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

cultureLa Côte d'Ivoire


maskPrinted by permission from Hamill Gallery of African Artmask2

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. Masks have a very important symbolic role in Ivoirian life.

 


key conceptMasculin 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


practiceAu 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.

Blonde girl Red headed
Blonde boy
Fat man Strong man
Tall and thin people

 


practiceC'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
Mlle Jay
Jean-Marc
Richard
Juliette
Mme Poirot
Mireille
Julien

 

Va à 1c.

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