Asking "how are you?" in French | Coffee Break French Podcast S1E01

Bonjour et bienvenue à Coffee Break French. Welcome to Coffee Break French. My name is Mark and I'm here to guide you through the entire course. In lesson one, you're going to be learning to ask the question,

Ça va? Ça va means how are you? And you'll also learn some suitable answers to this question too. I hope you enjoy the lesson.

When I asked Anna, est-ce que tu es prête? She said, oui, Mark. Oui means yes. So, can you repeat that after me, please? Oui.

Oui.

Now, I deliberately left a space there before Anna repeated the word, and that's basically so that you, the listener, can repeat it after I say the word. So try to emulate my pronunciation when I say it, and then Anna will say it and you can say it again along with her.

So, the word for yes is, oui.

Oui.

And try to immediately start to put on that French accent. Oui.

Oui.

If we learn the word for yes, then theoretically we'll also need to learn the word for no. And that is, non.

Non.

Now, you'll notice immediately that in French, the word non, is in fact quite a nasal sound. Indeed, sometimes in my classes I've asked my students to hold their nose when they say non. Try it now. Non.

Non.

Now, we've just got this image of lots of people all over the world holding their noses and repeating this word. Obviously, we don't expect you to hold your nose all the time when you say no, but it does help you get that nasal sound to begin with. Non. Non.

Non.

So yes is, oui.

Oui.

No is, non.

Non.

Très facile, very easy. Okay.

Now today we're going to be asking how you're feeling, how are you? And the way in which you say this in French is, ça va?

Ça va?

Obviously, in French, there are lots of ways to ask how are you, but it's the same in English. We could say, how are you? How are you feeling? How's it going? And so on.

So to begin with, we're just going to concentrate on one phrase, and that is, ça va? Ça va?

Ça va?

Ça va?

Ça va?

And to answer, we could say, well, as in, how are you? Well. And the word for well is another nasal sound. It's, bien.

Bien.

Bien. Bien.

So if I ask you, Anna, how are you? I could say, ça va, Anna?

Bien.

Okay. We've got our first French conversation. It's not the most extensive conversation, but nevertheless, it's a French conversation. So this time I'm going to ask you, how are you? And you answer, well. Ça va?

Now, Anna, what should their listeners have said? Bien. Bien.

Bien. Okay, means well. Now we're going to add in another word here.

And that word is, thanks. So we can say, how are you? Well, thanks. And the word for thanks, or thank you, is, merci.

Merci.

Now, merci is one of these slightly tricky words in French, because it's got a French R sound. And that's a sound that's quite difficult to produce, and we'll be concentrating on how to produce that in a future lesson. In the meantime, just try to get as close as possible to, merci.

Merci.

Now, Anna, I have to say that you've got quite a good pronunciation of the French R sound. In fact, probably because we are Scottish, we've maybe got a little advantage. We've got sounds like in the word loch, and then we also roll our Rs, so we say red as opposed to red or anything else. So maybe we have got an advantage, but concentrating on the French R is something that we'll do in a future program. Just let's try to repeat, merci.

Merci.

Okay, so getting back to the, the conversation, we had, ça va?

Ça va?

How are you? Bien, merci. Well, thanks. Okay. I'll say, how are you? You reply, well, thanks. Ça va?

Bien, merci.

Now, you could also say, ça va bien, merci.

Ça va bien, merci.

That literally means, it's going well, thanks. Ça va bien, merci. And it's an alternative to just saying, bien, merci.

Ça va bien, merci.

Ça va bien, merci.

So, let's try this in our conversation. Ça va? Ça va bien, merci. Okay, très bien. Now, we're going to add in another phrase here.

We're building blocks here, building up to a larger conversation with small blocks of language. And our next block of language is, what about you? And you? And this phrase is, et toi?

Et toi?

Et toi? And et toi means, and you. So, Anna, can you try saying this after you've answered my question here?

Ça va? Ça va bien, merci. Et toi? Ça va bien.

Okay, let's try this again, this time with our listeners. So, I'll ask the question.

You say, I'm well, thanks, and you? And then I'll answer your question. So, let's try this. Ça va? Ça va bien. So you should have said there, ça va bien, merci, et toi? And I, of course, answered, ça va bien.

