.

Fantastic refers to abnormal situations with horrific creatures, ghosts, and so on. Both
Lovecraft's and Neil Gaiman's stories are called fantastic, even though they are really
different.

Science fiction refers to exactly the same as it does worldwide: space opera, futuristic, post-
apocalyptic, etc.

GRAMMAR

T he Focus of t his Lesson Is t he Pr onunciat ion of Y, OE, and U

Bonjour, nous souhaiterions nous inscrire à la bibliothèque.
"Hello. We would like t o r egist er wit h t he libr ar y."

FRENCHPOD101.COM LOWER I NT ERMEDI AT E S 2 #18 - DI S COVERI NG NEW WORLDS I N T HE FRENCH LI BRARY! 5

These three sounds can be easily mixed up and are sometimes hard to pronounce, so here
are a list of common words using them. The only key is to listen and practice.

[y], written as u:

chute - "fall"

dur - "hard"

tu - "you"

J'ai eu - "I had"

aiguë - "acute"

une - "one" (feminine form)

truc - "thing"

For example:

1. Il y croyait beaucoup, aussi la chute a été dure.

"He was believing in it so much that the fall was hard."

2. J'ai eu une douleur aiguë pendant deux jours, mais maintenant, ça va mieux.
"I've had an acute pain for two days, but now it's getting better."

Examples fr om t his dialogue:

1. Bien sûr, remplissez ce formulaire.

"Of course. Could you please complete this form."

2. Quel genre de littérature aimez-vous ?

"What type of literature do you fancy?"

[oe], written as eu or u in case of a loan word:

jeune - "youth"

peur - "fear"

meuble - "furniture"

fleur - "flower"

heure - "hour"

FRENCHPOD101.COM LOWER I NT ERMEDI AT E S 2 #18 - DI S COVERI NG NEW WORLDS I N T HE FRENCH LI BRARY! 6

club - "club"

For Example:

1. Les jeunes ont arrosé les fleurs de leur grand-mère pendant un mois.
"The youth watered the flowers of their grandmother for one month."

2. Je passe deux heures par jour au club de go.

"I spend two hours a day at the go club."

Examples fr om t his dialogue:

1. Au rez-de-chaussée, vous trouverez les livres jeunesse.

"On the ground floor, you'll find the children's section."

Sample Sent ences

1. Elle a inscrit ses enfants dans un club de judo.

"She registered her children in a judo club."

[u], written as ou or u in the case of loan words:

loup - "wolf"

tout - "all"

court - "short"

pudding - "pudding"

genou - "knee"

roue - "wheel"

bonjour - "hello"

souhaiter - "to wish"

For Example:

1. La roue tourne toujours !

"The wheels are always turning!"

FRENCHPOD101.COM LOWER I NT ERMEDI AT E S 2 #18 - DI S COVERI NG NEW WORLDS I N T HE FRENCH LI BRARY! 7

2. Elle porte une jupe courte au-dessus
du genou.
"She wears a short skirt, above the knees."

Examples fr om t his dialogue:

1. Bonjour, nous souhaiterions nous inscrire à la bibliothèque.

"Hello. We would like to register with the library."

Sample Sent ences

1. Le théatre n'intéresse plus beaucoup les jeunes de nos jours.

"Theater doesn't interest a lot of young people nowadays."

CULTURAL INSIGHT

Differ ent T ypes of Lit er at ur e in Fr ance

In France, literature has a great place in people's lives. One can find any type of literature for
all ages. Here are the main categories of French literature:

Roman - "novel"

Philosophie des Lumières - "Enlightenment philosophy"

Roman historique - "historical novel"

Biographie - "biography"

Autobiographie - "autobiography"

Fiction - "fiction." This refers to any type of imaginary story that doesn't fit in the next
categories:

Autofiction - "autofiction"

Polar, roman policier, roman noir - "noir novels," "detective fiction"

Science-fiction - "science fiction"

Fantastique - "fantastic"

FRENCHPOD101.COM LOWER I NT ERMEDI AT E S 2 #18 - DI S COVERI NG NEW WORLDS I N T HE FRENCH LI BRARY! 8

Thriller - "thriller"

Fantasy - "fantasy"

Conte et légendes - "tales and legends"

Conte de fées - "fairy tales"

Bande dessinée - "comic books"

Comics - "U.S./UK comics"

Manga - "Asian comics"

Roman graphique - "graphic novel"

Poésie - "poetry"

Théatre - "theater"

Nouvelle - "short story"

Mémoires - "memoirs"

FRENCHPOD101.COM LOWER I NT ERMEDI AT E S 2 #18 - DI S COVERI NG NEW WORLDS I N T HE FRENCH LI BRARY! 9