Latest / The Learn French With Alexa Podcast / EP 12 | Quel est le titre du dernier livre que j’ai lu ? (What is the title of the last book I read?)

Transcript

EP 12 | Quel est le titre du dernier livre que j’ai lu ? (What is the title of the last book I read?) · The Learn French With Alexa Podcast

• 0:00
  Bonjour et bienvenue à Learn French with Alexa the podcast,
• 0:04
  with me Alexa Polidoro, where I'm going to read a text based
• 0:09
  on a fun fact about me, Alexa Polidoro.
• 0:14
  And you're going to answer a couple of questions from the
• 0:18
  text I'm about to read. Now, the level is A2/B1, which
• 0:23
  means that it's intermediate. It may be slightly more complex
• 0:28
  than the first podcasts that I have done.
• 0:32
  Now, this is based on lesson 24 and 21, and 15, the passé
• 0:40
  composé, of my complete French course.
• 0:43
  So let's start from 15, the passé composé, and 21, the
• 0:49
  future tense, and 24 for the "pronoms relatifs".
• 0:52
  Now, here we go. Listen carefully.
• 0:57
  Écoutez attentivement, and then I will ask you a question.
• 1:01
  Le dernier livre que j'ai lu s'intitule "Et la joie de vivre"
• 1:06
  de Gisèle Pelicot. Gisèle Pelicot est une femme qui
• 1:11
  a vécu une situation extrêmement difficile.
• 1:14
  Ce livre, qui relate son histoire, m'a beaucoup touchée.
• 1:19
  Il était parfois difficile à lire, mais j'ai continué parce
• 1:23
  que l'expérience de cette femme est très importante.
• 1:26
  J'ai eu la chance d'assister à la conférence qu'elle a donnée à
• 1:31
  Londres et son courage m'a beaucoup impressionnée.
• 1:34
  Pour moi, c'est un exemple très fort.
• 1:37
  Le récit de son combat fait réfléchir et aura sans doute
• 1:42
  d'immenses répercussions. Okay, so we're talking about a
• 1:46
  film, not at all, a text which is slightly more difficult than
• 1:54
  the other podcast texts that I have read.
• 1:57
  Now listen very carefully. Here's my question: Quel est le
• 2:02
  titre du dernier livre que j'ai lu ?
• 2:05
  Now, "lu" comes from "lire", to read, and "j'ai lu" is the passé
• 2:09
  composé. Like I said, we covered this in
• 2:12
  lesson 15 of the complete French course at Learn French with
• 2:16
  Alexa. Yeah, I've plugged that one.
• 2:18
  Now, "quel est le titre" "Titre" is the title.
• 2:22
  "Le dernier livre", the last book.
• 2:25
  What was the title of the last book I read?
• 2:30
  Now, here is the text again. Okay, try to answer this
• 2:35
  question. Quel est le titre du dernier
• 2:36
  livre que j'ai lu? Le dernier livre que j'ai lu
• 2:41
  s'intitule "Et la joie de vivre" de Gisèle Pelicot.
• 2:45
  Gisèle Pelicot est une femme qui a vécu une situation extrêmement
• 2:50
  difficile. Ce livre, qui relate son
• 2:53
  histoire, m'a beaucoup touchée. Il était parfois difficile à
• 2:57
  lire, mais j'ai continué parce que l'expérience de cette femme
• 3:01
  est très importante. J'ai eu la chance d'assister à
• 3:04
  la conférence qu'elle a donnée à Londres et son courage m'a
• 3:09
  beaucoup impressionnée. Pour moi, c'est un exemple très
• 3:12
  fort. Le récit de son combat fait
• 3:15
  réfléchir et aura sans doute d'immenses répercussions.
• 3:20
  Okay, so what is the title of the book, the last book that I
• 3:24
  read? I've read a few since, but what
• 3:28
  is the book? It was called "Et la joie de
• 3:33
  vivre" de Gisèle Pelicot. Now we have read the text twice,
• 3:37
  you know what it's about. It's about the book by Gisèle
• 3:41
  Pelicot. If you do not know who Gisèle
• 3:44
  Pelicot is, please, I invite you to check her name out.
• 3:50
  She went through something extremely difficult and wrote a
• 3:56
  book about it. Now, the book was titled "Et la
• 4:02
  joie de vivre". The English title is called "A
• 4:06
  Hymn to Life." Now, "Et la joie de vivre", and
• 4:10
  the joy to live, okay? As in the life, the joy of life,
• 4:15
  which is quite a paradox considering what's inside the
• 4:20
  book. But I think the message at the
• 4:24
  end is very clear, is that whatever happened, just take on
• 4:28
  what makes you happy, and focus on that and hold onto that.
