Skip to content

Today's
Free Listening Exercise

Every day at 12am ET take a listening quiz from the site. Challenge your French listening comprehension skills for a few minutes each day.

Question-mark

Balades ep. 1, Quiz 19: c'est-à-dire

Take the quiz, join the conversation.

Did you find this one challenging or easy? Did you hear something diffferent? What surprised you? What levels did you complete? Comment below and share what’s opening up for you with this quiz.

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.

24 seconds, 52 words
100% Blank 100% Blank
.
'
,
'
,
'
'
--
,
'--
.

    That is to say…

    Let’s continue with this 19th clip from Balades Ep. 1.

    This longer block has a number of regions in France, that’s why I love it. I’m hearing pronunciations for places throughout the country. This also relates back to Lesson 13 when she jokes but is really serious about the number of kisses required. I mentioned Combien de Bises as a tool for French people to confirm how many pecks are required…

    That is to say every joke has a little truth, or a lot of truth. And this clip covers the varied requirements of la bise even from Paris to Finistère, 5 hour drive away. That’s not even counting the differences to the French departments around the globe.

    How much of this snippet are you understanding?
    Can you only hear the articles or are you catching keywords?
    What’s your favorite part about this?

    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?

    Ensuite une autre difficulté est que le nombre de bises varie selon la région et même le département. Cela peut aller d’une seule bise, comme par exemple dans le Finistère à l’ouest de la Bretagne, jusqu’à quatre bises dans les départements qui entourent l’ÃŽle-de-France, c’est-à-dire Paris et les départements autour de Paris.

    Then another difficulty is that the number of kisses varies according to the region and even the department. This can range from a single kiss, as for example in Finistère in the west of Brittany, up to four kisses in the departments which surround the Île-de-France, that is to say Paris and the departments around Paris.

    The above text courtesy of Google Translate. Source

    What does “c’est-à-dire” mean in French?

    “C’est-à-dire” is a French phrase that translates to “that is to say” or “in other words” in English. It’s used to clarify or explain something that was just said in a more clear or simpler way. It can be used to provide more information about a subject or to restate something in a different way.

    “C’est-à-dire” is a useful phrase for providing clarification and is often used in conversation as well as in writing. It allows the speaker to express themselves in a more precise and clear way.

    It’s an important phrase to know for those who are learning French and would like to understand more precise meaning of the spoken or written language.

    What words did I look up in this snippet?

    Find keywords for this snippet below

    Ensuite

    selon

    jusqu’à

    entourent

    c’est-à-dire

    autour

    What did you love about this?

    Comment below with your feedback! Tells us what you think. Send a note or leave a comment below. We appreciate the feedback. Also, we’re always looking for partners to build this site and grow the content available.

    Leave a Reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    Upcoming Quizzes

    • Vivons Heureux Numéro 1, Quiz 14: accroître
    • Manger ep. 1, Quiz 85: à l’âge adulte
    • Transfert s01e22, quiz 8: un bout de
    • Paris o’clock 042920 Quiz 4: ne vous inquiétez pas!
    • Inner French ep. 001, quiz 16: avez envie de
    • « 40% », Quiz 5: que c’est doux
    • Passerelles ep. 1, Quiz 8: de temps en temps

    Understand more than just your teacher's French.

    FREE Daily Listening Practice with real world French.

    Improve with a daily fill-in-the-blanks transcription quiz from popular podcasts or French media

    Join now, practice daily

    Get daily reminders to practice your French listening

    Intuit Mailchimp