LESSON NOTES

Survival Phrases #8
Can You Speak English?

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

# 8
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 FRENCH

1. Parlez-vous anglais?

2. Vous parlez anglais?

3. Tu parles anglais?

4. Je parle un peu français.

ENGLISH

1. Do you speak English? (formal "vous" form)

2. You speak English?

3. Speak English? (informal "tu" form)

4. I speak a little French.

VOCABULARY

Fr e nc h English C lass Ge nde r

parler to speak, to talk verb

tu you (informal) personal pronoun

vous you (formal) pronoun neuter

anglais(e) English noun masculine/feminine

je / j' I personal pronoun

français French noun masculine

un peu a little adverb

SAMPLE SENTENCES
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Ils parlent français. Tu parles espagnol ?

They speak French. "Do you speak Spanish?"

Tu as 20 ans. Tu vas au travail.

"You are twenty years old." "You go to work."

Vous êtes ici. Vous vous appelez David.

"You are here." "You are called David."

Mon ami anglais vient de Londres. L'anglais est la langue des affaires.

"My English friend comes from "English is the language of

London." business."

Je vais bien. Oui, je suis français.

"I am well." "Yes, I'm French."

Je veux un peu de fromage.

"I want a little cheese."

GRAMMAR

As mentioned, English is taught very early on in French schools, so almost everyone will know
some basic English. However, you shouldn't rely on this everywhere you go. Older people
and rural people tend not to speak English very much. Younger people, on the other hand,
tend to speak quite a lot of English, as popular culture, such as movies, music, and the
Internet, is more and more Anglophone.

The Acadamie Française, the government institution that regulates the French language, sees
this change as a problem. There are laws controlling how much English can be broadcast in
the media. For instance, all radio stations and movie theaters must have a majority of French
language content: that is to say, no more than fifty percent of content can be in English, and
most stations and movie theaters push this quota to the limit. So if you are looking for an
English break on your trip, the movie theatre and the radio have plenty. If you are looking for
signs or brochures in English, look for the British flag or the letters GB (Great Britain), as most of
the English speakers in France come from England.

In French, "I don't understand" is Je ne comprends pas. The first word, je, means "I." It is
followed by ne, which in French we put before a verb to make it negative, similar to "don't" in

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English. So to recap here, we have je ne. Literally, this means "I don't." The next word,
comprends, means "understand." It is followed by pas, which, along with the ne, completes
the negation of the verb. So all together, we have Je ne comprends pas. Literally, this means "I
don't understand." Another short way to express this is to say comment? This literally means
"how?" and is similar to "I'm sorry?" The person will repeat what he or she said following this
response.

CULTURAL INSIGHT

Finding Common Language Ground in French

In French, there are two ways of asking someone whether he or she speaks English. One is the
way we learned in the podcast, Parlez-vous anglais? which is the more common and more
respectful form. The French almost never say the second and more informal form using tu:
parles-tu anglais? So another way to make the expression more informal is to take away the
inversion and simply say Vous parlez anglais? or in the tu form, Tu parles anglais? Again, the
first phrase is the best for our purposes, but the second two maybe asked of you since the
person you are speaking with may hear your accent. But we won't let that happen, will we?

Now that you speak a little French, you may find it useful to express this fact in French. For
instance, if someone you meet does not speak English, you will need to find another common
language. The obvious one is French. To say you speak a bit of French, say Je parle un peu de
français. Here is a conversation you may have:

You: Parlez-vous anglais?

French person: Non.
You: Parlez-vous allemand?
French person: Non.
You: Ok, je parle un peu de français.

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