Greetings, polite phrases, numbers 1–20
Almost everything this week is a fixed chunk. Greetings are learned whole, not taken apart.
Greetings and courtesy
Three to five new items a day — around 25 across the week. Most are grey chunks: say them as single units.
- [Bonjour]Hello / Good day[Bonjour !]
Use before about 6pm.
- [Bonsoir]Good evening[Bonsoir !]
After about 6pm.
- [Au revoir]Goodbye[Au revoir !]
- [S'il vous plaît]Please (formal)Un café, [s'il vous plaît].A coffee, please.
say: si voo plèt
- [Merci beaucoup]Thank you very much[Merci beaucoup !]
Merci on its own is plenty most of the time.
- [De rien]You're welcome[De rien.]
say: deu ryan
- [Oui]Yes[Oui, merci.]
- [Non]No[Non, merci.]
- [Pardon]Excuse me / sorry[Pardon, madame.]
- [Madame]Mrs / madam[Bonjour, madame.]
The safe default for any adult woman.
- [Monsieur]Mr / sir[Bonjour, monsieur.]
- [Mademoiselle]Miss
For young or unmarried women. Madame is safer if you are unsure.
- [Comment ?]What? / Pardon?[Comment ?]
Asks someone to repeat. Treated as a whole chunk this week.
- [Ça va ?]How are you?— [Ça va ?] — [Ça va, merci.]
Casual and universal. Works as question and answer.
- [Ça va.]I'm fine.[Ça va, merci.]
- [Et vous ?]And you? (formal)[Ça va, et vous ?]
What the colours above mean
4 of 10 colours so farA thing, a person or a place.
An action or a state — what is happening.
Stands in for a noun — I, you, he, it.
Learn it whole. Do not take it apart.
Articles and prepositions arrive in Week 2. Numbers stay plain all week.
Numbers 1–20
Numbers stay plain — no colour. 17 to 19 are simply ten-seven, ten-eight, ten-nine, which makes them a good chunking exercise.
Sentence frames
Here is where blue and green appear for the first time: je is a pronoun, m'appelle is a verb.
- 1
[Bonjour,] je m'appelle name.
Hello, my name is ___.
- 2
Un café, [s'il vous plaît].
A coffee, please.
Swap the noun for anything you want to order.
- 3
— [Ça va ?] — [Ça va, et vous ?]
— How are you? — Fine, and you?
Daily mini-tasks
Listening this week
Coffee Break French, Episode 1
YouTube or Spotify
Scottish accent, slow and clear. Episode 1 covers greetings and ça va. Play at 0.75× and shadow the speaker.
The gear icon in the player sets the speed — 0.75× is the one to start with. Nothing from YouTube loads until you press play.
What stuck?
Check it before you close the page.
Up to 10 of this week's words and frames. Say each one out loud before you look, and say whether you think you have it. Guessing first and then checking is what makes it stick — reading the answer feels better and does less.