French I, Semester I; Les Couleurs

Sections:

Introduction  |   Section 1  |   Section 2  |   Section 3   |   Dictionaries

Section One:

Part A  |   Part B  |   Part C  |   Part D   |   Part E  |   Part F

Section One - Part B La Côte d'Ivoire Printed by permission from Hamill Gallery of African Art Although we call it the Ivory Coast in English, the official name is Côte d'Ivoire. It is one of the French-speaking countries in West Africa. It has a population of 13 million, 16% of which are Christians and 23% are Muslim. The majority practice traditional African religions involving ancestral worship. They believe that after people die, they become spirits who remain in constant contact with the living. The masks symbolize social order.   Masculin ou féminin? In Part A, you learned some new vocabulary--these new words are called "adjectives". Do you know what the job of an adjective is? Adjectives describe nouns (people, places, things, ideas). You can use your new vocabulary to talk about yourself or other people. You may have noticed in looking at the pictures that there are two forms for many of the adjectives. The man said, je suis blond; the woman said, je suis blonde. If you did not notice this, please go back and listen. When you are talking about a male person, you will use the masculine form of the adjective. When talking about a woman, use the feminine form. The neutral form that you will find in the dictionary is the masculin form. If an adjective ends in a consonant, you'll add an -e to make it feminine. Sometimes, you may have to double up the consonant, but you'll learn that as we go along. The other thing that happens is that when you add an -e, the consonant which was not pronounced before, now is! Find the pattern below. Look at the spelling changes and listen to the different pronunciations for the two forms of the same adjective. grand grande petit petite brun brune blond blonde roux rousse gros grosse It is not difficult. It is simply something we have to remember in French. If the adjective already ends in -e, you don't have to worry about anything! It'll be the same for both the masculine and the feminine. mince mince timide timide jeune jeune Au Travail! Write these exercises in your notebook. Look at the pictures and describe the people with a complete sentence in French. Use your new people words and the descriptive words. Click on each picture to see a correct response. La fille est blonde. La fille est rousse. Le garçon est blond. La femme est brune. L'homme est gros. L'homme est fort. L'homme est grand et mince. La femme est grande et mince. Le garçon est intelligent.   C'est un homme, c'est une femme.... You learned new words to identify people. Let's use those words to define "who" someone is. Look at the name given and then say whether that person is a garçon, fille, homme or femme. Write a complete sentence in French. Click on each person's name to see the response you should have. M. Durand M Durant est un homme. Mlle Jay Mlle Jay est une femme. Jean-Marc Jean-Marc est un garçon. Richard Richard est un garçon. Juliette Juliette est une fille. Mme Poirot Mme Poirot est une femme. Mireille Mireille est une fille. Julien Julien est un garçon.   Va à 1c.

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