How to say “I prefer” in French | Coffee Break French Podcast S1E09

Bonjour tout le monde et bienvenue à Coffee Break French.

Welcome back to Coffee Break French, that's lesson nine, and in this lesson we're taking a look back at everything that we've learned so far in the course.

Over the past few weeks we've been looking at a variety of topics and it's now time to revise and review some of that language.

To begin with, let's think back to our first lesson when we learned how to say, how are you and to answer that question.

And first of all, can you remember how to say, how are you?

Ça va?

Exactly. Now Anna's going to leave a little time before she answers each question, it's not that she doesn't know the answers, I hope, but she's going to leave a little time for you to answer the questions before she does so that you can practice your French.

So Anna, if the question, ça va, means how are you, how would you say, yeah, I'm fine?

Ça va.

Exactly, you can answer the question, ça va, with the same phrase, ça va, it means, yeah, things are fine, I'm okay or whatever, but there are other answers that we learned for ça va, can you give me some of them, Anna, please?

Ça va bien.

Ça va bien, so what would that mean?

I'm well, thank you.

Okay, ça va bien, merci, and what about, things aren't too good?

Ça ne va pas.

Ça ne va pas, très bien.

Okay, what about, things are really good, I'm very well?

Ça va très bien.

Ça va très bien, and it's that difficult R sound in there, très, très, ça va très bien. Okay, so we also learned some greetings in episode two.

So we learned how to say good morning.

Bonjour.

Bonjour, très bien. And how would you say good evening?

Bonsoirée.

Ah, now, bonsoirée would mean have a good evening, enjoy your evening, how do you just say good evening in its normal form?

Bonsoir.

Bonsoir. That's right. Now, if bon bonsoirée means enjoy your evening, have a good evening, how would you say have a good day?

Bonne journée.

Bonne journée, très bien. And remember that soirée and journée are feminine, so you have to say bonne journée, bonne soirée, as opposed to bonjour, bonsoir, because jour and soir are masculine.

Let's try those four words or four phrases again, bonjour.

Bonjour.

Bonsoir.

Bonsoir.

Bonne journée.

Bonne journée.

Bonne soirée.

Bonne soirée.

Très bien. Okay, now, we also learned how to say goodbye.

Au revoir.

Au revoir. And what about, see you later?

À bientôt.

À bientôt. À bientôt would mean see you soon. You could say à plus tard or à plus, meaning see you later, à plus.

À plus.

À plus tard.

À plus tard.

Très bien.

Okay, let's move on. We learned how to say your name or my name is, can you remember how that is literally translated into French?

I think it's I call myself.

Exactly, I call myself, and how would you say that?

Je m'appelle.

Je m'appelle, très bien.

And can you remember how to ask someone what is your name?

Comment t'appelles-tu?

Okay, comment t'appelles-tu, that's how you would ask someone who's probably around the same age as you or somebody younger, how would you ask someone who is older, what is your name?

Comment vous appelez-vous?

Comment vous appelez-vous, appelez, appelez. Comment vous appelez-vous?

Appelez.

Appelez-vous.

Comment vous appelez-vous?

Comment vous appelez-vous?

Très bien. And obviously we've answered it with je m'appelle, sticking with the formal form, how would we ask someone where are you from or where do you come from?

Would it be d'où venez-vous?

D'où venez-vous? And how would you say that same question in the informal form?

D'où viens-tu?

D'où viens-tu? Okay, just watch your vowel sounds there, d'où viens-tu?

Okay, d'où d'où viens-tu?

D'où viens-tu? Très bien.

Okay, now, so we're asking the question, how do we answer that question?

I come from Paris.

Je viens de Paris.

Je viens de Paris, très bien.

How would you say, I live in Paris?

J'habite à Paris.

Très bien. J'habite à Paris.

How would you say then, I come from Paris, but I live in Lyon?

Je viens de Paris, mais j'habite à Lyon.

Très bien. So it's je viens de and j'habite à. J'habite à Lyon, je viens de Paris.

Okay, now, we also learned the words for the various members of our family, can you remember how to say, for example, my mother?

