Level A1 · Lesson 3
A message from the sky
Un message dans le ciel
The Provence has a wireless telegraph. Messages arrive from Paris, from Chicago, from everywhere. Then, on the second day, there is a storm… and a very important message.
The story
Sur la Provence, il y a une chose très moderne : le télégraphe sans fil.
On the Provence there is something very modern: the wireless telegraph.
Le bateau a une petite cabine pour le télégraphe. Dans la cabine, il y a un employé et une machine.
The ship has a little cabin for the telegraph. In the cabin there is an operator and a machine.
Les messages arrivent sans fil, dans le vent, comme par magie.
The messages arrive without wires, on the wind, as if by magic.
J’ai un message de deux amis de Paris : « Bon voyage, Bernard ! »
I have a message from two friends in Paris: “Bon voyage, Bernard!”
Miss Nelly a un message de Chicago. Elle a un grand sourire.
Miss Nelly has a message from Chicago. She has a big smile.
Les autres passagers ont des messages aussi : dix, vingt, trente ! Nous avons des nouvelles de France au milieu de l’océan.
The other passengers have messages too: ten, twenty, thirty! We have news from France in the middle of the ocean.
Mais le deuxième jour, il y a un orage. Le ciel est noir et la mer est grise.
But on the second day there is a storm. The sky is black and the sea is grey.
Le vent est fort et les vagues sont énormes. Les passagers sont dans le salon.
The wind is strong and the waves are huge. The passengers are in the lounge.
Dans la cabine du télégraphe, l’employé a encore un message. Un message très important…
In the telegraph cabin, the operator has one more message. A very important message…
Vocabulary
- le télégraphe sans fil: the wireless telegraph
- le fil: the wire, the thread
- le message: the message
- la cabine: the cabin
- l’employé / l’employée: the employee, the operator
- la machine: the machine
- les nouvelles (f.): news
- l’orage (m.): the storm
- le vent: the wind
- la vague: the wave
- l’océan (m.): the ocean
- gris / grise: grey
- fort / forte: strong
- énorme: huge
- deux: two
- dix: ten
- vingt: twenty
- trente: thirty
- deuxième: second
- moderne: modern
- important / importante: important
- le sourire: the smile
- le salon: the lounge
- sans: without
- aussi: too, also
- encore: again, one more, still
- au milieu de: in the middle of
Avoir (to have). Il y a (there is, there are)
Avoir, “to have”, is the other great irregular verb, and together with être it holds up half the language. Six forms, learnt once and for all:
| avoir | ||
|---|---|---|
| j’ | ai | I have |
| tu | as | you have (one friend) |
| il / elle / on | a | he / she / it has, one has |
| nous | avons | we have |
| vous | avez | you have (polite, or several people) |
| ils / elles | ont | they have |
Je loses its e in front of a vowel, so it is always j’ai, never ✗ je ai. Say it as one word: “zhay”.
The trap: ont and sont. Ils ont (they have) and ils sont (they are) differ by one sound. In ils‿ont the silent s of ils wakes up and joins the vowel, giving a buzzing z: “eel-zon”. In ils sont you hear a hissing s: “eel-son”. Buzz for having, hiss for being. The same linking z appears in nous‿avons and vous‿avez.
Il y a is a fixed phrase meaning “there is” or “there are”. The il is an empty “it”, nobody in particular, and y means “there”. Literally: “it there has”. Because nobody is the subject, it never changes for plural:
| one thing | several things |
|---|---|
| Il y a un orage. | Il y a des messages. |
| There is a storm. | There are messages. |
So keep the two apart: il a un message is “he has a message”, a person owning something; il y a un message is “there is a message”, something simply existing somewhere.
Leblanc in the original
«Le télégraphe sans fil! appel d'un autre univers d'où l'on recevrait des nouvelles de la façon la plus mystérieuse qui soit!»The wireless telegraph! A call from another universe, from which news would come to us in the most mysterious way imaginable!