A real task, and everything reviewed
No new grammar. One real thing done in French, and a look back over ninety days.
Colours live this week
10 of 10 in playA thing, a person or a place.
An action or a state — what is happening.
Describes a noun.
Modifies a verb or an adjective.
the / a / some — and possessives like mon, ma.
Stands in for a noun — I, you, he, it.
Links words together — to, in, of, for.
Joins two parts of a sentence.
Opens a question — where, when, how, why.
Learn it whole. Do not take it apart.
Consolidation only. If a colour still surprises you this week, that is what the review deck is for.
Task one — read a menu
Read it aloud, line by line. Look for the orange nouns, which are the food, and the brown prepositions linking them together.
Menu du jour
Entrées
Salade de tomatestomato salad
Soupe du joursoup of the day
Plats
Steak fritessteak and chips
Poisson avec des légumesfish with vegetables
Desserts
Fromagecheese
Tarte aux pommesapple tart
Boissons
Café / Thécoffee / tea
Un verre de vina glass of wine
Reading a French menu
Tarte aux pommes is apple tart — aux is à + les, so both words take the plural underline. Soupe du jour is soup of the day, du being de + le. The section headings are just labels, so they stay plain grey. If you can parse those two contractions, most of a French menu opens up.
Task two — a friendly message
A template to adapt. Change the name and the plan and it is yours.
[Bonjour] name,
je vais bien.
Demain, je vais visiter le musée.
Et vous ?
[À bientôt], name
Hello ___, I'm well. Tomorrow I'm going to visit the museum. And you? See you soon, ___
Task two, continued — booking by message
The second template. Swap the number, the day and the time.
[Bonjour], je voudrais réserver une table pour deux personnes,
[ce soir] à 20 heures. [Merci].
Hello, I would like to book a table for two people, this evening at 8pm. Thank you.
Task three — booking a table, out loud
Practise both sides. Play the restaurant as well as yourself — hearing the question is half the skill.
You[Bonjour], je voudrais réserver une table pour deux personnes.
RestaurantPour quelle heure ?
YouÀ 20 heures, [s'il vous plaît].
Restaurant[C'est noté]. [À ce soir].
You[Merci], [au revoir].
— Hello, I'd like to book a table for two. — For what time? — At 8pm, please. — Noted. See you this evening. — Thank you, goodbye.
Pour quelle heure, and the 24-hour clock
Pour is the brown preposition, quelle is magenta and slanted because it agrees with the feminine heure, and heure is orange and slanted. Three words, three channels, all consistent. And 20 heures rather than 8 o'clock: the 24-hour clock is standard for anything booked in French.
The three milestones, checked
Daily mini-tasks
Two card types for this phase
Opinion phrases, for production: front "In my opinion, it's interesting", back À mon avis, c'est intéressant. And discourse markers, for recall: front "actually, in fact", back en fait. Same rules as always — three to five new cards a day, and the daily load rule still holds.
After Day 90
Keep the reviews going. Items sitting at the 60 and 90-day intervals still have reviews due, and skipping them is how ninety days of work quietly evaporates. Then add one social session a week — a language exchange, a community class, a conversation partner. You now have enough French to be understood by a patient stranger, and that is the only thing that turns study into speech.
Listening this week
A restaurant or hotel scene — Easy French, or a French drama
YouTube or a streaming service
You now have the vocabulary to follow a good deal of it. Watch a scene you have already seen in English if that helps.
Milestone
By the end of this week you should be able to:
- 01Talk about your hobbies, your health and your opinions using aimer, adorer, détester, préférer and the opinion frames.
- 02Follow the gist of a two-minute French clip using the three-step method.
- 03Deliver a five-minute monologue on the five-part scaffold, with discourse markers, without correcting yourself mid-sentence.
- 04Complete a real task in French — read a menu, write a message, or book a table.