Ma mère.

Ma mère. And what about my father?

Mon père.

Okay, can you explain a little about my, the word for my there, because you got two different ones.

Right. Well, there's two different because, um, mother is feminine, so you need to use the feminine form of my.

And father is masculine.

So you need to use the masculine form of my, which is mon.

Okay, so the masculine form is mon, and the feminine form ma.

Mon, ma.

And tell me something, what about if you were talking about my children?

Mes enfants.

So there's a further form, the plural form is me.

Okay.

Me.

Okay, now how would you spell me?

M E S.

Now, when you said the word for my in the plural form, me, you didn't pronounce the S, but then when you said mes enfants, you pronounced the S.

Can you explain why you did that, Anna?

Um, I think I can, Mark, it's because when the the word that you're talking about begins with a vowel, you have to pronounce the consonant at the end of my.

Is that right?

That's pretty much it, yeah, mes enfants.

It's called liaison, so the S of me follows on and you pronounce it because it's it's followed by an E.

So mes enfants, but for example, mes copains, my friends.

Mes copains.

Okay, what about my son?

How would you say, this is my son or here is my son?

Voici mon fils.

Voici mon fils. And what about here is my daughter?

Voici ma fille.

Voici ma fille, très bien.

Okay, once we learned about family, we moved on and talked about numbers.

So we learned the numbers from one to ten, and I'm assuming that you remember the numbers, Anna.

And I'm assuming that everyone else remembers the numbers, but what we really tried to concentrate on when we were doing numbers is the pronunciation.

So, I'm going to give you a quick test here, okay?

I am going to ask you very quickly to come up with the numbers that I say here.

Now, Anna, you're going to get a little extra time here.

Because you've got to give the listeners a chance to repeat before you repeat.

So, let's begin.

Four.

Quatre.

Okay, seven, three.

Sept trois.

Okay, one, nine, two.

Un neuf deux.

Four, three, six, nine.

Quatre trois six neuf.

Seven, seven, one, four, five.

Sept sept un quatre cinq.

Three, two, six, four, four, one.

Trois deux six quatre quatre un.

Seven, eight, nine, four, four, one, two.

Sept huit neuf quatre quatre un deux.

Eight, one, three, four, five, six, two, one.

Euh, oh no. Okay, euh, huit un trois quatre cinq six deux un.

Do you want to go any further?

No, thank you.

Okay, hopefully everybody remembered their numbers and hopefully that wasn't too bad.

Okay, once we had done numbers, we then looked at jobs.

Now, there's an important thing that we've got to remember about jobs, when you say, I am, for example, I would say, I am a teacher in English.

Anna, can you remember what the issue is here with French for saying something like, I am a teacher?

Is it that you don't say a?

Exactly, you don't say I am a teacher in French, you say I am teacher.

I am engineer.

I am secretary or whatever.

So, let's try some of these.

I would say, je suis professeur.

Anna, how would you say, I am a student?

Je suis étudiante.

Good, well done, you remembered two things there, you remembered the je suis étudiante.

And you also remembered étudiante because you're feminine.

Therefore, you need étudiante.

I would say, étudiant.

Je suis étudiant.

Je suis étudiante.

Très bien.

Now, let's think of another job.

What about, I am an engineer?

Ehm, je suis ingénieur.

Ingénieur, très bien.

Je suis ingénieur.

Je suis ingénieur.

And what about, I work?

Can you remember how to say, I work?

Je travaille.

Je travaille.

In a hospital.

I work in a hospital.

Je travaille dans un hôpital.

Très bien.

Je travaille dans un hôpital.

Okay, what about I work in a shop?

Je travaille dans un magasin.

Un magasin, exactly.

A shop, perhaps you would buy a magazine, so you can maybe remember it that way.

Je travaille dans un magasin.

Now, can you remember, Anna, how to say, I like my work?

I think I can remember, it is j'aime mon travail.

Exactly, now, travail in this situation is spelled differently from the word I work.

Je travaille, that is T R A V A I L L E.

And mon travail, my work.

