Introduction

Welcome to the Coffee Break French Verb Fix – your weekly fix of the award-winning language course from the Radio Lingua Network in which we’ll help you master your French verbs and improve your spoken and written French in the process.

In this lesson we’re looking at the irregular verb avoir meaning “to have”. Avoir is the first irregular verb we’ve discussed here on the Verb Fix. This means that this verb follows slightly different patterns than the regular verbs we’ve covered so far.

Listen to the lesson

This audio lesson is free, as are all the main audio lessons of the Coffee Break French Verb Fix.

Use the audio player above to listen to the lesson, or make sure you’re subscribed to Coffee Break French in iTunes to receive this lesson and all future lessons automatically.

More tenses, exercises and bonus materials?

The premium version of The Coffee Break French Verb Fix provides additional materials which will help you build your knowledge of French verbs more effectively with your mastery of French verbs. The premium version is in the form of downloadable pdf lesson notes which include the following additional elements:

• Verb tables: each verb is listed in the four tenses covered in the main lesson (present, perfect, imperfect and conditional) so that you can see the written form of the verbs and learn the structures and patterns more effectively;
• Bonus verb tables: in addition to the main tenses we’ve also included the conjugations for the conditional, present subjunctive, past historic, pluperfect, future perfect and conditional perfect tenses;
• Exercises: test your understanding with our translation quizzes – full answer key provided!
• Bonus Audio: don’t want to listen to the whole show again? We’ve included the “Big Four” audio which extracts just the four main tenses of each verb in the members’ version.

The members’ version can be accessed through our membership system. You can purchase the course using the links below. Please note that the lessons are published from April 2013 onwards and you will have access to the materials as soon as they are published. Think of this as a “Season Pass”.

• Season 1 (10 lessons) – £11.00 GBP
• Control Panel for existing members

Subscribe links

Please note – if you’re already subscribed to Coffee Break French then you’ll receive the Verb Fix automatically – you don’t need to do anything! If you’re not already subscribed to Coffee Break French you can use the links below:

Purchase Membership | Access Members’ Materials | iTunes link | RSS feed

After a short delay we’re back with a new episode of the Coffee Break Spanish Magazine. In this episode:

• Alba asks, ¿qué es lo primero que has pensado esta mañana? – what was the first thing you thought about this morning?
• Mark joins Fernanda on a virtual tour of Easter Island;
• and JP and Nahyeli answer a question from listener Iván who wants to know about the nuances of using the immediate future tense (voy a mandar una carta) or the simple future tense (mandaré una carta).

The free version of the audio programme for this episode is available through the links and audio players below.

Get more out of your Coffee Break Spanish Magazine experience

The Coffee Break Spanish Magazine is much more than just our free audio show. Our premium edition offers the following bonuses:

• Extended audio show featuring a line-by-line analysis of the interview questions;
• Exclusive video versions of the interview segments filmed live on location (HD and SD versions);
• Comprehensive lesson notes including full transcripts and vocabulary guides.

You can access the premium edition for just £23.00 GBP – that’s just around the price of a coffee in your favourite coffee shop per episode! The season features ten episodes which will be published between now and 6 July 2013. The one payment of £23.00 GBP provides access to the premium materials for all ten lessons.

Click here to purchase the premium pack, or log into your Control Panel and add the membership if you’re an existing member.

Already a member? Download the content on the members’ page (username and password required).

Subscribe links

Subscribe in iTunes | RSS Feed | Purchase the premium materials | Premium Downloads Area

Introduction

In this week’s episode of Coffee Break German we’re introducing a new theme: checking into a hotel in a German-speaking area. Coffee Break German comes to you from the Radio Lingua Network. In weekly episodes you’ll join native speaker Thomas who’ll be teaching learner Mark in gradual, structured lessons. The episodes also feature Kirsten, our Grammar Guru, and Julia, our Cultural Correspondent.

Coming up in this lesson…

In this lesson you’ll learn:

• useful words and phrases for checking into a hotel;
• the full conjugation of the verb haben in the present tense;
• some cultural informaiton about breakfast traditions in German-speaking areas.

Listen to the lesson

This audio lesson is free, as are all the main audio lessons of Coffee Break German. In addition we do offer a members’ version of the course which includes video flashcards, lesson notes and bonus audio materials. If you would like to find out more about the member’s version of the course, we’ve made a video to explain everything. Click here to find out more.

Use the audio players below to listen to the lesson, or subscribe in iTunes to receive this lesson and all future lessons automatically.

