Quelle est ton équipe de sport préférée ? 🏈⚾️

What is your favorite sports team?

Aug 17, 2023

Coucou ☕️🇫🇷🥐 I'm Amélie Laurent and this is my French newsletter. I supercharge your progress from A2 to B2 through colloquial dialogues.
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Salut mes amis! 😃 It's great to have you here for another edition of French with Amélie.

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Today’s dialogue is about sport’s teams. Every culture has ‘em, and they’re sure to come up in some conversation you’ll have with someone somewhere. At a party, in a restaurant, on a bus with friends, the topic can often swerve into this territory, especially if there’s a game on a tv nearby.

Big finals and big games tend to be a real cultural highlight that gets people out into bars and pubs and maybe even onto the street! And that’s something all culture vultures want to be part of if the opportunity presents itself. So let’s explore.

C’est parti ! 🏉

Sports Drinking GIF - Sports Drinking Badteam GIFs

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Gros Bisous! A x

✨New Feature: Dialogue Audio 🎧

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Dialogue du Jour

Antoine : Lucie, quelle est ton équipe de sport préférée ?

Lucie : J'adore l'équipe de foot de Paris Saint-Germain. Et toi ?

Antoine : C'est marrant ✪, je préfère Marseille ! C'est comme ça ✪, je suppose.

Lucie : Vraiment, Marseille ? Pourquoi ça ?

Antoine : J'aime leur esprit d'équipe, et aussi le public ✪ à Marseille est incroyable !

Lucie : Oui, ils ont de la veine ✪ d'avoir un public si passionné. Mais il y a quelque chose que je ne comprends pas.

Antoine : Qu'est-ce que c'est ?

Lucie : Comment se fait-il que l'arbitre ✪ semble toujours favoriser Marseille ? C'est presque comme une conspiration ✪!

Antoine : Haha, je ne pense pas que ce soit le cas. Peut-être que tu es juste un peu trop partiale pendant la mi-temps ✪.

Lucie : Peut-être, Antoine, peut-être. Je suppose que nous devrons attendre et voir ce qui se passera lors du prochain match.

Antoine : Peu m’importe ✪ ce qui se passe, c'est toujours un plaisir de regarder le foot avec toi.

Lucie : Pareil pour moi, Antoine. Que le meilleur gagne lors du prochain match !

♡ 𝕃𝕚𝕜𝕖 𝕓𝕖𝕝𝕠𝕨 👇

✪ Notes

marrant ✨= drôle = funny, comical. Can also mean ‘strange/weird’ (just like ‘funny’ can in English I guess), so listen for context. Ex. “Il est plutôt marrant et charmant... saoul” (He's quite funny and charming... drunk)

c’est comme ça ✨= c’est la vie = so it goes / that’s how it is

le public = groupe de spectateurs = audience/spectators. more generally foule = crowd

avoir de la veine = avoir de la chance = be lucky

l'arbitre = juge d'une compétition = referee / umpire. Ex. “L’arbitre siffle la fin du match” (The referee blows the final whistle)

une conspiration = a conspiracy. Modern word for talking about politics and the news.. but it has a royal (if you’ll excuse the pun) history in France!

la mi-temps = half-time Ex. “Quelle équipe mène à la mi-temps ?”

peu m’importe ✨= I don’t care / I don’t mind / It doesn’t matter to me. A nice variation on peu importe (see it’s appearance here🗼) Ex. “Peu m'importe s'il fait beau ou pas” (I don't care if it's sunny or not)

*✨ = especially ‘Frenchie’ words/phrases you should try and use more

Writing Prompt ✍️

I know any answer I give may cause controversy, sports teams always do! But my favourite sports team has to be the French national rugby team. My family are big rugby people, and our national team is so good at the moment every match is really fun to watch (because we normally win!). We have high hopes for the world cup in a few weeks!🤞🏼When I was in Chicago the Cubs also won the world series, the streets were crazy. So I like to think I’m an honorary fan too!

Alors, quelle est ton équipe de sport préférée ?

All answers are welcome. One word.. or one sentence.
Write me your answer in the comments. I can’t wait to read them! 👇🏼

Translation

A: Lucie, what's your favorite sports team?

L: I love the Paris Saint-Germain soccer team. What's yours?

A: That's funny, I prefer Marseille! It's like that, I suppose.

L: Really, Marseille? Why though?

A: I like their team spirit, and also the crowd in Marseille is incredible!

L: Yes, they're lucky to have such passionate fans. But there's something I don't understand.

A: What's that?

L: Why is it that the referee always seems to favor Marseille? It's almost like a conspiracy!

A: Haha, I don't think that's the case. Maybe you're just a bit too biased during half-time.

L: Maybe, Antoine, maybe. I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens next game.

A: I don't care what happens, it's always a pleasure watching soccer with you.

L: Same here. May the best team win the next game!

Exercise - Fill in the blank 💪

Quickly test your comprehension, accelerate your learning. 🚀

Après de nombreux essais, Pierre ___ lorsqu'il a enfin réussi à cuisiner le plat parfait.
After many attempts, Pierre was lucky when he finally managed to cook the perfect dish.
Le clown était si ___, il nous a fait rire pendant des heures.
The clown was so funny, he made us laugh for hours.
Lors du concert ___ a chaleureusement ___ le groupe.
At the concert, the audience warmly applauded the band.
Dans le match d'hier, ___ a fait plusieurs décisions controversées.
In yesterday's match, the referee made several controversial decisions.
Chaque personne a ses propres préférences ; __.
Each person has their own preferences; that's just how it is.

If you’re struggling the ✪ Notes section is always a good place to look. 😉 The answers are all in the dialogue or notes section.

[NO PEAKING] Answer Key: 1. a eu de la veine 2. marrant 3. le public, applaudi 4. l'arbitre 5. c’est comme ça

Une Façon d'utiliser ce Dialogue

These dialogues are a very simple tool. Yet this allows them to be versatile and endlessly flexible to you and your learning style.
Here’s one way you could use the dialogue this week:

🎙️ Record yourself reading the dialogue out loud, then listen to it back.

You can repeat this x2-3 times. You will be surprised at how you can self-correct your accent and intonation, and how you will become aware of where you need to study!

Check out my quick guide🔗 for different ways you can learn with these dialogues. Perfect if you’re finding them too easy or too hard. 🙌🏻

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