# EP 12 | Quel est le titre du dernier livre que j’ai lu ? (What is the title of the last book I read?)

An episode of [The Learn French With Alexa Podcast](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/120975641), 13 Aug 2026, 19 min.

Audio: https://anchor.fm/s/113190190/podcast/play/124075232/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2026-7-11%2F429638578-44100-2-43ffe7953944e.mp3

Have you read the latest book that Alexa has read? In this final episode of Learn French with Fun Facts, host Alexa Polidoro talks about her latest read. Do you know this book? Practise listening to A2/B1 level French and learn more about one of the most renowned French teachers on YouTube! Like these lessons? Why not subscribe to more content just like this with even MORE learning materials? The Complete French Course is 15% off for podcast listeners! Use the code "ALEXAPOD" at the checkout. Need extra guidance for this episode? We've got you covered! Visit my podcast page for support guides from each episode in this new series. These include: • questions & answers • translations • and more!

## Transcript

[0:00] Bonjour et bienvenue à Learn French with Alexa the podcast,
[0:04] with me Alexa Polidoro, where I'm going to read a text based
[0:09] on a fun fact about me, Alexa Polidoro.
[0:14] And you're going to answer a couple of questions from the
[0:18] text I'm about to read. Now, the level is A2/B1, which
[0:23] means that it's intermediate. It may be slightly more complex
[0:28] than the first podcasts that I have done.
[0:32] Now, this is based on lesson 24 and 21, and 15, the passé
[0:40] composé, of my complete French course.
[0:43] So let's start from 15, the passé composé, and 21, the
[0:49] future tense, and 24 for the "pronoms relatifs".
[0:52] Now, here we go. Listen carefully.
[0:57] Écoutez attentivement, and then I will ask you a question.
[1:01] Le dernier livre que j'ai lu s'intitule "Et la joie de vivre"
[1:06] de Gisèle Pelicot. Gisèle Pelicot est une femme qui
[1:11] a vécu une situation extrêmement difficile.
[1:14] Ce livre, qui relate son histoire, m'a beaucoup touchée.
[1:19] Il était parfois difficile à lire, mais j'ai continué parce
[1:23] que l'expérience de cette femme est très importante.
[1:26] J'ai eu la chance d'assister à la conférence qu'elle a donnée à
[1:31] Londres et son courage m'a beaucoup impressionnée.
[1:34] Pour moi, c'est un exemple très fort.
[1:37] Le récit de son combat fait réfléchir et aura sans doute
[1:42] d'immenses répercussions. Okay, so we're talking about a
[1:46] film, not at all, a text which is slightly more difficult than
[1:54] the other podcast texts that I have read.
[1:57] Now listen very carefully. Here's my question: Quel est le
[2:02] titre du dernier livre que j'ai lu ?
[2:05] Now, "lu" comes from "lire", to read, and "j'ai lu" is the passé
[2:09] composé. Like I said, we covered this in
[2:12] lesson 15 of the complete French course at Learn French with
[2:16] Alexa. Yeah, I've plugged that one.
[2:18] Now, "quel est le titre" "Titre" is the title.
[2:22] "Le dernier livre", the last book.
[2:25] What was the title of the last book I read?
[2:30] Now, here is the text again. Okay, try to answer this
[2:35] question. Quel est le titre du dernier
[2:36] livre que j'ai lu? Le dernier livre que j'ai lu
[2:41] s'intitule "Et la joie de vivre" de Gisèle Pelicot.
[2:45] Gisèle Pelicot est une femme qui a vécu une situation extrêmement
[2:50] difficile. Ce livre, qui relate son
[2:53] histoire, m'a beaucoup touchée. Il était parfois difficile à
[2:57] lire, mais j'ai continué parce que l'expérience de cette femme
[3:01] est très importante. J'ai eu la chance d'assister à
[3:04] la conférence qu'elle a donnée à Londres et son courage m'a
[3:09] beaucoup impressionnée. Pour moi, c'est un exemple très
[3:12] fort. Le récit de son combat fait
[3:15] réfléchir et aura sans doute d'immenses répercussions.
[3:20] Okay, so what is the title of the book, the last book that I
[3:24] read? I've read a few since, but what
[3:28] is the book? It was called "Et la joie de
[3:33] vivre" de Gisèle Pelicot. Now we have read the text twice,
[3:37] you know what it's about. It's about the book by Gisèle
[3:41] Pelicot. If you do not know who Gisèle
[3:44] Pelicot is, please, I invite you to check her name out.