Accessing the Premium Version

The premium version of Coffee Break German provides additional materials which will help you move forward more effectively with your German studies. The premium version includes the following elements:

• Video flashcards: listen to each lesson and see the words and phrases covered in the lesson displayed on the screen of your computer, phone or tablet (mp4 format);
• Bonus audio materials: use our review lessons to practise the language covered in the main lesson, and to pick up some useful bonus vocabulary;
• Comprehensive lesson notes: study the language of each lesson in greater detail and access additional information about the German language.

The members’ version can be accessed through our membership system. You can purchase the course using the links below. Please note that the lessons are published over the next year (2013) and you will have access to the materials as soon as they are published. Think of this as a “Season Pass”.

• Lessons 1-20 – £37.00 GBP
• Lessons 1-40 –  £64.00 GBP
• Control Panel for existing members

If you’d like to find out more about the Coffee Break German members’ version, please watch this video which should explain everything.

Coffee Break German Study Packs for the iPad

Coffee Break German Study Packs are now available on the iBookstore. These books feature the audio, video and text of the members’ materials in a handy iBooks version. The Study Packs are published in groups of five lessons and are published normally 2-3 weeks after the lessons are published on our site. To see which Study Packs are currently available, please visit Coffee Break German on the iBookstore.

Subscribe links

Subscribe in iTunes | RSS Feed | Coffee Break German on YouTube | Purchase videos and transcripts

Hej! So, it saddens me to say that as I will be leaving Sweden soon, this will be my last blog post from Uppsala. That said, to not bring the mood down too much, my subject for today is Uppsala’s biggest yearly party, Valborg (also known as Sista April, or ‘last of April’), the anticipation of which literally puts a smile on everyone’s face and a spring in their step. It descends from the celebration of Walpurgis on the 30th April, which to this day remains a day of festivities all across Sweden, with large bonfires being organised up and down the country, reminding everyone of their Viking heritage. It celebrates the arrival of Spring in Sweden, and is accompanied by general merriment and frolicking amongst the student population of Uppsala.

The day kicks off as early as 8am (although depending on how hard you’ve partied on Kvalborg, or ‘Valborg Eve’, possibly later), with a traditional champagne breakfast in Ekonomikumparken, a large park next to one of the university buildings (Ekonomikum) and a large student housing area. 10am sees the start of the boat race or Forsränning down the Fyris river, done by groups of students in handmade styrofoam rafts; some of which survive the rapids, some of which, well, let’s just say I’ve never seen someone cling to a giant styrofoam mushroom to save them from falling into the water so desperately before. Following tradition, this would be followed by a sillunch (herring lunch) – although, my experience was more, back to Ekonomikumparken for hot dogs and Swedish cider, and trying very hard to get through to friends who I knew were in the park, but when just about the entire population of Uppsala was also there, trying to find them was easier said than done.

The next big events happen almost simultaneously: the champagnegalopp held at some of the nations, and the mösspåtagning at the Carolina Rediviva library. The mösspåtagning is the traditional donning of the white naval caps all Swedish students have, and happens at precisely 15:00. 15:15 sees the start of the champagnegalopp – the name originates from when after the mösspåtagning, students would race down the hill from the library to the nations to drink champagne. Nowadays, the champagnegalopp more takes the form of spraying copious amounts of fizzy wine over your friends and strangers – great fun, by all accounts, but very messy! Thus ends the ‘traditional’ organised parts of Valborg; what follows next was, in my case, a nap, a barbeque, and then dancing at my nation with my best friend until the wee small hours of the morning.

Valborg was the first time since the winter that I had really seen Uppsala come alive, and the buzz in the air that it brings definitely gives it the feeling that Spring really has arrived. It has made me realise how much I need to appreciate the rest of my time here, because I know I will miss it so much when I leave; it has definitely been the most incredible experience. I hope you’ve enjoyed following my posts, and that some of my enthusiasm for Sweden and Swedish might have passed on to you. And with that – lycka till, och hej då!

Buongiorno a tutti and welcome to On Location Italian. This week I have felt as if I was back in Scotland, having to endure four seasons in one. At the start of the week, primavera (Spring) was in full bloom in Verona. With the sun shining and temperatures sweltering, I jumped on a train to Lago di Garda (“Lake Garda”), the largest lake in Italy. There are various towns situated on the lake, all of which have become a major attraction for tourists, and being just a stone’s throw away from Verona I am fortunate enough to be able to spend sunny days there.

