Basic French Language Tenets - Initiate A Conversation Now

Let's start with our multi part French lessons for beginners. Today we are going to learn the French greetings. In French, it is called: "La rencontre".

For the purpose of this course, we are going to choose two fictive names. These two name can be compared to "John Doe" in English.

Here we are going to choose: "Mr Dupont" (don't pronounce the t). Mr is for Monsieur. As for the second person, we will take: "Melle Claire". Melle stands for Mademoiselle and means that it is a women who isn't married yet.

Are you ready?

Now we are going to imagine that Melle Claire meets Mr Dupont in a grocery.

The conversation starts below:

1) Mr Dupont: Tiens Claire, qu'est ce que tu fais la? (Hi Claire, what are you doing here?)

Claire: Ah Mr Dupont, comment allez-vous? Quel coincidence do vous retrouver dans cette boutique! Ca va bien? (Ah Mr Dupont! What a happy coincidence to meet you in shop! How are you doing?)

2) Mr Dupont: Je vais tres bien claire, et toi? En fait, je fais des petite course pour la maison. Je suis tres content de te revoir) (I am fine Claire, what about you? Actually, I am buying some foods for the home. I am really happy to see you again.)

Claire: Comment vont les enfants? Cela fait un bail que je ne les ai pas vu. (And how are the children? I didn't see them for a while)

3) Mr Dupont: Ils vont tres bien, merci. (They are fine, thanks.)

Claire: Je dois y aller maintenant, passez un bonne journee et a bientot! (I got to go now, see you soon and have a nice day!)

Note: In French, we have two different ways to say: "you", look at the pronouns below:

1. Je (I)

2. Tu (You)

3. Il/Elle (He/She)

4. Nous (Us)

5. Vous (You)

6. Ils/Elles (Them)

You can be used for a single person as well, it's a form od respect. Like in Claire's sentence in #1" "Comment allez-vous".

Claire chose this form of respect because Mr Dupont is older than her.

I hope you enjoyed this first lesson, and stay tuned because we are going to continue the conversation!