Goals What you'll be able to do
By the end of this lesson, you'll be able to…
- 📺 Talk about television and the media (channels, programmes, quality).
- 🔮 Make predictions and talk about the future (near, distant, certain, likely).
- ⏳ Conjugate common verbs in the future simple (regular + irregular).
- 🕒 Use future time markers: bientôt, prochainement, dans X jours, dans un avenir proche…
- 🔊 Tell apart the sounds [ɛ] (as in cet) and [i] (as in ici).
Discover 📺 First contact
🚫 Touchez pas à ma télé ! · Hands off my TV!
Imagine two "no-X" days… The first: a no-car day, where everyone gets around by bike. The second: a no-TV day… which goes down rather less well! Here are the cartoons Vivian Levrey published in the newspaper. (Think of it like a "Car-Free Day" — common in European cities — extended to other things.)
🚲 Scene 1 — "After the no-car day"
📺 Scene 2 — "…the no-TV day"
1. Over to you Discuss
With a partner, answer the questions below.
a. Organising a no-TV day, do you think it's an idea that's…
b. What do you think of a day without cars? Without the internet? Without mobile phones? Without music? Without shopping? Justify your answers.
🎙️ Interview · Tomorrow's TV
📖 Transcript & translation
Journaliste : Bonjour à tous, c'est Demain Télévision. Pour notre série sur la télévision de demain, nous recevons aujourd'hui aux portes… Julien Lepers, militaire et historien. Internet continuera-t-il à se développer ?
J. Lepers : La télévision va probablement rester le principal accès à l'image.
J. : Ah bon ? Pourquoi ?
J.L. : D'abord parce que regarder la télévision est et restera aussi le tout des Français. Ensuite, parce que la télévision va proposer de plus en plus de programmes différents adaptés à chacun de nous. Enfin, parce que dans le futur, les écrans seront de plus en plus grands et la qualité de l'image meilleure.
J. : Mais ça existe déjà.
J.L. : C'est vrai, oui, mais ça reste encore assez cher. Dans les prochaines années, je pense que tout le monde pourra offrir un grand écran avec plus de 150 chaînes de télévision.
J. : Vous nous parlez des changements dans un avenir proche ?
J.L. : Nous verrons. Je suis sûr que la télévision sur les téléphones portables, mais aussi dans les voitures, va probablement amener des conséquences importantes sur nos habitudes.
English translation:
Journalist: Hello everyone, this is Demain Télévision. For our series on tomorrow's TV, we have a guest speaker today — a historian. Will the internet keep growing?
Guest: Television will probably remain the main gateway to images / video.
Journalist: Really? Why?
Guest: First, because watching TV is and will remain a French national habit. Second, because TV will offer more and more programmes tailored to each of us. Lastly, because in the future the screens will be bigger and bigger and the picture quality better.
Journalist: But that already exists.
Guest: True, yes, but it's still fairly expensive. In the coming years, I think everyone will be able to afford a big screen with over 150 channels.
Journalist: You're talking about changes in the near future?
Guest: We'll see. I'm convinced that TV on mobile phones, and also in cars, will probably have major consequences on our habits.
2. Listen and answer Comprehension
a. According to the guest, in the future:
b. Tomorrow's TV will have three main qualities. Tick the 3 correct answers.
c. Everyone will have:
d. TV on mobile phones and in cars:
Vocabulary Words to remember
📺 Television & media
🔮 The future & change
🤔 Probability & certainty
Grammar — The future simple le futur simple
To talk about what will happen, French has several tools. At A2 level, the key one to master is the future simple — the rough equivalent of English "will" + verb (e.g. "I will go" → "j'irai"). Unlike English, French builds it as a single inflected word.
⚙️ How to form the future simple
Full infinitive + endings taken from the present of avoir:
| -ai · je | parlerai · finirai · prendrai |
| -as · tu | parleras |
| -a · il/elle | parlera |
| -ons · nous | parlerons |
| -ez · vous | parlerez |
| -ont · ils/elles | parleront |
⚠️ For -re verbs (prendre, écrire, lire…): drop the final e → prendr·ai.
📋 The irregular stems you must know
| Infinitive | Future stem | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| être | ser- | je serai, nous serons |
| avoir | aur- | j'aurai, ils auront |
| aller | ir- | j'irai, vous irez |
| faire | fer- | je ferai, on fera |
| venir / tenir | viendr- / tiendr- | je viendrai |
| voir | verr- | nous verrons |
| pouvoir | pourr- | tu pourras |
| vouloir | voudr- | il voudra |
| devoir | devr- | je devrai |
| savoir | saur- | elle saura |
| falloir | faudr- | il faudra |
| pleuvoir | pleuvr- | il pleuvra |
🕒 Future time markers
| Expression | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| bientôt | very soon, no precise date — "soon" | C'est bientôt Noël ! ("Christmas is coming soon!") |
| prochainement | more formal, "shortly / in the near future" | Il viendra prochainement. ("He will be coming shortly.") |
| la semaine / l'année prochaine | next week / next year — a precise upcoming period | Nous en parlerons la semaine prochaine. |
| dans + duration | "in" + duration (after some time has passed) ⚠ NOT "in" as in "within" | Ils partiront dans 3 jours. ("They'll leave in 3 days.") |
| dans un avenir proche | "in the near future" — vague but not far off | Vous l'apprendrez dans un avenir proche. |
| dans le futur | "in the future" — generally distant/abstract | Dans le futur, on n'aura plus besoin de papier. |
| dans les prochaines années | "in the coming years" — a few years ahead | Dans les prochaines années, la télé connaîtra de gros changements. |
💡 3 ways to express the future in French
- Present (certain, scheduled future) → Je pars demain. ≈ English "I'm leaving tomorrow."