However, I didn’t get too carried away with planning all my future day trips to Lago di Garda since the sunshine was short-lived. In fact, I faced my first tempesta (“thunderstorm”) since living in Italy. Whilst taking shelter from the tuoni e fulmini (“thunder and lightning”) at my friend’s house, I took the opportunity to ask her about some common phrases in Italian relating to weather. She told me that the Italian equivalent of the expression “it’s raining cat and dogs” would be pioggia a catinelle. She also taught me the expression piove che Dio la manda (literally, it’s raining as if God sends it) translated as “it’s pouring”.

Following the tempesta, the unpredictable weather changed from torrido (“roasting hot”) to raining and back again. With my friend from back home visiting, I was taking her to see Venice, come rain or shine! Fortunately there were only a few nuvole (“clouds”) in the sky on the day. On returning from our day trip and describing the weather to my Italian friend, she taught another expression , this time for cloudy weather - c’é un cielo a pecorelle. Pecore are “sheep” and pecorelle are “little sheep”. This translates literally as “there is a sky of little sheep”.

I guess it just goes to show that it isn’t just us Scots who have to deal with il tempo imprevedibile (“the unpredictable weather”). Hopefully the weather will pick up before I have to leave at the end of June.  I have loved my time in Verona and I hope you have all enjoyed having a little insight into my life here, as much as I have enjoyed sharing it with you all. So for one last time, a presto!

Introduction

Welcome to the Coffee Break French Verb Fix – your weekly fix of the award-winning language course from the Radio Lingua Network in which we’ll help you master your French verbs and improve your spoken and written French in the process.

In this lesson we’re looking at the verb vendre meaning “to sell”. Vendre is an example of a regular -re verb. This means that with this lesson not only will you learn to conjugate finir in the present, perfect, imperfect and future tenses, you’ll also learn to conjugate all other regular -re verbs!

Listen to the lesson

This audio lesson is free, as are all the main audio lessons of the Coffee Break French Verb Fix.

Use the audio player above to listen to the lesson, or make sure you’re subscribed to Coffee Break French in iTunes to receive this lesson and all future lessons automatically.

More tenses, exercises and bonus materials?

The premium version of The Coffee Break French Verb Fix provides additional materials which will help you build your knowledge of French verbs more effectively with your mastery of French verbs. The premium version is in the form of downloadable pdf lesson notes which include the following additional elements:

• Verb tables: each verb is listed in the four tenses covered in the main lesson (present, perfect, imperfect and conditional) so that you can see the written form of the verbs and learn the structures and patterns more effectively;
• Bonus verb tables: in addition to the main tenses we’ve also included the conjugations for the conditional, present subjunctive, past historic, pluperfect, future perfect and conditional perfect tenses;
• Exercises: test your understanding with our translation quizzes – full answer key provided!
• Bonus Audio: don’t want to listen to the whole show again? We’ve included the “Big Four” audio which extracts just the four main tenses of each verb in the members’ version.

The members’ version can be accessed through our membership system. You can purchase the course using the links below. Please note that the lessons are published from April 2013 onwards and you will have access to the materials as soon as they are published. Think of this as a “Season Pass”.

• Season 1 (10 lessons) – £11.00 GBP
• Control Panel for existing members

Subscribe links

Please note – if you’re already subscribed to Coffee Break French then you’ll receive the Verb Fix automatically – you don’t need to do anything! If you’re not already subscribed to Coffee Break French you can use the links below:

Purchase Membership | Access Members’ Materials | iTunes link | RSS feed

Hallo zusammen! Welcome to my last On Location German post. The year has flown by and I have really enjoyed sharing my experiences with you! Wie die Zeit vergeht! (‘How time flies!’)

During my time in Deutschland, I have had lots of new Erlebnisse (‘experiences’), learned lots of new Wörter (‘words’) and visited lots of new Orte (‘places’). One important word which I would use to describe how I feel about my time here is genießen. (‘to enjoy’) I have enjoyed every part of the last few months here and I hope that you have all enjoyed sharing my experiences! I now know the town of Herford and the surrounding area like the back of my hand; Ich kenne Herford wie meine Westentasche (literally, ‘I know Herford like my waistcoat pocket’!)

I remember when I first arrived in Germany and it seemed like everybody was on a completely different wave-length! (‘nicht auf derselben Wellenlänge sein’ means ‘to be on a different wave-length’) However, after 8 months of living here, I don’t even bat an eyelid when someone speaks to me in German. Last week I learned that ‘mit keiner Wimper zucken’ is German for ‘not to bat an eyelid’.

