Yabla features many videos that give you an opportunity to learn about French history and expand your history-related vocabulary. In this lesson, we will focus on some of France's most illustrious rulers, starting from Clovis, the first monarch, to Louis XVI and Louis Philippe, the last French kings. 

As Patricia explains in her video, France was once divided into several royaumes francs (Frankish kingdoms). The Franks were a Germanic tribe that gave the country its name. In the Middle Ages, un roi franc (a Frankish king) named Clovis came into power and managed to unite all the Frankish tribes to form a kingdom roughly the shape of France: 

Ce roi franc a unifié plusieurs royaumes francs et a ainsi agrandi considérablement son royaume.

This Frankish king unified several Frankish kingdoms and thus considerably expanded his kingdom.

Caption 9, Le saviez-vous? D'où vient le nom de la France?

 Play Caption

Clovis, who ruled from 481 to 511, is considered the first French king:

Clovis est le premier roi de France.

Clovis is the first king of France.

Caption 10, Le saviez-vous? D'où vient le nom de la France?

 Play Caption

Two centuries later, another Frankish king, Charlemagne, or Charles the Great, expanded his kingdom by conquering much of what would become Europe today. Charlemagne is perhaps best known in France for his contribution to education, as described in France Gall’s popular 1964 song "Sacré Charlemagne" ("Sacred Charlemagne" or "Bloody Charlemagne"): "[le roi] qui a eu cette idée folle d’avoir inventé l’école" ([the king] who had this crazy idea of inventing school). In the video below, a passerby hums part of the refrain: 

Sacré Charlemagne...

Sacred Charlemagne...

Caption 39, Micro-Trottoirs Sacrée France Gall

 Play Caption

Much later, during the Renaissance period, another powerful king, Louis XIV (Louis Quatorze) came into power and ruled France for 72 years! In his video, Daniel Benchimol shows us the king’s birthplace, the town of Saint-Germain-en-Laye in the outskirts of Paris:

À cet endroit tout simplement naquit Louis Quatorze en mille six cent trente-huit.

On this very spot, Louis the Fourteenth was born in sixteen hundred thirty-eight.

Caption 36, Voyage en France Saint-Germain-en-Laye

 Play Caption

Louis XIV became known as le roi Soleil (the Sun King) because he adopted the sun as his emblem:

Louis Quatorze, donc, le roi Soleil a décidé de prendre la ville ici en mille six cent soixante-trois.

Louis the Fourteenth, so, the Sun King decided to seize the town here in sixteen sixty-three.

Captions 38-39, Lionel Marsal - Part 2

 Play Caption

Louis XIV’s main residence was, of course, the Château de Versailles (Palace of Versailles), known for its amazing architecture:

Puisque l'art, c'est plutôt, euh... l'architecture, euh... comme le château de Versailles.

Since art, it's rather, uh... architecture, uh... like the Palace of Versailles.

Caption 15, Micro-Trottoirs Art ou science?

 Play Caption

Although in English we refer to the Château de Versailles as “a palace," strictly speaking, “a palace” is un palais and un château is “a castle.” And you are never far away from one of those in France, as there are over 40,000 castles throughout the country:

Autour de nous, des moulins, des châteaux, une cité médiévale.

Around us, windmills, castles, a medieval town.

Caption 43, Voyage en France Saint-Mammès

 Play Caption

The magnificent Château de Versailles was also the main residence of Louis XVI (Louis Seize) and la reine Marie-Antoinette (Queen Marie-Antoinette). Louis XVI also enjoyed staying at another royal castle outside of Paris, the Château de Rambouillet, where he could hunt in the nearby forest. Unfortunately, the queen hated the place, so the king, ever eager to please her, had le pavillon (the pavilion) called la Laiterie de la Reine (the Queen’s Dairy) built for his wife in 1785. In the video below, Daniel Benchimol shows us this magnificent building:

Derrière moi, ce magnifique pavillon qu'on appelle la Laiterie de la Reine. Il fut construit à la demande de Louis Seize pour la reine Marie Antoinette.

Behind me, this beautiful pavilion called the Queen's Dairy. It was built at the request of Louis the Sixteenth for Queen Marie Antoinette.