• 4:33
  Okay, so "le dernier livre que j'ai lu", the last book that I
• 4:38
  have read. Now, have a look at "que j'ai
• 4:42
  lu". Okay, here, "que" is known as a
• 4:44
  "pronom relatif". What comes straight after is a
• 4:48
  subject. Okay?
• 4:50
  When you use the pronom relatif "qui", what comes after is a
• 4:54
  verb. Okay?
• 4:56
  For example, the next sentence, Gisèle Pelicot est une femme qui
• 4:59
  a vécu une situation extrêmement difficile.
• 5:03
  Gisèle Pelicot is a woman who has lived an extremely difficult
• 5:12
  situation. So this is "que" and "qui",
• 5:16
  which we'd cover in great detail in lesson 24 of my complete
• 5:21
  French course. Here we go.
• 5:23
  The second question I want to ask you is: "Qu'est-ce qui m'a
• 5:27
  beaucoup impressionnée chez Gisèle Pelicot ?"
• 5:30
  What impressed me the most about Gisèle Pelicot?
• 5:34
  "Qu'est-ce qui m'a beaucoup impressionnée chez Gisèle
• 5:39
  Pelicot ?" What impressed me the most?
• 5:41
  So listen to the text one more time.
• 5:45
  Le dernier livre que j'ai lu s'intitule "Et la joie de vivre"
• 5:50
  de Gisèle Pelicot. Gisèle Pelicot est une femme qui
• 5:54
  a vécu une situation extrêmement difficile.
• 5:57
  Ce livre, qui relate son histoire, m'a beaucoup touchée.
• 6:02
  Il était parfois difficile à lire, mais j'ai continué parce
• 6:06
  que l'expérience de cette femme est très importante.
• 6:09
  J'ai eu la chance d'assister à la conférence qu'elle a donnée à
• 6:14
  Londres et son courage m'a beaucoup impressionnée.
• 6:17
  Pour moi, c'est un exemple très fort.
• 6:20
  Le récit de son combat fait réfléchir et aura sans doute
• 6:25
  d'immenses répercussions. Did you hear what impressed me
• 6:30
  the most about Gisèle Pelicot? I'm going to read you the
• 6:35
  sentence. Listen very carefully.
• 6:36
  J'ai eu la chance d'assister à la conférence qu'elle a donnée à
• 6:41
  Londres et son courage m'a beaucoup impressionnée.
• 6:46
  That's right. So the answer to the second
• 6:48
  question is courage. Her courage.
• 6:50
  Now, "son courage". So you may think, well, "son" is
• 6:54
  not feminine. It's masculine, right?
• 6:58
  Yes. When we want to say his or her,
• 7:01
  we say "son, sa, ses". However, it is not depending on
• 7:05
  whether it belongs to a girl or a boy, okay, woman or a man.
• 7:10
  It is all to do with the gender of the word.
• 7:14
  So courage just happened to be "le courage", which is
• 7:18
  masculine. Therefore, when we are going to
• 7:20
  say her courage, it's going to have to be "son", which is
• 7:25
  masculine. "Son courage m'a beaucoup
• 7:28
  impressionnée." Her courage impressed me a lot
• 7:32
  because courage is masculine. Okay?
• 7:35
  In the sentence "m'a beaucoup impressionnée", "a
• 7:40
  impressionnée" is a passé composé.
• 7:42
  Again, we covered the passé composé in lesson 15 of the
• 7:45
  course. Now, "a impressionnée", has
• 7:48
  impressed. But because we are putting me,
• 7:51
  has impressed me, the "me" is in front of the auxiliary verb "a".
• 7:58
  So "son courage m'a impressionnée".
• 8:01
  Her courage impressed me. And because we are using me and
• 8:07
  I am a lady, "impressionnée" has to agree in gender and number
• 8:12
  with this direct object pronoun "me".
• 8:15
  Okay? So which means that it has
• 8:18
  double e at the end. Okay?
• 8:21
  In a normal setup, if it didn't have a direct object pronoun,
• 8:27
  then there would be no agreement whatsoever in the passé composé
• 8:33
  because we are using the auxiliary "avoir".
• 8:35
  Now, of course, I'm giving this to you like that.
• 8:39
  I cover that in my course step by step, okay?
• 8:44
  If you're not familiar with what I do, I invite you to check the
• 8:48
  YouTube channel out, which is very popular with 2.4 million
• 8:53
  subs and my course, of course, at Learn French with Alexa.
