French with Flo

Here is, with my apologies for the delay, the rest of the class activities we did during the Summer 2021 online class. I. Grammar: the verb "manquer" I couldn't very well end the Summer session without at least one grammar lesson! A student asked me about the verb "manquer", so I seized this opportunity to take a deep dive into the various meanings and constructions of this weird French verb.  Here's the lesson and exercises (+answers) .  If you want more examples and explanations, here are a few resources I found: https://french.kwiziq.com/revision/grammar/manquer-de-thing-to-miss-lack-something https://www.frenchtoday.com/blog/french-grammar/i-miss-you-in-french/ https://www.lawlessfrench.com/grammar/manquer-lesson/    (Note: this last webpage is pretty good, but be careful, there's one mistake! The author translates "manquer de + verb" into "to fail to do something". Not quite! It actually means "to almost do something". ...

 " Les Grandes Vacances " is the term French schoolchildren use for the Summer vacations. They're called "big" because they last over 2 months, from late June to early September. Since workers in France get in general at least 5 weeks of paid vacations, families often take a long trip together during the Summer. Since we're having this class over the Summer, let's explore together the theme of Travel and Holidays with a couple of activities. Vidéo : Destination de rêve . This video produced by Easy French is a " micro-trottoir ", which means a video where ordinary people in the street are asked to answer a few brief questions. In this video, various French people talk about their dream destination for the vacations. Texte et Questions : Le voyage . Easy text with comprehension questions. [Beginner] And finally, talking about traveling, you may enjoy " La ville de Paris vue du ciel ", a quiz about Parisian landmarks based on a video ta...

 As you all know, July 14th is the French " Fête Nationale " (National Holiday). Here is a series of videos and other resources that will teach you (almost) everything you need to know about this special day for the French.  (By the way, you can also have a quick peek at my former blog on the topic , from the year 2018. I had focused mostly on "La Marseillaise", the national anthem.) In the first video I shared with the class, Ingrid from FrenchPod101.com gives a quick introduction to this Holiday. The video comes with French and English subtitles, so it's suitable for all levels. The second video we studied in class focuses on the Bastille , the royal prison that was stormed by insurgents on July 14, 1789, at the beginning of the French Revolution. This is part of the "Karambolage" series on the German and French channel Arte .  Click here to watch the video.  I also wrote a transcription of the video with some vocabulary notes. Since the above vid...

Bonjour ! I hope everyone is having a very nice dimanche de Pâques (Easter Sunday) despite the shelter-in-place order ( le confinement in French). Since we're all at home, I thought you may enjoy a few fun, Easter-related activities in French. By the way, do you know that Pâques is one of the weirdest French words ? (Yes, I know, that's saying something...) The word Pâque  (no final "s") is a feminine singular when used in the expression " la Pâque juive " (which means Passover). Example: Le pain azyme est un aliment traditionnel de la Pâque juive . (Matzah is a traditional Passover food.) The word Pâques  (referring to the Christian Holiday) is a masculine singular (despite the final "s") when it is NOT accompanied by an adjective. It is never preceded by an article (such as " le "), either. Example: Parfois Pâques tombe en mars, parfois il tombe en avril . (Sometimes Easter falls in March, sometimes it falls in April.) But...

You already know that the French take gastronomy very seriously, but even so, cheese occupies a special place in our hearts and on our tables. No meal is complete without a piece of cheese. A lot of restaurants even offer lunch menus ending with "fromage ou dessert" (either cheese or dessert). I wonder if many people outside of France would consider that a piece of cheese is an acceptable alternative to a slice of gâteau au chocolat or a crème brûlée ... How many French cheeses are there? Hard to tell, but it might be in the thousands, according to this article . In the following activities, you'll get acquainted with a few of the most popular ones. Crossword exercise: Lexique des fromages de France (document created by dodeuil at ISLCollective . Includes answer sheet.) Quiz des fromages français , with answer sheet (based on this document .) Similar to wine, cheese is more than a food: it's a way of life, connected to many traditions and customs.  For example, do ...

La Chandeleur (Candlemas), on February 2nd, is a very popular Holiday in France. The main reason? You've guessed it, food, once again! More precisely, in this case, crêpes. Candlemas is a religious Holiday (it celebrates the presentation of Jesus at the Temple) and it's also based on older, Roman and Celtic traditions, but to everybody in France, it's mostly known as Crêpes Day . If you want to know more about la Chandeleur and its origins, you can check the videos we watched last year on my previous Chandeleur blogpost . (Note: for the second video, you can find a transcript at the end of the handout.) Since we didn't have time to talk much about crêpes last year, I decided to focus on them this year. The following video explains how to make a very famous recipe: the Crêpes Suzette , which are cooked in citrus sauce and flambéed. The chef in the video uses lemons, but more traditional versions call for oranges, or sometimes tangerines. The alcohol used can be coin...

