Episode 3 – High Five French

HFF Lesson 3

Join Emma and Mathilde in this ten-lesson podcast series for younger learners of French. In episode 3 you’ll learn to ask “how are you?” and how to answer the question.

Listen to the episode

High Five French Membership

The free podcast is only the beginning! High Five French is a full forty-lesson video course with a range of materials allowing children to learn and understand the French language. Purchasing a membership gives access to the following elements for each of the forty lessons:

  • video episode: join Emma and Mathilde on location in France in our video episodes. The video presents the language covered in the lesson in a fun way, allowing children first to hear the French word or phrase, and then to see it on the screen as Mathilde encourages viewers to repeat the word and practise their French.
  • the High Five French Radio Show: this bonus audio recording provides further practice of the words and phrases covered in the main video lesson, and also provides some bonus vocabulary. Each episode of the radio show finishes with a musical review of the words and phrases of the lesson.
  • activity sheets: we’ve included two activity sheets for each lesson, allowing children to practise the written language in fun puzzles and activities.
  • transcripts: there are full transcripts of the video lessons with explanations of any unfamiliar French words.
  • notes for parents: if you’re not familiar with French, it can be difficult to support your child in their learning. Our notes for parents for each lesson will help you help your child learn! There are explanations of the difficult words and phrases and background information on the language and culture of the French-speaking world.

Learn more about High Five French
The members’ version can be accessed through our membership system. You can purchase a membership using the links below. The complete course of 40 lessons is already available, so as soon as you purchase you will have access to all 40 lessons.

  • Access a trial lesson and find out more here
    The course includes 40 streaming video lessons, 40 streaming audio lessons, activity sheets, notes for parents
    (£99.00 GBP inc VAT / approx $124.00 USD ex VAT for non EU customers)

Information for teachers

If you’re a teacher and you’re interested in using this resource within your school, we provide a licence for using High Five French in schools which includes all the resources mentioned above and comprehensive notes for both specialist and non-specialist teachers. High Five French is the perfect way to introduce French in an engaging way to younger learners. Visit Radio Lingua Schools for more information.

Subscribe links

Subscribe in iTunes | RSS Feed | Purchase members’ audio and transcripts

Episode 3 – Season 4 – Coffee Break Spanish

It’s time for another episode of Coffee Break Spanish and in this advanced series you can follow the exploits of María and Rory as they spend the summer together on the island of Mallorca. In this episode we eavesdrop on a conversation between María and Rory on the phone before Rory leaves for Mallorca.

CBI 1-05 | Talking about your family in Italian

CBI Lesson 5

Join teacher Mark, learner Katie and native speaker Francesca in the latest lesson of our series for beginners in Italian. In this lesson you’ll learn to introduce members of your family and give their names.

Season 4 – Episode 30 – Coffee Break French

CBF Lesson 430

It’s time for another episode of Coffee Break French and this week Mark and Pierre-Benoît are discussing the latest email from Sylvie to her mother, Monique. There are lots of interesting language points to talk about including the expressions être pot de colle, faire poireauter quelqu’un and the wonderful word dorénavant. 

CBI 1-04 | Talking about where you live in Italian

Join teacher Mark, learner Katie and native speaker Francesca in this fourth lesson of Coffee Break Italian. In this lesson you’ll extend your range of expression and learn to talk about where you live. You’ll also learn the names of a number of countries.

Newsletter Activity 3 – Using the verb ‘soler’

Join the Conversation

¿Conoces el verbo ‘soler’? This is a fantastic word which means “to tend to do something”. It’s followed by the infinitive, so you can use it to mean what you tend to do:

  • suelo ir al cine todos los viernes
  • solemos comer paella durante el verano
  • suelen tomar un café por la mañana

Can you work out what these sentences mean? They’re all examples of soler used in the present tense. You’ll notice it’s an example of a radical changing verb: the form of the verb changes for the nosotros and vosotros parts. Here’s the full conjugation:

  • suelo
  • sueles
  • suele
  • solemos
  • soléis
  • suelen

Now it’s over you: our question to you is ¿dónde sueles eschuchar Coffee Break Spanish? Practise using soler by posting a comment and letting us know where you tend to listen to Coffee Break Spanish.

Newsletter Activity 3 – La Fête de St-Valentin

CBF Join Conversation

Our question to you in this activity is: comment avez-vous fêté la St-Valentin? The verb fêter means “to celebrate”. If you’re trying to work out what something means, remember that if there’s a circumflex accent it often means that in old French there used to be an ‘s’, so fêter < “fester” which can be linked to “festival” and other English words.

