LESSON NOTES

Lower Intermediate S1 #9
How Many Non-French Speaking
People Does It Take to Tell a Joke?

CONTENTS
2
2
3
3
4
4

Informal French
Informal English
Vocabulary
Sample Sentences
Grammar
Cultural Insight

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INFORMAL FRENCH
1.

Pimpel Daniel:

Devine ! Cest un objet que tu regardes.

2.

Tiny Rmi:

Un ordinateur ?

3.

Pimpel Daniel:

Non, cest un objet qui peut tre cout.

4.

Tiny Rmi:

Heu... un disque vinyle ?

5.

Pimpel Daniel:

Non, cest un objet qui est petit.

6.

Tiny Rmi:

Zut, hmmmm.... un appareil photo digital ?

7.

Pimpel Daniel:

Non, cest un objet que tu emportes.

8.

Tiny Rmi:

Eurka, je sais ! Cest un ipod !

INFORMAL ENGLISH
1.

Pimpel Daniel:

Guess! Its something that you look at.

2.

Tiny Rmi:

A computer?

3.

Pimpel Daniel:

No, its something that can be listened to.

4.

Tiny Rmi:

Huha vinyl disc?

5.

Pimpel Daniel:

No, its something small.

6.

Tiny Rmi:

Holy cow, hmma digital camera?

CONT'D OVER
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LOWER INTERMEDIATE S1 #9 - HOW MANY NON-FRENCH SPEAKING PEOPLE DOES IT TAKE TO TELL A JOKE?

7.

Pimpel Daniel:

No, its something that you carry away.

8.

Tiny Rmi:

Eureka, I know! Its an iPod.

VOCABULARY
Fr e nc h

English

C lass

Ge nde r

petit(e)

small

adjective

masculine

vinyle

vinyl

adjective

eurka

eureka

interjection

appareil

equipment, device

noun

emporter

to carry away, to
bring, to take

verb

digital

digital

adjective

masculine

disque

disc, compact disc

noun

masculine

objet

object

noun

masculine

deviner

to guess

Verb

SAMPLE SENTENCES
Elle est petite.

Ce pantalon rock'n'roll est en vinyle.

"She is small."

"These rock'n'roll pants are in vinyl."

Eurka, j'ai trouv la solution.

Cet appareil est de bonne qualit.

"Eureka, I found the solution."

"This equipment is of good quality."

Tu emportes tes affaires.

Ce systme digital est efficace.

"You bring your stuff."

"This digital system is efficient."

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LOWER INTERMEDIATE S1 #9 - HOW MANY NON-FRENCH SPEAKING PEOPLE DOES IT TAKE TO TELL A JOKE?

Il a une collection de disques de musique

classique.

Attention, ces objets sont fragiles.

"Be careful, these objects are fragile."

"He has a disc collection of classical

music."
Devine ce que j'ai gagn?

Devine ce que j'ai achet aujourd'hui!

"Guess what I have won?"

"Guess what I have bought today?"

GRAMMAR
Zut/Mince "Shoot, Holy Cow"
These two expressions are familiar. They express unhappiness, irritation, or deception about
bad news.
Zut!
One of the origins of zut is a music teacher who in the beginning of the 1800s was consistently
correcting his student by saying ut while she was practicing her sol fa si do. Irritated by it, she
imitated her teacher by accentuating the liaison between the last -s of dites and the first letter u of ut. "Dites Ut" became zut.
Expressions With Zut
French

"English"

zut, alors!

"Shoot, then!"
rezut!
"Re-shoot!"
quinze fois zut!
"Fifteen times shoot!"
Zut de zut!
"Shoot of shoot!"
Mince!
Expressions With Mince
French
mince alors!
mince de mince!
ah! mince!

"English"
"Holy cow then!"
"Holy cow of holy cow!"
"Oh! Holy cow!"

CULTURAL INSIGHT

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LOWER INTERMEDIATE S1 #9 - HOW MANY NON-FRENCH SPEAKING PEOPLE DOES IT TAKE TO TELL A JOKE?

French Humor
French humor is more oriented toward others than themselves. Their humor fuels itself with
ridicule and mockery-contributing to the French reputation for rudeness-and it needs a
target.
* The French are great teases and love to do so.
* A frequent form of humor is to exaggerate a statement excessively to illustrate its falsehood: if
you are too literal, you just think it is silly.
* The French love very earthy jokes about sex and bodily functions, which one can even tell
during a dinner with well-educated people. Coluche, who is very popular, would be a great
example of a French humorist telling these kind of jokes.
* The most frequent ethnic jokes in France are jokes about Belgians (supposed to be stupid),
Southerners (supposed to be lazy, as in Marius et Olive or Corsican stories), or Auvergnats
(supposed to be cheap).
French Jokes
* Q. How many Frenchmen does it take to change a light bulb?
A. Just one to hold the bulb: the world revolves around him.
* Q. What's the quickest way to make a profit?
A. Buy a Frenchman for what he's worth and sell him for what he thinks he's worth.
* Two monks are walking around the monastery cloister reading their prayer books. One of
them is smoking a pipe:
"Did the Father Superior agree you could smoke?" queries his colleague. "I asked him if I
could smoke my pipe when I was reading my prayer book and he said 'no!'"
"That was your mistake," replies the first, "I asked him if I could read my prayer book while I
was smoking my pipe."

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LOWER INTERMEDIATE S1 #9 - HOW MANY NON-FRENCH SPEAKING PEOPLE DOES IT TAKE TO TELL A JOKE?