Learn how to use leave-taking business expressions and how to ask for permission
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Maryssa: Leaving the Office At the End of the Day. Maryssa Here. |
| Laurent: Bonjour, I'm Laurent. |
| Maryssa: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to ask for permission, and also leave-taking expressions. The conversation takes place at the office. |
| Laurent: It's between Laurène and Thomas. |
| Maryssa: The speakers are co-workers, therefore, they will speak both formal and informal French. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Laurène: Je n'avais pas vu l'heure, mais il est tard ! |
| Thomas: En effet il est déjà 20 heures ! Mais je n'ai pas encore fini mon rapport. |
| Laurène: Ce n'est pas grave ne t'en fais pas. Tu peux le faire demain. Tu peux y aller. |
| Thomas: Je peux partir ? Ce n'est pas un problème ? |
| Laurène: Bien sûr que non ! Vas-y ! Et demain j'espère que tu ne finiras pas aussi tard. |
| Thomas: Et bien dans ce cas j'y vais ! Et vous ? |
| Laurène: Ne t'en fais pas je ne vais pas tarder non plus. Bonne soirée, rentre bien ! |
| Thomas: Merci, bonne soirée également ! |
| Maryssa: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| Laurène: Je n'avais pas vu l'heure, mais il est tard ! |
| Thomas: En effet il est déjà 20 heures ! Mais je n'ai pas encore fini mon rapport. |
| Laurène: Ce n'est pas grave ne t'en fais pas. Tu peux le faire demain. Tu peux y aller. |
| Thomas: Je peux partir ? Ce n'est pas un problème ? |
| Laurène: Bien sûr que non ! Vas-y ! Et demain j'espère que tu ne finiras pas aussi tard. |
| Thomas: Et bien dans ce cas j'y vais ! Et vous ? |
| Laurène: Ne t'en fais pas je ne vais pas tarder non plus. Bonne soirée, rentre bien ! |
| Thomas: Merci, bonne soirée également ! |
| Maryssa: Listen to the conversation with the English translation. |
| Laurène: I did not see the time, but it's late! |
| Thomas: Indeed it is already 8 PM! But I have not finished my report yet. |
| Laurène: It doesn't matter, don't worry. You can do it tomorrow. You can go. |
| Thomas: I can leave now? It's not a problem? |
| Laurène: Of course it isn't! Go! I hope you will not end so late tomorrow. |
| Thomas: Then I'm going! What about you? |
| Laurène: Don't worry; I'll leave soon. Good evening, get home safely! |
| Thomas: Thank you, good evening! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Maryssa: That was nice of Laurène! Even though Thomas hadn’t finished his work, he was still allowed to go. |
| Laurent: Well, it was past finishing time, and the report could wait until tomorrow. |
| Maryssa: Is there a limit on how many working hours people can work in France? |
| Laurent: Yes, it’s 35 hours. |
| Maryssa: Has it always been 35 hours? |
| Laurent: That limit was set in 2000. |
| Maryssa: The reduction in working hours definitely gives you a better quality of life. |
| Laurent: It helped the unemployment rate too. |
| Maryssa: What happens if someone goes over 35 hours? |
| Laurent: There is one of two things. The first is that they will get paid overtime. |
| Maryssa: What is the second? |
| Laurent: They can get RTT - Réduction du Temps de Travail |
| Maryssa: That is "compensatory time." Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Maryssa: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is... |
| Laurent: heure [natural native speed] |
| Maryssa: "hour" |
| Laurent: heure [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Laurent: heure [natural native speed] |
| Maryssa: Next we have... |
| Laurent: tard [natural native speed] |
| Maryssa: "late" |
| Laurent: tard [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Laurent: tard [natural native speed] |
| Maryssa: Next we have... |
| Laurent: grave [natural native speed] |
| Maryssa: "serious" |
| Laurent: grave [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Laurent: grave [natural native speed] |
| Maryssa: Next we have... |
| Laurent: rapport [natural native speed] |
| Maryssa: "report" |
| Laurent: rapport [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Laurent: rapport [natural native speed] |
| Maryssa: Next we have... |
| Laurent: aller [natural native speed] |
| Maryssa: "to go" |
| Laurent: aller [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Laurent: aller [natural native speed] |
| Maryssa: Next we have... |
| Laurent: espérer [natural native speed] |
| Maryssa: "to hope" |
| Laurent: espérer [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Laurent: espérer [natural native speed] |
| Maryssa: Next we have... |
| Laurent: tarder [natural native speed] |
| Maryssa: "to be late" |
