Ça va ? Ça va bien !
But let's face it,
"ça va bien"
isn't the most exciting way to answer that question.
In this video, we're going to learn nine different ways
to answer the question "ça va?".
Let's go!
[upbeat music]
Hello everyone and welcome to
Coffee Break French.
I'm Mark.
And I'm Pierre-Benoît.
How are you, Pierre-Benoît?
I'm very well! A bit of a boring reply - you're right.
- Michelle, our listener Michelle, got in touch and asked us
"Can you teach me some alternative answers to
'ça va bien ?'"
"Ça va bien" is one of those answers that you
learn fairly early on when you're learning French.
But, in this video, we're going to be looking
at nine different ways to answer that question.
Some positive, some negative.
Pierre-Benoît, over to you.
- Well, the first one I would use would be
"je suis en forme".
or "je suis en pleine forme".
- So these are positive ones to begin with.
- Yeah, we are going to start with the positive.
Yes, always.
- "Je suis en..."
and then you give us two options there
"je suis en pleine forme"
or just "je suis en forme".
Super.
- Very good. - Okay.
- You're saying you're feeling good.
- Yeah, "I'm on form", "I'm on full form",
something like that.
Let's move on to the next one.
- I love this one, I use it a lot, okay.
And it's using the fruit, the peach.
Okay, it has vitamins, energy, it gives you.
It's "j'ai la pêche".
"J'ai la pêche".
- "I have the peach", literally.
"J'ai la pêche". Very good.
Really good. Okay.
- Now we can move on as well from a peach
to a chip!
"J'ai la frite"!
- That's supposed to be a chip, a fry.
So, "j'ai la frite".
"I have the fry", "I have the chip".
"J'ai la frite", very good.
- Yeah, and you can also use the whole vegetable
and you can say "j'ai la patate".
- "I've got the potato" (laughing).
- Yes, it's a kind of a colloquial word for a potato.
"Une patate".
- Yeah, I don't know whether I can draw a potato.
Let's imagine that is a potato, okay?
There we go.
(both laughing)
Okay so those are positive ones,
let's go to kind of "middly" ones,
so you're not fantastic but you're not awful.
- I would say, "pas terrible".
- Okay, so "pas terrible", not fantastic.
- I'm still getting through the day,
but not feeling my usual, basically, "pas terrible".
Very good, okay.
- Anything else?
"J'ai vu mieux".
"J'ai vu mieux", I've seen better.
I guess in English we could say
"'ve had better days". "J'ai vu mieux".
In French, "j'ai vu mieux".
Using the verb "voir".
You can also say "j'ai connu mieux", can't you?
Yes. "J'ai connu mieux".
- Yeah, as a situation, yeah.
- Okay, so "I've seen, I've known better situations".
"J'ai connu mieux", from "connaître".
And one more in this middle section?
- Yeah, maybe a higher register of language.
"Ça pourrait aller mieux".
- Okay, so literally, "that could go better".
"Ça pourrait aller mieux",
"ça pourrait aller mieux", very good.
Now, what about some not so good ones?
- Quite difficult to find not-so-good ones
because I'm so positive.
So, I've got one here it's "dur-dur".
- "Dur-dur", literally "hard hard",
I'm writing "hard" in English, that doesn't make any sense!
"Dur-dur", so "dur-dur", and you would probably say it
with that kind of look in your face, "oh dur-dur".
"Oh dur-dur".
- When you know a lot of things have been happening
and you're thinking about all this, you'd say "dur-dur".
Yeah, you feel the weight of all the things
that have happened that you're not happy with (laughing).
- Okay, and let's do one more.
- And the last one I would say another one is
(speaking in foreign language).
- "C'est pas la joie".
So literally, "it's not the joy", "c'est pas la joie".
- Yeah, I'm smiling because I'm thinking
actually about something positive,
which is a famous song in French "Y'a de la joie".
But here, "c'est pas la joie" means nothing is going,
it's not fun just now.
- Okay, let's go through each of these,
and we'll leave some time for you to repeat
so that you can learn these nine different ways
to answer "ça va ?".
Here we go, number 1.
- "Je suis en forme".
Very good.
"Je suis en pleine forme".
- Super, okay, "I have the peach".
- (laughing) "J'ai la pêche".
- "I have the chip" or "the fry".
- "J'ai la frite".
- "I have the potato" or "the tattie", "the spud".
- "J'ai la patate".
- Okay, now the middle ones.
- "Pas terrible".
- Yup, and then this one.
- "J'ai vu mieux".
Very good.
- And "things could go better", could be going better.
- "Ça pourrait aller mieux".
Very good.
- And then the not so good ones.
- "Dur-dur".
- And finally.
- "C'est pas la joie".
- Super, we should probably have started
with the negative ones and worked up
to the positive ones there, to finish on a high note.
(both laughing)
We hope that that's answered your question, Michelle,
and if you have a question like Michelle,
then please get in touch with us.
You can do so by sending your questions
to coffeebreakquestions.com
or rather go to coffeebreakquestions.com,
fill in the form there,
and we'll hopefully be able to use your question
in a future episode of our show.
And, of course, if you enjoyed this video,
if you are feeling more confident
in answering that question,
then make sure you like it and subscribe to our channel
and make sure you click that little bell icon
that appears too, in order to be notified
whenever we post a new video.
- And why not put a comment to let us know
how you're feeling today?
Particularly after this video.
- We look forward to your comments
and also if you've got a different way
of answering "ça va ?", then let us know,
we'd love to see your ways to answer this.
Okay, that's it for this episode.
Once again thank you.
And see you next time!
- Goodbye!
[upbeat music]