🇫🇷 How to use "ABOUT" in French
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- Опубліковано 26 сер 2019
- Speak French with Confidence with my 4-step methodology: bit.ly/3qMPU7L
"About" can take on many forms in English, so why would it be any different in French? I take a look at some of the most common ways of expressing yourself in French where you'd use "about" in English.
Thinking about you...
What do you think about him?
How about we go away?
What's it about?
This video was suggested by a fan on Instagram. Tell me your suggestions down in the comments!
Penser à video: • 🇫🇷 How to use PENSER À...
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I am new following you! Great content. Congrats!
I speak Spanish and English. So, this is my first attempt with French 🇫🇷
Sorry to be so offtopic but does anybody know a trick to get back into an Instagram account?
I was dumb forgot the password. I love any help you can give me!
Hi Alex! French native speaker here! I just came across your videos that I find very well made. Just wanted to react to you way of explaining how to describe movies or books. Using "à propos" is correct indeed but I think we, as French natives, use far more often "parler de, raconter" when we describe movies and books. For instance, "Le film raconte l'histoire d'un couple qui déménage dans une nouvelle ville" / "C'est un livre qui parle de la Seconde Guerre mondiale". For me, it sounds more natural but again, using "à propos" is totally correct!
Bonne continuation sur ta chaîne, j'espère qu'elle va décoller !
Hey Antoine. Merci pour ton comments! Truly constructive and will help others who come by it.
I was really zoning in on the English speakers perspective when it comes to how they'd want to use "about" in French, but you are right that parler de and raconter are very French. I myself haven't got used to describing a film like that so that's why it didn't make it into the video.
Hi Alex ! Here is a Swiss from the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
I totally agree with Antoine : well done videos ! They truly represent spoken French which is so much easier and FUN 🤗(yes, it’s possible !) than written French...
Just be carefull : it’s
- déménager/aller DANS une autre ville
- aller À Paris (ou À Lausanne 🤩...).
Pliiiiz ! Don’t ask me why, I’m not a teacher !
I will continue to follow you critically BUT, I hope, constructively too...
French is a sweet language to hear but also great to play and to laugh with...
As Antoine said : bonne continuation et beau décollage 🚀🤗🤪 et qu’ça saute !
@@Woumanne à/au suggests a destination (je vais à la gare). To note that when you go to, say, an individual's place you say "chez" (Je vais à la boulangerie, chez le boulanger).
Dans suggests a determined space you inhabit/where you are situated. (Je suis dans la gare).
As a shorthand: à/au/chez is a point on a map you have to reach. Dans is when you are the dot on the map that represents the space around you.
@@k.v.7681Yes however what @woumanne says is right with the verb déménager. We say "je déménage à Paris" (while "dans" would be wrong), but on the other hand "je déménage dans une nouvelle ville" (where "à" sounds wrong).
I was about to say the same thing. "cette chose est à propos de ça" sounds very unnatural to me. I guess we only use "à propos" in the common language after "c'est".
- Ça parle de quoi, ce film?
- C'est à propos d'un couple qui déménage.
Or someone wants to talk to you, but you don't know what it's about : "Vous vouliez me parler à propos de quoi?" / "C'est à quel propos?"
Good job Alex, I love watching your videos, being french, it makes me realize how hard french is 😂 but you know how to explain it!
I love your lessons and Your delightful humor. I feel that someday I may speak good French and much of it will be thanks to you. Thank you. I am from Boston, MA.
Your content is much better than even the content of the native French , but why your viewers are few 🤔 you deserve more than that
Thank you. It just takes time :)
I want all of my french teachers to look at your videos
Good video. I've studied French a good many years - and spent time in France - but I still don't have a good grasp of "s'agir." Can you explain that one in an upcoming video?
Thanks for your help,I like it so much.
Such great lessons!
Subscribed! Thanks for this video king
I found your videos really helpful. Wish all the best!
Merci Kasia !
Thank you for your videos they really help!!
Amazing. Thank YOU!
thanks for your work!
My pleasure!
C’est un sujet très utile. Merci!
Great videos you make grammar more bearable the way you explain it. You have a great aptitude for teaching.
Wow, thank you! Happy they help you.
I'm glad to learn like this language of French...I love it❤️
Me too !
thanks! love your tips. very useful
You're so welcome!
Thank you Alex for your thoughtful teaching of the French phrases most useful to us.
The French equivalents are very helpful.
Glad you like them!
Hi Alex, love the videos, they really help me as a struggling Anglais en France! Suggestion, how about a video on "se faire"? One of the more tricky verbs!
Such handy videos..I find Im watching them between chores etc not too long!
Maybe you could have added « il s’agit de » that also can mean it is about :)
Very helpful. Thanks for this. Others that seem to come up are "s'agit de", "a sujet de" and "environ".
