LESSON NOTES

Lower Intermediate S2 #3
This is How to Train Your French
Dragon!

CONTENTS
2 French
2 English
2 Vocabulary
3 Sample Sentences
4 Vocabulary Phrase Usage
4 Grammar
6 Cultural Insight

# 3
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 FRENCH

1. Vincent : (lanceles dés) Ton dragon est immobilisé pour trois heures !

2. Marc : Oh non, mais mon guerrier ne peut plus rien faire !

3. Vincent : Mais si, pendant trois heures, il va pouvoir se reposer et vivre

d'autres aventures !

4. Marc : C'est trop long. Puisque c'est comme ça, je vais faire une sieste !

5. Vincent : Tu es mauvais joueur. Une partie prend seulement entre deux et

quatre heures, tu pourrais aller à la taverne du village et peut-être
acheter un nouvel oeuf de dragon...

ENGLISH

1. Vincent: (rolls dice) Your dragon is immobiliz ed for three hours!

2. Marc: Oh no, but my warrior can't do anything anymore!

3. Vincent: Not at all, for three hours he could rest and live other adventures!

4. Marc: That's way too long. That being so, I'll take a nap!

5. Vincent : You're a sore loser. A session only takes between two to four hours.
You could go to the village tavern and maybe buy another dragon
egg...

VOCABULARY

Fr e nc h English C lass Ge nde r

dragon dragon noun masculine

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 nouvel new adjective masculine

immobilisé immobiliz ed, stuck past participle masculine

sieste nap noun feminine

aventure adventure noun feminine

mauvais joueur sore loser noun masculine

prendre to take verb

taverne tavern noun feminine

village village noun masculine

SAMPLE SENTENCES

Les dr agons sont des cr éat ur es Les gendar mes sont par t out la nuit
myt hologiques. du Nouvel An.

"Dragons are mythological "Policemen are everywhere New

creatures." Year's Eve."

Félicit at ions pour t on nouvel emploi! A cause de sa fr act ur e, il a ét é

immobilisé un mois.
"Congratulations on your new job!"
"Because of his fracture, he's been
immobilized for a month."

En Fr ance, les enfant s en Mat er nelle Ce voyage en Inde a ét é une vér it able
font la siest e t ous les jour s. avent ur e.

"In France, children in kindergarten "T his trip to India was a real
have a nap everyday." adventure."

Mes amis t r ouvent que je suis Il pr end le t r ain jeudi.

mauvais joueur .
"He takes the train on T hursday."
"My friends think I'm a sore loser."

Il a pr is le t r ain. En ce moment , les t aver nes pir at es

sont à la mode.
"He took the train."
"T hese days, pirate taverns are in
fashion."

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Le plus pet it village de Fr ance est Cast elmor on-d'Albr et avec 62 habit ant s.

"T he smallest village in France is Castelmoron-d'Albret with 62 inhabitants."

VOCABULARY PHRASE USAGE

Dragon
Dragons are common in French folklore. They're probably the most well-known creatures in
people's minds. Dragons are a reference to the Middle Ages and Arthur's saga. The feminine
word is dragonne, which must not be mixed with its homophone dragonne, a knot or bracelet
used to not lose hold of objects.

Nouvel
Nouvel translates as "new." It's exactly the same word as nouveau, but it's spelled this way
before a vowel.

For example:

1. J'ai un nouvel appartement.

"I have a new apartment."

Masculine: nouveau/nouvel

Feminine: nouvelle

Mauvais joueur
Mauvais joueur is quite a common expression to describe someone who doesn't accept
losing at a game. Literally, it means "bad player," as we consider in France that if you're a
bad player, you don't accept losing. We also say mauvais perdant (literally, "bad loser"),
which is closer to the English expression "sore loser."

GRAMMAR

T he Focus of t his Lesson is t he Expr ession of Dur at ion Using pour and entre.
Ton dragon est immobilisé pour trois heures!
"Your dr agon is immobiliz ed for t hr ee hour s!"

There are many ways to express duration in French. You already learned about some in the
previous series. Let's see how to use pour and entre to express duration.

For mat ion using a Span

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[subject] + [verb] + pour + [time span]

To express a span, you can use pour, pendant, and durant. Basically, they can be translated
as "for."

For example:

1. Il est parti pendant trois heures.

"He's been gone for three hours."

2. Je pars pour quelques jours.

"I'm leaving for a few days."

3. Il a plu durant des semaines.

"It rained for weeks."

Examples from this dialogue:

1. Ton dragon est immobilisé pour trois heures!

"Your dragon is immobiliz ed for three hours!"

2. Mais si, pendant trois heures, il va pouvoir se reposer.

"Not at all, for three hours, he could rest."

For mat ion using T wo Point s in T ime

[subject] + [verb] + entre + [time] + et + [time]

It can be translated as "between... and..." or "from... to / until..."

For example:

1. Elle a fait les courses entre 13h et 15h.

"She did the grocery shopping between one p.m. and three p.m."

2. Ils ont joué entre midi et le repas du soir.

"They played from noon until dinner."

Examples from this dialogue:

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1. Une partie prend seulement entre deux et quatre heures.
"A session only takes between two to four hours."

CULTURAL INSIGHT

Role Playing Games

Role playing games have been popular in France among young people for about a decade,
but it's not only youth who enjoy them. They may be played at many associations and clubs,
or even just during informal meetings with friends. There are also a lot of conventions, such
as: Jeux de Roger (Normandy), OctoGônes, and les Utopiales.

There are a lot of different universes or settings: the Middle Ages, Japan, nineteenth century
London, space... Everything is possible! They're sometimes taught to children to develop
their imagination, creativity, and curiosity while having fun. Some companies do it for their
employees too! A very good point in these games is that nobody ever loses.

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