Amounts - grammar

a cup of tea, a bottle of beer, a kilo of cheese, a box of chocolates, lots of presents, a bottle of oil

in all of these, the word for “of” is de or the shortened form d’

une tasse de thé
une bouteille de bière
un kilo de fromage
une boîte de chocolates
beaucoup de cadeaux
une bouteille d'huile

This is quite straightforward and the same as English.
QUiA exercise here

Confusion occurs because of the Partitive (du, de la, de l’ and des)
je voudrais du thé I would like tea or I would like some tea
il y a de la bière there is (some) beer
tu veux du fromage? do you want (some) cheese?
il y a des chocolats there are (some) chocolates
j’ais reçu des cadeaux I got (some)presents

Note that de (d’) is a different entity to the Partitive (du, de la, de l’ and des)

The same set (du, de la, de l’ and des)can also mean “of the” or “from the”
le sommet de la colline the top of the hill
le coin de la rue the corner of the street
le mari de la femme the husband of the woman the woman’s husband
une lettre de la Mairie a letter from the Town Hall

Question words practice

Here is how you form "What"

Que is basic word for what in sentences like "what are you doing?" Que fais-tu?
est-ce que is a common way of forming a question (instead of inversion) and means is it that?
to put the 2 together you need to change que to qu'
so Qu'est-ce que Qu'est-ce que tu fais?

If the next word begins with a vowel the that last -e becomes '
Qu'est-ce qu'il y a …? What is there …?

If what goes with a noun then it is quel, quelle, quels, quelles depending on the noun.
eg Quel temps? Quel âge? Quelle heure? Quelle couleur? Quels sont tes passe-temps préférés?

There are notes with examples in the GRAMMAR folder in My Teachig Files

Here is a quia exercise on question words to practise.

Grammar Homework

I have posted the handout on Articles and the handout on Questions forms along with audio of question forms to the GRAMMAR folder.

Exercise on
food likes http://www.quia.com/pop/194466.html
what would you like to eat http://www.quia.com/pop/194466.html
articles http://www.quia.com/hm/86932.html

verbs exercise

Try this quia exercise. If you are not sure of the answers click I give up. Read the answers and start over

HOMEWORK

Module 2 are preparing to present clothes vocabulary using FC methodology.
Module 1 are writing a few sentences about themselves. You can post your writing on the blog by clicking on comments. Use the Simpsons exercise for ideas and I will post mine here too. Keep it simple. Use what you know!

Je m’appelle Kay McMeekin. J’ai cinquante-sept ans et je suis mariée avec David depuis 21 ans. Nous avons deux enfants - une fille qui s’appelle Laura et qui a 20 ans et un fils David qui a 18 ans. Mon mari est à la retraite mais il était, comme moi, prof de langues. Nos enfants sont tous les deux à la fac à Glasgow. Laura étudie l’archéologie et David étudie le génie civil. J’habite à Darvel qui se trouve à 35 km de Glasgow. Je vis avec mon mari et notre chien qui s’appelle Holly. Nos enfants vivent à Glasgow dans des appartements loués. Ils nous rendent visite de temps en temps. C’est tout pour le moment!

If you have trouble doing accents, copy and paste these!
é è ê à

The Simpsons

Here's a wee exercise on the Simpsons. You can use it as a model to wite about your own family.

Today's class

We looked at polite language. Try this exercise to practise "have a nice day"

We went over the alphabet and names.

We spent a lot of time on nasal vowels.
I got the ipod working again and will ask Laure to record today's stuff.

Notes are in "my teaching files"