Coffee Break French

Introduction Welcome to this introductory episode of the Coffee Break French Verb Fix in which we explain the concepts behind this course and offer an introduction to the whole idea of French verbs: how they work, what it means to conjugate a verb, and the meanings of the four main tenses we’re covering in the course. This show is your weekly fix of Coffee Break French, and through the weekly episodes we’ll help you “fix” your French verbs. We believe that mastering your verbs is the key to developing confidence in written and spoken French. The Verb Fix will help you to learn the conjugations of each verb in the present, perfect, imperfect and future tenses. With the help of repetition, interactive quizzes and even musical backing tracks, you’ll be building your confidence in verbs in no time! Listen to the lesson This audio lesson is free, as are all the main audio lessons of the Coffee Break French Verb Fix. Use the audio player above to listen to the lesson, or make sure you’re subscribed to Coffee Break French in iTunes to receive this lesson and all future lessons automatically. Accessing the Premium Version The premium version of The Coffee Break French Verb Fix provides additional materials which will help you build your knowledge of French verbs more effectively with your mastery of French verbs. The premium version is in the form of downloadable pdf lesson notes which include the following additional elements: * Verb tables: each verb is listed in the four tenses covered in the main lesson (present, perfect, imperfect and conditional) so that you can see the written form of the verbs and learn the structures and patterns more effectively; * Bonus verb tables: in addition to the main tenses we’ve also included the conjugations for the conditional, present subjunctive, past historic, pluperfect, future perfect and conditional perfect tenses; * Exercises: test your understanding with our translation quizzes – full answer key provided! * Bonus Audio: don’t want to listen to the whole show again? We’ve included the “Big Four” audio which extracts just the four main tenses of each verb in the members’ version. The members’ version can be accessed through our membership system. You can purchase the course using the links below. * Season 1: Lessons 1-10 £11.00 GBP inc VAT / approx $14.00 USD ex VAT for non EU customers) * Multitouch iBooks version for iPad If you’re using an iPad, the best way to access the Verb Fix is through our multitouch iBook Subscribe links Please note – if you’re already subscribed to Coffee Break French then you’ll receive the Verb Fix automatically – you don’t need to do anything! If you’re not already subscribed to Coffee Break French you can use the links below: Purchase Membership | Access Members’ Materials | iTunes link | RSS feed

Apologies for the delay with this episode! Mark has been a bit under the weather and we’ve only just managed to get it finalised. As usual, we’ve been publishing a daily word on Facebook and Twitter and each day we’ve asked our Facebook friends and Twitter followers to post a comment using the word of the day, thereby practising their language skills. This week we’ve been focusing on shopping vocabulary. Our words have been acheter – to buy, la taille – the size, le prix – the price, faire les courses – to do the shopping, and faire un échange, to make an exchange. Our listeners have been coming up with some interesting uses of these words and this review show highlights some of our favourites. Follow us on Twitter | iTunes link

We’ve been publishing a daily word on Facebook and Twitter and each day we’ve asked our Facebook friends and Twitter followers to post a comment using the word of the day, thereby practising their language skills. This week, in honour of St Valentine’s Day, we’ve focused on the topic of love and we’ve shared the following words and phrases with our community: l’amour, tomber amoureux, les fleurs, je t’aime and un indécrottable romantique. As usual, the Radio Lingua community has come up with some excellent examples of these words in sentences, and that’s what we’re looking at in this episode of the show. Follow us on Twitter | iTunes link

We’ve added a new feature to our website and Facebook pages: if you have a microphone or webcam connected to your computer, you can leave us a voice message easily by clicking on the “Send us a voice message” on the right hand side of the screen. Please note that for the time being this feature does not work on iOS, but we hope to include an iOS option soon. If you’d like to send us a voice message to be included in the next Word of the Day Review episode, please also post your message on the CBS Facebook page or CBF Facebook page on the relevant entry to make sure it’s picked up by the team. If you’re sending a question for Q&A Spanish, please make sure you leave your name. Please be aware that by sending your voice message we may use this in future shows. However, we do not guarantee to use all voice messages. Here’s a video to explain more:

