Learn French with a podcast! This clip from Balades ep. 1 is 13 seconds long and has 38 words. Can you transcribe them all? Try it!
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.
The above audio sample and transcription is from Balades ep. 1. We do not own the content. Listen to the entire episode here.
Something to occupy us
Let’s continue with lesson 26. The right and left cheek of the face, that is.
Love this list of the “souvenirs” of her vacations. Vocab I know in isolation without a problem, but strung together, with typical verbs and phrases I’m lost. Sure I know “framboises”, “pommes”, and “pommes de terre” but I did not know the phrase picking strawberries, raking dead leaves, having a bonfire…
Many words in French I know in isolation, but not in a sentence. Espeicaly not in a longer clip like this. I love this clip because it is a lengthy one, but still accessible vocab. That’s the nature of Balades and why it’s so great for beginners.
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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
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Il faut dire qu’il y avait toujours de quoi nous occuper : cueillir des framboises et des pommes ou ramasser les feuilles mortes, faire un grand feu au fond du jardin et y faire cuire des pommes de terre.
It must be said that there was always something to occupy us: picking raspberries and apples or picking up dead leaves, make a big fire at the bottom of the garden and cook potatoes there.
The above text courtesy of Google Translate. Source
What does “de quoi nous occuper” mean in French?
“De quoi nous occuper” is a French phrase that can be translated to “Something to keep us occupied” in English.
It is a way to express that a group of people, in this case “nous” which means “we”, need something to do or to keep them busy. The phrase “de quoi” is translated to “what” in english and it is used to ask for something or in this case to express that something is needed. The verb “occuper” means “to occupy” or “to keep busy”
For example:
- “Il fait trop chaud pour rester à la maison, on a besoin de quoi nous occuper” which means “It’s too hot to stay at home, we need something to keep us occupied”
- “On a un après-midi libre, il nous faut de quoi nous occuper” which means “We have a free afternoon, we need something to keep us busy”
It is a polite and normal way to express the need of an activity or something to do to keep busy in French.
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Il faut dire
cueillir
ramasser
les feuilles
mortes
feu
cuire
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