Transcript
0:00What was to live, like to live somewhere?
0:05Habite.
0:06Habite.
0:07H-A-B-I-T-E-R.
0:09Habite.
0:10School is Ecole.
0:13Ecole.
0:13How would you say the school?
0:17L'école.
0:17L'école.
0:18So we don't know what gender it is yet, but we do know how to say the school
0:23because le or la will just contract with Ecole, but Ecole is spelled E-C-O-L-E.
0:31So what gender do you think it is?
0:35La.
0:36Feminine.
0:36Feminine.
0:37Good, no?
0:38We have the final E ending, so it's most probably feminine, and it is La Ecole
0:44becoming L'école.
0:46Pré-de means near to.
0:48Pré-de.
0:49Like present.
0:51Pré is spelled P-R-E-S.
0:54Pré.
0:54Pré.
0:55So Pré-de means near to.
0:58How would you say near to the school?
1:03Pré-de.
1:05L'école.
1:05Very good.
1:06So we're not actually saying near to now, but near from.
1:10Near of.
1:11Pré-de.
1:12L'école.
1:13I live close to the school.
1:18J'habite près de l'école.
1:21Very good.
1:22J'habite près de l'école.
1:25So we have a lot of different Es here.
1:27Pré is our biggest, most open E in French.
1:31Pré-de.
1:32L'école.
1:33L'école.
1:34Hospital in French is Hôpital.
1:39Hôpital.
1:40H-O-P-I-T-A-L.
1:43So we have the silent H again, like in Habiter, and there's no S here.
1:48Hôpital.
1:49Hôpital.
1:50Hôpital.
1:51How would you say he lives near to, close by the hospital?
1:59Il habite près de l'hôpital.
2:03Il habite près de l'hôpital.
2:11What was the word for is?
2:13Like in she is, he is.
2:17Est.
2:17Est.
2:18Good spelt.
2:18E-S-T.
2:19Est.
2:20So school was École.
2:22How would you say she is close by the school?
2:27Elle est près de l'école.
2:31Very good.
2:32Elle est près de l'école.
2:35So school, École, and hospital, Hôpital, actually reveal a pattern to us.
2:43Quite an odd and interesting one.
2:45So, when we have S-P, S-T, S plus a hard sound, basically, like P-T-Q, in a
2:53word that's the same in French and English, the S disappears in French.
2:59And, in fact, we've already seen this.
3:01What was the word for party in French?
3:03Party.
3:05Fête.
3:06Fête.
3:07And this was feast, festival, no?
3:09And that S of feast, festival, before that hard T disappears in the French
3:15word, and we've got fête.
3:17It's also the same pattern that we see between monster and montrer.
3:22There we have the S disappearing before that T.
3:26Monster, montrer, to show.
3:29Which we saw was coming from monster, related to the meaning of almonds.
3:33And when that S does leave, it also leaves an accent on the preceding vowel to
3:40make sure everybody knows it was there, usually.
3:43And that's that little hat, the little circumflex I mentioned in fête.
3:48And we also have it on the O of hôpital, for example.
3:52And this is quite a common pattern.
3:54For example, the word forest in French is the same, but just without that S
4:00coming before that hard T.
4:03So how would that sound in French?
4:06Forest.
4:07Forêt.
4:08Good.
4:09But would you pronounce that last T?
4:11Forêt.
4:12Forêt.
4:13Very good.
4:14La forêt.
4:15How would you say, I'm close by the forest.
4:17I'm close by the forest.
4:19I'm near the forest.
4:21Je suis près de la forêt.
4:26Very good.
4:27Je suis près de la forêt.
4:31Beast.
4:31The beast in French is la bête.
4:35La bête.
4:35La bête.
4:36This is B-E-T-E, which is, of course, why we hear the T.
4:41La bête.
4:42Interest.
4:43How might that sound in French?
4:45Interest, as in the interest.
4:49Intérêt.
4:49Very good.
4:50But we have the I-N syllable, non, like in inviter.
4:57Intérêt.
4:58Very good.
4:59Intérêt, l'intérêt, which is actually le, it's masculine.
5:03L'intérêt.
5:04We could have la côte, the cost.
5:09Le coup, C-O-U-T, the cost.
5:12We could have la pâte, the paste or pastry.
5:17And in the plural, P-A-T-E-S, pasta.
5:21It means pasta.
5:23Les pâtes.
5:24He is eating the pasta.
5:27Il mange la pâte.
5:30In plural, to get the meaning of pasta, we put it in plural.
5:34Les pâtes.
5:37Very good.
5:38Il mange les pâtes.
5:41Even the word crêpe is also from this pattern.
5:44We have crisp or crispy in English.
5:48Crêpe is the same root as crisp, but with the S again before that hard P sound
5:53disappeared.
5:55Island or aisle in French is spelled I-L-E.
5:59How would that sound?
6:01Il.
6:02Il.
6:02Il.
6:03The same as he.