We’ve been publishing a daily word on Facebook and Twitter and each day we’ve asked our Facebook friends and Twitter followers to post a comment using the word of the day, thereby practising their language skills. This week we’ve focused on the topic of eating out and we’ve shared the following words and phrases with our community: l’addition, la carte, l’entrée, commande and réserver. As usual, the Radio Lingua community has come up with some excellent examples of these words in sentences, and that’s what we’re looking at in this episode of the show. Follow us on Twitter | iTunes link

This is a short message from Radio Lingua to update you on developments and to send all of our listeners our warmest wishes for the festive season. First of all, we’ve been extremely busy assembling the various parts of the Coffee Break German course. Coffee Break German will be aimed at complete beginners in the language and, following the well-loved relaxed but structured Coffee Break style, we’ll be teaching German in weekly episodes, starting on 23rd January 2013. The whole Coffee Break German team are very excited about the launch and Mark is looking forward to picking up German along with the listeners! We’re coming to the end of the first season of the Coffee Break Spanish Magazine. The Magazine features interviews with native speakers, tips on idiomatic Spanish and a question and answer section and it has gone down extremely well with our listeners. In particular the video interviews have received great reviews and we’ll be planning to add more video content to our language courses in the future. We’re working hard on more Magazine content – not just for Spanish – and we’ll announce more news about this in the new year. If you’re interested in the premium version of the Magazine which gives you access to these videos – or indeed the premium version of any of our language courses, then you may be interested to know that we’re currently in the middle of our Winter Sale. It ends at one minute to midnight UK time on the 31st December – or Hogmanay as we call it in Scotland – so don’t miss out on getting a head start on your language learning in 2013. There’s more information about the sale at http://radiolingua.com/sale including the coupon code that you need to use to get your discount. Finally, if you’re still trying to think up a last-minute gift for you friends or family members, you may be interested in our new gift memberships: you can buy a friend a membership to many of our courses. It’s really straightforward – simply purchase a gift membership and we’ll send you a printable gift certificate which contains all the details to allow your language-loving friend to have free access to the course materials. Find out more at http://radiolingua.com/gift/. The audio version of this news broadcast is provided below along with download links. In addition to the information, Mark has also included a special rendition of one of his favourite pieces of festive music. He’s performed this himself on the piano, so we hope you enjoy it!

We’ve been publishing a daily word on Facebook and Twitter and each day we’ve asked our Facebook friends and Twitter followers to post a comment using the word of the day, thereby practising their language skills. This week we’ve focused on the topic of travel and we’ve shared the following words and phrases with our community: voyager, le voyage, le passeport, les bagages and en avion. Follow us on Twitter | iTunes link

Radio Lingua Founder and CEO introduces the Coffee Break Spanish Magazine, Coffee Break French and Spanish iBooks, our new On Location Languages blog series, changes and improvements to the website and a new Coffee Break language in this special launch video.

We’ve been publishing a daily word on Facebook and Twitter and each day we’ve asked our Facebook friends and Twitter followers to post a comment using the word of the day, thereby practising their language skills. This week we’ve focused on the topic of weather and we’ve shared the following words and phrases with our community: le froid, il fait beau, il pleut des cordes, le vent and il y a du brouillard. Follow us on Twitter | iTunes link

We’ve been publishing a daily word on Facebook and Twitter and each day we’ve asked our Facebook friends and Twitter followers to post a comment using the word of the day, thereby practising their language skills. This week we’ve introduced some culinary terms including some well-known French delicacies: le pain au chocolat, les escargots, la ratatouille, flamer and cuisiner. Follow us on Twitter | iTunes link

We’ve been publishing a daily word on Facebook and Twitter and each day we’ve asked our Facebook friends and Twitter followers to post a comment using the word of the day, thereby practising their language skills. It’s been another great week of responses from our community and we’re bringing you our review of your uses of this week’s words: la mer, plonger, prendre un bain de soleil, voyager, and se détendre. Follow us on Twitter | iTunes link

Over the past week we’ve been publishing a daily word on Facebook and Twitter and each day we’ve asked our Facebook friends and Twitter followers to post a comment using the word of the day, thereby practising their language skills. We’ve been overwhelmed with the excellent response from the our friends and followers and we’ve decided to feature the work of the community in a new podcast series. We’re delighted to bring you this first episode of our Word of the Day Review featuring this week’s words: l’été, la plage, le soleil, la glace, and les vacances. Follow us on Twitter | iTunes link