So how did you celebrate Valentine’s day? You’ll need to use a perfect tense in your answer. The perfect tense is formed by combining the auxiliary verb (normally avoir) with the past participle:

  • j’ai offert des fleurs à ma copine
  • nous avons mangé dans un restaurant
  • je n’ai rien fait

Can you work out what these mean? Some verbs need être as the auxiliary verb in the perfect tense:

  • je suis allé(e) au cinéma avec ma femme / mon mari
  • nous sommes sortis hier soir

Remember that with “être verbs” you need to make the past participle agree with the subject. So if you’re female you need to say je suis allée and so on.

C’est à vous maintenant: let us know how you spent St Valentine’s Day in the comments.

Episode 2 – High Five French

HFF Lesson 2

Join Emma and Mathilde in this ten-lesson podcast series for younger learners of French. In episode 2, you’ll learn to say your name and to ask other people what they’re called.

Listen to the episode

High Five French Membership

The free podcast is only the beginning! High Five French is a full forty-lesson video course with a range of materials allowing children to learn and understand the French language. Purchasing a membership gives access to the following elements for each of the forty lessons:

  • video episode: join Emma and Mathilde on location in France in our video episodes. The video presents the language covered in the lesson in a fun way, allowing children first to hear the French word or phrase, and then to see it on the screen as Mathilde encourages viewers to repeat the word and practise their French.
  • the High Five French Radio Show: this bonus audio recording provides further practice of the words and phrases covered in the main video lesson, and also provides some bonus vocabulary. Each episode of the radio show finishes with a musical review of the words and phrases of the lesson.
  • activity sheets: we’ve included two activity sheets for each lesson, allowing children to practise the written language in fun puzzles and activities.
  • transcripts: there are full transcripts of the video lessons with explanations of any unfamiliar French words.
  • notes for parents: if you’re not familiar with French, it can be difficult to support your child in their learning. Our notes for parents for each lesson will help you help your child learn! There are explanations of the difficult words and phrases and background information on the language and culture of the French-speaking world.

Learn more about High Five French
The members’ version can be accessed through our membership system. You can purchase a membership using the links below. The complete course of 40 lessons is already available, so as soon as you purchase you will have access to all 40 lessons.

  • Access a trial lesson and find out more here
    The course includes 40 streaming video lessons, 40 streaming audio lessons, activity sheets, notes for parents
    (£99.00 GBP inc VAT / approx $124.00 USD ex VAT for non EU customers)

Information for teachers

If you’re a teacher and you’re interested in using this resource within your school, we provide a licence for using High Five French in schools which includes all the resources mentioned above and comprehensive notes for both specialist and non-specialist teachers. High Five French is the perfect way to introduce French in an engaging way to younger learners. Visit Radio Lingua Schools for more information.

Subscribe links

Subscribe in iTunes | RSS Feed | Purchase members’ audio and transcripts

Episode 2 – Season 4 – Coffee Break Spanish

CBS Lesson 402

Join Mark and Carmen for the second episode in our series for advanced learners of Spanish and follow the story of María and Rory’s summer on the island of Mallorca. In this episode María writes an email to Rory inviting him to spend the summer working in her Aunt Consuelo’s hotel.

CBI 1-03 | Talking about where you come from in Italian

Join teacher Mark, learner Katie and native speaker Francesca in this third lesson of Coffee Break Italian. In this lesson you’ll learn to say where you’re from, to talk about nationalities and lots more.

CBI 1-02 | Greetings in Italian

Join Mark, Katie and Francesca in the latest lesson of Coffee Break Italian. In this lesson you’ll learn to greet people at different times of the day. You’ll also learn to introduce yourself and ask the question “what is your name?”

Newsletter Activity 2 – J’en ai marre!

CBF Join Conversation

Are you familiar with the expression j’en ai marre? It’s a great colloquial expression which means “I’m fed up” or “I’ve had enough”. You can use it on its own, or add de and say what you’re fed up doing. For example:

  • j’en ai marre de faire la vaisselle
  • j’en ai marre de ma voisine
  • j’en ai marre du téléphone

Can you work out what these examples mean? Try to use this expression and let us know what you’re fed up doing by posting a comment below! Don’t forget you need to include the en!

Newsletter Activity 2 – Saying how long you’ve been doing something for

Join the Conversation

Learners of Spanish often find it difficult to say how long they’ve been doing something for because there’s a change of verb tense from English to Spanish. Consider the sentence:

  • “I’ve been speaking Spanish for three months”.

In English we use a past tense: “I have been learning”. However in Spanish we use a present tense and form this sentence in one of two ways:

  • hace tres meses que hablo español
  • hablo español desde hace tres meses

It’s also important to point out that there are other ways to form this construction, but today we’re focusing on using hace. Here is a simplification of these constructions:

  • hace + time phrase + que + present tense
  • present tense + desde hace + time phrase

It’s over to you. Let us know how long you’ve been learning Spanish, or playing the guitar, or travelling the world using one of these constructions!

¡Esperamos vuestros comentarios!