Captions 7-8, Voyage en France Rambouillet - Part 2

 Play Caption

Four years after the pavilion was built, the monarchy was formerly abolished during the 1789 French Revolution:

La France a été une royauté jusqu'en dix-sept cent quatre-vingt-neuf

France was a monarchy until seventeen eighty-nine

Caption 11, Le saviez-vous? D'où vient le nom de la France?

 Play Caption

La monarchie returned in 1815 for a brief time, as Patricia explains in her video:

En dix-huit cent quinze, avec le retour de la monarchie

In eighteen fifteen, with the return of the monarchy

Caption 26, Le saviez-vous? Histoire du drapeau français

 Play Caption

Indeed, there were a few more kings after the French Revolution, Louis Philippe being the last to rule from 1830 until 1848. In his video, Daniel Benchimol mentions how Louis Philippe came into power:

C'est ici que se prépara la révolution de dix-huit cent trente qui conduisit Laffitte à la présidence du Conseil de Louis Philippe.

It's here that the eighteen thirty revolution was fomented, which led Laffitte to the presidency of the Louis Philippe Council.

Captions 23-24, Voyage en France Maisons-Laffitte - Part 3

 Play Caption

There are many more rois (kings) and reines (queens) featured in our videos for you to explore. Daniel Benchimol's Voyage en France series is a great place to start. Thank you for taking this little trip back in time with Yabla!

This lesson is brought to you by the letter x, an exaspérante (exasperating) letter that can morph into several different sounds. How do you extract a meaningful rule out of this unruly letter? Are you ready to explorer (explore) this exciting letter x? Fear not, the French pronunciation of the letter x is similar to English, at least at first glance. However, there are some notable differences that we will explore.

You may have noticed that some of the cognates mentioned in the previous paragraph share the same x sound in French and in English. Here is an example using the word explorer (to explore):

Il faut les explorer, les décrire, en faire une carte et en découvrir d'autres.

We have to explore them, describe them, map them, and discover some more.

Caption 12, Il était une fois: les Explorateurs 10. Amerigo Vespucci - Part 3

 Play Caption

Here is another example, with exacte (exact):

Du coup, c'est très compliqué d'avoir la date exacte.

As a result, it's very complicated to get the exact date.

Caption 37, Lionel Le musée de Jeanne d'Arc - Part 2

 Play Caption

In a few instances, an x at the end of a French word will render the same x sound as in English. The video below refers to l’Académie des Lynx, named after the wild animal le lynx (lynx), renowned for its sharp eyesight: 

Le prince Federico Cesi, fondateur de l'Académie des Lynx

Prince Federico Cesi, the founder of the Academy of the Lynxes

Caption 33, Il était une fois: Les découvreurs 9. Galilée - Part 7

 Play Caption

Likewise, words ending in -ex are usually pronounced as in English:

C'est-à-dire, vous faites un barré avec votre index

That is, you do a barre with your index finger

Caption 10, Leçons de guitare Leçon 3

 Play Caption

But words ending in -ex or -nx are not that common in French and tend to be of foreign origin. Instead, typical x endings come in the following combinations: -oux, -aux, -eaux, and -eux, which all call for a silent x. (We’ll explore exceptions further on.)

In the video below, the speaker, a British server, has never heard of a silent x… She tries to entice Sam and the gang with some “gâtox," which has everyone flummoxed. Fortunately, Sam saves the day and explains that she meant to say gâteaux (cakes), with a silent x. Listen carefully to learn how NOT to say gâteaux:

"Gâtox"... Je crois qu'elle veut dire "gâteaux".

"Gâtox"... I think she means "cakes."

Caption 45, Extr@ Ep. 11 - Les vacances - Part 6

 Play Caption

Here is an example with the correct pronunciation of nouveaux ("new," plural):

Les nouveaux livres qu'on a reçus.

The new books that we've received.

Caption 14, Gaëlle Librairie "Livres in Room"

 Play Caption

Since the x is silent, gâteaux and nouveaux are pronounced the same as singular gâteau (cake) and nouveau (new). But listen carefully to this sentence with the same word, nouveaux (new). Why does the x now sound like a z?

Afin de développer de nouveaux outils de pilotage...

In order to develop new steering tools...