Coming up in this lesson: This episode marks the end of an era! It’s the final lesson of Season 3 of Coffee Break French. We first met Alf, Katie and Veronica over 18 months ago and since then hopefully all our listeners have built their confidence and developed their range of expression in the French language. This final episode provides further opportunities for listeners to practise what they’ve learned through a series of translation challenges and, for premium members, a further dictation exercise. Please note that lesson 40 of Season 3 was originally known as lesson 340 of Coffee Break French. We have renumbered the lessons of each season as lessons 1-40 to make things more simple for our listeners. Accessing the Premium Version If you’d like to get more out of the materials, we offer an exclusive members’ version of the lesson which is twice the length of the free version and provides a line-by-line analysis of the language used, along with a version of the text read at normal speed. The members’ materials include a comprehensive transcript and lesson notes in pdf format which can be used on any computer, or ePub format, specially created for the iBooks app on the iPod Touch, iPhone or iPad. * Season 3 Complete, lessons 300-340 (£89.00 GBP inc VAT / approx £109 USD ex VAT for non EU customers) * Season 3A, lessons 300-320 (£57.00 GBP inc VAT / approx $67 USD ex VAT for non EU customers) * Season 3B, lessons 320-340 (£57.00 GBP inc VAT / approx $67 USD ex VAT for non EU customers) Subscribe links Subscribe in iTunes | RSS Feed | Purchase members’ audio and transcripts You may also be interested in Coffee Break French Season 3 on the iBookstore

Coming up in this lesson: It’s time for the penultimate episode in this season of Coffee Break French. Our translation challenges this week include further practice on the subjunctive and a couple of examples of the future tense. Please note that lesson 39 of Season 3 was originally known as lesson 339 of Coffee Break French. We have renumbered the lessons of each season as lessons 1-40 to make things more simple for our listeners. Accessing the Premium Version If you’d like to get more out of the materials, we offer an exclusive members’ version of the lesson which is twice the length of the free version and provides a line-by-line analysis of the language used, along with a version of the text read at normal speed. The members’ materials include a comprehensive transcript and lesson notes in pdf format which can be used on any computer, or ePub format, specially created for the iBooks app on the iPod Touch, iPhone or iPad. * Season 3 Complete, lessons 300-340 (£89.00 GBP inc VAT / approx £109 USD ex VAT for non EU customers) * Season 3A, lessons 300-320 (£57.00 GBP inc VAT / approx $67 USD ex VAT for non EU customers) * Season 3B, lessons 320-340 (£57.00 GBP inc VAT / approx $67 USD ex VAT for non EU customers) Subscribe links Subscribe in iTunes | RSS Feed | Purchase members’ audio and transcripts You may also be interested in Coffee Break French Season 3 on the iBookstore

Coming up in this lesson: This week’s coffee break provides some practice on the tricky pronoun y and some further subjunctives. Please note that lesson 38 of Season 3 was originally known as lesson 338 of Coffee Break French. We have renumbered the lessons of each season as lessons 1-40 to make things more simple for our listeners. Accessing the Premium Version If you’d like to get more out of the materials, we offer an exclusive members’ version of the lesson which is twice the length of the free version and provides a line-by-line analysis of the language used, along with a version of the text read at normal speed. The members’ materials include a comprehensive transcript and lesson notes in pdf format which can be used on any computer, or ePub format, specially created for the iBooks app on the iPod Touch, iPhone or iPad. * Season 3 Complete, lessons 300-340 (£89.00 GBP inc VAT / approx £109 USD ex VAT for non EU customers) * Season 3A, lessons 300-320 (£57.00 GBP inc VAT / approx $67 USD ex VAT for non EU customers) * Season 3B, lessons 320-340 (£57.00 GBP inc VAT / approx $67 USD ex VAT for non EU customers) Subscribe links Subscribe in iTunes | RSS Feed | Purchase members’ audio and transcripts You may also be interested in Coffee Break French Season 3 on the iBookstore