• 8:59
  So, this is the answer. And to give you an anecdote
• 9:04
  about Gisèle Pelicot and being on stage at the Royal Festival
• 9:09
  Hall, it was an incredible experience for everybody who was
• 9:15
  in the room with her in the hall.
• 9:20
  It has thousands of people capacity, I think.
• 9:24
  And you had thousands of people basically standing up for her,
• 9:30
  doing a standing ovation as soon as she arrived on stage.
• 9:34
  And you could feel the energy. How can I describe this energy?
• 9:41
  It was something like, "I've got your back.
• 9:44
  I'm here to support you in any way, shape, or form.
• 9:49
  I've got your back." And I think it felt through each
• 9:53
  one of us because it is as if everybody was here for one
• 9:57
  reason or another. And then throughout the evening,
• 10:03
  passages of her book were read by people such as Kate Winslet.
• 10:11
  She was on stage next to Kristin Scott Thomas, and they were
• 10:18
  incredible. You think they are massive, they
• 10:22
  are superstars, but the star was Gisèle Pelicot.
• 10:28
  And you could see this massive actress, these huge stars such
• 10:35
  as Kate Winslet, looking at Gisèle Pelicot in awe, and
• 10:40
  looking at her like, "I'm not worthy of you."
• 10:44
  That's what I loved the most about this evening, is that you
• 10:49
  may be a star, one of the most famous people on the planet, but
• 10:55
  Gisèle Pelicot outdid all of that in the space of a second,
• 11:01
  and you felt it. And Kristin Scott Thomas and
• 11:09
  Kate Winslet were very humble, and because they are amazing
• 11:15
  women. So anyway, that's my little
• 11:19
  anecdote about the experience of me in London, watching Gisèle
• 11:25
  Pelicot and strong women on stage.
• 11:30
  Okay. What I want to do now is
• 11:33
  translate the full text so you have an understanding of what is
• 11:38
  a passé composé and future as well as a "pronom relatif".
• 11:43
  So here we go. "Le dernier livre que j'ai lu
• 11:46
  s'intitule 'Et la joie de vivre' de Gisèle Pelicot."
• 11:49
  So the last book, le dernier livre.
• 11:53
  The last book that I read is called "Et la joie de vivre" by
• 12:00
  Gisèle Pelicot. De Gisèle Pelicot.
• 12:02
  Now, "que j'ai lu", that I have read.
• 12:05
  "Lu", I said earlier, comes from "lire", to read.
• 12:10
  "Gisèle Pelicot est une femme qui a vécu une situation
• 12:14
  extrêmement difficile." Now, "vécu" comes from "vivre",
• 12:18
  to live. Okay?
• 12:21
  And have a look at what it looks like in the passé composé.
• 12:25
  When you put this "vivre" into its past participle form, it
• 12:29
  becomes something completely different: "vécu".
• 12:31
  Now, Gisèle Pelicot is a woman who has lived an extremely
• 12:38
  difficult situation. "Une situation extrêmement
• 12:41
  difficile." Okay?
• 12:42
  "Qui" again is a pronom relatif here.
• 12:46
  It's "qui" because what follows is a verb.
• 12:49
  Okay? And "qui" replaces "une femme",
• 12:52
  a lady. "Ce livre qui relate son
• 12:57
  histoire." Again, pronom relatif "qui"
• 12:59
  because it replaces "ce livre", this book, so we are avoiding
• 13:04
  the repetition. This book that relates her
• 13:07
  story. Again, "son histoire".
• 13:10
  Weirdly, "histoire" is feminine, so you may say, "But why can't
• 13:13
  we say sa histoire in this case?"
• 13:15
  And this is where I'm going to confuse everybody.
• 13:19
  We say "son histoire" because "histoire" begins with a H.
• 13:24
  You may think, "Well, you French people, you make the rules as
• 13:27
  you go along." Yeah, pretty much so.
• 13:29
  Because we can. Now, "ce livre qui relate son
• 13:34
  histoire." This book that relates her
• 13:37
  story, "son histoire". Now, "histoire" and history is
• 13:40
  the same. Story and history in French is
• 13:43
  "histoire". "M'a beaucoup touchée."
• 13:45
  Now, this book moved me deeply. That's the way you would
• 13:53
  translate it. Okay?
• 13:55
  "M'a beaucoup touchée." Touched me deeply.
• 13:57
  And again, "touchée" has double E.
• 14:00
  If you're listening to me and not seeing the text, it has
• 14:03
  double E. You may wonder why.
• 14:05
  That is because it's related to m', apostrophe.