All in all, the most important thing I have learned in the last year is that, no matter how difficult it can sometimes seem, es lohnt sich, eine weitere Sprache zu lernen! (‘It is worth it to learn another language!’) I wish you all the very best in your future language learning endeavours and hope that you have enjoyed my regular blog posts! Mach’s gut! (‘So long!/Take care!’) Daniel.

¡Hola y bienvenidos a mi blog! Once again, it’s Iain here in Salamanca with an update on my year abroad learning Spanish.

Salamanca has gone fiesta crazy since my last update, with the celebrations of Semana Santa (“Holy Week”, culminating in Easter Sunday) followed closely by the local festival of Lunes de Aguas (literally “Waters Monday”, however I’ll explain more of this in a moment) and El Día de Castilla y León (“Castilla y León Day”, a region-wide holiday in this part of Spain).

Lunes de Aguas is unique to Salamanca, and especially the University students. It’s a slightly bizarre festival in which the vast majority of the student population head down to the banks of the River Tormes for a day-long party to celebrate the end of the Holy Week and the lifting of the prohibitions that this used to bring. The festival has its roots in centuries past, and is marked by the consumption of Hornazo, a delicious meat pie filled with pork loin, chorizo sausage and hard-boiled eggs. The University shuts for the day to allow the students to take part; to me, it shows that Salamanca’s fun side is just as well-developed as its studious side!

As the exams and deadlines roll ever closer, I’ve been spending time working in various groups for assignments. It’s an excellent way to learn some colloquial Spanish. For example, when I asked one of my classmates if he was ready for a presentation, he replied:

estoy preparado a tope (“I’m prepared to the maximum”)

A tope comes from the English “top”, and is one of the many words that the Spanish call préstamos (“borrowings”) from other languages.

Another phrase I’ve been hearing a lot of lately is:

es la leche (literally “it’s the milk”)

This cropped up in conversation with some friends, and I was stumped – I had to ask for an explanation. It transpires that the phrase can be used much like groups of younger people at home would use phrases like “it’s cool” to describe something positively.

As I’ve mentioned, the exams are looming for me, and afterwards my time in Salamanca is unfortunately at an end – which also means that this is my last OnLocation Spanish update. It’s been an absolutely incredible journey, and I can’t quite believe how quickly the year has passed. I hope you have enjoyed my blog as much as I have enjoyed sharing my experiences with you!

¡Gracias a todos, y adiós!

Bonjour tout le monde! Welcome to my last blog post about my year abroad here in St Brieuc.  I can’t believe how quickly this year has passed – it’s flown in!  I’ve just finished my last week at school, and it was so nice to see my pupils’ reactions when they found out I was leaving.  An expression I’ve been hearing everywhere is est-ce que tu as hâte pour rentrer? Avoir hâte is to look forward or be excited about something, so this phrase means ‘are you excited to be going home?’  You could use this in lots of situations, such as j’ai hâte pour le weekend, I can’t wait for the weekend.

Even though I’m down to my last few days in France, I’m still learning so many new French words and phrases; it’s like the final rush to learn everything before I go back to Scotland! In particular, I’ve been discovering lots of new expressions connected to food.  I recently visited a teacher’s house for lunch and to meet her family.  We had a lovely afternoon speaking French, and I learned the expression ‘aller avec le dos de la cuillère.’ This means to go about something in a backwards manner, or even ‘to beat about the bush.’  You can also reverse it by saying ‘ne pas y aller avec le dos de la cuillère,’ to signify the reverse, someone who rushes into things.  Another food-related expression is ‘avoir une bonne fourchette,’ literally meaning, ‘I have a good fork.’  You can use this to say you have a big appetite, a good alternative to ‘j’ai faim,’ I am hungry.  One of my favourite phrases I’ve learned recently is ‘avoir du pain sur la planche,’ which means there is a lot of work left to do, or you have a lot on your plate.

It’s now time for me to say goodbye to St Brieuc. I know I will definitely miss living here and miss la vie française, the French life. It’s also time to say goodbye to you, my readers here on this blog.  I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about my time in France and have picked up some French along the way. Bonne continuation et au revoir!

Based on listener feedback, we have decided to add the Coffee Break Spanish Magazine free episodes to the main Coffee Break Spanish feed to ensure that our Coffee Break Spanish community is not missing the episodes. From now on, anyone subscribed to Coffee Break Spanish in iTunes or on any other podcast app or aggregator will automatically pick up the free episodes of the Magazine. We’ve backdated this to include episode 1, and this post will ensure that episode 2 reaches the feed too.