Yes, correct. There's plenty. Note that it's always "Il s'agit de" it's fixed.
Thank God that i got your channel.
Thanks a lot for your videos. This is my first attempt at learning French 👍🇫🇷
My first language is Spanish, so French as my third language is a huge challenge. Nowadays
I am catching up all your videos.
Thanks again 😊
I'm learning Spanish too. The grammar and a lot of vocab are easy thanks to French and English. But listening is completely different :). Good luck!
Salut mon ami ,vos vidéos me sont très utiles .merci beaucoup
Je t'en prie mon ami!
Je trouve que vos vidéos très utiles merci beaucoup
J'en suis content !
My favorite “about” is á peu près...although I understand why you didn’t address it here since it has a different “about” definition than you were explaining.
Can never hit em all Lisa :). Thanks for raising it!
“ Fraaance “ ! You posh thing !
This is absolutely brilliant, thank you so much! I'm off to check out your other videos! Also, what part of France are you in?
Montpellier, Jane. Et toi?
@@FrenchinPlainSight J'habite en Angleterre, entre Nottingham et Leicester.
Thanks for this video. I struggle with sentences where I have to say ''about''.
You're welcome Jayanth. Try out your new knowledge with a sentence with "about" :)
Just ran into your UA-cam channel today (16 Sept 20). I follow a couple of French teachers. You’re now my third. Thank you. I am a Brazilian who happens to be fluent in Portuguese and English, and now learning French (last 12 months).I find it amazing how these two languages help me with both French vocabulary and Grammar Structure. However the fact that the French hardly ever use the past tense throws me off for a loop. They seem to prefer “passer composê” j'ai mange instead of “passer simple” je mangeai. One of those nuances in foreign languages. However when the French prefer to uses certain combinations, really confuses me. Ex: il s'agit de (about) ta famille. Il fait que (must),en l'air ; en train de, to name a few exemples. I am going to sign up for your channel and hope you can explain “in plain sight” for me. Good Job “meu amigo”.
Wonderful! Welcome :)
What do you mean by "past tense" then? Passé composé is one of the past tenses. I mean "passé" = "past".
French in Plain Sight : verb “to eat”: passé simple: I ate: Je mangeai. Passe compose: I have eaten. J’ai mangé. What I meant to say is that, it appears to me that, in everyday spoken french they prefer the use of the auxiliary verb “être or avoir” to express something that happened in the near past. So instead of saying “Je mangeai une pomme” they say: j'ai mangé une pomme. No biggie. Just wondering. By the way... I just found your video about “Il faut que”... great. Next how about explaining “en train de” in the process of ..and “s’agit...” , “ a l’air: Elle a l'air triste. These are on of those “ no one to one “ ( or literal) translations.
@@lecirdaluz I have never studied passé simple because 99.9% of conversations you will have will never use it. It's only used in novels.
@@lecirdaluz On the subject of (à propos de, lol) "a l'air", it does actually have a one to one translation in English, although some circumstances will sound a little unnatural to a native speaker although are still technically correct, "Elle a l'air triste" could translate as "she has a sad air about her", this uses "air" in the sense of "the appearance or bearing of a person", like in the sentence "he has an air of mystery about him"
@@notaname8140 : Great 😌 explanation. Got it. Thank you 😊 Buddy.
Salut Alex, nice lesson as always. S'il vous plait , peut-on dire - Le film est à propos de quoi?
On peut, oui! C'est cependant une façon un peu inhabituelle de poser la question. Plus couramment, on dirait "Le film parle de quoi?", ou "Le film est sur quoi?"
On déménage *dans* une ville
Pas "à" une ville
Bonne vidéo en tout cas !
Au sujet de/a propos de are the same thing?
À propos de ce sujet de « about », on pourrait dire quand on parle de un film ou en livre « il s’agit de… ».
I think "face à" can mean about, depending on the context.
What about using environ or `a peu près to express approximately or about? These are not included in your video.
True. Good job the comments exist to add further information :D
Thanks again for yet another useful video! Would you be able to do a video on the usage of: D'ailleurs (is it truly just "anyway", like de toute façon?), n'importe de quoi, and tout à fait (is carrément the slang for this?). I hear it in so many different ways and while I think I get it, it is still not 100% clear. Thank you!
Merci pour la suggestion Erin. This is a great idea. I've put it on the list.
Since your comment I'm definitely consciously using carrément more and juggling it round in my head to properly understand when to use it. The beginning of the creative process 🤪
French in Plain Sight fantastic!! Happy to help out 😊
Avez-vous réalisé que vous avez mis «à me renseigner» et «sur» le deux ensemble ?
