French Level 1
    Unit 5: Leçon 4
    L'Age
    Let's return to Mlle. Duprée's classroom. Following the introduction of his family to the other kids, Luc will next get to choose some more information to share. Being the discreet person that he is, Luc has chosen to reveal the ages of all of his family members. (Good thing none of them know about it!)

    Look and listen to what he has to say:


    Track 48
    Voici mes grandparents!


    Ma grandmère a soixante-dix ans et mon grandpère a soixante-dix-sept ans.


    Voici mes parents!



    Mon père a quarante-deux ans et ma mère a trente-cinq ans.


    Notice that Luc has chosen to introduce the ages of his grandparents and parents using phrases in his presentation such as " My grandmother is seventy years old" and " My mother is thirty-five years old". Now, here is the million dollar question: Rather than saying "Ma mère" or "Ma grandmère", what other word could Luc have used in these sentences to express "names" for these two women? He could have used the word Elle in place of My mother/My grandmother making the two sentences Elle a soixante-dix ans for grandma and Elle a trente-cinq ans for mom.

    How about the same thing for the men? Using the masculine pronoun Il in place of Mon grandpère and Mon père would have made the sentences Il a soixante-dix-sept ans for grandpa and Il a quarante-deux ans for dad.
    (*HINT: If this was confusing for you, you may want to review Unit 2: Introductions)

    You may be wondering why the word a is used in the above sentences instead of "est". The word a has the same meaning as the English word has in these sentences. In French, a person "has" a certain age rather than "being" that age, as one is in English. Using "has" and not "is" when expressing age is another one of those things that you will get used to doing as you continue in your French studies.

    Now, what's that you say? How do you express your own age? I'm glad you asked!

    Check out the chart below, listen to the sound byte, and repeat after me:

    SOUND BYTE HERE

    Quel âge as-tu? (What age do you have?)


    Track 49
    L'ÂGE  
    FRANÇAIS ANGLAIS
    j'ai ____ ans. I am ____ years old.
    tu as ____ ans. you are ____ years old.
    il a ____ ans. he is ____ years old.
    elle a ____ ans. she is ____ years old.


    And now, another assignment and then: Unité 6!



Introduction / Leçon 1a / Leçon 1b / Leçon 2 / Leçon 3 / Leçon 4