The word travail there is spelled T R A V A I L.

But they sound exactly the same.

And that's what we find with a lot of French words that they do actually sound the same.

So j'aime mon travail.

And how would you say, I don't like my work?

Je n'aime pas mon travail.

Je n'aime pas mon travail, très bien.

Anna, can you explain for us how you form a negative with a verb?

Right, you need to put the ne and the pas around the verb.

Okay.

So can you give us some examples?

Well, we've just had je n'aime pas mon travail.

But I guess you could also have je ne viens pas de Paris.

Or je n'habite pas à Paris.

Très bien.

How would you say, I am not a student?

Would it be je ne suis pas étudiante?

Je ne suis pas étudiante, or indeed, je ne suis pas étudiant.

Oh, I forgot the liaison.

Not to worry, in actual fact, it's probably optional really there in that situation.

Je ne suis pas étudiante, je ne suis pas étudiante.

Some people would say it one way, others would say it another way.

Okay, now, while we're talking about liking and disliking things.

Can you remember how you would say, for example, I like to sing?

J'aime chanter.

Chanter, and chanter is the infinitive form.

So you can remember that you can put any infinitive after j'aime or je n'aime pas.

What were the other words that we learned last time?

We learned to say, I hate.

Je déteste.

Je déteste, and I love.

J'adore.

J'adore, très bien.

Okay, hopefully you've found that a useful review of lots of the language covered between lessons one and eight of Coffee Break French.

What we're going to do now is put this language into context.

And give you a short dialogue between two people, we're going to be doing a role play here.

And these two people are talking to each other, meeting each other indeed for the first time in Paris, have a listen and then we'll talk about the language contained in the dialogue afterwards.

Salut.

Bonjour, ça va?

Ça va bien, merci, et toi?

Oui, ça va très bien, merci.

Je m'appelle Eric.

Je suis Fiona.

Tu es française?

Non, je suis écossaise.

Tu es français?

Non, en fait, je suis canadien.

Mais j'habite en France.

Où habites-tu en France?

J'habite à Menton, près de Nice.

Et toi, tu habites où en Écosse?

Je viens d'Édimbourg, mais maintenant, j'habite à Glasgow.

Je suis étudiante à l'Université de Glasgow.

Et tu es en vacances à Paris?

Oui, je suis en vacances avec mes amis.

Moi aussi.

En fait, je passe le weekend à Paris avec mon père.

Alors, tu es étudiante?

Oui, je suis étudiante de français.

Ah, d'accord.

Tu parles très bien.

Merci, et toi, qu'est-ce que tu fais dans la vie?

Moi, je suis étudiant de droit à Grenoble, mais je travaille dans un hôpital pendant le weekend.

Et tu aimes ton travail?

Oui, ça va.

Tu travailles, toi?

Oui, je travaille dans un café.

Et tu aimes ton travail?

Oui, j'aime mon travail, mais je préfère sortir avec mes amis.

Alors, bonnes vacances.

Merci, à toi aussi.

So, how did you find that?

Hopefully, you were able to pick out quite a bit of that conversation.

And understood lots of the French that was used.

It's all about getting the gist of things when you're listening to a foreign language.

Especially when you're just at an early stage.

I'm going to go through now the conversation between Fiona and Eric.

And we'll pick out a few words and phrases.

So, Fiona began by saying, salut.

Hello, hi.

And Eric said, bonjour, ça va?

Hello, how are you?

And Fiona answered, ça va bien, merci, et toi?

I'm well, thank you, and you?

Oui, ça va très bien, merci.

Yes, I'm well, thank you, or very well.

Yeah, very well, indeed.

And then Eric said, je m'appelle Eric.

I am called Eric.

And Fiona replied, je suis Fiona.

I am Fiona.

Now note that Fiona said, je suis Fiona.

She could have said, je m'appelle Fiona, or even moi, c'est Fiona.

But she chose to say, I am Fiona.

Je suis Fiona.

Je suis Fiona.

Okay, and then Eric asked her, tu es française?

Are you French?

And Fiona replied, non, je suis écossaise.