Caption 10, Canal 32 Le futur de l’éolien se joue dans l'Aube

 Play Caption

This is not a mistake. The speaker formed what we call in French une liaison by joining two words together—the first one ending with a consonant, nouveaux, and the following one starting with a vowel, outils (tools)—rendering a z sound: nouveaux-Z-outils. (Notice how the speaker runs the two words together without pausing to make them sound like one word.) You will find more information on liaisons in the lesson Liaisons, Numerous and Dangerous.

So, look out for nouns (sometimes adjectives) starting with a vowel. It is a signal that you should sound the x like a z! Here's another example:

Les vieux époux ont décidé de mener leur vie

The old couple decided to lead their lives

Caption 4, Le Jour où tout a basculé Mes grands-parents sont infidèles - Part 9

 Play Caption

And here's one with a very short word, the determiner aux ("to the," plural):

Nemours a un passé particulièrement intéressant et très intimement lié aux États-Unis pour deux raisons.

Nemours has a past that is particularly interesting and very closely linked to the United States for two reasons.

Captions 5-6, Voyage en France Nemours - Part 2

 Play Caption

So we have: les vieux-Z-époux and aux-Z-États-Unis. 

In short, when a word ends in x, the x is usually silent unless there is a liaison. If you are still unsure, don’t worry. Many liaisons are optional, and French people don’t apply the liaison rule to the letter, so to speak. Just remember, though, that in some situations, liaisons are de rigueur. The examples given above are very common and always call for a "liaiZon."

On the flip side, when a French word begins with x, it does not sound like a z, as it would in English. Instead, it's pronounced more like the x in exemple (example):

D'un symbole d'unité française, ce drapeau a été utilisé parfois comme symbole de xénophobie.

Once a symbol of French unity, this flag has sometimes been used as a xenophobic symbol.

Caption 41, Le saviez-vous? Histoire du drapeau français

 Play Caption

Stay tuned for another X-rated lesson on the numbers deux, dix, et six (two, ten, and six) and find out what is special about them. Thank you for reading!

The French Conditional - Part 1

As Patricia mentions in her recent video, the French conditional mood only comes in two tenses: present and past. While the present conditional expresses something you would do, the past conditional expresses something you would have done. We discussed the present conditional in our previous lesson, so now we'll focus on the past. 

BANNER PLACEHOLDER

The past conditional is a compound tense, which means it's made up of multiple parts. Two parts, to be exact: an auxiliary verb (avoir or être) in the conditional, plus the past participle of the main verb. Here's an example of the verb pouvoir (to be able to) in the past conditional:

On aurait pu les cuire individuellement, mais euh, là ça va le faire.

We could've cooked them individually, but uh, here, this'll do it.

Caption 49, 4 Mains pour 1 Piano - Médaillon de Homard

 Play Caption

Like most verbs, pouvoir combines with the auxiliary verb avoir (to have) in compound past tenses. But as Patricia explains in another video, some verbs combine with être (to be) in those instances, such as the verbs aller (to go) and naître (to be born):

Je serais allé à la plage mais il faisait trop froid. 
I would have gone to the beach, but it was too cold. 

L'histoire officielle dit que ce drapeau serait né

Official history says that this flag was supposedly born

sous la Révolution française de dix-sept cent quatre-vingt-neuf.

under the French Revolution of seventeen eighty-nine.

Captions 6-7, Le saviez-vous? - Histoire du drapeau français

 Play Caption

The important thing to remember is that in the past tense, you only need to conjugate the auxiliary verb in the conditional, not the main verb (so you wouldn't say on aurait pourrait or je serais irais, for instance). 

It's easy to confuse the past conditional with the pluperfect (or plus-que-parfait) tense, which is used to describe things that happened in the remote past. Both constructions contain an auxiliary verb followed by a past participle (in the pluperfect, the auxiliary verb is in the imperfect tense, not the conditional), and you'll often find both of them in sentences containing si (if) clauses:

Hier,  j'aurais levé le bras

Yesterday, I would have raised my arm

pour appeler le taxi si j'avais d'abord soigné mon épaule.

to hail the taxi if I had treated my shoulder first.

Captions 39-41, Le saviez-vous? - Le mode du conditionnel

 Play Caption

BANNER PLACEHOLDER

We'll talk about si clauses in further detail in a future lesson. In the meantime, you might want to check out the song Si by Zaz, which contains a good number of si clauses and verbs in the conditional.