6:04The word for storm.
6:06Tempête.
6:07You might not realise that this is just tempest.
6:11Tempête.
6:12So there's many a word with this pattern of an S in the S-T, S-P, S-C
6:18combination disappearing in the French word.
6:21And this means we have yet another curious way to internalise the vocabulary
6:26that we come across in finding examples of this pattern.
6:30To stop in French is arrêter.
6:34Arrêter.
6:35To stop.
6:36Arrêter.
6:37That's spelled A-R-R-E, with a little hat on it, T-E-R.
6:44What might it be connected to in English?
6:47A-R-R-E, with the little hat, T, and then the verb ending E-R.
6:55Arrest.
6:56To arrest.
6:56Good, no?
6:57And it also means to arrest in French, but also for the common meaning of to
7:03stop.
7:03Arrêter.
7:04How would you say I'm stopping the car?
7:08Je.
7:09J'arrête la voiture.
7:12Very good.
7:13J'arrête la voiture.
7:15Now also we have arrêter.
7:17To stop.
7:18We don't pronounce that ending to get the I-form.
7:21Je arrête.
7:22And of course that contracts.
7:24J'arrête.
7:25J'arrête la voiture.
7:27He's stopping the car.
7:29He's stopping the car.
7:31Il arrête la voiture.
7:35Very good.
7:35Il arrête la voiture.
7:39Fume.
7:39Fume in English comes from the word smoke in French, and to smoke is fumer.
7:46F-U-M-E-R.
7:48Fumer.
7:51If you want to say I want to stop, I want to quit smoking, in French you can
7:57say I want to stop of smoking, of to smoke.
8:01So, I want to stop of to smoke.
8:05Je veux arrêter de fumer.
8:16So, arrêter or arrêter de also means to quit.
8:21How would you say I'm stopping smoking, I'm quitting smoking, rather than I
8:26want to stop smoking, just I'm quitting smoking.
8:30J'arrête de fumer.
8:33Very good.
8:34J'arrête de fumer.
8:36If you want to say I'm stopping, not saying what you're stopping, just I'm
8:42stopping, then what you mean, in French at least, is I'm stopping myself.
8:48I'm stopping myself.
8:49So how would that be?
8:50I'm stopping.
8:53Je m'arrête.
8:56So without contractions it would be je me arrête, no?
9:01And when we put that together, je m'arrête.
9:04I don't stop.
9:05I'm not stopping.
9:08Je ne m'arrête pas.
9:11Very good.
9:12Je ne m'arrête pas or just je m'arrête pas.
9:16You stop.
9:18Tu t'arrêtes.
9:21Very good.
9:21Tu t'arrêtes.
9:23Of course, if we need to say je me arrête, no?
9:26Je m'arrête.
9:28I stop myself.
9:29You stop is you stop yourself.
9:31Tu t'arrêtes.
9:33Don't you stop.
9:35Aren't you stopping?
9:36You don't stop.
9:40Tu ne t'arrêtes pas.
9:43Very good.
9:44Tu ne t'arrêtes pas.
9:46To study in French is étudier, étudier.
9:52Etudier.
9:53That's E-T-U, so we have tu there, like in the word for you, no?
9:59D-I-E-R.
10:00Etudier, to study.
10:02Etudier.
10:03So this is literally, again, the same word as study, only we're missing the S
10:09of the S-T syllable, and we get an E before here, but just like in école, which
10:16was again the same word for school.
10:18Just an E before, and we're getting rid of the S, school, école, study,
10:24étudier.
10:25I study.
10:29J'étudie.
10:31J'étudie.
10:32So je and étudie blend together.
10:35J'étudie.
10:36And this is spelled E-T-U-D-I-E, but of course it just sounds like étudier
10:42without the E ending.
10:45J'étudie.
10:47I don't study.
10:49Je n'étudie pas.
10:52Very good.
10:53Je n'étudie pas.
10:55So here we have the E of étudie, no?
10:58Not the E of ne, because again they are contracting.
11:02N apostrophe, étudie.
11:05Je n'étudie pas.
11:07I don't study anything.
11:12Je n'étudie rien.
11:15Very good.
11:16Je n'étudie rien.
11:19What was the word for where?
11:22Où.
11:23Where do you study?
11:27Où étudies-tu?
11:32And what if you wanted just to say you study well?
11:37Tu étudies où?
11:41Very good.
11:43Tu étudies où?
11:45Or, t'étudies où?
11:47Don't you study?
11:50Tu n'étudies pas.
11:53Very good.
11:54Tu n'étudies pas.
11:55So here étudie is spelled E-T-U-D-I-E-S, but again it just sounds like étudier
12:03without the E ending.
12:06Tu n'étudies pas.
12:08Don't you study anything?
12:09Don't you study nothing?
12:12Tu n'étudies rien.
12:16Very good.
12:17Tu n'étudies rien.
Etymology
Etymology connections will appear here as they are discussed