INTERMEDIATE. LESSON #26. À LA CAISSE
- Vous avez terminé ? Nous aussi, justement. Il n’y a pas trop de monde à la caisse. Profitons-en.- Vous avez tout trouvé ?
- Oui, je crois. J’ai rajouté du jambon et quelques surgelés.
- Moi j’ai acheté un petit seau et une pelle pour les vacances d’été. Euh… Est-ce que tu prévois d’organiser un goûter d’anniversaire prochainement ?
- Non, pourquoi ?
- A cause de la dizaine de paquets de gâteaux et de la vingtaine de paquets de bonbons qui sont dans ton caddy.
- Victor !
TRANSLATION
- Are you finished ? We too, good timing. There are not too many people on the checkout, let’s jump on it !
- Did you find everything ?
- Yes, I think we did. I added some ham and frozen food.
- I bought a small bucket and a shovel for the summer holiday. Um… do you plan to organize a birthday party, soon ?
- No, I don’t, why ?
- Because there are a dozen of cookies boxes and about twenty candy bags in your cart.
- Victor !
- Are you finished ? We too, good timing. There are not too many people on the checkout, let’s jump on it !
- Did you find everything ?
- Yes, I think we did. I added some ham and frozen food.
- I bought a small bucket and a shovel for the summer holiday. Um… do you plan to organize a birthday party, soon ?
- No, I don’t, why ?
- Because there are a dozen of cookies boxes and about twenty candy bags in your cart.
- Victor !
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When we are not sure about something, when we are looking for a word or when we are surprised, we use the interjection euh. Some French people used euh a lot and it can become annoying. |
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Jambon (masc.) : ham. Surgelés (masc.) : frozen food. Seau (masc.) : bucket. Pelle (fém.) : shovel. |
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Une dizaine means about ten, ten or more. Une vingtaine means about twenty, twenty or more. They are approximate numbers.
A cause de la dizaine de paquets de gâteaux
et de la vingtaine de paquets de bonbons qui sont dans ton caddy. They are easy to form : you take the cardinal number, you drop the final e if there is one then you add –aine and you have the approximate number you need.
Trente : trent- : trentaine ; quarante : quarant- : quarantaine ; and so on.
Some numbers are more used than others : you can find huitaine, dizaine, douzaine, quinzaine, vingtaine, trentaine, quarantaine, cinquantaine, soixantaine and centaine. We use these numbers with the feminine determinant : la dizaine, une dizaine. At the plural form we add a final –s as usual and we say : des dizaines, plusieurs dizaines. We use the preposition de whan we want to express what we are talking about :
Une dizaine de paquets de gâteaux.
Une vingtaine de paquets de bonbons. Attention ! There is an exception with mille (1000) : we say un millier. And you can notice this is a masculine noun. Attention ! English people apparently prefer to speak about dozens of something (literally douzaines in French) but French people prefer to use dizaines. So, don’t be surprised if you notice a little change in the translation ! |
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Translate in English :
1. Il y a une quinzaine de kilomètres. 2. Cet homme a une soixantaine d’années. 3. Elle a déjà mangé une dizaine de bonbons. Translate in French : 1. Give me about twenty paper sheets. 2. I repeated that about fifty times. 3. This man made about thirty movies. Feuille de papier (fém.) : (paper) sheet. Film (masc.) : movie, film. Answers |
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