• 14:09
  Because I'm a lady, then you need to agree "touchée" with the
• 14:12
  fact that I'm a lady. Okay.
• 14:14
  Now, "ce livre qui relate son histoire m'a beaucoup touchée."
• 14:20
  Touched me a lot. If it had been a m' related to a
• 14:24
  man, "touché" would not have a double E.
• 14:28
  It was sometimes difficult to read.
• 14:30
  Now, "il" relating to the book. Now, remember that for an
• 14:34
  object, we use "il" or "elle". We don't have "it", except for
• 14:39
  the weather. Say, "il faisait chaud".
• 14:42
  It was hot, for example. It's still "il".
• 14:45
  Okay? So, "il était parfois difficile
• 14:48
  à lire." It was sometimes difficult to
• 14:50
  read. Okay?
• 14:51
  "Mais j'ai continué." But I carried on.
• 14:55
  Again, "j'ai continué" is a passé composé, which I said we
• 14:58
  cover in lesson 15 in the complete French course.
• 15:01
  Okay? "Continuer", to carry on.
• 15:05
  "Parce que l'expérience de cette femme est très importante."
• 15:08
  Because the experience of this woman is really important.
• 15:12
  And in effect, I think we owe it to her to read her book.
• 15:21
  "J'ai eu la chance d'assister à la conférence qu'elle a donnée."
• 15:26
  I have had. Again, passé composé.
• 15:29
  "Eu" comes from "avoir", and it's the past participle, "eu".
• 15:37
  Okay? "J'ai eu", I have had.
• 15:40
  Okay? Now, look how different it is
• 15:43
  from I have, "j'ai", and had, "eu".
• 15:46
  Completely different. And this is where French becomes
• 15:49
  really difficult when you are dealing with third group verbs,
• 15:53
  and the past participle becomes completely different from the
• 15:58
  infinitive verb, such as "vivre" will become "vécu", and "être"
• 16:03
  will become "été", and "avoir" will become "eu", for example.
• 16:08
  So I went to the conference. Okay?
• 16:12
  The reading of the talk that she gave.
• 16:15
  Okay? "Qu'elle a donnée à Londres."
• 16:20
  Now again, "qu'elle a donnée." Q-U apostrophe elle a donnée.
• 16:28
  So qu' because after that, there is the subject "elle".
• 16:33
  Because qu' refers to the conference, "donnée" has to have
• 16:41
  a double E. "La conférence qu'elle a
• 16:44
  donnée." So "que" refers to "la
• 16:47
  conférence". "à Londres.
• 16:50
  Et son courage m'a beaucoup impressionnée."
• 16:52
  Again, "impressionnée" has double E because m' refers to
• 16:57
  me. But I've explained that earlier
• 16:59
  on. "Pour moi, c'est un exemple très
• 17:01
  fort." For me, it is a very strong
• 17:04
  example. "Le récit de son combat fait
• 17:07
  réfléchir." Now, the account of her struggle
• 17:12
  is thought-provoking. If you are B1 level, learn
• 17:18
  "faire réfléchir", make you think.
• 17:21
  You might want to learn this because that's quite important
• 17:24
  as an idiom. So, "le récit de son combat fait
• 17:28
  réfléchir et aura sans doute d'immenses répercussions."
• 17:30
  And will have a huge amount of impact.
• 17:36
  Will have, "sans doute", no doubt, have a huge impact.
• 17:42
  So I'm sure that now you're feeling more comfortable with
• 17:48
  the text. I could read it one last time if
• 17:51
  you wanted to, and it's going to be so much clearer to you.
• 17:55
  "Le dernier livre que j'ai lu s'intitule "Et la joie de vivre"
• 18:00
  de Gisèle Pelicot. Gisèle Pelicot est une femme qui
• 18:05
  a vécu une situation extrêmement difficile.
• 18:08
  Ce livre, qui relate son histoire, m'a beaucoup touchée.
• 18:12
  Il était parfois difficile à lire, mais j'ai continué parce
• 18:16
  que l'expérience de cette femme est très importante.
• 18:19
  J'ai eu la chance d'assister à la conférence qu'elle a donnée à
• 18:23
  Londres, et son courage m'a beaucoup impressionnée.
• 18:26
  Pour moi, c'est un exemple très fort.
• 18:29
  Le récit de son combat fait réfléchir et aura sans doute
• 18:34
  d'immenses répercussions." I hope you've learnt a lot
• 18:38
  today. Now, remember that all these
• 18:40
  grammatical points are covered in my complete French course
• 18:45
  extensively. That's it for me.
• 18:47
  Au revoir, à bientôt, et puis bisou bisou.