Learn about the French imperative form of the verb, which we use for giving orders
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| Greg:Hello everyone, I’m Greg. How Many in a French Janitor's Dozen? |
| Mailys:Bonjour tout le monde. This is Mailys. In this lesson, we will learn about the imperative form used for giving orders. |
| Greg:Jacques buys flowers for Mireille and then offers them to her. |
| Mailys:He is using formal French at the florist’s, but informal French with Mireille. |
| Greg: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| Employée Bonjour Monsieur! Qu’est-ce que je peux faire pour vous? Comment est-ce que je peux vous aider? |
| Jacques Donnez-moi une demi-douzaine de roses rouges, s’il-vous-plaît. |
| Employée Très bien. Attendez un instant… Voilà. Ça fait 14 euros. |
| Jacques Merci. Voici 15 euros. Gardez la monnaie! |
| Employée Merci bien, monsieur. Bonne journée! |
| (…) |
| Mireille Jacques, par ici! |
| Jacques Mireille! Vite, ferme les yeux! |
| Mireille D’accord. Ils sont fermés! |
| Jacques Garde-les fermés et donne-moi ta main! Tiens, mon amour! |
| Mireille Oh! Des roses rouges! Tu es si romantique!... |
| Mireille (speaking to herself) Pourquoi est-ce qu’il me donne seulement une demi-douzaine de roses? |
| Greg: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Employée Bonjour Monsieur! Qu’est-ce que je peux faire pour vous? Comment est-ce que je peux vous aider? |
| Jacques Donnez-moi une demi-douzaine de roses rouges, s’il-vous-plaît. |
| Employée Très bien. Attendez un instant… Voilà. Ça fait 14 euros. |
| Jacques Merci. Voici 15 euros. Gardez la monnaie! |
| Employée Merci bien, monsieur. Bonne journée! |
| (…) |
| Mireille Jacques, par ici! |
| Jacques Mireille! Vite, ferme les yeux! |
| Mireille D’accord. Ils sont fermés! |
| Jacques Garde-les fermés et donne-moi ta main! Tiens, mon amour! |
| Mireille Oh! Des roses rouges! Tu es si romantique!... |
| Mireille (speaking to herself) Pourquoi est-ce qu’il me donne seulement une demi-douzaine de roses? |
| Greg: Now let’s hear it with the English translation. |
| Employée Bonjour Monsieur! Qu’est-ce que je peux faire pour vous? Comment est-ce que je peux vous aider? |
| Greg:Hello Sir! What can I do for you? How may I help you? |
| Jacques Donnez-moi une demi-douzaine de roses rouges, s’il-vous-plaît. |
| Greg:Please give me half a dozen red roses. |
| Employée Très bien. Attendez un instant… Voilà. Ça fait 14 euros. |
| Greg:Very well. Wait a moment … Here. That'll be 14 euros. |
| Jacques Merci. Voici 15 euros. Gardez la monnaie! |
| Greg:Thanks. Here are 15 euros. Keep the change! |
| Employée Merci bien, monsieur. Bonne journée! |
| Greg:Thank you, Sir. Have a nice day! |
| (…) |
| Greg(…) |
| Mireille Jacques, par ici! |
| Greg:Jacques, I’m over here! |
| Jacques Mireille! Vite, ferme les yeux! |
| Greg:Mireille! Quick, close your eyes! |
| Mireille D’accord. Ils sont fermés! |
| Greg:Ok. They’re closed! |
| Jacques Garde-les fermés et donne-moi ta main! Tiens, mon amour! |
| Greg:Keep them closed and give me your hand! Here you go, my love! |
| Mireille Oh! Des roses rouges! Tu es si romantique!... |
| Greg:Oh! Red roses! You are so romantic!... |
| Mireille (speaking to herself) Pourquoi est-ce qu’il me donne seulement une demi-douzaine de roses? |
| Greg:(speaking to herself) Why is he only giving me half a dozen roses? |
| Post Conversation Banter |
| Greg:Okay, so Jacques gave Mireille some roses as a symbol of his love, and so we thought we could talk about France's most famous gardens. |
| Mailys:Many French gardens are well-known throughout the world. For instance, Monet's Gardens, which have inspired many of Monet's own paintings. |
| Greg:And Le Jardin des Tuileries, right in the middle of Paris, has been there for centuries and hosts a few popular museums. |