Episode 3 will be updated on Monday 13th May, with episode 4 coming next weekend. We hope that you find this useful!

Introduction

Welcome to this week’s Coffee Break French Community Show where we hand it over to our worldwide community of learners. In this episode our listeners provide their sentences featuring the verb finir, which was this week’s verb in our Verb Fix show. We also share some news about a new development for French learners from Radio Lingua.

Listen to the show

Use the audio player above to listen to the lesson, or make sure you’re subscribed to Coffee Break French in iTunes to receive this lesson and all future lessons automatically.

More tenses, exercises and bonus materials?

The premium version of The Coffee Break French Verb Fix provides additional materials which will help you build your knowledge of French verbs more effectively with your mastery of French verbs. The premium version is in the form of downloadable pdf lesson notes which include the following additional elements:

• Verb tables: each verb is listed in the four tenses covered in the main lesson (present, perfect, imperfect and conditional) so that you can see the written form of the verbs and learn the structures and patterns more effectively;
• Bonus verb tables: in addition to the main tenses we’ve also included the conjugations for the conditional, present subjunctive, past historic, pluperfect, future perfect and conditional perfect tenses;
• Exercises: test your understanding with our translation quizzes – full answer key provided!
• Bonus Audio: don’t want to listen to the whole show again? We’ve included the “Big Four” audio which extracts just the four main tenses of each verb in the members’ version.

The members’ version can be accessed through our membership system. You can purchase the course using the links below. Please note that the lessons are published from April 2013 onwards and you will have access to the materials as soon as they are published. Think of this as a “Season Pass”.

• Season 1 (10 lessons) – £11.00 GBP
• Control Panel for existing members

Subscribe links

Please note – if you’re already subscribed to Coffee Break French then you’ll receive the Verb Fix automatically – you don’t need to do anything! If you’re not already subscribed to Coffee Break French you can use the links below:

Purchase Membership | Access Members’ Materials | iTunes link | RSS feed

Introduction

In this week’s episode of Coffee Break German you’ll learn more language for ordering food and drinks in cafés. Coffee Break German comes to you from the Radio Lingua Network. In weekly episodes you’ll join native speaker Thomas who’ll be teaching learner Mark in gradual, structured lessons. The episodes also feature Kirsten, our Grammar Guru, and Julia, our Cultural Correspondent.

Coming up in this lesson…

In this lesson you’ll learn:

• how to use adjectives correctly when ordering food;
• the different forms of adjectives following the indefinite article;
• how to deal with paying a bill in a restaurant;
• how to tip in German-speaking areas.

Listen to the lesson

This audio lesson is free, as are all the main audio lessons of Coffee Break German. In addition we do offer a members’ version of the course which includes video flashcards, lesson notes and bonus audio materials. If you would like to find out more about the member’s version of the course, we’ve made a video to explain everything. Click here to find out more.

Use the audio players below to listen to the lesson, or subscribe in iTunes to receive this lesson and all future lessons automatically.

Accessing the Premium Version

The premium version of Coffee Break German provides additional materials which will help you move forward more effectively with your German studies. The premium version includes the following elements:

• Video flashcards: listen to each lesson and see the words and phrases covered in the lesson displayed on the screen of your computer, phone or tablet (mp4 format);
• Bonus audio materials: use our review lessons to practise the language covered in the main lesson, and to pick up some useful bonus vocabulary;
• Comprehensive lesson notes: study the language of each lesson in greater detail and access additional information about the German language.

The members’ version can be accessed through our membership system. You can purchase the course using the links below. Please note that the lessons are published over the next year (2013) and you will have access to the materials as soon as they are published. Think of this as a “Season Pass”.

• Lessons 1-20 – £37.00 GBP
• Lessons 1-40 –  £64.00 GBP
• Control Panel for existing members

If you’d like to find out more about the Coffee Break German members’ version, please watch this video which should explain everything.

Coffee Break German Study Packs for the iPad

Coffee Break German Study Packs are now available on the iBookstore. These books feature the audio, video and text of the members’ materials in a handy iBooks version. The Study Packs are published in groups of five lessons and are published normally 2-3 weeks after the lessons are published on our site. To see which Study Packs are currently available, please visit Coffee Break German on the iBookstore.

Subscribe links

Subscribe in iTunes | RSS Feed | Coffee Break German on YouTube | Purchase videos and transcripts