| Laurent: tarder [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Laurent: tarder [natural native speed] |
| Maryssa: And last... |
| Laurent: bonne soirée [natural native speed] |
| Maryssa: "good evening" |
| Laurent: bonne soirée [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Laurent: bonne soirée [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Maryssa: Let's have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first word is... |
| Laurent: ce n'est pas grave |
| Maryssa: meaning "it doesn't matter." |
| Maryssa: This is a sentence. |
| Laurent: The last word, grave, means "serious," or "gross." |
| Maryssa: But this is a negative sentence, so it means it isn’t serious. |
| Laurent: Right. There is C'est grave. |
| Maryssa: "It’s serious," or "It’s important." |
| Laurent: Whereas Ce n'est pas grave... |
| Maryssa: Means something like "no problem." Can you give us an example using this sentence? |
| Laurent: Sure. For example, you can say... Ce n'est pas grave si il pleut ce soir. |
| Maryssa: ...which means "It does not matter if it rains tonight." |
| Maryssa: Okay, what's the next word? |
| Laurent: Ne t'en fais pas. |
| Maryssa: meaning "Don't worry." |
| Maryssa: This is another sentence. |
| Laurent: t'en can be translated to "it." |
| Maryssa: So it means something like "don’t worry about it." |
| Laurent: You may also hear t'en fais pas in spoken French. |
| Maryssa: This has the same meaning. |
| Laurent: You’ll often hear French speakers shorten the phrase. |
| Maryssa: Can you give us an example using this sentence? |
| Laurent: Sure. For example, you can say... Ne t'en fais pas, tout va bien se passer. |
| Maryssa: ... which means "Do not worry, everything will be fine." |
| Maryssa: Okay, what's the next word? |
| Laurent: je n'avais pas vu l'heure |
| Maryssa: meaning "I did not see the time." |
| Maryssa: This is a phrase. |
| Laurent: In this sentence, avoir, is conjugated with the imparfait. |
| Maryssa: This is the "imperfect tense." The imperfect describes what was going on at an indefinite time in the past or what used to happen. |
| Laurent: This sentence is a common one in France. It’s used to talk about a day that’s going by quickly. |
| Maryssa: How do we talk about a boring day that goes by slowly? |
| Laurent: You can say le temps est passé trop lentement. |
| Maryssa: Can you give us an example using this phrase? |
| Laurent: Sure. For example, you can say... Je n'avais pas vu l'heure, je suis en retard ! |
| Maryssa: ... which means "I did not see the time, I'm late!" |
| Maryssa: Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Maryssa: In this lesson, you'll learn how to ask for permission, and also some leave-taking expressions. In this lesson, as well as permission we’re going to look at other situations where you’d use "can" or "may." |
| Laurent: A common verb for this is pouvoir. It means "can," or "may." |
| Maryssa: There are different ways to use this verb. You can use it to show capacity to do something. |
| Laurent: The verb after pouvoir in this case must be in infinitive form. |
| Maryssa: Let’s hear an example. |
| Laurent: Je peux m’occuper de ce projet. |
| Maryssa: "I can handle this project." |
| Laurent: Nous pouvons réserver la salle de réunion. |
| Maryssa: "We can reserve the meeting room." If you want to show your knowledge, you can use a different verb. |
| Laurent: Yes, savoir with a verb in infinitive. For example, Je sais utiliser l’ordinateur. |
| Maryssa: "I can use the computer." |
| Laurent: Ils savent nager. |
| Maryssa: "They can swim." Next, let’s look at how to ask for something politely. |
| Laurent: We conjugate pouvoir into puis-je? |
| Maryssa: An example, please? |
| Laurent: Puis-je vous déranger 5 minutes ? |
| Maryssa: "May I bother you for 5 minutes?" |
| Laurent: Pouvez-vous m'apporter les documents? |
| Maryssa: "Can you bring me the files?" There are a few other examples in the lesson notes. Now, let’s move onto leave-taking expressions. |
| Laurent: In most cases, it will be enough to say just au-revoir or bonne soirée. |
| Maryssa: But if your colleagues are still working and don’t seem to be leaving soon, you can say something else. |
| Laurent: You can say J'y vais ! |
| Maryssa: "I’m going!" What are some other things that can be said? |
| Laurent: J’ai fini mon travail pour aujourd’hui. A demain. |
| Maryssa: "I’ve completed all my tasks for today. I’ll see you tomorrow." |
| Laurent: C’est tout pour aujourd’hui. Au revoir |
| Maryssa: "I’m done for today. Bye." |
Outro |
| Maryssa: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Laurent: A la prochaine! |
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