When we teach we like to use exciting songs that make the language experience fun for the children. As you know our motto is ‘Making Languages Fun!’

We often put a twist into songs or adapt them so that it reinforces our questions or the vocabulary that we have been covering.  When we sing Au Feu les Pompiers we replace the cantinier and the cantinière with the children’s names!  They really laugh a lot when we do this.  I hope they’ve been singing it at home with you.

We sometimes add extra songs to our lesson plans that may not be in your newsletter if the children enjoy a particular word.  The children have particularly enjoyed the word ‘le Pompier [leuh pomp-ee-ay] ‘, which means fireman…they may have even been singing pin-pon-pin-pon [pahn-pohn] around the house!  That’s the noise that the firetruck  ‘camion de pompier’ [cam-ee-ohn deuh pomp-ee-ay] makes!

Au feu les pompiers is all about the firemen being called to a fire…Here’s a translation to help you whilst you listen to the video clip.  These video clips are great as you can follow the words as they are sung.

Here is the link http://youtu.be/FfAvs3Dr3sI

Au feu les pompiers…to the fire firemen

V’là la maison qui brule…here’s the house burning

Au feu les pompiers…to the fire firemen

V’là la maison brulée…here’s the burnt house!

C’est pas moi qui l’ai brûlée - It wasn’t me who burnt it

C’est la cantinière – It was the woman from the canteen

C’est pas moi qui l’ai brûlée - It wasn’t me who burnt it

C’est le cantinier – It was the man from the canteen

Have fun!  It’s what makes language learning enjoyable and it’s the best way for your children to remember the vocabulary.

Merci beaucoup!

It is not as hard sound like ‘n’ [enn] in English. That is why you will see in our pronunciation guide with square brackets[...] that the ‘n’ is often in brackets….you make a nasal soft sound. For example, the number 20 = vingt [vah(n)].

There are other words that end in ‘nne’, you would then use the hard ‘n’ [enn], for example

Let’s look at the difference between bon and bonne…both words mean good when we are talking about food or smells, or saying someone is good at something…. in fact bon is one of those words that is commonly misused so I don’t want to go into too much detail here as I feel it’s a word for another blogging session and a grammar lesson in itself!

so….bon pronounced [boh(n)] in its masculine form and bonne pronounced [bon] in its feminine form, with heavy emphasis on the ‘n’ sound.

une personne [oon person] or Personne [person] = nobody

Note that the word ‘une’ also has the sound ‘n’, however as it is followed by the ‘e’ you pronounce it like [nuh] [oonuh].

As you master the pronunciation you will find that you put less effort and emphasis on the sounds…the key is to relax and remember it’s all about communication and getting our point across!

The French use courteous and polite language when addressing their customers.  When you say ‘Merci’ you will almost always hear, ‘de rien’ right back.

s’il vous plaît [seel voo play] – this is the formal way, eg if you are in shops or speaking to people you do not know.  It is also how you say please when you are speaking to more than one person.

“Je voudrais une baguette s’il vous plaît.” [jeuh voodray oon bag-et seel voo play] – I would like a baguette please.

s’il te plaît  [seel teuh play] – this is how you say please when you are talking to friends and family or children.

Here’s a great phrase for you little ones!

“mange tes legumes s’il te plaît” [monj tay leg-euwm seel teuh play] – eat your vegetables please!

Hope this helps!

merci [mersee] = thank you

merci beaucoup [mersee bo-coo]

merci bien [mersee behn] = thanks a lot