[3:50] She went through something extremely difficult and wrote a
[3:56] book about it. Now, the book was titled "Et la
[4:02] joie de vivre". The English title is called "A
[4:06] Hymn to Life." Now, "Et la joie de vivre", and
[4:10] the joy to live, okay? As in the life, the joy of life,
[4:15] which is quite a paradox considering what's inside the
[4:20] book. But I think the message at the
[4:24] end is very clear, is that whatever happened, just take on
[4:28] what makes you happy, and focus on that and hold onto that.
[4:33] Okay, so "le dernier livre que j'ai lu", the last book that I
[4:38] have read. Now, have a look at "que j'ai
[4:42] lu". Okay, here, "que" is known as a
[4:44] "pronom relatif". What comes straight after is a
[4:48] subject. Okay?
[4:50] When you use the pronom relatif "qui", what comes after is a
[4:54] verb. Okay?
[4:56] For example, the next sentence, Gisèle Pelicot est une femme qui
[4:59] a vécu une situation extrêmement difficile.
[5:03] Gisèle Pelicot is a woman who has lived an extremely difficult
[5:12] situation. So this is "que" and "qui",
[5:16] which we'd cover in great detail in lesson 24 of my complete
[5:21] French course. Here we go.
[5:23] The second question I want to ask you is: "Qu'est-ce qui m'a
[5:27] beaucoup impressionnée chez Gisèle Pelicot ?"
[5:30] What impressed me the most about Gisèle Pelicot?
[5:34] "Qu'est-ce qui m'a beaucoup impressionnée chez Gisèle
[5:39] Pelicot ?" What impressed me the most?
[5:41] So listen to the text one more time.
[5:45] Le dernier livre que j'ai lu s'intitule "Et la joie de vivre"
[5:50] de Gisèle Pelicot. Gisèle Pelicot est une femme qui
[5:54] a vécu une situation extrêmement difficile.
[5:57] Ce livre, qui relate son histoire, m'a beaucoup touchée.
[6:02] Il était parfois difficile à lire, mais j'ai continué parce
[6:06] que l'expérience de cette femme est très importante.
[6:09] J'ai eu la chance d'assister à la conférence qu'elle a donnée à
[6:14] Londres et son courage m'a beaucoup impressionnée.
[6:17] Pour moi, c'est un exemple très fort.
[6:20] Le récit de son combat fait réfléchir et aura sans doute
[6:25] d'immenses répercussions. Did you hear what impressed me
[6:30] the most about Gisèle Pelicot? I'm going to read you the
[6:35] sentence. Listen very carefully.
[6:36] J'ai eu la chance d'assister à la conférence qu'elle a donnée à
[6:41] Londres et son courage m'a beaucoup impressionnée.
[6:46] That's right. So the answer to the second
[6:48] question is courage. Her courage.
[6:50] Now, "son courage". So you may think, well, "son" is
[6:54] not feminine. It's masculine, right?
[6:58] Yes. When we want to say his or her,
[7:01] we say "son, sa, ses". However, it is not depending on
[7:05] whether it belongs to a girl or a boy, okay, woman or a man.
[7:10] It is all to do with the gender of the word.
[7:14] So courage just happened to be "le courage", which is
[7:18] masculine. Therefore, when we are going to
[7:20] say her courage, it's going to have to be "son", which is
[7:25] masculine. "Son courage m'a beaucoup
[7:28] impressionnée." Her courage impressed me a lot
[7:32] because courage is masculine. Okay?
[7:35] In the sentence "m'a beaucoup impressionnée", "a
[7:40] impressionnée" is a passé composé.
[7:42] Again, we covered the passé composé in lesson 15 of the
[7:45] course. Now, "a impressionnée", has
[7:48] impressed. But because we are putting me,
[7:51] has impressed me, the "me" is in front of the auxiliary verb "a".
[7:58] So "son courage m'a impressionnée".
[8:01] Her courage impressed me. And because we are using me and
[8:07] I am a lady, "impressionnée" has to agree in gender and number
[8:12] with this direct object pronoun "me".
[8:15] Okay? So which means that it has
[8:18] double e at the end. Okay?
[8:21] In a normal setup, if it didn't have a direct object pronoun,
[8:27] then there would be no agreement whatsoever in the passé composé
[8:33] because we are using the auxiliary "avoir".
