Is it possible to learn useful French expressions with songs? Yes, it is! In this series of blog posts called "Best Songs to Learn French (#bstlf on Instagram)", we explain the meaning of everyday French expressions with the help of songs. You will learn French idioms that you should definitely know. We try to make learning French fun and enjoyable for all students, whether they are beginners or have a higher level.

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Besides you'll learn one useful expression in each article we will post in this series, you'll discover many ways of using them in different contexts (songs in this case) so that it will help your brain to remember better due to the repetition and the emotion trigger of the music. Moreover, by listening the whole song, you'll discover many new words and expressions you might understand or even learn. To be able to listen to each song and read the lyrics, you only need to click on each picture. The link will redirect you to YouTube, in a new tab.

If you missed the first part of the episode 2 Attendre, please click on this link to follow this lesson in song from the beginning.

Let's get started! Here are the songs:

🎶 Charles Aznavour - La Bohème (1965)

La Bohème by Charles Aznavour was released in 1965. In this song, Charles tells his story as a young artist who hasn't reached fame yet. So he worked until late every night without even earning the money to eat. Despite that, he loved this life. When he wrote this song, he was older and feels nostalgic about this time in Paris, that doesn't exist anymore. If we look up for the definition of the word "bohème" in the dictionary, it is said: "relates to people who lead a day-to-day life on the fringes of social conformity".

The expression we will analize is: "Nous étions quelques-uns qui attendions la gloire." [nuz‿etjõ kɛlkəz‿-œ̃ ki atɑ̃djõ la glwaɾ] This sentence is written in the past tense because Charles tells about his life when he was young in Paris. The sentence means : "There were a few of us waiting for glory."

🎶 Charles Aznavour - Tu t’laisses aller (1960)

Another song by Charles Aznavour called Tu t’laisses aller in 1960. In this song, Charles tells about his wife with whom he no longer loves her. After of five years of relationship, he can't stand her anymore. She is not the same person as he met. She's no longer pretty. He's ashamed of her in front of his friends. I think you get it. It's not a declaration of love, quite the contrary. He reproaches her for letting herself go.

The expression interesting is: "T'es là, t'attends, tu fais la tête" [tɛ la, tatɑ̃, ty fe la tɛt]. This means: "You're there, you're waiting, you're sulking". You noticed that in French : you can say : "T'attends" or "Tu attends". It's the same, just "t'attends" is only used on the streets, in daily life conversations. It's quicker to say it.

🎶 Julien Clerc - Lili voulait aller danser (1982)

Lili voulait aller danser by Julien Clerc in 1982 is the next song. Lili is a waitress in a snack bar. She's in love with Tony. She would love to go dancing rock'n roll, but Tony on the other hand hates dancing it. He tells her he'd marry her if she stops to dance rock'n roll. Despite she loves dancing rock'n roll, she accepted to marry him because she loves more him than the rock'n roll.

The expression we'll analyse is: "Sais-tu que je t'attends depuis plus d'une heure ?" [se-ty kə ʒə tatɑ̃ dəpɥi ply dyn œɾ ?] In English, we'd say : "Do you know that I've been waiting for you for over an hour?". Like "l'" which refered to "her"  before, "t'" refers to "you". 

🎶 Zaz - Demain c'est toi (2018)

Demain c'est toi is a song by Zaz, released in 2018. Zaz talks about her desire to become a mother. She would give all of her love to her child and all of the world also because children are the future of the world.

The expression is : "Je trace des chemins qui n'attendent que toi" [ʒə tɾas de ʃəmɛ̃ ki natɑ̃d kə twa]. It means: "I'm blazing trails just waiting for you". As I explained before, she would do everything to help her child when he will come. Note that the part of the sentence "n'attendent que toi" is used with the negation structure because in French "ne... que" means "seulement". So, we could also have said : "Je trace des chemins qui attendent seulement toi", but this structure is a little bit odd. By the way with the 3rd plural person in the present tense, we don't pronounce "ent" et the end of the verb. "Les chemins (ils) attendent [atɑ̃d]...".

That's it for this episode. Tell me in the comments what you think about this series. Would you like more of these? Have you a favourite singer or a song you love that you want me to introduce in the next episodes, feel free to let me know by writing a comment below.

Thank you for reading this post until the end. See you next Monday for a new episode. In the meantime, enjoy learning French with the songs. And remember: "Language learning should ALWAYS be FUN!"

Article written by Mickael. Follow me on Instagram @The French Polyglot to find out when new episodes are published.