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Lesson Transcript

Hi everyone. I am Lindsay from Frenchpod101.com
In this video, we’d be talking about the Top 10 Lines You’ll Need to Reject a Date. Let’s begin. It’s going to be fun.
1. Désolé mais j'ai déjà autre chose de prévu. “Sorry, but I already have another plan.”
This is simple and clear. You can actually use it also to refuse an invitation, not only a date. I do that a lot. Sorry guys!
2. Oh, je dois travailler tard aujourd'hui. “Oh, I have to work late today.”
This is a reasonable way to refuse a date you don’t want to go on. The other person will ask you too many explanations as it’s clear that you won’t have time for anything else than work. That’s a good one.
3. Oh, je suis en retard pour mes cours. Désolé(e), je ne peux pas. “Oh, I'm late for class. Sorry, I can't.”
I use that a lot actually when they ask me in the street if I can sign or if I can pay something because yeah, you know, I don’t have time, you know, this is what I do. If you are a student, this works well but keep in mind that classes are limited to certain days and hours and you can’t use it to refuse a date on a Sunday. Hmm... I am pretty sure that there are classes on Sundays too like I had some classes for example. So you can use it on Sundays too.
4. Je dois étudier pour mes examens de fin d'année. “I have to study for my final terms exams.”
Yeah, I remember using that recently. If you are a student, you definitely need to learn this as we’d have to take final exams sooner or later.
5. Oh, je viens d'accepter d'aller en soirée avec les filles. Désolé(e)! “Oh, I just agreed to go out with the girls tonight. Sorry!”
You can use this to refuse an invitation for the evening. As you can see, you can refer to your girlfriends as les filles. I use that a lot or like sometimes when the men ask me hey, do you have a boyfriend? I say, no, désolé, je... I have a girlfriend. J'ai une copine.
6. Hmmm... je dois vérifier mon emploi du temps. Je peux te répondre plus tard? “Umm... I've got to check my schedule. Can I get back to you later?”
Use this when you don’t want to decline right away. You can later send a message saying that you are busy. Yeah, that’s actually a good way to bide time you know and be like, hey well, maybe I can, maybe I cannot but actually you already know you already made up your mind.
7. Ces derniers temps je suis très occupé(e). “I've been very busy lately.”
Yes, I had. This is not a clear way to refuse an invitation as you don’t want to say anything about your availability. So you better add something like I need to rest. J’ai besoin de me reposer. Here, just make sure when you say très occupé, you get into the liaison in between, because there is S and then you do the liaison with the O. So très occupé, not très / occupé.
8. J'ai quelque chose d'urgent à faire. “I have something urgent to do.”
If you don’t want to be asked details, be sure to use a serious tone of voice when saying this.
J'ai quelque chose d'urgent à faire.
Um... no, that was bad.
J'ai quelque chose d'urgent à faire, that would be better.
9. Je ne suis pas intéressé(e), désolé(e). “I'm not interested, sorry.”
I use that a lot. This is the ultimate way to refuse a date. Be careful when using it because you may hurt the other person. You know, well, we got to be direct and clear right.
10. Je n'ai pas le temps. “I don't have time.”
This is short and clear but if you don’t add some explanations, you may sound very rude.

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