Hi guys, BigBong here!
As a language enthusiast, I'm always looking for
the most effective ways to learn
That includes mnemonics or games
But there is also something that has been successful
for centuries... what am I saying? Millenia!
I'm talking about singing
Now, I'm not the best singer but it has been an excellent way
for me to remember
♪ Baa Baa black ship, have you any wool? ♪
♪ Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full! ♪
Believe it or not, I learnt this song when I was 7 years old
and I still remember the lyrics
So today, I would like to teach you, the 1st verse
of a very famous French song
It's called "Cendrillon" by Telephone
[♪ BigBong singing ♪]
Alright, I hope you like it! Now let's have a look at the lyrics
[BigBong reading in French]
"Cendrillon" is the French version of the name "Cinderella"
So here, we're talking about the poor girl from the fairy tale
who becomes a princess
"Pour ses vingt ans" literally means "for her 20 years"
All the words are in the same order so it's easy to translate
"pour" means "for", "ses" means "her"
"vingt" means "twenty" and "ans" means "years"
In English, it would be more natural to say
"for her twentieth birthday"
"est la plus jolie des enfants" again we could translate
each word, one by one
"is the most beautiful of children"
So everything together means "Cinderella for her 20th birthday"
"is the most beautiful child"
Next sentence: "son bel amant, le prince charmant"
"la prend sur son cheval blanc"
A lot of rhymes with "an/en" here
which shows how well written it is
"Amant" comes from the verb "aimer" which means
"to love" so "her lover"
"Son bel amant" together "her handsome lover"
The rest you can easily guess "Prince Charming"
"la prend sur son cheval blanc" means
"takes her on his white horse"
So here "la" means "her" and it's placed before the verb
"to take" and in "cheval blanc"
"cheval" means "horse" and "blanc" means "white"
So in French, we say "horse white" in that order
So with everything it means "her handsome lover"
"Prince Charming takes her on his white horse"
Oh yeah, just a little comment here
Normally, if you want to say "beautiful" or "handsome"
The masculine form would be "beau"
and the feminine "belle" but here we're talking about
the prince who is handsome, so why is it "bel"
written like that?
That's because the word "amant" starts with a vowel
So we can't say "son beau amant"
That's a tricky rule in French, but you'll need to get used to it
[BigBong reading French]
"Elle oublie le temps" literally means "she forgets the time"
So she's completely lost all sense of time
And "dans son palais d'argent" means "in her silver palace"
"Palais" means "palace" and "d'argent" actually means "of silver"
So basically "palace made of silver"
[BigBong reading in French]
Alright so "not to see a new day rising"
[BigBong continuing in French]
So that part, you can translate each word, one by one
"She closes her eyes and in her dreams"
And here comes the very last part of the sentence
"elle part" literally "she goes"
meaning "she goes away"
She seems happy and she just wants to stop time
Now obviously, this is what happens in fairy tales
Happy endings, right?
But it's not the end of the song and that's what I love about it
So the next verse starts with "Cinderella in her thirtieth"
and it's not a fairy tale anymore
So that's it for this video, you want to try to sing it with me?
I'll put the lyrics on, this time
If you don't speak French and you want to start learning
then watch my videos for absolute beginners
If you're a French teacher, then by all means
feel free to share this video with your students
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