| Mailys:But perhaps the most famous French garden of all is the Gardens of Versailles, located just outside of Paris. |
| Greg:It was founded in 1632 by King Louis the 13th. These gardens adjoin the Château de Versailles, and now cover 800 hectares of land. They’re both a world-class tourist destination and one of the most visited sites in France, with millions of visitors annually. |
| Mailys:Yes, Les Jardins de Versailles have more than 50 fountains and several bronze and marble statues, and the gardens are now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. |
| Greg:Listeners, make sure you take a look when you’re in France! Now let’s go on to the vocab. |
| Vocabulary and Phrases |
| Greg:Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| The first word we shall see is: |
| Mailys:pouvoir [natural native speed] |
| Greg:can, to be able to |
| Mailys:pouvoir [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys:pouvoir [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Mailys:donner [natural native speed] |
| Greg:to give |
| Mailys:donner [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys:donner [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Mailys:douzaine [natural native speed] |
| Greg:dozen |
| Mailys:douzaine [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys:douzaine [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Mailys:rouge [natural native speed] |
| Greg:red |
| Mailys:rouge [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys:rouge [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Mailys:garder [natural native speed] |
| Greg:to keep |
| Mailys:garder [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys:garder [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Mailys:monnaie [natural native speed] |
| Greg:change, coins |
| Mailys:monnaie [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys:monnaie [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Mailys:vite [natural native speed] |
| Greg:fast |
| Mailys:vite [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys:vite [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Mailys:œil [natural native speed] |
| Greg:eye |
| Mailys:œil [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys:œil [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Mailys:fermer [natural native speed] |
| Greg:to close |
| Mailys:fermer [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys:fermer [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Mailys:tiens! [natural native speed] |
| Greg:here you go (informal) |
| Mailys:tiens! [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys:tiens! [natural native speed] |
| Vocabulary and Phrase Usage |
| Greg:Let’s take a closer look at some of the vocab and phrases from this lesson. Let's start with a very common verb, pouvoir, which means “to be able to”, or “can”. It's an irregular verb. Here is the conjugation and some sample sentences. |
| Mailys |
| je peux |
| tu peux |
| il peut |
| nous pouvons |
| vous pouvez |
| ils peuvent |
| Mailys:Here are some sentences. Pouvez-vous me donner une douzaine de roses? |
| Greg:Can you give me a dozen roses? |
| Mailys:Je ne comprends rien; peux-tu m'aider? |
| Greg:I can't understand anything, can you help me? |
| Mailys:Il ne peut pas travailler demain. |
| Greg:He can't work tomorrow. |
| Greg:Next we have ‘Donner’, which means “to give”. Normally, ‘donner’ requires both a direct and an indirect object. The direct object – the thing you are giving – is introduced without a preposition and comes first... |
| Mailys:...while the indirect object – the person or thing you are giving it to – is introduced by the preposition ‘à.’ |
| Greg:Here are a few examples. |
| Mailys:Elle donne de la monnaie à son garçon. |
| Greg:She is giving change to her son. |