Okay. I want you to imagine a set of children's building blocks. All different colors and all different sizes. Each time the child builds something, something new is constructed. And that's just like a language. A language is made up of words, and the idea is that you're putting it all together to form different sentences. And that's what we're going to do now. We're going to add in a new building block, and that is the word, très. Très.

Très.

And très means very. So, we can put it into our sentence here, ça va bien. And instead of saying, ça va bien, things are going well.

We could say, ça va très bien. Things are going very well. Try repeating that after me now. Ça va très bien. Ça va très bien.

Ça va très bien.

Ça va très bien.

Ça va très bien.

Okay. Now, Anna, can you tell me how you would say, things are going very well, thank you?

Ça va très bien, merci.

Ça va très bien, merci. Okay, let's everybody repeat that.

Ça va très bien, merci.

Ça va très bien, merci.

Excellent, excellent. That's something I'll be saying, excellent, it means excellent. I could equally say, très bien, very good.

But of course, things don't always go very well. In fact, you might want to say, things aren't too great at all. In which case, you don't say, ça va, but, ça ne va pas.

Ça ne va pas.

Ça ne va pas. And you may also hear, ça va pas.

Ça va pas.

Ça ne va pas. Ça va pas. Okay. So, Anna, I'm going to ask you how things are going. This time I'd like you to say, things aren't going well.

Okay. Ça va, Anna?

Ça ne va pas.

Oh. Okay, this time, I'm going to ask you how things are going.

I'd like you to say, things are going well. Ça va, Anna? Ça va bien, merci. Excellent. Et cette fois, this time, I'm going to ask you the same question, and this time I want things to be going brilliantly, really well, okay?

Ça va, Anna? Ça va très bien, merci.

Ça va très bien, merci.

Okay, excellent, excellent. Let's repeat those three answers one more time.

Ça va bien, merci. Ça va très bien, merci.

Ça va très bien, merci.

Okay, so things are going really well, and things aren't going well. Ça ne va pas.

Ça ne va pas.

Excellent. Okay, before we finish this lesson, I'd like to add in two more phrases. One is quite a colloquial phrase, it's quite a cool way of saying, yeah, things are going well, things are good. It's, je suis en forme.

Je suis en forme.

Let's split that up because it's quite tricky. Je suis.

Je suis.

And je suis means I am. Je suis.

Je suis.

And then the full phrase, je suis en forme.

Je suis en forme.

Okay, just watch the pronunciation there at the end, forme. Forme.

Forme.

Très bien. Je suis en forme. Je suis en forme.

Je suis en forme.

Excellent. Now, if je suis means I am, what do you think je suis en forme means?

Doesn't mean that I'm in good form?

Yeah, exactly. Literally, I am in form. I'm fit, I'm healthy, I'm in good form. Je suis en forme. Je suis en forme. Forme. Très bien. And one other phrase, which you may want to use in answer to the question, ça va?

And that is another je suis, this time, je suis fatigué.

Je suis fatigué.

Fatigué. Fatigué.

Fatigué.

Now, fatigué is linked to the English word fatigue. Fatigue, meaning, of course,

Tiredness.

Tiredness, exactly, being tired. So, je suis fatigué means,

I'm tired.

I'm tired. Okay, let's go through all these phrases again.

So, to begin with, we had, ça va? Ça va? How are you? And our first answer was, bien, merci.

Bien, merci.

So, well, thanks. Or you could extend it and say, ça va bien, merci. Ça va bien, merci.

Ça va bien, merci.

Okay, then to say, I'm very well, things are going very well, ça va très bien, merci. Ça ne va pas.

Ça ne va pas.

And to say that you're fighting fit, you're on form, je suis en forme. Je suis en forme.

Je suis en forme.

And to say that you're tired, or you're fatigued, je suis fatigué. And finally, can you remember how to say, and you?

Et toi?

Et toi? Et toi?

Et Mark, what about yes and no?

Oh yeah, sorry. Okay, so yes is, oui.

Oui.

And no is, non. A nice nasal sound to finish with.

And that's where we're going to leave it today for this edition of Coffee Break French.

Thanks for joining us and we hope it's been useful. You can join the Coffee Break French community on Facebook at facebook.com/coffeebreakfrench.

And we're at learn French on Twitter. Merci beaucoup et à bientôt.

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