          1. Happy new year ! Since, in France, it is acceptable to offer New Year wishes until the end of January , I'm still on time! All joking aside, here is what we did for the first class of the year 2020 : Bonnes Résolutions  I made this handout using images and descriptions from documents found at ISLCollective (created by  silvialefevre , freedombird and sylviepieddaignel ). The first page of the handout presents a list of possible New Year resolutions. The second one has images that relate to the resolution list.  Working in pairs, the students asked each-other, about each image, if they wanted or were going to make that resolution. We ended the class by sharing our favorite resolutions, which I found very inspiring!           2. Who Am I? Famous Names in French History I found this series of portraits and quick descriptions of well-known characters in French History on the blog " La cla...

Unsurprisingly, the last class of the year had a seasonal theme! Thank you so much to you all for your cards, gifts and kind words. They mean a lot to me and I'm so happy to have such wonderful students. Thank you also for the amazing food. I'm sure we have the best potlucks in the Senior Center! 😋 This year, I had three Christmas-related handouts: Christmas Eve - Image Description (created by silvialefevre at ISLCollective.com) Christmas Vocabulary  (created by jannabanna at ISLCollective.com) Text - Fill in the Blanks  (created by cranberry2 at ISLCollective.com) Finally, here's a beautiful Christmas song about children and world peace. I hope you'll enjoy it. And here's the karaoke version:

In connection with Chapter 15 of French Made Simple , we had an overview of the French object pronouns. This is not an easy topic and we'll re-visit it later, but for now I hope this series of lessons was helpful and didn't confuse you all too badly... I. Class Handouts  Direct Object (COD) and Indirect Object (COI) Pronouns . This handout combines two documents created by osfr  at ISLCollective.com : a quick lesson on the two types of object pronouns and a page of exercises . I also added an answer sheet to the document - hopefully it will come in handy. The pronoun Y - lesson and exercise : this handout comes from the Podcast Français Facile website. You'll find the same exercise with answers in interactive form  on their webpage . The pronoun EN - lesson and exercises : this handout is adapted from a document created by lolha  at ISLCollective.com . We didn't do all the exercises in class but I included an answer sheet at the end of the pdf....

" Tout le bonheur du monde " is a 2004 song by the French Reggae / Ska group Sinsemilia . This is the official video clip -- very cute! I think the translation in class was a bit confusing, so I reworked the class handout to include an English translation next to the French lyrics.  The song was also covered by the French group Kids United .  For the singers among you (yes, I know you're there), here's the Sinsemilia version  of the song with lyrics, and here's the Kids United version , also with lyrics. They sing in different keys, so pick your favorite one to sing along! 😉

Where have the last two months gone?? With my apologies for the lateness, here are handouts and links for topics we've covered in October and November 2019.           1. Movie: Demi-paire Demi-paire is a court-métrage (short film) by Yannick Pecherand-Molliex. The movie itself is silent, but we used it in class as a way to practice descriptions. I've adapted my class handout from the document created by the Institut Français . (Their document includes an answer sheet and some information about the film's author. It's designed for the teacher, though, so it's not easy to understand.)           2. Joyeuse Halloween ! Halloween was almost unknown in France fifteen years ago, but now it's everywhere. Cultural enrichment or commercial exploitation? You decide... Here are the activities we did in class: Halloween Vocabulary (created by mafaldita47 at  ISLCollective ), followed by Halloween Crosswords (also by mafal...

Today we watched "Cliché !", a wonderful little animation film, created by Cedric Villain, that collects many of the stereotypes about the French. Enjoy! (Click on the "settings" icon at the bottom right of the screen to select the French or English subtitles.) The questions about the movie I handed out in class were created by Coralie Maurin at Oh mon FLE! As for the transcript , it comes from the Version FLE blog. Are the clichés mostly true? Mostly false? Where do they come from? What's a cliché, anyways? And why is the movie so funny? We'll continue the discussion next week...

Here is everything we've seen in connection with chapter 14 of French Made Simple .           1. The Numbers (part 3) Although our study of numbers technically ended with chapter 13 , we kept practicing with progressively larger numbers. Here is what we did in class. All the exercises come from the Podcast Français Facile website. A Few Dates : This is a listening exercise about well-known (and less known) dates in French history and culture. Click on the " Exercise " icon to access the handout. Numbers from 1,000 to 9,999 - List A : Another listening exercise, with slightly bigger numbers. Click on " Imprimer le document " to print the handout. Car Prices (numbers between 10,000 and 99,999) : The first audio link is an easy "listen and repeat" exercise that you can do at home. The Car Price exercise we did in class is the second audio link. There was no handout on the website, but I had fun creating this one . 😊       ...