Do you realize that you put "à me renseigner" and "sur" both together?
Thanks for this video. I often find myself wondering how a certain English-language form is done in French.
I was reading just today about "get" and it's many uses in English and how the Quebecois use "poigner", but Parisiennes do not.
Oui parce qu'il faut le "à" après "commencer". "Commencer à faire quelque chose".
Bonjour Alex. Quand je racontais l'histoire au sujet du "ne______que" je me suis trompé de verb que cela m'est arrivé il y a des années voyez-vous. Regarder ne marche pas. C'était lever. La pauvre femme ne s'entendait pas avec son père. Elle m'a dit "il (ne) a levé les yeux qu' à moi", leaving out the "ne" as described before. Tout reviens a ceci, she left out the "ne" the "que" still meaning "only".
So would "Il s'agit" be incorrect?
les phrases "je pense a toi" et "je pense de toi" sont correctes les deux?
On ne dit pas je pense de toi comme ça.
On l'utilise dans une question :
Qu'est-ce que tu penses de...?
Et tu donnes ton opinion avec "je pense que..."
💚💓💛❤️👍
🍺
May I know what level is this. Is it A2 or even higher?
I don't adhere to the official levels since I'm not a certified French teacher. I teach from my experience as an English native in France and all my videos are aimed at people in the (very broad) intermediate level of knowledge so they speak with more confidence. The official levels don't really help with that.
My advice is: If an expression or construction seems too complex or intimidating for you right now, trust that feeling and don't worry about it.
Sorry if that wasn't the answer you were looking for!
Ok thank you very much. I’m currently B1 but I’ve been studying ahead. Your videos are very helpful. Please keep up the good work!
«Que dites-vous ...» rather than «Que ditez-vous ...» ?
I'm curious why the French use «partir» rather than «aller» in many situations?
Dire is slightly irregular in that it's present tense form for vous is dites.
To give you a good answer for partir v aller I'd have to have an example because as you say, it's different depending on the situation but generally it means to leave,. to set off, to start a trip. Aller is to go more generally.
Why do you always stress the A in Allez?
Either because it's a mistake due to me being English, orrrrr because I've heard it that way?
What about environ?
Definitely another good one, depending on the context. Where can you use it?
@@FrenchinPlainSight I spent about 10 months in France. J'ai passé environ dix mois en France.
Easier would be, what do you think OF.
Sorry Alex, but we wouldn’t say: “le film est à propos d’un couple qui déménage à une nouvelle ville”, but much more probably: “le film *parle* d’un couple (ou raconte l’histoire d’un couple) qui déménage *pour* (ou vers) une nouvelle ville”. To stay on this case of “about”, we could say: “c’est à propos d’un couple…” your sentence is grammatically absolutely correct, but it sounds strange.
What about "en ce qui concerne"? Too formal? For written documents only? Also, can we expect a retrospective on the magnificent Jean-Paul Belmondo ☺in slow French, since he just passed away? Or did he end up being a racist, etc? 😔Perhaps the majority of pupils here are too young to have ever seen his films!
My shocking lack of knowledge of French cultural icons has been exposed. I hadn't heard of Monsieur Belmondo 🙈.
As for "en ce qui concerne". It is formal, yes but I use it in formal emails. It isn't for that reason that it didn't make it into the video. Perhaps it didn't come to me at the time.
@@FrenchinPlainSight Could be that your audience is too young to even want to read about them, anyway. I am in my 50's so I am not from that era, but i am a cinephile who is nuts about old french cinema. Deneuve, Delon, Belmondo, Depardieu.....they were all so awesome. So maybe there would be no interest anyway in you featuring them!! 🙃
A propos de ......never learned this in high school French classes or even at Alliance Francaise in Paris wtf.
No one place can tell us everything. It's not the most common way to say "about", so I don't blame them, but I do see it so I'm happy to have given it to you :)
Il sagit de
Il s'agit de .....
Yep. That one too. I need to do an updated version of this video.
Here is a combination of words that took me awhile to figure out: s'agit (it’s about): tu sais de quoi il s’agit? do you know what it's about? - š’agit: parce qu'il s'agit d'un des acteurs. because he is one of the actors. Compounded words are specifically difficult because they’re hardly ever in any dictionary. Another example of a compounded word: “en train de” (in the process of…) Je suis en train d'apprendre le Français.. or the gerund: I am learning French. « En l'air de « - il fait que… etc..
"le film est a propos de", its a weird way to say it and people would use the word "parler" in that context .
Et il s’agit de qqch…
Monsieur, vous n' avez pas parlé de "par rapport de" . C'est la même chose, n'est ce pas ??
"Par rapport à" oui on peut l'utiliser comme traduction de "about" aussi. Ça dépend du contexte et de la phrase.