No, I am Scottish.

Tu es français?

Are you French?

And then Eric replied, non, en fait, je suis canadien.

En fait means, in fact.

Non, en fait, je suis canadien, no, in fact, I'm Canadian.

Mais j'habite en France.

But I live in France.

Okay, so Fiona asked a question then, où habites-tu en France?

Where do you live in France?

Uh-huh, and Eric answered, j'habite à Menton.

Menton is a town in the south of France, the southeast of France.

Right on the Italian border, in fact.

Près de Nice, he said.

Près de means near, it's not something we've done already.

J'habite à Menton, près de Nice.

So I live in Menton, near Nice.

Et toi, tu habites où en Écosse?

And you, where do you live in Scotland?

Yeah, so Fiona then said, je viens d'Édimbourg.

I come from Edinburgh.

Mais maintenant.

But now.

J'habite à Glasgow.

I live in Glasgow.

And then she said what she does in Glasgow.

Je suis étudiante à l'Université de Glasgow.

I am a student at the University of Glasgow.

And Eric asked her, et tu es en vacances à Paris?

Now, that's again something that we've not done yet.

Vacances is linked to the word vacation.

So, et tu es en vacances à Paris?

And what do you think that means?

Um, are you on vacation in Paris?

Yeah, are you on vacation or on holiday in Paris?

And Fiona answers, oui, je suis en vacances avec mes amis.

Yes, I'm on holiday with my friends.

Okay, and Eric said, moi aussi.

Me too.

Now, this is a bit tricky.

Je passe le weekend à Paris avec mon père.

Now, first of all, there's a family member mentioned in there.

Mon père.

My father.

Uh-huh, and he said something about le weekend à Paris.

Could that mean the weekend?

Good, indeed.

And he said, je passe.

What do you think that means?

Is it to pass time?

Yeah, it's to pass time, to spend, so I'm spending the weekend in Paris with my father.

Je passe le weekend à Paris avec mon père.

So I'm spending the weekend in Paris with my father.

Yeah, can we all repeat that, please?

Je passe le weekend à Paris avec mon père.

Then Eric said, alors.

Alors is a word I use quite a lot.

It means well.

Tu es étudiante.

Well, you're a student.

Yeah, and Fiona then specifies exactly what she studies.

She says, je suis étudiante de français.

I am a French student.

Yeah.

And Eric says, ah, d'accord.

D'accord means okay.

Ah, d'accord, ah, okay.

Tu parles très bien.

That actually means you speak very well.

And we're going to be doing more about speaking French and understanding things.

In lesson eleven or twelve coming up quite soon.

Fiona thanks Eric for the compliment, merci.

And then she asks, et toi, qu'est-ce que tu fais dans la vie?

And you, what do you do in life?

Yeah, literally what do you do in life?

She's sort of asking, does he work or does he study and so on.

And Eric says, je suis étudiant de droit.

Now, we've not done this.

Étudiant, you know what that is.

A student.

And he's studying le droit.

Le droit is law.

So, je suis étudiant de droit à Grenoble.

I'm a law student in Grenoble.

Mais je travaille dans un hôpital pendant le weekend.

But I work in a hospital at the weekend.

Uh-huh.

And then Fiona asks, tu aimes ton travail?

Do you like your work?

Oui, ça va.

Tu travailles, toi?

And do you work?

Yeah, and he used toi at the end of the sentence there.

To make the emphasis on you, tu travailles, toi?

Oui, je travaille dans un café.

Meaning, yes, I work in a cafe.

And Eric asked her if she liked her work.

And Fiona said, oui, j'aime mon travail.

Yes, I like my work.

But she said something that she prefers doing.

Mais je préfère sortir avec mes amis.

But I like going out with my friends.

Yeah, I prefer going out with my friends.

Mais je préfère sortir avec mes amis.

And then Eric finally wishes her, bonnes vacances.

I think I can guess this one, and it means, have a good holiday.

Yeah, enjoy your holiday.

Enjoy your vacation.

And Fiona says, merci, à toi aussi.

Thank you, and you too.