Crecia C. Swaim
Here is a collection of key vocabulary, language functions, and grammar concepts used in the Double Cheese commercial, which can be used to create and promote a multitude of conversational activities.
Vocabulary of Quantity and Order: Numbers 1-10; une tranche de… (a slice of…); des (for plural, as in des cornichons, some pickles); une autre (another); d'abord (first); second (second); ensuite (then, after, next); après çela (after that); puis (then); finalement (lastly, finally); Non, c'est l'inverse (No, it's the opposite).
Food Vocabulary: Un steak haché (they don't use the word "patty" in French, pâté, but rather this phrase, meaning a ground steak or beef burger); un cheese (at the bottom of the screen, there is a message that says: cheese fromage fondu which equates cheese with melted cheese); le cornichon (pickle); l'oignon (m. - onion), la tomate (tomato), le bun de pain (McDonald's uses this term, otherwise called le petit pain hamburger (hamburger bun, literally little hamburger bread); la salade/la laitue (la salade is a generic term for lettuce, and the one most often used; it is also used to indicate a meal salad. La laitue is specifically lettuce. McDonald's uses un lit de salade (a bed of lettuce); le ketchup (ketchup), la moutarde (mustard), la mayonnaise (mayonnaise); pickle relish doesn't show up on this menu as it is not really used in France, but if students want to know it, the following three phrases have been used: le condiment aux cornichons, le confit de cornichons, le relish aux cornichons).
Grammar concepts: Taking nouns from singular to plural. There is/there are (il y a), from there was, there were (Il y avait); It is (c'est) from it was (c'était); What…? (quels…? (m.)/quelles…? (f.); There aren't any… (il n'y a pas de…), using Est-ce que to ask a yes/no question.
Language functions: Asking if someone likes something: Tu aimes…? (You like…?) Est-ce que tu aimes…? (Do you like…?) Moi, j'aime…, et toi? (Me, I like…, and you?); Replying that you do or don't like something: J'aime…. (I like….) Je n'aime pas…. (I don't like….) Moi aussi (Me too), Moi non plus (Me neither), Pas moi! (Not me!), (plus whatever intermediate levels of liking you have used with your students.)
Conversational Language: Eh…(Hey…), Ah ouais (Oh yeah); Vraiment? C'est vrai? (Really?)
Students can practice making fake sandwiches and having partners follow the directions, correcting them when they forget. They can use colored felt, cardboard, and/or paper to represent the layers of food items, or they can draw them if necessary. Following is an excerpt of the commercial, modified to be all in present tense, for use in this activity. Students could use the whole excerpt first, to practice the structures with support; then they can practice the ordering, re-ordering, and correcting with many different options substituted for the quantities, items, and order given.
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A: Eh, tu aimes le double cheese?
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B: Ah ouais, il y a une tranche de cheese, deux steaks hachés, et une autre tranche de cheese.
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A: Non, c'est l'inverse. C'est d'abord un steak haché, ensuite une tranche de cheese, second steak
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haché, seconde tranche de cheese….
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B: Et les tomates?
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A: Quelles tomates? Il n'y a pas de tomates