- Aller + infinitive (near future, "going to") → Je vais partir. ≈ "I'm going to leave."
- Future simple (distant future / predictions / promises) → Je partirai. ≈ "I will leave."
👉 The more certain and imminent the action, the more French uses the present or aller + inf. The more distant or hypothetical, the more it uses the future simple. This mirrors the English distinction between "I'm leaving tomorrow" (planned) / "I'm going to leave" (intention) / "I will leave" (more abstract or promised) — though English speakers tend to overuse "will" where French would prefer the present.
Practice Try it out
Exercise 3 — Interview with Philippe de Rocaiz 🎤 Conjugate the future
Put the verbs in brackets into the future simple. Philippe is head of programming at France 4.
- Eh bien, nous (avoir →) beaucoup plus de reportages.
- La chaîne (proposer →) également plus de sport.
- Il y (avoir →) bientôt un film par jour.
- Les jeunes (pouvoir →) regarder des concerts.
- Nous (avoir →) un nouveau jeu tous les soirs.
- Enfin, il (être →) possible de revoir nos émissions sur Internet.
Exercise 4 — On the TV 📺 Present or future?
Choose the verb in the right tense (present or future simple), based on meaning.
- « Star Academy… dans 5 minutes ! »
- « Ah bon ? Arsène Gautier… de chaîne bientôt ! »
- « Tu verras, dans 10 ans, je… la météo ! »
- « Ce soir, je ne… pas, il y a Koh-Lanta ! »
- « Je suis sûr que dans quelques années, tu… célèbre. »
- « Vous… la semaine prochaine vos places pour l'émission. »
Exercise 5 — Now or later? 🕒 Use a time marker
Answer the questions using a future time marker (bientôt, prochainement, dans X jours, dans un avenir proche, dans les prochaines années, dans le futur).
- — Tu sais quand commencera la nouvelle Star Academy ?
→ - — Tu crois qu'on aura tous des écrans pliables un jour ?
→ - — Quand est-ce qu'ils arrêtent le journal télévisé de 20h sur TF1 ?
→ - — Vous pensez qu'il y aura un jour plus de 200 chaînes ?
→
Exercise 6 — The world in 50 years 🔮 Predict!
Imagine the world in 2076. What will TV, transport, food, work look like? 80-120 words, at least 5 verbs in the future simple. The AI will give feedback. 🤖
Communicate · You & TV 📺 Speaking
With a partner, answer the questions below.
Discuss with a partner
- Do you watch a lot of TV? On average, how many hours per week?
- What types of programmes do you prefer? Why?
- What types of programmes do you hate?
- What would you suggest to improve the quality of programmes?
- What do you think of reality TV?
- Do you think TV will one day be fully portable?
- How do you imagine the TV of tomorrow?
- In your view, will the internet replace TV one day as the main gateway to video?
Pronunciation · Cet air, c'est elle ! 🎵 [ɛ] vs [i]
Telling apart [ɛ] (as in cet, c'est, elle — close to the English "bed, set") and [i] (as in ici, vie, il — close to English "see, machine", NOT like English "hit"). The biggest pitfall for English speakers is the French [i]: it must be tense, pure and short — not the loose [ɪ] of English "hit, sit", and not the gliding diphthong of "see" [siː → sij]. Stretch your lips into a tight smile and keep the vowel steady. For [ɛ], drop the jaw slightly and open the mouth.
Which sound do you hear?
Listen to audio 2 and tick the sound you hear for each word.
| Word | [ɛ] (cet) | [i] (ici) | Both |
|---|---|---|---|
| elle | |||
| il | |||
| Henri | |||
| vrai | |||
| ici | |||
| cet air |
TV in France 🇫🇷 Cultural insight
📺 The big French channels
French television was born in 1949. Today, a handful of major channels dominate:
- TF1 — the most-watched private channel (8 p.m. news, films, entertainment). Rough analogue: ITV in the UK or CBS/NBC in the US.
- France 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 — public channels (news, culture, children's, documentaries). The French equivalent of the BBC / PBS.
- M6 — private channel (young adults, American series). Think Channel 4-ish.
- Arte — a Franco-German channel, highly cultural — closest to BBC Four.
- Canal+ — premium paid channel (cinema, sport, premium series). The French HBO/Sky.
- BFM TV / CNews / LCI / France Info — 24/7 news channels (like Sky News, Fox News, CNN).
📡 The TV licence fee
Until 2022, French households with a TV paid an annual redevance audiovisuelle (about €138/year) to fund the public channels — the direct equivalent of the UK TV licence. President Macron's government scrapped it; public broadcasting is now funded straight from the state budget. (The UK still has its TV licence at ~£169.50/year; the US has never had one — PBS runs on donations and pledges.)
📊 Audiences 2026
per French viewer
(vs 2018)
= 80 % of streaming time
(ahead of TF1)
🇫🇷 vs 🇺🇸/🇬🇧
British and American viewers will find the French TV landscape oddly familiar — but with its own quirks. Like the BBC, France's public channels (France Télévisions) historically run on a licence-fee model and keep adverts limited; like US networks, the private side (TF1, M6) is fully ad-funded. One big French specificity: strict cultural quotas — by law, at least 40% of music broadcast on radio must be in French, and a fixed share of TV production must come from European or French studios. Hollywood-heavy schedules common in the UK/US would not be legal in France. Otherwise the trend is the same everywhere: the under-25s have largely abandoned scheduled TV for YouTube, TikTok and streaming.