Learn French with Balades Ep. 1, this clip is 10 seconds long and has 21 words. Listen and transcribe what you hear. Start now, practice your listening skills!
Learn French with a podcast snippet! This clip is from Balades Episode 1. Listen and fill in what you hear below. Read more and find a translation below. Find the full podcast here.
Why this clip of Balades?
I am continuing to work my way through this first podcast one bite at a time.
This clip tells what we’re going to be hearing about in the coming episode. Does her criptic approach draw you in? I’m not sure.
But I am sure that I’m thrown by the pronunciation of “bises” every time. This is why I started this site, to really define the way that French is pronounced, and all the letters that aren’t pronounced. Except when they are.
While this is a joke of anyone who has studied some French, I still try to wrap my head around it every time I see words written and spoken so differently from what I’d expect. What about for you?
Two more things surprised me about this clip – It has to do with Bonnes Résolutions. First, the modifier is de not des. This might be an error in the transcript that I have, while that’s the case, the Wikipedia article has both de and des modifying bonnes résolutions. My brain assumes it’d be des. If the transcript is wrong, please comment or email me to change it!
Second, “good resolutions” for New Year’s Resolutions seems like such a positive spin for French. I would think the name would be “first month resolutions” in French to signify how most of people, myself included, treat the promises to start the year: their typically gone by February. Great to see that French doesn’t have to be 100% sarcastic and cynical!
How much of this snippet are you understanding?
Can you only hear the articles or are you catching keywords?
There’s absolutely no way that I could get through an entire podcast in French without melting my brain, that’s why I broke it up into snippets like this. Join me for the next snippet.
The snippet in English
Find a translation of this snippet here, how much of this did you hear?
Aujourd’hui, je vous parlerai de bonnes résolutions, de bises et de la maison de mes grands-parents, enfin plutôt de son jardin.
Today, I will tell you about New Years resolutions, kisses and my grandparents’ house, well rather their garden.
The above text courtesy of Google Translate. Source
Keywords from the snippet?
Find keywords for this snippet below, sourced from fr.wiktionary.org or Wikipedia.
Aujourd’hui – present date “Today” source
Bonnes Résolutions – New Year’s Resolutions source
What does “enfin plutôt” mean in French?
“Enfin plutôt” is a French phrase that is used to express a qualification or a nuance in a statement. The word “enfin” means “finally” or “in short” and “plutôt” means “rather” or “more”. The phrase “enfin plutôt” is used to qualify or correct a previous statement, indicating that the speaker has made a slight correction or a change in the way they are thinking about a situation.
Examples:
“J’aime plutôt les chats enfin plutôt les animaux” (I like cats, rather, I like animals in general)
“Je n’ai pas vraiment le temps enfin plutôt je n’ai pas envie” (I don’t really have time, rather, I don’t really feel like it)
“Il n’est pas vraiment méchant, enfin plutôt il est un peu impulsif” (He is not really mean, rather, he is a bit impulsive)
In general, “enfin plutôt” is used to indicate that the speaker is making a slight adjustment or correction to a previous statement. It helps to qualify or nuance a statement, making it more accurate or more precise.
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