| Mailys:Quand j'achète une baguette, le boulanger me donne toujours un croissant gratuit. |
| Greg:When I buy a baguette, the baker always gives me a free croissant. |
| Mailys:La fille donne la main à sa mère. |
| Greg:The girl gives her hand to her mom. |
| Greg:Lastly, ‘Fermé’ is an adjective meaning “closed”. It comes from the verb “fermer”, ‘to close’. |
| Mailys:Both forms sound the same, but are spelled differently - the ‘-er’ ending is the infinitive form of the verb, and the ‘-é’ ending is the adjective or past participle. |
| Greg:The ‘er/é’ pair is very common - for example, ‘réserver’ and ’réservé’, ‘recommender’ and ’recommandé’, ‘préférer’ and ’préféré’, and so on. |
| Mailys:Here are some sentences. Je préfère ce gâteau; c'est mon gâteau préféré. |
| Greg:I prefer this cake; it's my favorite cake. |
| Mailys:Ce magasin ferme tôt; il est déjà fermé. |
| Greg:This store closes early; it's already closed. Okay, time to move on to the grammar! |
| Grammar Point |
| Mailys:The focus of this lesson is the imperative form. |
| Greg:That's the verb form used when giving an order. Just like in English, no subject is expressed in the imperative. |
| Mailys:In French, verbs have 3 imperative forms. Let's look at the imperative of ‘aimer’, for instance. |
| Mailys |
| aime |
| aimons |
| aimez |
| Greg:The first one, ‘aime’, is used when the person being asked to do something is referred to as ‘tu’. |
| Mailys:It's also used when someone is talking to themselves. |
| Greg:It's spelled the same as the ‘tu’ form, but without the final ‘s’. |
| Mailys:Here are some other examples, using different verbs. Ferme la porte! |
| Greg:Close the door! |
| Mailys:Parle plus fort, s'il-te-plaît. |
| Greg:Speak louder, please. |
| Mailys:The second one is used when the person being ordered is ‘nous’; the English equivalent is usually "let's". |
| Greg:The form is always the same as the ‘nous’ form. |
| Mailys:For example... Allons au parc! |
| Greg:Let's go to the park! |
| Mailys:Écoutons ses conseils. |
| Greg:Let's listen to his advice. |
| Greg:The third form, ‘aimez’, is used when the person being ordered is referred to as ‘vous’. It's always the same form as the ‘vous’ form. |
| Mailys:Attendez un instant. |
| Greg:Wait a moment. |
| Mailys:Gardez la monnaie! |
| Greg:Keep the change. |
| Greg:In the negative, simply add ‘ne...pas’ on either side of the verb. For example... |
| Mailys:Ne parle pas! |
| Greg:Don't speak! |
| Mailys:N'achetez pas d'essence aujourd'hui. |
| Greg:Don't buy gas today. |
| Greg:We learned in lesson 8 that object pronouns go before the verb. However, this doesn't apply to the imperative, where the object comes after the verb. |
| Mailys:One way to explain it would be to say that without a subject, the pronoun cannot stand alone before the verb. |
| Greg:The strong form of the pronoun is used instead. Similar to what is done with questions using inversion, a hyphen is used to indicate that the pronoun is not in its usual place. Reflexive verbs also work this way. |
| Mailys:Regarde-moi. |
| Greg:Look at me. |
| Mailys:Ferme les yeux et garde-les fermés! |
| Greg:Close your eyes and keep them closed! |
| Mailys:Lave-toi! |
| Greg:Wash up! |
| Mailys:Lavez-vous les mains! |
| Greg:Wash your hands! |
| Mailys:Levons-nous à 7 heures. |
| Greg:Let's get up at 7 am. |
| Greg:In the negative, the pronoun does move up before the verb, as ‘ne’ supports the pronoun. |
| Mailys:Let’s hear some examples. Ne l'écoute pas! |
| Greg:Don't listen to him! |
| Mailys:Ne l'achetez pas! |
| Greg:Don't buy it! |
| Mailys:Ne me regardez pas! |
| Greg:Don't look at me! |
| Greg:And that’s going to do it for this lesson! Join us for lesson 18 to find out what Mireille and Jacques get up to! |
| Mailys:À bientôt! |
| Greg:See you soon! |
Comments
Hide