Paris o'clock 042920 Quiz 5: je ne comprenais absolument rien
Learn French with a podcast! This clip is from Paris o’clock 29 April 2020 Episode. Listen and fill in what you hear below. Read more and find a translation below. Find the full episode here.
The above audio sample and transcription is from Paris o’clock Podcast 29 Apr 2020 Episode. We do not own this content, nor do we pretend to own it. The above is for entertainment and educational purposes only. Register on Paris o’clock site to read the full text and hear the full audio.
I didn’t understand anything
For the past few months, this has been me in France. I ask a question – the assumption is I can speak. The answer comes back, or another line after the answer and I’ve got nothing.
When I was learning Chinese, this would happen even at an intermediate level when names or celebrities or movie titles were thrown around. I could follow the conversation, but I was missing that pivotal 15%. The actors. The names. The WHAT specifically. Here in France now, it’s not because of that. It’s because I’m just too much of a beginner, but I like to pretend.
I want to be able to understand. And just can’t put the time to it. Plenty of things get in the way. What’s stopping you from learning? We all have reasons, but in the end it’s just a concious choice to not make learning a priortiy – at least that’s the case for me. I’m not going to lecture you, I just know I was spending too much time on Netflix, and not enough at the language dojo.
This is our language dojo. We’re going to hear real French spoken by locals in bitesize pieces. And try to pick it all up. How much are you understanding?
How was this snippet? It’s a continuation of the previous snippets. We’ll get into the subject matter soon, it’s good to lay down this context for culture, as that’s the focus of the coming bites on this site.
What would you change? Anything you’d add? Let me know below. Keep on keeping on, together we’re going to understand everything.
The snippet in English
Find a translation of this snippet here, how much of this did you hear?
Comme je le disais en introduction, je pense aussi qu’on ne peut pas apprendre une langue étrangère correctement si on ne s’intéresse pas à la culture du pays.
Moi aussi j’ai appris des langues étrangères et je me suis souvent retrouvée dans des situations où j’étais la seule étrangère dans un groupe de locaux et où je ne comprenais absolument rien à la conversation.
Je comprenais les mots, mais je ne comprenais pas du tout le sujet de la conversation.
As I said in the introduction, I also think that you cannot learn a foreign language properly if you are not interested in the culture of the country.
I too learned foreign languages and I often found myself in situations where I was the only foreigner in a group of locals and where I understood absolutely nothing of the conversation.
I understood the words, but I didn’t understand the subject of the conversation at all.
The above text translated using Google Translate. Translation Link. The content in French is courtesy of Paris o’clock.
What does “je ne comprenais abolument rien” mean?
“Je ne comprenais absolument rien” is a French phrase that can be translated to “I didn’t understand absolutely anything” or “I didn’t get it at all” in English.
It is a way of expressing that someone doesn’t understand something, and it’s a strong statement of not understanding. The pronoun “je” is the first person singular form of the subject pronoun and means “I”, the verb “ne comprenais” is the first person singular form of the verb “comprendre” which means “to understand” and “absolument” means “absolutely” and “rien” means “nothing” Together, the phrase “Je ne comprenais absolument rien” implies that the speaker is expressing that they didn’t understand something and they didn’t understand it at all.
It is a standard French phrase, it’s not a colloquial or informal way of speaking, it’s a way of expressing that someone doesn’t understand something, and it’s a strong statement of not understanding.
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je le disais
Moi aussi
souvent retrouvée
je ne comprenais
absolument rien
les mots
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