[8:35] Now, of course, I'm giving this to you like that.
[8:39] I cover that in my course step by step, okay?
[8:44] If you're not familiar with what I do, I invite you to check the
[8:48] YouTube channel out, which is very popular with 2.4 million
[8:53] subs and my course, of course, at Learn French with Alexa.
[8:59] So, this is the answer. And to give you an anecdote
[9:04] about Gisèle Pelicot and being on stage at the Royal Festival
[9:09] Hall, it was an incredible experience for everybody who was
[9:15] in the room with her in the hall.
[9:20] It has thousands of people capacity, I think.
[9:24] And you had thousands of people basically standing up for her,
[9:30] doing a standing ovation as soon as she arrived on stage.
[9:34] And you could feel the energy. How can I describe this energy?
[9:41] It was something like, "I've got your back.
[9:44] I'm here to support you in any way, shape, or form.
[9:49] I've got your back." And I think it felt through each
[9:53] one of us because it is as if everybody was here for one
[9:57] reason or another. And then throughout the evening,
[10:03] passages of her book were read by people such as Kate Winslet.
[10:11] She was on stage next to Kristin Scott Thomas, and they were
[10:18] incredible. You think they are massive, they
[10:22] are superstars, but the star was Gisèle Pelicot.
[10:28] And you could see this massive actress, these huge stars such
[10:35] as Kate Winslet, looking at Gisèle Pelicot in awe, and
[10:40] looking at her like, "I'm not worthy of you."
[10:44] That's what I loved the most about this evening, is that you
[10:49] may be a star, one of the most famous people on the planet, but
[10:55] Gisèle Pelicot outdid all of that in the space of a second,
[11:01] and you felt it. And Kristin Scott Thomas and
[11:09] Kate Winslet were very humble, and because they are amazing
[11:15] women. So anyway, that's my little
[11:19] anecdote about the experience of me in London, watching Gisèle
[11:25] Pelicot and strong women on stage.
[11:30] Okay. What I want to do now is
[11:33] translate the full text so you have an understanding of what is
[11:38] a passé composé and future as well as a "pronom relatif".
[11:43] So here we go. "Le dernier livre que j'ai lu
[11:46] s'intitule 'Et la joie de vivre' de Gisèle Pelicot."
[11:49] So the last book, le dernier livre.
[11:53] The last book that I read is called "Et la joie de vivre" by
[12:00] Gisèle Pelicot. De Gisèle Pelicot.
[12:02] Now, "que j'ai lu", that I have read.
[12:05] "Lu", I said earlier, comes from "lire", to read.
[12:10] "Gisèle Pelicot est une femme qui a vécu une situation
[12:14] extrêmement difficile." Now, "vécu" comes from "vivre",
[12:18] to live. Okay?
[12:21] And have a look at what it looks like in the passé composé.
[12:25] When you put this "vivre" into its past participle form, it
[12:29] becomes something completely different: "vécu".
[12:31] Now, Gisèle Pelicot is a woman who has lived an extremely
[12:38] difficult situation. "Une situation extrêmement
[12:41] difficile." Okay?
[12:42] "Qui" again is a pronom relatif here.
[12:46] It's "qui" because what follows is a verb.
[12:49] Okay? And "qui" replaces "une femme",
[12:52] a lady. "Ce livre qui relate son
[12:57] histoire." Again, pronom relatif "qui"
[12:59] because it replaces "ce livre", this book, so we are avoiding
[13:04] the repetition. This book that relates her
[13:07] story. Again, "son histoire".
[13:10] Weirdly, "histoire" is feminine, so you may say, "But why can't
[13:13] we say sa histoire in this case?"
[13:15] And this is where I'm going to confuse everybody.
[13:19] We say "son histoire" because "histoire" begins with a H.
[13:24] You may think, "Well, you French people, you make the rules as
[13:27] you go along." Yeah, pretty much so.
[13:29] Because we can. Now, "ce livre qui relate son
[13:34] histoire." This book that relates her
[13:37] story, "son histoire". Now, "histoire" and history is
[13:40] the same. Story and history in French is
[13:43] "histoire". "M'a beaucoup touchée."
[13:45] Now, this book moved me deeply. That's the way you would
[13:53] translate it. Okay?
[13:55] "M'a beaucoup touchée." Touched me deeply.
[13:57] And again, "touchée" has double E.
