Spoken French: Understand A Scene from ““Plan Coeur”

Plan Cœur” (or “The Hook Up Plan” in the English release) is a French TV show; its 3rd and final season just came out on Netflix this year. It’s based in Paris and centers around the lives, friendships, and romantic relationships of a group of young professionals in their 20s.

If you’re looking for a new French TV show to watch so you can learn more about French culture and improve your French comprehension, this is a great option for you. Let’s practice listening to a scene together, so you can get better at understanding fast spoken French.

C’est parti !

Want all the vocabulary of the lesson ?

1) Plan Cœur: The scene, with transcript

The show is a look into the lives of three women especially: Elsa, Charlotte and Émilie here. It’s got a modern French Sex & The City vibe. Yes, it’s not very deep or surprising, but it’s fun to watch!

*** Le truc en plus ***
“Plan Cœur” (“Heart plan”) is a reference to the (ugly!) expression to talk about a hookup or a friend with benefits: Le “plan cul”.
By replacing Cul (= “ass” but also a slang term for “sex”) by Cœur (= “Heart”) the title adds a romantic bent to modern dating, that might lack some of that romance. Which is fitting, since the show does the same – making a romantic comedy out of less “classically romantic” moors and situations.
*** ***

Today, we’ll focus on a short scene from the third episode of the first season of the show. It’s a tense conversation between Émilie and her boyfriend Antoine. Émilie is enceinte (= pregnant.)

In the video lesson, I guide you through the process of gradually practicing your French comprehension.

Here are the subtitles (and their translation!), written in the “correct” pronunciation:

In French:
– Tu me parles ?
– Non. Bah, pas spécialement, quoi.
– Ah. Je savais pas qu’on se reparlait, c’est pour ça. Parquet ou moquette pour la chambre du haut ?
– Bah, faudrait peut-être que tu dises déjà à Charlotte que tu veux récupérer sa chambre.
– Ah ouais, pourquoi moi ? C’est ta sœur.
– Ouais mais c’est ta meilleure amie et c’est l’appart de tes rempes. Et puis, moi je trouve qu’on a assez de place. Surtout qu’au début, on va faire du cododo, donc bon.
– Du codo-quoi ?
– Bah du cododo. Dormir avec le bébé.
– Ah non. Ils font des petits bruits, ils chient sur eux. Ah non. Moi, je veux qu’il ait sa chambre.
– OK.
– Ben, tu vas où ?
– Je vais au taf. Je peux ou c’est trop dégradant pour toi ? Ouais…
– Bon…

In English:
– You’re talking to me?
– No. I mean, not particularly, no.
– Ah. I didn’t know we were speaking to each other again, that’s all. Parquet or carpeting for the bedroom upstairs?
– Well, hum, you would need to tell Charlotte that you want her room back, first.
– Oh yeah, why me? She’s your sister.
– Yeah but she’s your best friend, and it’s your parents’ apartment. And like, I find we have enough space already. Especially since in the beginning, we’ll be cosleeping, so, yeah.
– Co-what?
– Well, cosleeping. Sleeping with the baby.
– Oh no! They make little noises, they poop themselves, oh no! I want him to have his own room, yeah.
– OK.
– Hey, where are you going?
– I’m going to work. Can I, or is that too demeaning for you? Yeah..
– OK.

2) Plan Cœur: Slang vocabulary

In that scene, you have several instances of informal (or slang) everyday spoken French vocabulary. Such as:

  • Le taf (“work”, informal) → comes from “Le Travail À Faire” (= work to be done). You can also say le boulot (= “work”, informal.)
  • Chier (“to poop”, informal verb / mild vulgarity) → It’s not elegant! But everywhere in modern French though. Such as : “Ça fait chier !” = It’s annoying, it’s a pain.
  • Les rempes (“parents”, informal) → Comes from le verlan, that French slang habit of switching the order of syllables in a word. Les parents (with silent “t” and “s”) becomes “Les ren-pa”, and when eating the last letter of the word in informal French, it becomes: “Les rempes.”

Personally, I use (and hear) a lot of verlan slang, like relou for lourd (= “heavy” literally = annoying.) But I’ve never really heard “les rempes” – maybe it’s more common in younger people than I am! You can also use Les darons or Les vieux (= “your old people”) to talk about someone’s parents in slang French.

Two more special words:

  • Reparler (= to talk again)
  • Le cododo (= cosleeping)

Le dodo (= sleep) or Faire dodo (= to sleep) are childish words that come from dormir (= to sleep.) We also use le sommeil (= sleep). Oh, and notice the difference between:

  • J’ai sommeil. = I’m sleepy.
  • Je dors. / Je suis en train de dormir. = I’m sleeping
  • Pendant mon sommeil… = While I was asleep… / During my sleep…

Reparler is built with parler (= to talk), and the common prefix Re-, which is used to mean “again, once more.” For instance: Refaire (= to redo, to do again), Rebonjour ! (= “Hello again!”) sometimes shortened to Re ! – when you meet someone for a second time on the same day.

Click here to learn more:
Saying « bonjour » twice: don’t make this expat mistake – Comme une Française

3) Plan Cœur: Informal pronunciation

Here are the subtitles with their informal French pronunciation:

– Tu m’parles ?
– Nan. Bah, pas spécialement, quoi.
– Ah. J’savais pas qu’on s’reparlait, c’est pour ça. Parquet ou moquette pour la chambre du haut ?
– Bah, euh, faudrait p’t’êt’ que tu dises déjà à Charlotte que tu veux récupérer sa chambre.
– Ah ouais, pourquoi moi ? C’est ta sœur.
– Ouais mais c’est ta meilleure amie et c’est l’appart de tes rempes. Et puis, moi j’trouve qu’on a assez de place. Surtout qu’au début, on va faire du cododo donc bon.
– Du codo quoi ?
– Bah du cododo. Dormir avec le bébé.
– Ah nan. Ah ils font des petits bruits, ils chient sur eux. Ah nan ! Moi, j’veux qu’il ait sa chambre, hein.
– OK.
– Ben, tu vas où ?
– J’vais au taf. Je peux ou c’est trop dégradant pour toi ? Ouais…
– Bon…

Notice all the letters that they dropped! Like:

  • Informal grammar: Il faudrait” → “Faudrait” (= “One should / We should…”) (dropped the impersonal “Il”)
  • Informal questions: Où est-ce que tu vas ? / Où vas-tu ?” (correct, formal grammar for “Where are you going?”) → “Tu vas où ?
  • Dropping the “ne” in negative sentences: Je ne savais pas. → Je savais pas. (= I didn’t know.)
  • Dropping the “e” in one-syllable pronouns: Je / Te / Me… → J’ / T’ / M’…
  • Dropping letters to go faster: Peut-être (maybe) → p’t’êt

And the filler words they added, like:
Quoi” (= what) at the end of a sentence, to mean “you know” or “that’s all.
Ben / Bah / Euh… → Well / Hum…

Informal pronunciation: Oui / NonOuais / Nan (= yes / no, yeah / nope…)

Watch the scene in French in the video lesson:

  • What can you now understand?
  • Can you repeat that whole process with another scene from your own favorite French show?

Congrats!

Click on the link to learn more about understanding real everyday spoken French:

À tout de suite.
I’ll see you in the next video!


→ If you enjoyed this lesson (and/or learned something new) – why not share this lesson with a francophile friend? You can talk about it afterwards! You’ll learn much more if you have social support from your friends 🙂

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