Level A1 · Lesson 12
Lady Jerland’s jewels
Les bijoux de lady Jerland
The thief is choosy: he takes only lady Jerland’s finest stones. During tea, in broad daylight! On board, everyone has the same name in mind: Arsène Lupin.
The story
Nous sommes dans la cabine de lady Jerland. La porte est cassée.
We are in lady Jerland’s cabin. The door is broken.
Sur la table, il y a des colliers et des bracelets. Mais il n’y a pas de pierres !
On the table there are necklaces and bracelets. But there are no stones!
Le voleur ne prend pas tout. Il choisit : il emporte seulement les plus belles pierres.
The thief does not take everything. He chooses: he carries off only the finest stones.
Le petit sac de lady Jerland est dans un carton à chapeau. D’habitude, dans ce sac, il y a des diamants, des rubis et des perles.
Lady Jerland’s little bag is in a hatbox. Usually, in this bag, there are diamonds, rubies and pearls.
Aujourd’hui, il n’y a pas de diamants, pas de rubis, pas de perles.
Today there are no diamonds, no rubies, no pearls.
Et quand ? Pendant le thé ! L’après-midi, lady Jerland prend le thé dans le salon : du thé, du lait, de la confiture et des gâteaux.
And when? During tea! In the afternoon lady Jerland takes tea in the lounge: tea, milk, jam and cakes.
Pendant ce temps, le voleur travaille. En plein jour ! Il a du courage et de l’audace, ce voleur.
Meanwhile the thief is at work. In broad daylight! He has courage and nerve, this thief.
Sur le pont, on parle, on crie, on cherche. Et on a une seule idée : c’est Arsène Lupin !
On deck, people talk, shout, search. And everybody has one idea: it is Arsène Lupin!
Moi, je ne dis rien. Mais le soir, à table, il y a deux places vides : à droite et à gauche de monsieur Rozaine.
I say nothing. But in the evening, at dinner, there are two empty seats: to the right and to the left of Mr Rozaine.
Vocabulary
- le bijou / les bijoux: the jewel / the jewels
- la pierre: the stone
- le diamant: the diamond
- le rubis: the ruby
- la perle: the pearl
- le collier: the necklace
- le bracelet: the bracelet
- le sac: the bag
- le carton à chapeau: the hatbox
- le thé: tea
- le lait: milk
- la confiture: jam
- le gâteau / les gâteaux: the cake / the cakes
- le salon: the lounge, the drawing room
- l’après-midi: the afternoon
- prendre le thé: to have tea
- le voleur / la voleuse: the thief
- la cabine: the cabin
- la porte: the door
- cassé / cassée: broken
- vide: empty
- en plein jour: in broad daylight
- le courage: courage
- l’audace (f.): nerve, daring
- choisir: to choose
- emporter: to take away, to carry off
- on: people, someone, we
- d’habitude: usually
- aujourd’hui: today
- pendant: during
- pendant ce temps: meanwhile
- seulement: only
- seul / seule: single, only one
Du, de la, des (some) and pas de (no). The pronoun on
English is happy with a bare noun: “there are pearls”, “I take milk”. French almost never is. When you mean “some” or “any”, an amount you are not counting, you need the partitive article, which is just de glued to the article you already know.
| some… | no… / not any… | |
|---|---|---|
| masculine | du lait | pas de lait |
| feminine | de la confiture | pas de confiture |
| before a vowel | de l’audace | pas d’audace |
| plural | des perles | pas de perles |
Du is de + le, squeezed into one word. French never says de le. (Des is de + les in the same way.)
Le thé or du thé? The story has both, side by side. Le thé is tea in general, or tea as an event: prendre le thé, “to have afternoon tea”, j’aime le thé, “I like tea”. Du thé is an amount of it in a cup: elle prend du thé, “she has some tea”. Rule of thumb: if you could add “some” in English, French wants du, de la or des.
After a negative, everything shrinks to de. Il y a des perles becomes il n’y a pas de perles; il a du courage becomes il n’a pas de courage; before a vowel, d’: pas d’audace. Think of pas de as “zero”: you cannot have “some” of zero, so the gender and number fall away. Lady Jerland’s bag goes from des diamants to pas de diamants in a single afternoon.
One exception to file away: with être, nothing shrinks. Ce n’est pas du thé, c’est du café. You are not saying there is zero tea, you are saying the cup holds something else.
On is one of the most useful words in French. It means “people” in general, “someone” you cannot name, or, in everyday speech, “we”. Its verb is the same as for il: on parle, on cherche, on a une idée. When the whole ship is gossiping, on parle says it in two words.
Leblanc in the original
«Non, on n'avait pas tout pris, comme nous le sûmes par la suite; chose bien plus curieuse: on avait choisi!»No, they had not taken everything, as we found out later; something much more curious: they had chosen!