Music Day , la fête de la musique , is celebrated on June 21st, the longest day of the year and the first day of Summer. In this video by FrenchPod101.com , Ingrid tells us everything about this special Holiday: In class, we also studied the text " La fête de la musique " (with audio version) from Podcast Français Facile . I reformatted their pdf to create the class handout , which includes a fill-in-the-blanks exercise, vocabulary notes and comprehension questions. We also took this opportunity to study a song in class: "Parce qu'on vient de loin" ("Because we Come from Far Away") by singer-songwriter Corneille . Here is the official music clip: Here are the chords with guitar tabs I used for the class handout . You can also find here the French lyrics with English translation. In order to fully understand this song, it is necessary to know the singer's story. Corneille grew up in Rwanda. At 17, his whole family w...

Tentez votre chance ! ( Try your luck! ) Today we are talking about the loto . When people in France talk about jouer au loto , they can mean two things : either the National Lottery , which is drawn every night or so on TV ( here's a random example ), or a more traditional game that resemble the American bingo. The latter is also called loto traditionnel , quine or loto bingo , depending on your region. (I'm from the South-East and I've always called it "loto".)  Organizing loto evenings is a great way for associations, towns and villages to raise money. They can take place year-round, but they are particularly frequent around Christmas. The prizes are usually donated by local businesses. Here is a TV news report about one of those events in the town of Saint-Sauveur, in the South-West of France: I handed out in class a transcript of the video , with accompanying vocabulary. Each one of the cards used to play loto is called un carton . Y...

I'm going to gather in this post everything we've studied in connection to  chapter 11 of the French Made Simple textbook.           1. Vouloir, pouvoir, etc. The grammar point in chapter 11 is the conjugation of the verbs  vouloir  and  pouvoir  in the present tense. To get a little more practice, I handed out  this exercise  (created by  silvialefevre  on ISLCollective), in order to review the verbs vouloir, pouvoir, as well as savoir et devoir. You may also be interested in  this online quiz  on the same topic.          2. The numbers (part 1) In chapter 11, we're also learning the numbers from 1 to 69. Here are some extra ressources, including the exercises done in class: Numbers from 1 to 20 on Podcast Français Facile. [BEGINNER] We did the first addition exercise in class. If you'd like extra practice, you can do the second one on your own! 😉 I also...

" Poisson d'avril ! " That's what you'll hear in France, on April 1st, after a friend tries to make you believe a tall tale or a little kid sticks a paper fish on your back. OK, that's April's Fool, but why a fish?? You'll find the explanations you need, in English,  on this webpage . You'll find on this other page , shown in class, another quick explanation, as well as the RATP's (that's the company that operates the Parisian subway) 2017 joke: they added big stickers around stations' names to form puns. The puns are explained in English. Scrolling down the page, you'll also find some useful vocabulary about April's Fool and joking in general, and a funny video at the bottom of the page. As for a selection of poissons d'avril for 2019, here it is ! The RATP strikes again this year by giving subway travelers an opportunity to send prank selfies to their friends and pretend that they took a plane to an exotic destinat...

During last class, we celebrated (a bit late) International Women's Day. Here is the exercise sheet accompanying the video, with a fill-in-the-blank exercise and comprehension questions. On the last page of this document, you'll find the video transcript with English translation . You might also like these web-based exercises, proposed by TV5Monde: - Women in the workplace (a series of 4 exercices, beginner to intermediate level) - Droits des Femmes: à quand l'égalité?  (other series of 4 exercices, intermediate to advanced level) - Quiz: la Journée de la Femme (also advanced level, but no listening involved so it seems easier 😉)

Here we are with two (hopefully) fun classes dedicated to food in France (a topic of national importance), and more specifically to the different meals of the day. "Un  repas de noces à Yport" (détail), Albert Fourié, 1886 Our first link is a text with audio version from Podcast Français Facile: Les repas . The class handout  (created by  BEZOYA15  at  ISLcollective ) includes an exercise based on the audio document above, as well as the transcript and questions that can be found on the Podcast Français Facile page. The next handout  (created by mariaf at ISLcollective ) is a series of crosswords and exercises aimed at practicing vocabulary around food and learning how to describe what you eat as well as your likes and dislikes. It's also a good opportunity to review the use of the definite/indefinite/partitive articles when talking about food. (Document created by arliette at  ISLcollective .) And finally, here's a video ab...

NOTE: This post was originally published on 12/12/18. Since I have new material to add, I'm re-posting it today with the latest updates.  —————— The grammar lesson today was about the liaison, which is not an easy topic. It is an important one to master, though, because it occurs in virtually every sentence. I've compiled several sources I've found into this class handout: liaison.pdf . (*NEWLY UPDATED*) Writing this document was very useful for me, too. It definitely helped clarify things in my mind! The problem I ran into is that the list of necessary and forbidden liaisons is a bit different in all sources I consulted. I tried to summarize what I've learned. I hope the result is more useful than confusing. The third page of this document compiles exercises I've found on several web pages, including those linked below. 3/6/19 UPDATE: The link above is a new version of the class handout. I've taken into account the feedback I received in class (t...