Bonjour et bienvenue at Learn French with Alexa, the podcast.
The podcast. Now, in this podcast, I'm going
to read you a short passage in French based on a fun fact about
me, Alexa Polidoro. And you may think, "Well, who
are you?". Just in case the algorithm has
taken you to me, well, I'm Alexa from Learn French with Alexa,
and you are here to learn some French, just in case you don't
know what you're doing here. Anyway, quite simple, I'm going
to read you a fun fact about me, and we are going to ask you, or
we, as in I, myself and I, are going to ask you a question
based on this. So what we are going to do is
read it the first time, then I will ask you a question based on
this very fun fact of mine. Okay?
Are you ready? Now, the focus of today's
passage is about adjectives, okay?
So try to spot the adjectives. So listen really carefully to
the text, and try to spot the adjectives, if you can.
If you cannot, it's okay. I'm going to point them out in a
minute. Okay.
Écoutez attentivement. Il y a plusieurs choses que je
déteste dans la vie. En voici deux.
D'abord, c'est d'avoir des chaussettes mouillées.
Il n'y a rien de pire que de marcher dans l'eau en
chaussettes. Pour moi, la sensation est
tellement désagréable que je dois les enlever tout de suite.
Et puis, je n'aime pas quand les gens ne respectent pas mon
espace personnel. Il n'y a aucune raison de se
coller aux autres. Okay.
So this is another fun fact about me.
Did you get it? Now, the question is going to be
quite leading, and you're going to understand what the text is
about. Here's the question.
Qu'est-ce que je déteste le plus ?
Now, if I start a question with 'qu'est-ce que,' it means what
is it, okay? Now, literal translation is what
is it that. Qu'est-ce que.
What is it that je déteste, I detest or hate, le plus, the
most. Okay?
Now, listen to the text a second time and answer this question:
Qu'est-ce que je déteste le plus ?
What is it I hate the most? Here we go.
Il y a plusieurs choses que je déteste dans la vie.
En voici deux. D'abord, c'est d'avoir les
chaussettes mouillées. Il n'y a rien de pire que de
marcher dans l'eau en chaussettes.
Pour moi, la sensation est tellement désagréable que je
dois les enlever tout de suite. Et puis, je n'aime pas quand les
gens ne respectent pas mon espace personnel.
Il n'y a aucune raison de se coller aux autres.
Okay. Now we've listened to the text
twice. We know the question: Qu'est-ce
que je déteste le plus ? What is it I hate the most?
What did you hear? Hmm.
I heard the word 'chaussettes' twice when I read it.
Chaussettes. That means socks.
But what is it I hate the most about socks?
Now, the adjective 'mouillées' here is really important.
Mouillées means wet. Mouillées.
Chaussettes mouillées. Wet socks.
Now, usually in French, and this is what you have to understand,
is that the adjective comes after the noun, except for some,
and there is an exception to the rule, okay?
Now, in this case, chaussettes mouillées is wet socks.
So mouillées is wet, and chaussettes is socks.
Okay? Mouillées.
Can you say that?
Mouillées. So les chaussettes mouillées is
one of the things I hate the most.
Don't ask me why. I don't know why, okay?
Je déteste avoir les chaussettes mouillées.
Okay? Pourquoi?
Parce que c'est une sensation désagréable.
Now, here's another adjective. Désagréable.
Désagréable, c'est le contraire d'agréable.
Agreeable. Désagréable, disagreeable.
And do you know what is the second thing I hate the most?
Did you hear 'mon espace personnel'?
Yes. My personal space.
Okay? Quand les gens ne respectent pas
mon espace personnel. It's when people, les gens, ne
respectent pas, do not respect. Here you've got the negation
'ne,' and then the verb 'respectent' and 'pas,' which is
not. Ne pas.
When they do not respect my personal space.
Okay? And then I add on to the text
'il n'y a aucune raison de se coller aux autres'.
There is no reason, aucune, as in not at all, no reason to
stick to someone else or to be really close.
De se coller. Now, coller means to glue or
stick, okay? De se coller.
So it's to stick right up against other people, les
autres. Okay?
So to answer the question: Qu'est-ce que je déteste le plus
? Je déteste les chaussettes
mouillées parce que la sensation est désagréable.
Et la deuxième chose, je déteste quand les gens ne respectent pas
mon espace personnel. Now, here's my question.
I'm going to read the text again.
What do you hate the most ? Qu'est-ce que vous détestez le
plus ? Here's the text again.
Listen really carefully. Il y a plusieurs choses que je
déteste dans la vie. En voici deux.
D'abord, c'est d'avoir les chaussettes mouillées.
Il n'y a rien de pire que de marcher dans l'eau en
chaussettes. Pour moi, la sensation est
tellement désagréable que je dois les enlever tout de suite.
Et puis, je n'aime pas quand les gens ne respectent pas mon
espace personnel. Il n'y a aucune raison de se
coller aux autres. OK.
Now we've read this text three times.
How much of it do you understand?
And could you write down what you hate the most?
Ce que je déteste le plus. What I hate the most is.
Ce que je déteste le plus, c'est...
And then you tell me. It could be anything.
This is only two of many things that I hate the most.
And you will hear about that because I have some really odd
quirks. Now, let's have a look at the
text one last time and we are going to translate it together.
Il y a plusieurs choses que je déteste dans la vie.
There are several things I hate in life.
En voici deux. Here are two of them.
D'abord, c'est d'avoir les chaussettes mouillées.
Firstly, I hate having wet socks.
First is d'abord. Il n'y a rien de pire que de
marcher dans l'eau en chaussettes.
There is nothing worse, pire, worse, than walking through
water in socks. En chaussettes.
In your socks. Pour moi, for me, la sensation
est tellement désagréable que je dois les enlever tout de suite.
The feeling is so unpleasant that I have to take them off
straight away. Tout de suite.
Straight away. Et puis, and then or secondly,
je n'aime pas quand les gens ne respectent pas mon espace
personnel. I don't like it when people
don't respect my personal space. Il n'y a aucune raison de se
coller aux autres. There is no reason to stick
right up against other people. Don't you think?
Of course, this is my personal opinion, by the way.
And I can imagine that some people would enjoy the
chaussettes mouillées... or not. I don't know.
Tell me. I want you to tell me what you
hate the most. OK?
Or is it just me and my funny pet peeves?
Right. Now, the adjectives that I
wanted you to have a look at were mouillées as in wet,
chaussettes mouillées, désagréable, disagreeable,
personnel, espace personnel, personal space.
Again, here the adjective comes after the noun.
There are many adjectives that come before the noun and there
are rules. And I follow all of that at
Learn French with Alexa, my complete and very popular
Complete French Course on my website
learnfrenchwithalexa.com. See, I sponsor my own podcast.
Well, you may as well. Now, remember, all adjective has
to agree in gender and number with the word it is related to.
If chaussette is feminine, then mouillée will be feminine.
If chaussettes is feminine plural, mouillées will have to
reflect that feminine plural. In my case, mouillées ends in
'-ées'. You can't hear it, but it's
definitely written like that. Otherwise, it's a spelling
mistake. And for more like this, keep on
listening. We are Learn French with Alexa.
We are everywhere. Literally everywhere.
Bisou bisou!