[14:00] If you're listening to me and not seeing the text, it has
[14:03] double E. You may wonder why.
[14:05] That is because it's related to m', apostrophe.
[14:09] Because I'm a lady, then you need to agree "touchée" with the
[14:12] fact that I'm a lady. Okay.
[14:14] Now, "ce livre qui relate son histoire m'a beaucoup touchée."
[14:20] Touched me a lot. If it had been a m' related to a
[14:24] man, "touché" would not have a double E.
[14:28] It was sometimes difficult to read.
[14:30] Now, "il" relating to the book. Now, remember that for an
[14:34] object, we use "il" or "elle". We don't have "it", except for
[14:39] the weather. Say, "il faisait chaud".
[14:42] It was hot, for example. It's still "il".
[14:45] Okay? So, "il était parfois difficile
[14:48] à lire." It was sometimes difficult to
[14:50] read. Okay?
[14:51] "Mais j'ai continué." But I carried on.
[14:55] Again, "j'ai continué" is a passé composé, which I said we
[14:58] cover in lesson 15 in the complete French course.
[15:01] Okay? "Continuer", to carry on.
[15:05] "Parce que l'expérience de cette femme est très importante."
[15:08] Because the experience of this woman is really important.
[15:12] And in effect, I think we owe it to her to read her book.
[15:21] "J'ai eu la chance d'assister à la conférence qu'elle a donnée."
[15:26] I have had. Again, passé composé.
[15:29] "Eu" comes from "avoir", and it's the past participle, "eu".
[15:37] Okay? "J'ai eu", I have had.
[15:40] Okay? Now, look how different it is
[15:43] from I have, "j'ai", and had, "eu".
[15:46] Completely different. And this is where French becomes
[15:49] really difficult when you are dealing with third group verbs,
[15:53] and the past participle becomes completely different from the
[15:58] infinitive verb, such as "vivre" will become "vécu", and "être"
[16:03] will become "été", and "avoir" will become "eu", for example.
[16:08] So I went to the conference. Okay?
[16:12] The reading of the talk that she gave.
[16:15] Okay? "Qu'elle a donnée à Londres."
[16:20] Now again, "qu'elle a donnée." Q-U apostrophe elle a donnée.
[16:28] So qu' because after that, there is the subject "elle".
[16:33] Because qu' refers to the conference, "donnée" has to have
[16:41] a double E. "La conférence qu'elle a
[16:44] donnée." So "que" refers to "la
[16:47] conférence". "à Londres.
[16:50] Et son courage m'a beaucoup impressionnée."
[16:52] Again, "impressionnée" has double E because m' refers to
[16:57] me. But I've explained that earlier
[16:59] on. "Pour moi, c'est un exemple très
[17:01] fort." For me, it is a very strong
[17:04] example. "Le récit de son combat fait
[17:07] réfléchir." Now, the account of her struggle
[17:12] is thought-provoking. If you are B1 level, learn
[17:18] "faire réfléchir", make you think.
[17:21] You might want to learn this because that's quite important
[17:24] as an idiom. So, "le récit de son combat fait
[17:28] réfléchir et aura sans doute d'immenses répercussions."
[17:30] And will have a huge amount of impact.
[17:36] Will have, "sans doute", no doubt, have a huge impact.
[17:42] So I'm sure that now you're feeling more comfortable with
[17:48] the text. I could read it one last time if
[17:51] you wanted to, and it's going to be so much clearer to you.
[17:55] "Le dernier livre que j'ai lu s'intitule "Et la joie de vivre"
[18:00] de Gisèle Pelicot. Gisèle Pelicot est une femme qui
[18:05] a vécu une situation extrêmement difficile.
[18:08] Ce livre, qui relate son histoire, m'a beaucoup touchée.
[18:12] Il était parfois difficile à lire, mais j'ai continué parce
[18:16] que l'expérience de cette femme est très importante.
[18:19] J'ai eu la chance d'assister à la conférence qu'elle a donnée à
[18:23] Londres, et son courage m'a beaucoup impressionnée.
[18:26] Pour moi, c'est un exemple très fort.
[18:29] Le récit de son combat fait réfléchir et aura sans doute
[18:34] d'immenses répercussions." I hope you've learnt a lot
[18:38] today. Now, remember that all these
[18:40] grammatical points are covered in my complete French course
[18:45] extensively. That's it for me.
[18:47] Au revoir, à bientôt, et puis bisou bisou.

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