French for Beginners

Topics covered: 

• Basic verb negation
• Indefinite articles
• Avoir in the present
• Avoir and idiomatic expressions
• Il y a

Welcome to the Language Theater! Bienvenue! Do you remember my name? That’s right, je m’appelle Jean-Paul. I hope you really enjoyed Act I and are ready for Act II. Are you ready? Oh, one more thing: review the flashcard before listening to the play. These new words will be used in the play and you should ...

Topics covered:

• Introduction to French verbs
• -ER verbs in the present
• Definite articles
• Voilà and Voici

Bonjour ! I’m glad to welcome you today to Act III of our play. I am sure you, like all of Valérie's students, must have reviewed the flashcard, studied the lessons on our website and even did grammar exercises before you listened to the play. Très bien ! We’re ready to start! 

Today Valérie meets with a student yo...

Topics covered:

• Prepositions with aller
• Aller in the present
• Ça va

Bonjour ! C’est moi Jean-Paul, your host for Act IV. Oui, Act IV already! We hope that following Jacques and Michelle in their endeavor to learn French is helping you to learn as well. Before you listen to the play, take time to familiarize yourself with the flashcard. Shall we begin? 

Valérie, our French teacher, is meeting with Michelle today for an...

Topics covered:

• Adjectives
• Avoir and idiomatic expressions (part 2)
• Qu’est-ce que c’est ?
• C’est, ce n’est pas
• Ce sont, ce ne sont pas

Bonjour les amis ! I’m glad to welcome you to Act V. Did you miss Jacques? We haven’t seen him in a few weeks. Today, we will catch up with him. Jacques has been busy with his restaurant project but it hasn’t prevented him from continuing his lessons with Valérie. He’s actually doing gre...

Topics covered:

• Adverbs
• -IR verbs in the present
• Être en train de

Bonjour les amis and welcome to Act VI. Today, we meet with Michelle for the third time. Valérie has been continuing the lessons with her and, as it turns out, Michelle is very determined to learn French... and to move to France with her retired husband. 

As you know, Valérie meets w...

Topics covered:

• RE verbs in the present
• Possessive determiners
• Tu te rends compte !
• Tu ne te rends pas compte !

Bonjour les amis, c’est Jean-Paul ! Bienvenue ! Today, I introduce to you Act VII and a special treat: a new character! ... I mean, a new student! He is not new to Valérie, however. He has been studying with her as long as Jacques and Michelle have. Why haven’t we introduced him earl...

Topics covered:

• Introduction to questions
• Faire in the present
• Faire et expressions idiomatiques
• Ça ne fait rien / Cela ne fait rien

Bonjour et bienvenue ! C’est moi, Jean-Paul ! I’m glad to introduce Act VIII. Yes, Act VIII already! I’m sure you’re keeping pace with our students and making fine progress as they are. I also hope you’re being entertained enough so that you almost don’t notice y...

Topics Covered:

• Modal verbs vouloir, pouvoir, devoir
• Demonstrative determiners
• À mon avis..

Bonjour mes amis ! Bienvenue ! Today, for Act IX, we’ll be joined by Michelle who is still making plans for her big move to France with her husband. She has been very consistent with her French lessons and is making much progress. I encourage you to follow Michelle’s example. Non, non, I don’t mean that...

Topics Covered:

• DIRE (to say), LIRE (to read), ÉCRIRE (to write)
• Alternate forms of negation
• Dis donc ! Dites donc !

Bienvenue mes amis ! Today, we meet with Kevin again. As you might have noticed, Kevin’s motivation for learning French is quite different from Michelle’s and Jacques’s. So far, he’s flunked French in high school and needs to get good grades for his college application. The only...

Topics Covered:

• -RE verbs (irregular) like prendre
• Interrogative and exclamative quel
• C'est-à-dire / C'est-à-dire que

Bonjour et bienvenue mes amis ! Today we’ll hear Act XI! I hope you’re feeling quite sharp because we meet with Jacques. I’m sure you’re looking forward to know what he’s been up to and how his French restaurant project is coming along. I know Valérie does, she ...

Topics covered:

• -RE verbs (irregular) like mettre
• Partitive articles
• Bon marché

Bonjour ! C’est moi Jean-Paul ! Once again I’ll be your host for Act XII. We hope that following Jacques, Kevin and Michelle in their endeavor to learn French is helping you to learn as well. Before you listen to the play, take time to familiarize yourself with the flashcard. Let’s begin! 

Valérie, ou...

Topics covered:

• VENIR
• Interrogative words
• Je n’en reviens pas !

Bonjour et bienvenue ! Are you ready for Act XIII? Today, our French teacher Valérie meets with Jacques again. Jacques has been preparing a trip to France during which he hopes to find a chef for his new restaurant. As the day of his departure gets closer, he seems to be increasingly preoccupied with the quality of his French. He’...

Topics covered:

• BOIRE (to drink), CROIRE (to believe), VOIR (to see)
• Time in French
• Bien dans sa peau / Mal dans sa peau

Bienvenue au cours de français ! It’s me Jean-Paul, I’m ready to introduce Act XIV to you. Are you ready? By ready, I mean, have you looked up our grammar lessons and have done the exercises? It’s very important you do that before enjoying the dialogues as it will greatly en...

Topics covered:

• Savoir vs Connaître
• Tout
• Par contre / En revanche

Bonjour et bienvenue ! Today, we’ll be enjoying the company of our French teacher Valérie and of her diligent student Michelle. I am confident that you feel encouraged to see students on our show like Michelle and others, with different backgrounds and with different purposes, tackling the French language with success. Have you ...

Topics covered:

• Pronominal verbs
• Tôt, tard, en avance, en retard, à l’heure
• Il ne casse pas trois pattes à un canard

Bienvenue les amis ! C’est moi Jean-Paul ! I’m happy to welcome you to Act XVI. Today, you’ll have the pleasure to listen to Valérie and Jacques. As you know Jacques is still pursuing his dream to open, not just a French restaurant but a restaurant geared to help couples who are...

Topics covered:

• -RE verbs (irregular) like suivre, vivre
• Comparative and superlative of adverbs
• A priori

Bonjour et bienvenue ! Are you ready for Act XVII? Today, Valérie meets with Kevin again. Kevin is about to go to Canada for his annual family vacation. He’s looking forward to spending some time with his cousin Rex and maybe practice some French. Kevin has been studying really hard and mak...

Topics covered:

• Passé composé with avoir
• Negation and placement of adverbs with passé composé
• C'est pas de la tarte

Bonjour les amis ! C’est moi, oui, Jean-Paul ! Bienvenue au théâtre en français ! Today we’ll spend some time with Valérie and Michelle. Michelle is meeting with Valérie for the first time since her surgery. I hope you’re ready for some real entertainment...and some serious Frenc...

Topics covered:

• Passé composé with être
• More past participles for être
• D'ailleurs

Bonjour les amis du français ! Comment allez-vous ? Je suis content d'être avec vous pour un nouvel épisode. Aujourd’hui, nous allons écouter Valérie et Jacques. Jacques just got back from France. I’m sure you’re looking forward to hearing his stories. We’ll also learn a lot of new things today. Avez-vous déjà ét...

Topics covered:

• Direct object pronouns
• Agreement of the past participle
• Les doigts dans le nez

Bonjour chers amis ! C’est moi Jean-Paul. Je suis très content de présenter un nouvel épisode aujourd’hui ! It’s our 20th episode already. I hope you have taken the time to study the grammar lessons, to do the exercises and to learn the vocabulary for this new act of our play....