Colloquial French 2

The Next step in Language Learning

Elspeth Broady

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781317306009
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Languages
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

Do you know French already and want to go a stage further? If you're planning a visit to France, need to brush up your French for work, or are simply doing a course, Colloquial French 2 is the ideal way to refresh your knowledge of the language and to extend your skills.

Colloquial French 2 is designed to help those involved in self-study, and structured to give you the opportunity to listen to and read lots of modern, everyday French. It has been developed to work systematically on reinforcing and extending your grasp of French grammar and vocabulary.

Key features of Colloquial French 2 include:
* a broad range of everyday situations, focusing on France and the wider francophone world
* revision: material to help consolidate and build up your basics
* a wide range of contemporary documents
* spoken and written exercises in each unit
* highlighted key structures and phrases, a grammar reference and detailed answer keys

Audio material to accompany the course is available to download free in MP3 format from www.routledge.com/cw/colloquials. Recorded by native speakers, the audio material features the dialogues and texts from the book and will help develop your listening and pronunciation skills. Supplementary exercises and French language web-links can also be accessed through this site.

1
Renouer contact

In this unit you can learn about:

• greetings, leave-taking and wishes to friends
• talking about the future
• forming questions
• using the imperative
• welcoming friends to your home
• revising future and perfect tenses

Text 1

The New Year – le nouvel an – is typically the time when the French send greetings to their friends. Cécile Gérard sent the card on page 2 to her English friends, Jane and David Saunders.

Exercise 1

As you read, check whether these statements are true or false:

1. Cécile and her family have moved house.
2. They now live in Rennes.
3. Rennes is a livelier place than Scaër.
4. They live in a restored mill.
5. They have a small garden.

Once you have read the card several times, try to translate your corrected answers into French.

Exercise 2

The following expressions crop up in Cécile’s card. Check their meaning by matching them with their English equivalents.

1	meilleurs vceux	a	the area’s wonderful
2	bonheur	b	the lively atmosphere
3	réussite professionnelle	c	an old mill
4	l’animation	d	best wishes
5	le coin est superbe	e	hilly
6	vallonné	f	happiness
7	un ancien moulin	g	success in your job

Chère Jane, cher David,

Nous vous adressons nos meilleurs vœux pour le nouvel an – que cette année vous apporte bonheur, santé et réussite professionnelle. Comme vous voyez, nous avons changé d’adresse. Nous sommes maintenant à Scaër, une petite ville sympathique à une vingtaine de kilomètres de Quimper. Cela change de Rennes: l’animation nous manque un peu, mais le coin est vraiment superbe (vallonné et vert). Nous avons acheté une maison typiquement bretonne (un ancien moulin restauré) avec un grand jardin. Il faut que vous veniez nous voir. Toutes nos amitiés. Cecile & Roger

Language points ◆

Did you notice?

1. It’s chère Jane but cher David? French adjectives change depending on the noun they refer to: feminine forms typically end in -e and plural forms end in -s (and feminine plural forms in e + s!). For more, see Grammar reference, p. 226.
2. It’s réussite professionnelle, but meilleurs vœux? Generally, French adjectives come after the noun, but many of the more frequent ones are placed before it. There are five just in Cécile’s card. Some adjectives also change their meaning depending on their position. For more, see p. 226.
3. Nous and vous also have different positions with different functions. Nous and vous are pronouns. They can function as grammatical subjects, as in nous avons changé d’adresse (‘we’ve moved house’) and comme vous voyez (‘as you see’). But they can also function as grammatical objects, e.g. il faut que vous veniez nous voir (‘you must come and see us’) and que cette année vous apporte bonheur (‘may this year bring you happiness’). For more on pronouns, see p. 228–9.

Greetings, leave-taking and wishes

The greeting on Cécile’s card is Bonne année (‘Happy New Year’ or ‘Have a good year’). Many greetings start with the adjective bon, as in Bonjour! (‘Hello!’ only used during the day) or Bonsoir! (‘Good evening!’). Many leave-taking expressions also use bon: Bonne journée! (‘Have a good day!’) Bonne soirée! (‘Have a good evening!’) or Bonne nuit! (‘Good night!’).

Using bon, you can also wish people well in their activities, for example Bonne chance! (‘Good luck’) or, where effort is involved, Bon courage! (‘Keep going! All the best!’), and where someone seems happy in what they are doing, Bonne continuation! (‘Keep up the good work!’). There are also more specific good wishes:

Bon appétit!	Enjoy your meal!
Bonne promenade!	Have a nice walk! Have a nice outing!
Bon séjour!	Enjoy your stay! Have a good time!
Bonnes vacances!	Have a good holiday!
Bon voyage!	Have a good trip!
Bonne route!	Have a safe (road) journey!
Bon rétablissement!	Get well soon! Speedy r...